Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness

Today, we have a pattern interrupt. Instead of a standard 25 minute interview, we will sit down with five nominees for a leadership award from Women in Technology.   Each candidate sits for a "lightning" round of eight minutes where they answer three questions about leadership and give their reason for participating in Women In Technology.   In order to see who won, you will have to visit Women In Technology.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com Everyone is trying to figure out how to apply AI to federal problems—essentially, building large language models and trying to wring value from them. Inevitably, many are jumping into creating LLMs from various data stores. We are right at the point where consideration is given to managing enormous data sets in the federal government, emphasizing the need for operational efficiency and security. The hard lesson learned is data in transit, which means expense. Today, we will sit down with Dr. Ellison Anne Willimas to explore the potential of privacy-enhancing technologies to enable secure and efficient data use across classification boundaries and data silos. Dr. Ellison Anne Williams suggests a solution called Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET). It is applied to data as it sits in a silo, a data lake, or whatever nomenclature is used to describe large data sets these days. PETs allow the secure and private use of data across boundaries and classifications. She explains how PETs enable AI and machine learning models to be trained and used without compromising sensitive data. The conversation also touches on the cost savings from avoiding data replication and the potential for significant operational efficiencies. Explore the potential of privacy-enhancing technologies to enable secure and efficient data use across classification boundaries and data silos.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com Automation is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it promises greater efficiency; on the other hand, it can pose inherent risks, such as maliciously modified data, bias, and even data poisoning. During today’s interview, Mia Jordan from Salesforce offers a solution.  She is an experienced federal executive with a long-standing involvement in the federal technology community.  She has identified bottlenecks that can be solved with a structured approach that offers flexibility. Rather than grabbing any data set off the shelf, when the data has been curated, it can avoid many of the issues with creating specialized data sets. Secondly, a company like Salesforce may have seen similar processes and have a store of code that can solve an agency’s problem.  Re-purposing code that has worked before in a secure environment is a way to accelerate solving vexing federal issues. The conversation also highlights the importance of collaboration and community within the federal government in enhancing efficiency and service delivery. During the interview, Mia Jordan reviewed Agentforce and gave guidance on deploying a process called Role, Knowledge, Action, and Guardrails.    

Here we are in the spring of 2025, and the headline news is that the federal government is removing tech staff; at the same time, reports are coming in of thousands of unfilled cybersecurity positions across the government. Today, we sit down with a self-proclaimed “Cybersecurity Lifer” who will give the perspective of the SANS Institute on this dilemma. John Pescatore has been involved in federal cybersecurity since 1978. When he examines our current situation, he gives his opinion on training, skill level, and legislation that is being considered to address many of these issues. He mentions recent SANS studies that have suggested the issue is less about the number of openings than about finding individuals with a specific skill set required for a federal role.  He discusses the evolution of cybersecurity training from hands-on courses to community college programs and the importance of practical experience. Pescatore also discusses AI's role in cybersecurity, noting its limitations and the need for domain expertise. He emphasizes the importance of rotating staff roles and providing continuous training to retain talent in federal agencies.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com GitLab has been around for ten years and has garnered a reputation for helping federal agencies ensure compliance with stringent government standards. Today, we sat down with Joel Krooswick from GitLab to discuss some top-of-mind topics for the software development community: Agentic AI and the implications of applying AI to software development. Joel Krooswick explains that Agentic AI acts as unit taskers, managing specific tasks exceptionally well, such as code creation and refactoring. He emphasizes the importance of contextual awareness and security protocols to prevent malicious attacks. In a play of words, it was suggested that "artificial" Intelligence may be replaced by "augmented" Intelligence—GitLab's role in augmenting, not replacing, developers, and the need for real-time compliance checks. They also touch on the cultural shift required to adapt to AI's advancements, ensuring human value remains central in the workforce. Joel will speak at the Gartner Security & Risk Management and AWS Public Sector Summit in the Washington, DC, area on June 10-11.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com Everyone who has listened to a podcast about technology has heard the phrase, “People, Process, Technology.”  This is a model derived from a management consultant in the 1960’s.  We have seen a lot of focus on technology, a smattering of attention given to people, almost no concern with the process itself. Today’s interview with Aubrey Vaughn, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Celonis, to discuss process intelligence over artificial intelligence. Instead of a technical description, Aubrey shares a story about saving $10 billion in improper payments and emphasizes the importance of understanding why processes fail.  Aubrey explains that process intelligence is the backbone of business operations, simplifying and improving efficiency. One approach to evaluating a process is to make a duplicate of it and analyze the processes apart from the operation. Some call this making “digital twins.” He highlights the role of digital twins in creating a complete blueprint of organizational processes. During the interview, Aubery Vaughn provides information about the "Process Intelligence Day" event in September 2025 to the audience, including details on the location, agenda, and how to register. events in September will offer educational sessions and CPE credits on process intelligence.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com AFCEA’S TechNet Cyber conference held in Baltimore, Maryland was the perfect opportunity to sit down with Bryan Rosensteel, Head of Public Sector Marketing at Wiz.  Wiz is the “new kid on the block,” and it has had tremendous growth.  During the interview, Bryan Rosensteel shows how agentless approaches can improve visibility and assist with compliance.  We all know how complexity has infiltrated federal technology.  We have the usual suspect of Cloud Service Providers, hybrid clouds, private clouds, and, if that was not complicated enough, alt-clouds.  As a result, it is almost impossible to get a “bird’s eye” visibility to provide cyber security. Two main ways have been proposed to secure this much-desired system’s view. Agent.  One approach is to put a bit of code on each device, called an “agent” method.  It is good for granular control, but can slow down a scan and must be maintained Agentless.  Bryan Rosensteel from Wiz describes something called a “agentless” method to gain visibility into complex systems.  This method leverages infrastructure and protocols to accomplish the scanning objective much faster. Bryan Rosensteel states that in a world of constant attacks, this faster method allows for rapid updates to threats. Beyond better observation, an agentless method, like the one provided by Wiz, allows for compliance automation, continuous monitoring, and sets the groundwork for effective Zero Trust implementation.

AFCEA’S TechNet Cyber conference held in Baltimore, Maryland was the perfect opportunity to sit down with Greg Carl, Principal Technologist from Pure Storage. Pure Storage is used by 175 federal agencies.  Time to sit down from a subject matter expert and explain their value proposition. Today’s federal government is attempting to accomplish digital modernization through a move to the cloud and, at the same time, reduce staff.  To multiply the risk associated with this endeavor, we see an increase in cyber attacks on data at rest, in transit, and while in use.  Greg Carl drills down on how Pure Storage can help federal leaders in several areas, he begins with Retrieval Augmented Generation, RAG. People have jumped into AI without knowing how to structure a large language model, the popular LLM.  RAG focuses on text generation and tries to make sure the data collected is accurate, relevant, and contextually aware. Pure Storage asks, if RAG protects the results of a query, what protects the “Retrieval” part of RAG.  We know LLMs are being attacked every day.  Malicious code could be placed in a LLM, and the RAG system might not know. A decade ago, backups were child’s play.  A server down the hall, a backup appliance.  Today, one needs an agile cloud solution to perform continuous backups in a hybrid world.  One way to gain resilience is to use immutable backups where the attacked system can be restored and not lose valuable time. Speed and security handling important data activities can reduce costs for federal leaders by improving accuracy of LLMs and speed the time to recover after an attack. Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com When most of us hear the word “lifecycle,” we normally assume they are talking about the Software Development Lifecycle. Today, we are going to vary that concept and discuss the Contract Lifecycle and its management. It has been recognized as a part of systems management, so it has developed its own abbreviation: Contract Lifecycle Management, or CLM. Our guest is Ryan Donley from Icertis. He highlights the shift from traditional methods like Excel spreadsheets to modern digital platforms. Much like software, the CLM can be divided into pre-award, post-award, compliance, and closeout areas. Every agency oversees this sequence in a unique manner. Ryan Donley points out that some organizations still use Excel spreadsheets for this task. He recommends that people realize that antiquated processes can limit your ability to have accurate information and can cause reporting to be delayed. Further, when a system is automated, coordination between departments is accelerated, and issues like compliance can be acted upon quickly. Icertis operates on a single-tenant GCC high cloud with Microsoft, ensuring security and compliance.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com Brian Funk from Metaphase summarizes his company in one sentence, “It’s all about meeting – meeting the mission with the technology.” What makes his company unique is the focus on drawing down costs in an efficient way. That is a great concept and has worked for Metaphase since its founding in 2013, but today we are uncertainly living in a world of policy. The question to ask, how does Metaphase operate in a world where the next six months are almost impossible to predict. Brian Funk’s response is that they support over twenty agencies, it has given them a range of experience so they can select from a wide range of solutions. One example he gives includes a rapid response to a DHS RFI. Instead of sketching a possible solution, Metaphase delivered a fully functional application. That in and of itself, is a demonstration of being able to rapidly adapt to unpredictable situations. Funk also discusses the need for guardrails in AI usage and the potential for AI to enhance both efficiency and security in federal IT.