The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the government-wide plan to secure cloud products and services, is almost a decade old. It is still evolving, however. Early in 2021, the House of Representative passed a bill that would have codified a number of its provisions into law, standardizing its processes for agencies to on-ramp cloud computing technologies. To date, the Senate has not acted on the bill. At the same tim...

Digital transformation is a holistic re-imagining of how companies, governments and organizations use technology, people and processes to deliver services or perform their mission. Through digital transformation, federal agencies look to deliver the same kinds of business or customer-focused digital experiences that are common in the commercial arena. The federal sector has been pursuing digital transformation for years through various avenues...

For federal, state and local government cybersecurity executives, the mission to detect and eliminate hackers on their expanding digital networks has always been a fluid exercise. In the last year, their work has become even more challenging. As the pandemic pushed agencies to remote work, they leaned even more on cloud computing, mobile and remote access capabilities, and the attack surface has become more diffuse and vulnerable. Sly, determi...

The companies on the Washington Technology Top 100 are coming off a year like no other. Many feared that the COVID-19 pandemic would devastate the market, grinding work to a halt as offices closed and access to customers was greatly curtailed. But that did not happen. If anything the past year has been a triumph for government contractors and their customers as they found new ways to work and communicate. The result is a group of companies tha...

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...

As DOD continues the roll-out of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, both government acquisition professionals and the contracting community are scrambling to understand and implement the certification requirements. Join us to learn the latest on what is required and what may be ahead for acquisition and contracting executives concerning cyber certifications and audits as government and industry experts share their insights...

Government agencies generate and collect massive amounts of data, but have long struggled to extract value from all that information. Now the Federal Data Strategy provides a 10-year framework to “leverage the full value of federal data for mission, service and the public good,” and the signs of agencies’ seriousness are everywhere. Developing workforce data skills remains a challenge, while legacy systems continue to complic...

It’s been a decade since "Cloud First" was put forth as a formal goal of government. In that time, agencies have moved from wary experimentation to straightforward "lift and shift" efforts to, increasingly, enterprise as-a-service solutions. The question is no longer whether to leverage cloud servicers, but how best to do so. Yet as the easier moves to the cloud have been made, the remaining systems and workloads require decidedly more c...

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...