Ep. 238 How Federal Agencies Can Achieve Cyber-Resilient Data Protection and Recovery
Release Date: 05/15/2025
Ep. 254 How QTS Is Powering Digital Transformation for Federal Data Centers
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Seventy percent of the world's internet traffic goes through Ashburn, Virginia. That fact has led to the growth of over five hundred data centers in Northern Virginia. Today, we sat down with one of those companies to examine its data centers and its relationship with the federal government. John Reynolds is the Director of QTS Federal. He has decades of experience in federal technology and provides the listener with an overview of QTS's origins, its values, and recent growth. He views the data center business as a real estate endeavor. Land is acquired, a facility is constructed, and it...
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Ep. 253 Managing Staff Cuts Without Compromising Code Security in Federal IT
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? There is a whirlwind of change in federal technology. For example, Federal News Network has reported that 25% of the IRS technology staff have left. Additionally, funding has been reduced, data stores are increasing, and we are all trying to understand the impact of Artificial Intelligence. Today, we sat down with Phoebe Nerdahl and Sayed Said from SNYK. They offer solutions to address the challenges of changing technology in this environment. The approach from SNYK is to start at the beginning of the code...
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Ep. 252 From Legacy to Lean: Innovative Ways to Lower Costs in Federal IT Projects
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? Gregory Garrett, Chief Operating Officer at REI Systems, discussed digital transformation and innovation at the AWS summit in Washington, DC. He has a fascinating background that includes a career as a fighter pilot, the publication of twenty-four books, and guest lecturing at Georgetown University. The stated goal of today's administration is to reduce costs and eliminate waste. Today's aging systems are prime candidates for innovation. Unfortunately, there is no "innovation" button that a federal...
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Ep. 251 Breaking Through Bureaucracy: Modernizing Federal Systems in an Era of Digital Urgency
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? Many of today’s archaic federal systems have been built over decades. As a result, they are perfected but also fragile. One obvious source of vulnerability is the workforce that created it. It is hard to believe that COBOL was released in 1960 and is still active in some federal systems. The individuals who developed the code for these systems are now long past retirement age. Some code was accurately documented, and some were not. As a result, the process of transferring to a newer environment is fraught...
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Ep. 250 Can Your Agency Withstand a DDoS Attack? How Radware is Raising the Bar
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? How do you defend your website against an attack that can reach one hundred million requests a second? The federal government is in an unusual position: in addition to the "garden variety" attacks, such as phishing and ransomware, it is also subject to political attacks with a specific agenda. Ostensibly, they do not have financial motivation; their motivation is a political statement. Welcome to hacktivism. The tool they use is a tried-and-true, good, old-fashioned Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)...
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Ep. 249 Securing Endpoints in Federal Systems Amid Constant Change
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? Sometimes, one plus one is three. Back in 2021, McAfee’s Enterprise business merged with FireEye to form Trellix. Today, the net result is a company that generates $1.2 billion globally and $400 million in the public sector. In today’s interview, Ken Karsten details how federal leaders can use Trellix to improve cybersecurity in a federal world with rapidly increasing end points. Setting the stage, Ken Karsten reviews an Executive Order 14028 from 2021 that encouraged federal agencies to...
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Ep. 248 Federal Efficiency Starts with Talent: What HR Experts Know
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? If you are a regular listener, you know that I interview tech companies to have them elucidate the ways they can help federal agencies reach goals. Today, I will pull back the curtain and sit down with an HR professional from a successful company to understand his business and how he is hiring technical staff. First, Kentro has been in business for over twenty years and has a formidable reputation for ethical and responsible assistance in federal projects. Jun Choi is the Senior Vice President of Human...
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Ep. 247 Winning Federal Contracts: Smarter Proposal Writing for Tech Leaders in a Shifting Landscape
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
In this episode of the Federal Tech Podcast, host John Gilroy sits down with Vishwas Lele, CEO and co-founder of pWin.ai, and Larry Katzman, President and CEO of Applied Information Sciences (AIS), to explore how technology leaders can write smarter proposals in an increasingly complex federal landscape. The conversation dives into the current state of the government contracting industry, including how shifting policy initiatives are shaping new opportunities—and new challenges—for contractors. Larry shares firsthand insights on how AIS is adapting to these changes, the role of pWin.ai RFP...
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Ep. 246 Thales Powers Federal Data Security Against Quantum-Era Threats
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes? Years ago, the headline “Data Breach” was shocking; today, it is common. That may not be a problem for some, but the federal government maintains data stores that contain information about finances, health, and military matters. A recent report has shown that 50% of federal agencies have reported data breaches. It appears that it's time to find a solution. Today, we sat down with Blain Canavan from Thales Group to examine the usual suspects and the potential threats ahead. THE USUAL SUSPECTS: ...
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Ep. 245 Women in Technology Leadership Awards for 2025
Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
Today, we have a pattern interrupt. Instead of a standard 25 minute interview, we will sit down with five nominees for a leadership award from Women in Technology. Each candidate sits for a "lightning" round of eight minutes where they answer three questions about leadership and give their reason for participating in Women In Technology. In order to see who won, you will have to visit .
info_outlineAFCEA’S TechNet Cyber conference held in Baltimore, Maryland was the perfect opportunity to sit down with Greg Carl, Principal Technologist from Pure Storage.
Pure Storage is used by 175 federal agencies. Time to sit down from a subject matter expert and explain their value proposition.
Today’s federal government is attempting to accomplish digital modernization through a move to the cloud and, at the same time, reduce staff. To multiply the risk associated with this endeavor, we see an increase in cyber attacks on data at rest, in transit, and while in use.
Greg Carl drills down on how Pure Storage can help federal leaders in several areas, he begins with Retrieval Augmented Generation, RAG.
People have jumped into AI without knowing how to structure a large language model, the popular LLM. RAG focuses on text generation and tries to make sure the data collected is accurate, relevant, and contextually aware.
Pure Storage asks, if RAG protects the results of a query, what protects the “Retrieval” part of RAG. We know LLMs are being attacked every day. Malicious code could be placed in a LLM, and the RAG system might not know.
A decade ago, backups were child’s play. A server down the hall, a backup appliance. Today, one needs an agile cloud solution to perform continuous backups in a hybrid world. One way to gain resilience is to use immutable backups where the attacked system can be restored and not lose valuable time.
Speed and security handling important data activities can reduce costs for federal leaders by improving accuracy of LLMs and speed the time to recover after an attack.
Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/
Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com