Federal funding currently represents one-third to one-half of state and local IT budgets. These federal grants have traditionally funded major, complex, and expensive state government IT systems going back almost half a century for welfare, child support, child welfare, healthcare and other social services and healthcare related system applications. In many state & local governments, the COVID pandemic strained the operations of these lega...

It’s time to flip the paradigm…and see IT security teams and protocols as the “cloud accelerators” they are. Progressive security teams see the possibilities, but they need the right strategies, processes, and tools in place to make it happen. A zero-trust mindset is critical, but agencies also need a modern secure operations center (SOC) that acts as a security force multiplier. It’s a central command center tha...

It’s time to flip the paradigm…and see IT security teams and protocols as the “cloud accelerators” they are. Progressive security teams see the possibilities, but they need the right strategies, processes, and tools in place to make it happen. A zero-trust mindset is critical, but agencies also need a modern secure operations center (SOC) that acts as a security force multiplier. It’s a central command center tha...

Cyber Smoke was founded in 2011 by six industry and government professionals for the sole purpose of collaborating on cyber security at the Department of Homeland Security. Ten years later, it is still the most talked about and widely attended networking event in the Federal market. While it was stubbed out for much of 2020 as the pandemic took its toll on in-person events, we are excited to announce the return of MeriTalk’s Cyber Smoke....

While 84% of Department of Defense (DoD) IT decision makers say accelerating enterprise cloud adoption is critical to meeting warfighters’ needs, 96% still continue to face migration delays. What is hindering progress, and what do DoD organizations need to move the migration needle forward? MeriTalk surveyed more than 100 DoD IT decision makers to explore the impact enterprise cloud migration delays have on DoD missions, security, and co...

Cafés are a place to meet, mingle, and express ideas – and at MeriTalk’s Cloud Café, we aren’t serving up a regular menu of quiche, coffee, and chamomile. Cloud Café will focus on the latest technologies and policies accelerating cloud implementation, collaboration, and innovation across the public sector. We’ll kick off this caffeinated virtual forum with a live keynote and engaging discussions wit...

Cloud is evolving the way defense agencies defend assets, support the warfighter and gain tactical advantages. This event will showcase how mission partners can move to modern IT platforms and new technologies that can advance the mission on the battlefield and beyond.

The Biden administration’s executive order on cybersecurity takes an ambitious swing at forcing improvements to cybersecurity nationwide – and issues authoritative directions to Federal agencies to modernize IT infrastructure and security concepts and practices. Agencies are tasked to meet aggressive timeframes for moving to cloud, adopting Zero Trust architecture, improving software supply chain security, and more. Some are well o...

The rapid shift to remote work in 2020 resulted in new security and IT priorities, and an unprecedented increase in complexity and visibility challenges. A recent survey of global IT and cybersecurity professionals looked at the impact of those changes and discovered a reported rise in IT, device, and security complexity – and widening visibility gaps. As agencies plan for employees to return to the office, either full-time or part-time,...

The SolarWinds breach sent shockwaves through the Federal government, and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program was front and center. CDM stakeholders, according to MeriTalk’s recent research, say the SolarWinds hack boosted CDM’s importance. But, cyber pros also assert that it’s time for a post-SolarWinds makeover. There’s strong consensus for change, with...