In a recent webinar produced by Federal News Network, the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Information Security and Privacy, Tonya Manning, detailed the state of the agency’s zero trust and data handling postures, as well as its latest priorities. We’ll spotlight several takeaways and look at what’s to likely come down the pike for the EPA in the coming months and years.

Zero Trust Architecture

In this Q&A discussion, the former Chief of People and Culture shares her insights into employee and customer experience in government, along with tips to improve both areas.

For the second year in a row, Gartner named IBM a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for 2021 Cloud Database Management Systems based on its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. With emergence of a single cloud DBMS market, We believe our portfolio of feature-rich, enterprise-tested offerings, bold acquisitions, and partnerships enable our clients to address the unique needs of their business, respond to the growing volume, velocity and variety of today’s data and drive more accurate data driven decisions.

This week's roundup of the latest news and insights gathered from IBM's Government Research Institute thought leaders:

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurned greater demand for health information technology (IT) by demonstrating the importance of having robust medical research, health surveillance and healthcare systems capable of rapidly responding to new and developing situations, something which requires strong IT investment in big data, cybersecurity and cloud. In addition, both the pandemic and emerging technologies have led to numerous changes within the healthcare industry, such as telehealth expansion and increased use of wearables, which necessitate robust health IT solutions.

What is the difference between AI and ML?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are two of the most transformative technologies in the computing space that are changing the world in which we live. However, there is often confusion in in what constitutes Artificial Intelligence, and what constitutes Machine Learning.

President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2022 (FY22) into law on December 27, 2021. It authorizes $770 billion in defense spending which is a 5% increase over last year. This marks 61 consecutive years that a bill received bipartisan support from congress (a display of agreement that has become increasingly rare for DC politics).

Customer experience is now an executive order in the United States! With this monumental news, Lee Becker dives deeper into what this means for federal employees and their customers.

This was a momentous and inspiring week for all U.S. citizens and residents, as President Joe Biden signed an executive order on December 13, 2021, that mandates a focus on customer experience.

With another busy year behind us, it’s time to look ahead to fiscal year (FY) 2022. The official information technology (IT) budget request is $97B, a 4% increase over FY21, which would be a new record. Of course, those numbers undercount all the IT spending that goes unreported. Furthermore, remaining provisions in the American Rescue Plan, the Technology Modernization Fund and IT provisions in the Infrastructure Bill will represent additional pockets of opportunity worth billions for channel partners and technology vendors.

DLT’s Chief Data Scientist, Sherry Bennett, recently sat down recently with Lora L. Allen, Medallia’s Public Sector Principal CX Advisor and discussed her service in the public sector, Lora’s role at Medallia helping educate and advise government agencies that are tackling CX challenges, and more.

Q: Prior to joining Medallia, you spent your entire career in public service, can you kindly tell me how your service has shaped and informed your current focus on customer experience?