Agencies are trying to move faster than ever to modernize and transform their systems and processes. For federal financial service agencies, from the Internal Revenue Service to the Securities and Exchange Commission, accelerating the development of new applications and the modernization of legacy ones is a critical part of meeting their mission. From Agile to DevSecOps, continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) automation to robot...

There is a lot of emphasis on IT modernization in the federal government, from the push to grow funding for the Technology Modernization Fund to Army efforts to modernize IT for multi-domain operations. On another track, the President's Management Agenda identifies workforce transformation as its top priority. There is a clear connection between these two broad initiatives – modernizing IT is a way to streamline how programs are managed...

When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law in November 2021, it allocated $1.2 trillion for infrastructure initiatives across the country. While the focus has been on large tranches of funding allocated for sweeping categories of infrastructure – roads and bridges, internet connectivity, water systems, etc. – less attention has been paid to the role of digital transformation within these groupings. F...

Headlines across the country have shown that ransomware can target organizations of any size, from the smallest town hall to major state agencies. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law earlier this year included $1 billion for grants to be awarded to state, local, or tribal governments to address cybersecurity risks and threats such as ransomware. At the same time, cyber insurance providers have been raising their premiums...

In today’s heatedly competitive job market, government agencies need solutions for retaining top performers, upskilling and reskilling the workforce, and recruiting new talent efficiently. Having a strong Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) program is critical to attract and retain top talent. The use of responsible artificial intelligence (AI) can improve agencies’ diversity goals, while adhering to well-defined...

The U.S. military understands the importance of strategy, and planning out the logistics of supporting that strategy. Once the big objective is determined, leaders determine the strategy that will achieve it, then work upstream, identifying the materials and manpower required, the order of events, bottlenecks to be addressed, and so on.This approach should apply to the entire federal government’s efforts to implement zero trust. The obje...

Today, data is the most strategic asset for every government agency. State and local agencies hold a vast amount of data about their residents, including personally identifiable information. One result: the databases have become attractive targets for cyber attacks, from stealing data to sell to disrupting agency operations or services. All state and local agencies have security in place to protect their systems and data, but in the past coupl...

Federal, state, and local government grant programs support a wide range of critical services, ranging from economic development to disaster recovery to health and human services. Legacy grants management processes can be cumbersome and even subject to waste, fraud, and abuse. This is where technology can help, by simplifying and streamlining processes while strengthening internal controls and providing accurate, real-time visibility for stake...

States and localities have been affected by the wave of ransomware attacks over the past three years. From the small town of Webster Township, Mich. (population under 6,600) to state governments such as Louisiana, agencies large and small, at all levels, have had to scramble to rebuild their websites, databases, email systems and more following such attacks. It is a particular challenge for them due to older IT infrastructure, underfunded prog...

The federal government has been on a mission to update and modernize its IT systems and mothball legacy systems for more than a decade. From “Cloud First” to datacenter consolidation to zero trust, to name just a few – and more GAO reports than there’s room to list – both the Executive Branch and Congress have emphasized the importance of modernization. Two senators recently introduced a bill, the Legacy IT Reduct...