In just a few short years, Robotic Process Automation has gone from a few scattered pilot projects to an essential tool deployed by dozens of agencies. Hundreds of thousands of staff-hours have been saved, and organizations are increasingly looking to leverage artificial intelligence to automate more-complicated workflows. Automation at scale comes with challenges, however -- from credential management to siloed systems to ensuring that outdat...

Federal agencies must shift fully to electronic records management by December 2022, when the National Archives and Records Administration will stop accepting new paper records. Successfully making that transition entails far more than simply digitizing existing documents. Meeting the goals set by M-19-21 demands changes to current business processes, dramatically different approaches to content classification, new systems that are digital thr...

The Department of Defense's cloud strategy aims to transform virtually every aspect of the warfighting effort, and has resulted in a rapidly growing ecosystem of both general-purpose and fit-for-purpose clouds. Some of those efforts are unique to DOD, reflecting the scale, missions and austere operating environments of military operations, while others are readily transferrable to most any agency. All, however, hold valuable lessons for those...

As agencies push their modernization and digital transformation efforts forward, they know that the foundation of the work must focus on the network level. Right before the pandemic hit, the CIO Council provided a white paper to help agencies lay out a plan for their next generation networks. It discussed how new and emerging technologies will change networks of the future and predicted increased use of 5G wireless networks and software define...

Two years after the White House issued an executive order creating a national strategy for artificial intelligence, agencies are moving past pilot projects and are looking for the next level of AI in government. Although some of the most visible projects are at NASA, DOD and IRS, many agencies are working on developing AI projects that support services, improve mission effectiveness and decision making and automate repetitive tasks. There is a...

As technology evolves, so do the threats to its security. The remote work shift caused by the continuing pandemic has pressed security teams to reassess how they verify and allow access. Zero Trust is a strategy, not a product, which reimagines the way access is granted to users, to data and to applications. Devices, which used to be central to identity, now include personal computers and home internet connections, which are not government iss...

In October of 2020, then-Defense Secretary Esper defined defense readiness as "our military’s ability to answer the nation’s call, and to fight and win, anytime, anywhere. … The question we must answer is this: if called upon to fight tonight, are we ready?" Ensuring that answer is "yes" demands change in every corner of the Department of Defense, and especially in the technology that will power tomorrow's military. Cybersec...

IT modernization has been a federal priority for years, but many agencies still struggle to turn that goal into a practical plan of action. Securing multi-year funding is one challenge, but the fundamental obstacle is often the sheer complexity of transforming government-scale systems. Smart, successful modernization demands a holistic approach that addresses several essential pillars: security, network infrastructure, multi-cloud architecture...

Most government agencies have made the journey to cloud since the Cloud First and Cloud Smart strategies came from OMB starting in 2010. Many organizations have more than one cloud. The challenge becomes blending the different types of cloud and service models to provide access to needed data, while at the same time protecting a much enlarged attack surface created by the large number of workers who are accessing the data remotely. If there is...

If there was ever a question about the role of information technology in healthcare, the COVID-19 pandemic has answered it emphatically. Quickly analyzing large data sets and mapping the locations of cases around the world requires scale and power. Federal hospital systems (VA, Indian Health and Military Health System) are large users of the technology and the Department of Health and Human Services and its research centers fund research on a...