It is hard to think of a technology that has taken over the IT ecosystem faster than artificial intelligence. OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, and yet it already has evolved so much that it bears little resemblance to v .0. The federal government has been moving quickly by its standards to address AI’s challenges and capabilities, including a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, an AI Risk Management Framework from the National I...

Florida is the third-largest state in the U.S. by population, and it continues to grow rapidly – from 2010 to 2020, its population grew by 14.5%. That kind of growth rate might be the envy of other states, but it also means increased pressure on the state government to deliver internet-based, user-friendly services for everything from child support services to renewing business licenses. To accomplish this transformation in state governm...

State and local governments had to adapt quickly to the effects of the pandemic, as workers and residents alike were encouraged to shelter in their homes. This created major challenges for agencies’ IT systems and technical support staff. Rather than using a “hub-and-spoke” method of connecting employees to servers, data, applications, and each other – where cybersecurity focused on firewalls around the perimeter ...

Government at all levels is moving as quickly as possible to integrate new solutions and overhaul processes that need streamlining. At the same time, officials are keeping close watch on AI and other emerging technologies, wary of the law of unintended consequences. For instance, in early September California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to study the development, use and risks of generative artificial in...

Advances in telecommunications capabilities are a major driver in Department of Defense programs. From creating secure private networks that U.S. military forces and their partners can use in conflicts to integrating 5G capabilities to create “smart” warehouses to significant improvements in supply chain logistics, DoD has been committed to investing in rethinking the meaning and applications of communications. One of the next step...

In 2022, the Department of Defense created a cross-functional team to accelerate the adoption of 5G and future-generation wireless networking technologies, laying the foundation for new opportunities to implement innovative solutions to military needs. The potential is there for 5G (and beyond) to remake the integration and interoperability of the different DoD domains – air, land, sea, space, and cyber – as envisioned in DoD...

One of the foundational tenets of zero trust architecture is Identity – providing credentials for every person and device – in order to manage access to government systems, whether entering from the outside or moving laterally from within. In other words, identity, credential and access management (ICAM) should be addressed as a whole, not as separate point solutions. This applies across all systems, all platforms, and all environm...

For government agencies, case management – delivering services to people and businesses – is the heart of their mission. In almost all cases, however, case management systems have gotten more complicated, more difficult to manage, and more expensive. Agencies today depend on legacy, siloed systems that have changed through kludges, “an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose.” Rip-and-...

Federal agencies take seriously the cybersecurity of their IT systems. They must observe numerous federal policies and programs, from Executive Order 14028 on down. Many agencies are far less aware of the need to strengthen the security of their operations technology (OT), the equipment that runs many kinds of systems, including healthcare. Historically, that was less of an issue since most OT systems were closed and standalone. But the intern...

The technology revolution that has reshaped consumer markets has now arrived at the state level. Case in point: the State of Ohio, where state, local and educational organizations are moving quickly to integrate innovative technologies that can drive better decision-making while lowering the cost of ownership for IT systems. Incorporating new technologies also creates opportunities to reimagine the future workforce, for both the public and pr...