The Government Technology Insider Podcast

As digitization continues to transform the federal government, agencies need to shift their strategies to become digital-first. With federal IT investments, agencies can address their data management dilemmas and create a strategic outlook for the next year. Daniel Carroll, Field CTO for Cybersecurity at Dell Technologies Federal, discussed how agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can use digital-first government when it comes to disaster recovery. FEMA has adopted and adjusted their digital capability to assess threats and respond to situations with services from commercial providers. These were the key themes in the second part of our “Thinking with a Data-First Mentality in a Digital-First Government” podcast series, hosted on Government Technology Insider, where Dan Carroll, Field CTO for Cybersecurity at Dell Technologies US Federal – Office of the CTO, discussed this topic further.

The federal IT environment is facing several priorities ranging from security to creating long term hybrid workgoals. Agencies need to decide their path forward when it comes to managing IT services and data management. As the role of data grows for the federal government, agencies have to devise ways to effectively store and manage the influx of data. This will help IT teams among agencies understand and determine the challenges they are facing. These were the key themes in the first part of our “Thinking with a Data-First Mentality in a Digital-First Government” podcast series, hosted on Government Technology Insider, where Dan Carroll, Field CTO for Cybersecurity at Dell Technologies US Federal – Office of the CTO, discussed the challenges the federal IT environment is facing further.

As federal agencies embrace cloud-based applications that create a distributed network, alongside a need for low latency and high throughput, the concept of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is coming more into the forefront.SASE provides agencies with a low-latency, cloud-native, secure Internet connection that can be hosted in the cloud or on-premise. It integrates wide-area networking (WAN) with cloud-based security to help provide efficient and secure network services to distributed WANs. These were the key insights of the Government Technology Insider “Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) in the Federal Space” podcast with Wes Withrow, Public Sector Solutions Executive with Verizon, who discussed what SASE is and ways it can help improve mission readiness in the federal space.

Although the Executive Order on Cybersecurity, which set Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) as the foundation of federal agency security, is only a year old there are already new developments in ZTA. The new multi-domain approach to Zero Trust is redefining the standard for how users on the network should be handled by creating a single source of truth.ZTA assumes no implicit trust is granted to any users on the network, and it must be intrinsic throughout the entire agency’s IT environment. ZTA also requires that agencies create a central policy over their infrastructure and develop a unified security posture over everything in their network. However, the multi-domain approach with its “single source of truth” necessitates the unification of all of the legacy and independent policy control points that were traditionally spread out through different environments into a central pane of glass.These were the key insights of a recent Government Technology Insider podcast interview with Jeff Fossett, a Principal Architect at CTG Federal, who explained the benefit of creating this central pane of glass for policies with a multi-domain approach.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is all-in on moving to the cloud. With the JEDI contract behind them, the Pentagon is getting ready for its multi-vendor Joint Warfighter Cloud Contract (JWCC) solicitation and preparing for deployment in April 2022.With cloud solutions maturing and evolving in the years since the original JEDI contract award, defense leaders should consider creating a multi- and hybrid-cloud environment that leverages automation and open source tools. In addition, building Zero Trust capabilities – where security is built in from the ground up – is critical for this new DoD cloud effort.These were the key themes of our latest Government Technology Insider podcast on the five key things the Department of Defense needs to know about the cloud. In this podcast, Mark Johnson, Vice President, Federal Cloud at Oracle, talked about what DoD officials need to know today about the next generation of cloud solutions that are available.

The use of mobile devices has reached near ubiquity throughout the globe, and America’s Intelligence Community (IC) also relies on mobility for advancing overall mission goals. However, the IC has unique requirements – from location to security to dealing with classified data – that must be taken into consideration in order for mobility to be truly effective and secure.With 5G becoming a nation-state priority, it may be able to help the IC to advance overall national security, as well as support mission readiness by creating a robust and secure communications environment. 5G for the IC includes high-speed and low latency capabilities for everything from the Internet of Things (IoT) to capturing and analyzing drone data.These were the key insights of this third part of the Government Technology Insider Critical Communications and Intel Agencies Podcast Series, with Bryan Schromsky, Managing Partner, 5G Public Sector at Verizon.

With nation-state and non-state actors laser-focused on gaining strategic advantage by compromising IT environments, one of the top priorities for the United States Intelligence Community (IC) is the security and integrity of its networks and data. Following the Executive Order on Cybersecurity issued in May 2021, Zero Trust Architecture has become the go-to security posture for the federal government. Understanding the advantages that Zero Trust will bring and how it is not a security oxymoron is paramount for the IC, which deals with highly complex missions such as threats from nation-states, destabilizing terrorism, and cybersecurity emerging as the new battlefield.These were the key insights in the second part of our Government Technology Insider Critical Communications and Intel Agencies Podcast Series Zero-Trust: The Security Oxymoron with Anurag Dave, Global Product Manager SDP and Zero Trust Solutions at Verizon.

Today, the United States Intelligence Community (IC) has never had a more complex mission. With nation states looking to expand their sphere of influence, resurgent terrorism threatening destabilization globally, and bad actors fueling cyber attacks, there’s a need for the IC’s network communications infrastructure to be mission-ready.Keeping abreast of constantly evolving geopolitical threats requires that the IC has the best critical communications capabilities – now and into the future. In fact, today’s technologies can help to build a future-ready network and these upgrades can be accomplished without distracting the IC from its critical mission.These were the key insights of the first part of Government Technology Insider’s Critical Communications and Intel Agencies Podcast Series with David Cerjan, Managing Director, National Security Group at Verizon, where they discuss how agencies can lay the foundations for mission success.

The past 18 months have been characterized by being remote. Even as our schools, colleges, and workplaces have started to open up, the flexibility of being able to work or learn remotely has remained a valued part of the new normal.As public sector organizations – including federal, state, and local governments, as well K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities – look to support this hybrid culture, their communications infrastructure needs to evolve to meet the demands of work and learning spaces of the future.This is where fixed wireless access (FWA) comes into play, and it’s a wireless broadband product that offers similar speeds and capacity that can be a replacement for wired networks. It can offer ease-of-use and consistency for quickly deploying devices for providing more flexibility for enabling remote work environments.These were the key insights of this Government Technology Insider podcast, on fixed wireless access where Anthony Battista, Managing Director for Solutions Architecture for State, Local and Education Segments at Verizon; and Bryan Schromsky, Managing Partner of 5G Public Sector at Verizon, also discussed ideal public sector uses cases for FWA, and much more.

For decades, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been engaged in a complex digital transformation journey. Despite best intentions and the adoption of many point solutions, the DoD is still challenged in achieving the agility that lies at the heart of digital transformation.This often comes down to managing multiple contracts and network teams that grapple with integrating disparate systems. Thankfully, the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracting vehicle aims to address – in a unified manner – all aspects of the DoD’s needs for the next-generation of information technology (IT), telecommunications and infrastructure services.In addition, EIS will help defense agencies to achieve strategic advantages for years to come. These were the key insights in the third part of our Department of Defense Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Podcast Series with Lamont Copeland, Director of Federal Solutions Architecture at Verizon.