The Office of Management and Budget’s 2022 IT Operating Plan highlighted the need to reduce complexity of systems to bring down costs. And, of course, it promoted the idea of using data to better drive decisions. Over the years, agencies and vendors have made their technology environments a little more complex due to too many bespoke tools and a lack of integration of data. With all those challenges that that have come up over the last 20-25 years, OMB has actually pushed agencies toward enterprise services as one way to overcome many of these IT modernization obstacle. There’s other opportun ..read more

Secure access service edge is one of the latest buzzwords that has emerged as part of the move to zero trust. Agencies are looking at how they can implement SASE as part of securing their networks and systems. Gartner predicts that by 2025, at least 60 percent of enterprises will have “explicit strategies and timelines for SASE adoption encompassing user, branch and edge access, up from 10% in 2020.” Wayne LeRiche, the federal civilian field chief technology officer and solutions architect for Palo Alto Networks Federal, said SASE sets a framework for agencies to more easily implement a zero ..read more

This January, believe it or not, it will be two years since the Office of Management and Budget released its zero trust strategy. Agencies continue down the path of meeting the 19 actions outlined in that strategy. The journey is one that may have a destination, but may never truly end as cyber threats continue to evolve. Agencies will continue to face new threats and therefore need a continuous effort to improve. OMB is helping agencies face those threats and complete key stops along their zero trust journey by asking for $5.5 billion in fiscal 2024 from Congress for zero trust capabilities ..read more

The ever-evolving cyber threats are causing agencies to more than just change their defense strategies. The move to zero trust requires a whole new level of thinking. That change of thinking revolves around people, process and technology. Agencies are moving away from one and done type products and toward a more holistic approach to cybersecurity. Gone are the days where agencies are buying tools to solve a single challenge. Zero trust and advanced cyber approaches require agencies to use integrated platforms to improve their ability to beat back the bad actors. Drew Epperson, the vice presid ..read more

Agencies have understood the importance of data for every federal mission area for years. But at the same time, the volume, veracity and variety of that data makes it challenging for every federal mission to gain the valuable insights necessary to drive decisions. It’s clear that agencies still need to break down data silos to make better data-driven decisions. This will lead to improved efficiency and better cost effectiveness for each decision and for each mission area. Sudhir Hasbe, the chief product officer for Neo4j, said agencies must unify and mobilize complex data to improve mission c ..read more

Insights from the series, Innovation in Government. This fall more federal employees will return to the office. Every week it seems another agency is drawing the line of how often employees must be in person and how often they can work remotely. No matter where that line in the sand is drawn – four days a pay period for some agencies and six days for others seems to be the trend – one thing is definitely clear the hybrid workplace is here to stay. And despite agencies, and the private sector, being three years into this hybrid work environment, agencies continue to experience complexity ..read more

Insights from the series, Innovation in Government. June was the four year anniversary of the Federal Data Strategy and it’s clear how much progress agencies have made since OMB released that vision. Every agency has a chief data officer and their own data strategies. Governance and frameworks have been taking shape over the last few years and agencies now are starting to see the impact of all this work. The Federal Data Strategy calls for agencies to use data to drive decisions, or operationalize their data. When you add to that the advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning a ..read more

Why can’t federal agencies fill cyber jobs? The challenges are many, but government agencies are taking aim. In our exclusive ebook, we look at sweeping federal initiatives and agency-specific efforts to empower the government’s cyber workforce. You’ll hear from: C.Q. Brown Lt. and Gen. Leah Lauderback at the Air Force Patrick Johnson at the Defense Department Charles Armstrong at Federal Emergency Management Agency Jen Easterly at the Homeland Security Department Sarah Nather at the Navy Jason Barke and Sarah Brickner at the Office of Personnel Management Plus, industry security leaders — E ..read more

As agencies continue to further down the digital transformation path, they are finding among their biggest challenges the need to integrate and manage enterprise data. Over the last decade, agencies have realized how important data is to drive mission successes and outcomes. But without an enterprise data management strategy, agencies can struggle to take advantage of their data to make decisions and improve services. The good news is the tools and technologies are better than a decade ago and are continually improving. The use of cloud services and better cybersecurity capabilities are helpi ..read more

The Air Force was among the earliest agencies to organize around the need for innovation. Its approach, known as AFWERX, got started back in 2017 and became a model for many other agencies. The idea man behind AFWERX is now a finalist in this year’s Service to America Medals program. He’s the first of a series of finalists Federal Drive with Tom Temin will be talking to through October. He’s Mark Ingram, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Air Force Integrated Capabilities Directorate. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin And tell us what AFWERX was all about. What was your conception of ..read more