You can spend hours scrolling down the rabbit hole of government IT horror stories, which makes the recent launch of the federal website for ordering free COVID tests that much more remarkable. The website worked, and it was surprisingly easy to use. But that success belies decades of underinvestment in digital transformation that has stifled public sector innovation and hardened the government's low-tech image. For example:

The heightened threat of retaliatory cyberattacks by Russia against critical U.S. IT infrastructure is prompting federal investments in cybersecurity to strengthen its cyber defense posture. The ongoing conflict in the region and the increased targeting of critical infrastructure assets will cause federal agencies to look for ways to strengthen their cybersecurity posture and redefine requirements that address cyber breaches that may occur during the coming months and years as well as drive investments into Zero Trust related tools and threat intelligence.

Over the last few years, the federal government has begun to embrace a zero trust approach as the new cybersecurity standard for agencies. Utilizing the latest solutions and best practices, the hope is to bolster federal cybersecurity and create a robust and resilient IT infrastructure that can protect and secure networks from attacks and breaches.

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.

As organizations adapt to hybrid work and more and more cloud services are deployed, new service entities that collaborate and exchange data without human interaction, such as virtual machines and containers, are proliferating. The growth of these service accounts and identities and their increasing volumes of permissions, privileges, and entitlements expose organizations to new attack vectors. 

You’ve gathered requirements, evaluated technologies, gotten all the right people to sign off on acquiring new technology, and now comes the hard part — procurement. IDIQs, BPAs, GWACs...the contracting officer is throwing out a bunch of complex terms, options, and estimates of how long it will take to get through negotiations. NetDocuments believes our public sector customers should have contracting options that are a lot like our solutions — easy to use.

In the post-COVID world, the federal government spends about three-fourths of its technology budget maintaining aging computer systems including platforms more than 50 years old and even some that use floppy disks, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is taking major steps to boost cloud performance, with the promise of a tangible, positive impact on military missions throughout the world. Specifically, the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract is replacing the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) initiative, which was intended to establish enterprise-class cloud capabilities for the military community.

On the Tech Transforms podcast, sponsored by Dynatrace, we have talked to some of the most prominent influencers shaping critical government technology decisions. From supply chain to machine learning, this podcast explores the way technology advancement intersects with human needs.

In March 2022, we sat down with these government technology visionaries:

The Ukraine-Russia conflict began when the Russian military invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Yet the cybersecurity and cyber warfare elements of this conflict began before initial combat action. Ukraine was hit with numerous cyberattacks against its government and banking systems in the lead-up to the conflict, with experts blaming Russia for the cyberattacks. And within the first 48 hours, multiple U.S. agencies noted that cyberattacks from suspected hackers in Russia increased by over 800%.