A sampling of execs from some of the Federal government’s top IT and service vendors is showing consensus that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will continue to be a major hot-button issue in government tech circles in 2024, with cybersecurity and workforce development also making strong showings in the new year.
“AI has the potential to transform government, and we’re already seeing it improve health, safety, national security, and citizen service while also driving better, more informed, data-driven decision-making,” Mike Wiseman, vice president, public sector, at Pure Storage told MeriTalk. “The recent AI executive order is a step in the right direction to promote safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, as it puts structure around growth and adoption.”
“In 2024, I expect agencies to lean towards AI solutions that are supported by a reliable, secure data infrastructure that enables them to utilize a smaller infrastructure footprint to reduce the burden of storage management and accelerate ransomware and rapid disaster recovery,” Wiseman said. “As AI becomes more mainstream in government operations over the next year, we’ll see agencies better understand, invest, and apply AI-specific solutions to their agency needs.”
Wiseman also pointed to the ability of AI tech adoption to help drive broader tech upgrades in the Federal sphere, citing research showing that “73 percent of IT buyers say that AI will require data management upgrades of some kind.”
“As we look to 2024, he who has the data, wins,” said Hansang Bae, public sector CTO at Zscaler.
“While the Federal government and private industry will be focused on artificial intelligence (AI), the most important thing that makes AI ‘intelligent’ is the amount of training data set available,” Bae said. “Having the correct data at the right time with least amount of privilege while simultaneously protecting that data will be critical to maintaining our cyber edge.”
Mark Serway, president and CEO at Hitachi Vantara Federal, told MeriTalk “it’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to advance and shape the future for defense agencies.” But, he added, “edge intelligence is also becoming increasingly sophisticated and useful in the field. Just as AI moves at a rapid pace, so will the demand to have the right data at the right time, for the right commanders and warfighters.”
“We will continue to see increased dialogue between the public and private sectors regarding AI policy and effective implementation for government agencies,” Serway said. “We’re a lot further in the discussion than we once were, and that’s because we’ve recognized that beyond fear of the unknown, harnessing AI and any other type of emerging technology will require a shift in mindset that starts with evaluating the risks associated with implementation instead of shutting them out.”
While AI will continue to be a headline grabber, Gary Barlet, Federal field CTO at Illumio, also pointed to the Federal government’s need for more action as it enters year three of mandated shifts to zero trust security architectures.
“We need to see an uptick in cyber funding in 2024, particularly around Zero Trust,” Barlet said. “The Federal government is getting serious about implementing Zero Trust strategies, and the best way to drive action will be to put dollars behind these mandates.”
“The reality is that cybercrime is only going to get worse and we’re going to see more and more aggressive attacks in 2024 – especially as attack methodologies evolve, and social engineering tactics become more pervasive,” Barlet said. “The Federal government has focused its attention on cyber over the last year – and we are going to see civilians follow suit in 2024. With devastating attacks continuing to impact major organizations, 2024 will bring cyber to the forefront of constituents’ minds.”?
On the technology workforce front, Hitachi Vantara Federal’s Serway said he expects “that the growing skills gap will require a different approach for evaluating the talent pool and hiring the resources we need to fill cybersecurity and AI requisitions.”
“Hiring practices will need to change and we’ll need to start looking at the person holistically and not just their track record and previous work experience. We’ll need to be more intentional about upskilling the people with potential,” he said.
Pure Storage’s Wiseman also pointed to the importance of Federal agencies continuing their migration to cloud services – a mandate that also got top billing in the Biden administration’s 2021 cybersecurity executive order.
“With the pace of digital transformation, agencies must streamline and accelerate technologies to deploy integrated cloud, hybrid, and multicloud architectures and upgrade the legacy applications that they rely on,” he said.
“In the coming year, as technologies continue to evolve, I expect that agencies will implement the most advanced IT systems, including container-based applications, as they provide agencies with a complete data storage infrastructure solution capable of delivering premier citizen services,” Wiseman said. “Container applications give IT development teams the tools to modernize their applications, as they can gain speed, agility, and scale, while offering easy backup and restore and enhanced disaster recovery.”
Finally, Wiseman pointed to the Federal government’s growing greater sustainability, and said he sees agencies taking action toward that goal.
“As agencies continue to focus on reducing their carbon footprint, prioritizing sustainable systems is good for the environment and helps lead to good government for a clean energy future,” Wiseman said.
“While the government as a whole is making strides in its sustainability initiatives, I expect agencies will take more creative steps to improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and save taxpayer dollars in the year ahead,” he said. “I also expect that agencies will leverage private sector partners to procure technologies that meet their mission and sustainability needs.”
