The Office of Management and Budget in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security recently proposed an update to the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) policy: TIC 3.0. Still in draft form, TIC 3.0, proposes increased cloud security flexibility for federal agencies, and the opportunity to use modern security capabilities to meet the spirit and intent of the original TIC policy. […]

Before we can have a rational discussion about artificial intelligence (AI), we should probably cut through the hysteria surrounding it. Contrary to popular opinion, we’re not talking about machines that are going to rise up, steal our jobs, and render humans obsolete. […]

According to a Gartner study, there will be 26 billion internet-connected devices by 2020 – more than four devices for every human on earth. This hyper-connected world presents opportunities and challenges for federal agencies, particularly given data security and privacy considerations, and the enormous variety of IoT devices (many of which, unlike a laptop, are […]

The forecast is looking brighter for FedRAMP. The FedRAMP Project Management Office (PMO) has worked to make the cloud procurement more transparent and more efficient. At June’s Cloud Brainstorm event, Congressmen Will Hurd (R-Texas), Gerry Connelly (D-Va.), and FedRAMP leadership from the General Services Administration (GSA) shared perspectives on progress to date and what’s ahead. […]

MeriTalk sat down with Cameron Chehreh, chief technology officer at Dell EMC Federal, at the MeriTalk Data Center Brainstorm to discuss how Federal IT modernization efforts will affect agency data centers and operations. […]

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act (HR 306), which requires agencies to deploy energy-efficient technology in their data centers. Under the bill, every agency must use advanced power management tools – building information modeling, energy-efficient data center strategies, and more to reduce the data center footprint. […]

Catch up on some reading this weekend. Here are a few interesting items from MeriTalk. […]

Catch up on some reading this weekend. Here are a few interesting items from MeriTalk. […]

Federal CIO Tony Scott will again lay out his vision for the $3.1 billion IT modernization fund on July 14 at the Palo Alto Networks Federal Forum. MeriTalk has launched the #GreatScott campaign—an online petition to keep Scott in office through the transition of administrations. Scott’s presence and leadership may be the key to making the fund a reality….CIA’s investments could pay for that modernization campaign….At VA, confusion about what’s a medical device and what’s IT. […]

Catch up on some reading this weekend. Here are a few interesting items from MeriTalk. […]

In a disturbing trend, VA is losing the people battle….Get ready to brainstorm! MeriTalk is hosting some of the biggest names in government IT on June 15 at the annual Cloud Computing Brainstorm. […]

MeriTalk’s feature, a Q&A with prominent IT leaders, focuses this time on Flip Anderson, the Executive Director of FITARA Operations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. […]

So, as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducts its archaeological spadework to unearth ancient Federal IT systems – consider, things could be worse. OGR asked the 24 Cabinet-level agencies for an audit of their legacy systems and migration plans by January 29. Capitol Hill tells us many agencies missed the deadline – but most of the 24 have now submitted their reports. […]

MeriTalk’s feature, a Q&A with prominent IT leaders, focuses this time on Jeff Hogarth, the senior sales director for Dell’s Federal Civilian Business Unit. […]

Between the Hill scorecard and the imminent agency self-assessment read out, FITARA’s hot and sometimes hard to follow. So, where are we? what’s next? and why should you care? […]

The Kansas City Royals just won it all by playing great defense and following the old baseball motto – “hit ‘em where they ain’t.” It’s also a motto that fraudsters have embraced as they continue hitting agencies from all angles. […]

Donald Trump might quip that there are two kinds of insider threats – the Edward Snowden kind and the Hillary Clinton kind. But our nation’s cyber security’s no laughing matter. […]

Cybersecurity is still a sexy topic. Just ask Ashley Madison. Federal agencies have an intimate knowledge of cyber threats, too. That’s why MeriTalk is bringing the best minds together for the Fourth Annual Cyber Security Brainstorm. We’re all just friends. Curious? I guess sites like Match.com and eHarmony just don’t cut it in anymore. Does […]

Not sure if he’s a coffee or tea drinker, but I do know Tony Scott’s joining us for breakfast this Wednesday at the Cloud Computing Brainstorm at the Newseum. The Federal CIO will set the table for the half-day cloud chow down with his morning keynote address. […]

Action packed this week. FedRAMP mass confusion. Capitol opportunity to get serious about FITARA. […]

Forget tuning in for the Indianapolis 500 this weekend. All eyes trained on the Great FedRAMP CSP Acquisition 500 right now. Smaller companies that pioneered the FedRAMP approval process are selling quicker than Express Lane traffic on the Beltway. […]

Chances of snow – remote. But, this week was Cloud Christmas for agencies focused on IT transformation. Like a silicon Santa, Congressman Gerry Connolly unwrapped the Cloud Computing Caucus Advisory Group annual report, “Don’t Be a Box Hugger,” on the Hill on Monday. Based on interviews with CIOs and CFOs, Box Hugger divides agencies into […]

Considering we’re getting down to the dog days of the administration – and CIOs are jumping overboard quicker than you can say FITARA – these are surprisingly heady times in government IT. We’ve got a new tech-savvy leader on the Hill in Congressman Will Hurd (R-Tx). […]

True to their word, Terry Halvorsen and Major General Alan Lynn released milCloud pricing on Friday. Here’s the chance for industry to see the competitor’s price card. Some observations. […]

There’s only one explanation – it’s a belated Christmas miracle. The 114th Congress is getting down to business, and the president last night outlined his priorities in his State of the Union speech. It just so happens that the legislative and executive branches are singing the same tune on cyber. The House and Senate majorities […]

The attack on Sony and other high-profile data breaches have forced lawmakers to pay attention to cyber legislation. But will the 114th Congress do as much for IT as the 113th? Several lawmakers who can affect IT policy are newly elected or newly assigned to tech-focused committees. Here’s a rundown of the new faces and […]

2014 is a tipping point. For the first time, IT will serve more pages to phones than PCs. So, aren’t phones cloud devices? Sure we’ve wrestled with Hunger Games horrors, but most everybody’s dialed into the mobile cloud. […]

Some things get better with age. Wine. Blue jeans. Sofia Vergara. But not everything improves as it gets older. Milk. Tattoos. Data centers. Feds want their data and they want it now. Seems like a reasonable expectation, but it doesn’t always work out so well – especially as data centers get older. That’s why reliability […]

Not as charged as Palestine and the Ukraine, Federal cloud is nevertheless disputed territory. Released three and a half years after OMB issued the “Cloud First Policy”, a new MeriTalk study “Cloud Confusion: Is Private Cloud Holding Feds Back?” provides a sanity check on Uncle Sam’s cloud progress. […]

David Bennett, CIO of the Defense Information Systems Agency, has been thinking about cloud a lot lately. DOD rolled out DISA’s milCloud in March. Bennett, who took over as DISA CIO in October 2012, said in April that the Federal government is comfortable with its approach to cloud computing – essentially they keep as much […]