On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued a sweeping Executive Order (EO) aimed at curbing waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government. At the heart of this effort is the dismantling of a long-standing obstacle to transparency and accountability: information silos. These silos hinder the timely sharing and analysis of data, making it difficult for agencies to detect financial mismanagement and coordinate effective responses. For public sector leaders, understanding the scope and implications of this EO is essential to improving transparency, inter-agency collaboration and operational efficiency.
A New Mandate for Data Accessibility, Interoperability, and Collaboration
The EO issues a clear directive – federal agencies must improve data access and break down barriers to collaboration. Under the EO, agencies are now required to ensure that authorized federal officials have comprehensive, real-time access to all unclassified records, data, software, and IT systems under their control. Notably, the EO applies to both intra- and inter-agency data sharing.
Within 30 days, agencies must identify and revise internal policies that restrict this collaboration, submitting a detailed report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) outlining necessary changes. The EO also broadens the scope of accessible data to include state-run programs funded by the federal government—even when those datasets are maintained by third parties. For example, the Secretary of Labor is now granted immediate access to state unemployment insurance and payment data.
Importantly, the order overrides any prior EOs or regulations that put limits on data-sharing, and it calls for a reassessment of classified information policies within 45 days to remove unnecessary obstacles to transparency.
Considerations for Agencies to Deliver on the EO
In order for federal agencies to meet the EO’s requirements, they must start by tackling the root challenge: fragmented data environments, where valuable information is often trapped in legacy platforms. The U.S. government spends tens of billions of dollars each year maintaining outdated legacy software systems—about 80% of its federal IT budget, according to a 2023 GAO report. The cost and limitations of legacy IT, coupled with the vast amounts of data silos within government will make adherence to the new EO a significant challenge for agencies. What might help? A movement towards an open, interoperable data architecture – one that enables agencies to unify and analyze data across disparate formats, platforms, and storage locations —without the costly and risky need to physically move it. In addition, by avoiding vendor lock-in, agencies can negotiate better prices.
By implementing capabilities such as the ability to search across clusters of varied data sources, agencies can query data from multiple systems simultaneously, streamlining the process of generating insights and actionable information. This drastically reduces the friction that has historically plagued inter-agency data sharing, making information immediately accessible, secure and actionable across organizational lines.
Additionally, the government should prioritize the adoption of open standards like OpenTelemetry, which provides a consistent, vendor-neutral framework for collecting, processing, and exporting telemetry. This makes it easier for agencies to ingest both structured and unstructured data streams from a wide variety of sources—applications, infrastructure, logs, and sensors. This is the key to unlocking real-time visibility and enabling faster detection of anomalies and outliers that can be telltale signs of inefficiencies, or instances of waste, fraud and abuse. Adding analytics, machine learning, and customizable dashboards into the mix will enable agencies to identify emerging risks, visualize patterns, and take preventative action before issues escalate.
Turning Mandate into Momentum
This new EO marks a pivotal moment in the federal government’s push for greater transparency and operational integrity. By busting down information silos and accelerating data access, agencies will be better equipped to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer funds.
By looking at activities such as adopting open data standards and eliminating data silo issues, agencies can address the EO’s goals—enabling real-time visibility, secure data access and actionable insights across agency boundaries.
Bill Wright is the Head of Global Government Affairs at Elastic
