ATARC Federal IT Newscast

This week on the DevSecOps Coffee Chat.. We hear from the Chair of the ATARC Digital Transformation Working Group, Bill James! Bill joined the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as an SES in the CIO organization in October 2016 and served as Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Information and Technology (OIT). Today, Bill is an Independent Consultant, Offering Insight to Outcomes, at FedSmarts!

Welcome to ATARC’s Cloud and Coffee Series! This week’s guest is Mike Cassidy, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States Trustees Program. Cassidy provides technical strategy and guidance to deliver high quality products and services to the USTP user community. He is an accomplished technology leader with over 26 years of experience developing, designing, testing, securing and implementing enterprise solutions for large organizations. Prior to his position as CTO, Michael worked as a Cybersecurity Architect for DOJ, Enterprise Architect for Vcentra and a Principal Consultant for Microsoft providing Federal agencies high quality technical solutions with a focus on timely delivery within budget.

This year has proven the need to strengthen AI and Data Analytics capabilities, and a need to solve the AI and Data Analytics challenges brought forth due to the pandemic. This event will explore the current state of technology, use cases, and limitations of AI and Data Analytics, in the Federal Government space. Listen in as subject matter experts share lessons learned and solutions to the challenges brought on to their agency’s as a result of COVID-19. What strategies have been put in place in order to strengthen AI and Data Analytics as the Federal Government is starting to embrace a “new normal”? Find out how these topic experts have pushed through the challenges brought forth through COVID-19.

Join ATARC for a robust discussion on how agencies can leverage SASE-based TIC 3.0 to enable a secure mobile government workforce.  The shift to work from home, necessitated by the pandemic, has resulted in a “new normal” for federal agencies.  Hear thought leaders from both the public and private sectors discuss how TIC 3.0 guidelines can enable a secure telework environment for agency employees, and how agencies can use the cloud to create a faster and more secure sensitive information access system.  Learn what these experts are doing to execute network and cloud security during COVID-19 and lessons learned.

Risk Management Framework (RMF) is commonly used among the federal government, with the goals of improving information security, strengthening the risk management process, and encouraging reciprocity among federal agencies.

Join us for this panel, which sets out to discuss how advancements in the federal cloud space, mobility and distributed workforces have driven the focal point for security to shift. Topic experts will discuss lessons learned in successfully implementing cloud methodologies, tools, and techniques in a time of continuous change and telework. Together, panelists explore available and desired solutions to rectify past and pre-empt potential future data breaches, as both citizens and the government agencies serving them embrace “the new normal”.

2020 has proven to be a difficult year for almost every industry. In sales, it has forced the community to find new, unique ways to connect with potential clients and produce new customers in a COVID environment. Join this event to hear leaders in Federal Sales discuss how they are remaining optimistic and successful in the light of new COVID challenges such as, loss of trade shows, interpersonal communication, lead generation, and reevaluating priorities. During this panel, the speakers will also discuss how the new Federal IT goals set forth by the incoming administration will affect the overall sales processes, and priorities in the upcoming years. How have they seen sales change throughout 2020 and what do they see having an impact on Federal sales in 2021 and beyond?

As federal government agencies are trying to determine the extent of and recover from recent data breaches, IT professionals need to realize that data policies, governance and IT must be continually monitored and updated. Tightening security features around applications, technologies, and networking infrastructure is even more important when coupled with the accelerated transition to remote and hybrid work environments, brought on by the pandemic. It has been unavoidable for agencies to reevaluate their technology needs and furthering IT modernization through the Cloud. As the boundaries of an agency’s IT are expanded from the cloud to the edge, there is an ever-increasing need for the broadest set of visibility, control, and security functions at the cloud edge. Join us for this panel, which sets out to discuss how advancements in the federal cloud space, mobility and distributed workforces have driven the focal point for security to shift. Topic experts will discuss lessons learned in successfully implementing cloud methodologies, tools, and techniques in a time of continuous change and telework. Together, panelists explore available and desired solutions to rectify past and pre-empt potential future data breaches, as both citizens and the government agencies serving them embrace “the new normal”.

This week on the ATARC DevSecOps Coffee Chat, we have the pleasure of speaking with the Director of System Configuration & Delivery Automation Division at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Spence Spencer. Spencer shares his experience and insights on leading a team and putting people first! Below is his list of book suggestions. Check out this episode to learn more! Reading List: Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek (current read) The Open Organization, Jim Whitehurst (CEO Red Hat) Turn the Ship Around, L. David Marquet Out of The Crisis, W. Edwards Deming Deming’s Road to Continual Improvement, William Scherkenbach The Goal, Elihu Goldratt DevOps Handbook, Gene Kim et. al. The Phoenix Project, Gene Kim et. al. The Art of Capacity Planning, John Allspaw

To guide governmentwide adoption of 5G and related technologies, the Federal Mobility Group’s (FMG) 5G and Mobile Network Infrastructure Working Group (WG) over the past year has undertaken an extensive evaluation of 5G testing approaches. Their work has culminated in establishing a framework to support federal agency use-case testing. Listen to this interview with Mr. Nick Ward and Ms. Serena Reynolds about the framework development process, importance and agency applications.