The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) saved $26 million last year by automating their alert and response to threats against the agency’s data that is secured in the cloud, according to the USCIS chief information security officer (CISO). […]

Federal cloud experts from the Department of Justice (DoJ) said this week that while government policy mandates for zero trust migration and cloud adoption are key to advancing IT modernization and security, they should also be paired with funding in order to help agencies get the job done. […]

The U.S. Army last week updated its 2020 cloud plan to reinforce its objectives of digital modernization and integration of key services into one global cloud environment – cARMY – an Army spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a special notice on October 5 to explore options to transition from hardware-based ground radio processing to cloud-based software applications. […]

The Justice Department’s (DoJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) component expect to complete a major cloud-based system overhaul over the next year, according to DEA Chief Information Officer (CIO) Nick Ward. […]

A senior National Institutes of Health (NIH) technology official talked about the agency’s strategy to leverage cloud services to further its data science strategic plan during a September 15 Federal News Network event. […]

Lawrence Hale, who recently took over as Acting Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Category Management, Office of Information Technology Category at the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service, explained today that his office’s fiscal year 2023 priorities focus on helping Federal agencies work toward easier cloud service adoption and continued progress in zero trust security migration.  […]

What are the essential elements of innovation partnerships between government and the private sector to harness the technology that can tackle the toughest problems facing America?  On July 21 – we’re going to find out. The countdown to MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum is on. […]

Federal agencies are increasingly moving to cloud computing environments, but as cloud service options have become more diverse, the General Services Administration (GSA) is stepping up its efforts to help agencies with developing informed strategies to understand, anticipate, rationalize, and optimize major cloud architecture decisions. […]

The value of data for the Federal government is only continuing to grow as agencies implement numerous data initiatives to drive smarter decisions and deliver better outcomes – including moving to the cloud. […]

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Defense (DoD) is searching for cloud capabilities that will support its mission, according to a request for information (RFI). […]

In this second installment of our two-part story on the nearly completed six-year cloud transition at the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Chief Technology Officer Mason McDaniel talks about the funding aspects and mission payoffs of this remarkable journey. […]

Google Cloud said today it is creating a new division – Google Public Sector – that will focus on U.S. public sector institutions. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today issued an updated version of its Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture (TRA) that serves as guidance for Federal civilian agencies for secure migration to cloud services. […]

The Department of the Interior (DOI) has released a draft solicitation that would offer a single public cloud service provider up to $1 billion to support DOI’s transition to a single hybrid enterprise cloud cluster. […]

Recently MeriTalk sat down with Monzy Merza, vice president of cybersecurity go-to-market at Databricks, a data and artificial intelligence (AI) company that offers the first and only lakehouse platform in the cloud. Merza chatted about the implications and opportunities with M-21-31 and offered insights for successfully meeting its mandates. […]

As the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) program looks to transition to Revision 5 (Rev. 5) baselines – in accordance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Rev. 5 security and privacy controls – Acting Director of FedRAMP Brian Conrad said the agency has been  able to decrease the number of controls for improved usability. […]

The Library of Congress is planning to create a Cloud Management Office (CMO) within its Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), according to the agency’s justification for its fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget request. […]

The Navy Postgraduate School (NPS) has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft to look to integrate and utilize emerging technologies in service of the warfighter and national security, the Navy announced May 2. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed that it re-awarded a cloud computing contract believed to be worth up to $10 billion to Amazon Web Services (AWS) after the agency’s initial award of the deal to AWS last summer was derailed by a protest by Microsoft. […]

The Department of Education is replacing its G5 grants management system over the next five years with an open and flexible cloud-based system following an increase in grant awards due to the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is launching a new initiative that will set up the agency as the prime destination for cloud solutions, a GSA official said on April 6 at FCW’s Cloud Summit event. […]

In the U.S. Army’s continued adoption of cloud infrastructure to gain a competitive advantage in multi-domain operations, the choice to move away from legacy on-prem systems can boil down to the same equation in play when deciding to buy an electric vehicle instead of sticking with traditional gasoline-powered models. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced today it has delayed its schedule for its proposed multi-vendor Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) cloud contract and now aims to make up to $9 billion in contract awards in December – about eight months later than its initial goal of April. […]

On December 13, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an emergency directive that called for agencies to disconnect or turn off any SolarWinds Orion products by noon the following day, due to an exploit of Orion network monitoring software that posed a “grave risk” to agencies, critical infrastructure providers, and other private-sector organizations. […]

Enterprise cloud adoption is proving to be an ideal fit with the rapidly changing mission rhythms of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component agency that is tasked with coordinating the Federal government’s disaster preparation and response capabilities. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is well along with its cloud adoption plans, and eyeing several key security-related milestones over the next couple of years, explained Chezian Sivagnanam, NSF’s chief enterprise architect, at Jan. 26 virtual event organized by FCW. […]

As a very busy 2021 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on the past year and look forward with optimism to the possibilities of the new one that’s about to begin. Rounding the corner to 2022, MeriTalk asked several experts on the industry side of Federal IT for their predictions of what the next year will bring. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released new details about several upcoming multiple-award blanket purchase agreements (BPA) to help speed up enterprise-wide modernization initiatives and meet increased demand for secure commercial cloud products and services. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is sustaining a protest by Microsoft after the company complained that the National Security Agency (NSA) improperly evaluated proposals for cloud services in support of NSA’s classified and unclassified computing requirements when it awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services (AWS). […]