Technically Speaking

When you ask Kayla Hutson what drives her work, one word comes up again and again: trust.As Manager of PMO Operations at DLT Solutions, Kayla leads the team responsible for ensuring partners have a clear, compliant path to market. Her group manages the full lifecycle of DLT’s federal contract vehicles, helping partners navigate complex procurement requirements so they can stay focused on what matters most: supporting their customers and growing their business.

Public sector agencies update their priorities, budgets and technology needs every fiscal year. For IT vendors and resellers, keeping pace with these changes is essential to identifying funded opportunities and positioning solutions effectively. To make that easier, we have opened access to our Market Intelligence Hub, a single destination where you can find detailed research and analysis designed to support your growth in the government market.

The 2026 FETC Conference took place in Orlando, Florida this year, where K-12 education leaders highlighted how budgets, technology trends, requirements and opportunities are intersecting and how alignment is key to success.

Aging infrastructure, outdated hardware and overall modernization needs have been a mission-critical challenge for the DoD. It’s not just about IT headaches; there are real obstacles to modernization for the Department. Let’s look at what’s driving the urgency to update in multiple ways and how IT companies can position themselves to help modernize the nation’s defense backbone.

This week, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released it annual State CIO Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities list for 2026, signaling where state technology leaders are focusing their efforts, and limited resources, in the new year. This year’s list is reflective of the current policy, priority, and funding shifts that have affected SLED agencies most, coupled with the apparent drive towards innovation and modernization.

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed a new executive order that could reshape how AI is governed in the U.S. This executive order titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” aims to limit the ability of individual states to enact their own AI regulations, thereby establishing a unified and “minimally burdensome” approach to AI policy nationwide (up until this point, there has been a patchwork of state-level AI regulations).