The Defense Innovation Board (DIB) on Oct. 31 released recommendations and principles for the ethical design, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies at the Department of Defense (DoD). […]
Federal IT decision makers feel their agencies are holding onto outdated data centers for too long. According to recent MeriTalk research, a variety of cost and mission-focused factors are to blame. […]
The U.S. Air Force is looking for companies to support the service branch’s LevelUP program with cloud services and DevSecOps services that can enable the Air Force to develop new cyber capabilities, according to a solicitation released on FedBizOpps. The solicitation will close on October 17. […]
An Office of Inspector General (OIG) report released today says that one of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) top management challenges is securing its information systems and networks from destruction, data loss, and compromise, based on an audit covering Fiscal Year 2018. […]
With Department of Homeland Security (DHS) looking to close its Data Center 2 (DC2) by June 2020, DHS Infrastructure Services Division Executive Director Carlene Ileto provided progress updates indicating that most DHS components are in the process of or planning to move their data to the cloud by the DC2 closure deadline. […]
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) CTO Ed Simcox said at MeriTalk’s Cloud Connect 2019 event today that HHS has melded its IT principles with cloud and data analytics capabilities to develop an application program interface (API) that gives citizens power over their healthcare data. […]
Federal officials spoke about the future role of the cloud in mobile device management (MDM) and security at the ATARC Federal Mobile Technology Summit today. […]
A team of academics and experts published a July 10 blueprint that acts as a template to help communities become “smart cities” by adopting a secure hybrid cloud architecture. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finalized the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy on June 25, largely keeping the draft policy in place despite criticisms from Congress and industry. […]
The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) decided to migrate its antiquated legacy IT to the cloud after realizing that it’s old IT was driving the ATF into technical debt and that it lacked disaster recovery (DR). […]
As government agencies start and continue to migrate to cloud platforms, it is important to adopt multi-cloud environments and back it up with smart use of data, said Department of Agriculture (USDA) Associate CIO Edward Reyelts and Maryland Department of Information Technology (IT) Secretary Michael Leahy. […]
Several senior Federal IT officials expressed a fair degree of support for hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure, and for development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications made possible by cloud infrastructure, during a panel discussion at MeriTalk’s Cloud Computing Brainstorm event on Wednesday, May 8. […]
Sixty-one percent of IT security professionals report experiencing a data breach at their current employer, according to an April 29 report from McAfee. […]
Microsoft is building two cloud-based data centers to host classified government data, according to an April 17 news release. […]
Suppose that mid-way along the long, complex road to Federal IT modernization, an agency IT manager jotted down a wish-list for the most important big-picture elements of what the promised land should look like? […]
Out of the 24 CFO Act agencies, 13 agencies reported that they had met data center closure goals set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a majority met cost savings targets, but no agency with a data center met optimization targets, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on March 28 to update the agency on the implementation status of GAO’s prior IT management recommendations for the VA, and prodded VA to take action on benefits management system issues and data center optimization goals. […]
With the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) executive order and Federal data strategy on the horizon, MeriTalk connected with Rob Davies, Executive Vice President of Operations, ViON, to discuss how agencies can prepare their infrastructure to handle demands from AI, IoT, advanced analytics, blockchain, and more. […]
If recent events are any indication, we could be seeing big changes to agency cloud migration plans in 2019. The Federal government could be rethinking its role in owning and operating its own data centers, strongly questioning whether that is a job best left to government employees. […]
Maria Roat, chief information officer at the Small Business Administration, provided a run-down of her office’s extensive to-do list during a keynote address on Thursday at the Veritas Public Sector Vision Day event, and emphasized the importance of laying the proper data-management policy groundwork before embarking on cloud deployments and forays into artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to share Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) guidance across the department, leading to an estimated 860 unreported data centers and inadequate DCOI goals, according to a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general. […]
As Federal agency leaders look to modernize networks and provide better citizen services, they need to have a “Citizen First” mentality, rather than “Cloud First” or “Cloud Smart,” Claire Bailey, director of Federal, State and Local Mainframe Solutions at Compuware, told MeriTalk. […]
Public comments on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) draft Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy show a desire for OMB to continue the push for modernization amid new metrics and a shift towards optimization over data center closures. […]
As Federal government agencies continue their methodical march to IT modernization spurred on by congressional and administration mandates, two senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) IT officials emphasized today the importance of the needs of core agency missions in leading those efforts. […]
New guidance for the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) will likely include revised performance goals for agencies, revised metrics for energy metering and virtualization, and new metrics for under-utilized servers, availability, and old hardware, said Jake Wooley, IT sustainability program manager at the Department of Energy (DoE), during MeriTalk’s 2018 Data Center Brainstorm. […]
Data from the Federal government’s IT Dashboard website appear to indicate that Federal CFO Act agencies have made some progress but are still more than 1,000 data centers short of their intended closure goals for 2020 under the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI). […]
Pamela Wise-Martinez, chief cloud and enterprise data architect at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, discussed the opportunities for Federal agencies to shift from disparate multi-cloud environments to effective use of hybrid cloud – marrying together on-prem, private, and public cloud use. […]
The Library of Congress awarded Accenture a new contract to build a data center, with an estimated contract value of $27.3 million over the performance period, including a one-year base and an additional two one-year options. Accenture Federal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture, will migrate the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office’s current data center to new hosting environments. […]
MeriTalk today announced the winners of its inaugural FITARA Awards program, recognizing six Federal agencies who have made tremendous strides in modernizing their IT environments and one congressional leader who has worked tirelessly to promote the reform of IT acquisitions and adoption of cyber best practices. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]