Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness
The federal government spends $90 billion on technology every year. If you are a tech innovator and want to expand your share of the market, this is the podcast for you to find new opportunities for growth. Every week, Federal Tech Podcast sits down with successful innovators who have solved complex computer system problems for federal agencies. They cover topics like Artificial Intelligence, Zero Trust, and the Hybrid Cloud. You can listen to the technical issues that concern federal agencies to see if you company’s capabilities can fit. The moderator, John Gilroy, is an award-winning lecturer at Georgetown University and has recorded over 1,000 interviews. His interviews are humorous and entertaining despite handing a serious topic. The podcast answers questions like . . . How can software companies work with the federal government? What are federal business opportunities? Who are the cloud providers who work with the federal government? Should I partner with a federal technology contractor? What is a federal reseller? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com
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Ep. 150 AI: Can it provide a safe path for federal technology?
05/14/2024
Ep. 150 AI: Can it provide a safe path for federal technology?
Ep. 150 Can a platform provide a path to safe AI for federal technology? About every reader knows that ServiceNow is a large company that helps the federal government with managing large systems. Today, Dr. Raj Iyer answers the question – is ServiceNow keeping up with AI to help reduce cost and improve delivery for massive federal systems? Dr. Iyer is in a unique position because of his years of experience in commercial systems and a recent stint as the CIO of the United States Army. An argument can be made that he is up to date with managing large systems and has a thorough understanding of challenges in data security and cyber vulnerabilities. During the interview, he provided a wide range of examples of how ServiceNow is leveraging its platform-as-a-service offering. A big splash was made when ChatGPT was able to generate content from large language models. When it comes to the federal. government, they cannot use the stand large language model because of security concerns. One approach that ServiceNow has taken is a partnership with NVidia that will all federal agencies to create domain-specific data sets. They can be compliant, secure, and allow innovation to be applied to a myriad of federal-specific problems. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 149 Artificial Intelligence & human intelligence to win proposals.
05/09/2024
Ep. 149 Artificial Intelligence & human intelligence to win proposals.
Everyone has seen AI with articles and even deep fake videos. No doubt it is dazzling, great for a conversation at a picnic with friends. The question is . . . can you put AI in work boots? Vishwas Lele has a novel idea: combine the best of AI with the best of proposal writing. Further, his innovation can be applied to an environment where data must be held securely. Yes, we are talking about proposals for the federal intelligence community. Vishwas describes the Microsoft approach to AI – differentiates between free and paid Chat GPT as well as the free and paid versions of CoPilot. He describes how Microsoft CoPilot can provide FedRAMP high protection for data. When it comes to writing proposals for the federal government, we have several factors to consider: 1 AI depends on data libraries. If the proposal must include reviewing classified data, then precautions must be taken with forming data libraries. 2 Proposal writing is an art, not a science. By now, we have all heard of “hallucinations” provided by AI – my personal favorite is Napoleon being part of the American Civil War. Vishwas suggests AI but must be amended with human knowledge. Shipley & Associates have garnered a stellar reputation in the proposal community. pWin.ai is partnering with Shipley and Associates to bring a human understanding of requirements to the proposal process. Look for yourself. Go to pWin.ai and request a demo. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 148 Deep Intelligence and Critical Visibility
05/07/2024
Ep. 148 Deep Intelligence and Critical Visibility
Federal technology has paralleled the commercial world in its expansion to millions of endpoints. On one hand, this means better information from something like an intrusion sensor. On the other hand, it means the attack surface has just expanded exponentially. It has come to a point where there has been a normalization of breaches. Unfortunately, this does not mean one can neglect protecting your agency from external threats. ZeroFox specializes in understanding external threat security. They have been around since 2013 and “Zero” in on protecting apps, data, people, domains, and API’s. During the interview, AJ Nash goes into considerable detail when he differentiates between the surface web, the deep web, and the dark web. He does not realize it, but he is a differentiator as well. ZeroFox relies on leaders like AJ Nash who have considerable experience in the intelligence community and understand the levels of security that are necessary to protect sensitive federal systems. But they do not just stop at identification. AJ Nash continues his comments on something called “automated remediation. “ZeroFox can help your agency move to the next level and integrate with systems that can snap into action when a threat is detected. COVID, fast Internet connections, and small sensors have made the Internet infinitely more dangerous than it was even a few years ago. Understanding external threats can prevent takeovers and attacks. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 147 Tech Communities how to build and sustain
05/02/2024
Ep. 147 Tech Communities how to build and sustain
After hundreds of interviews with tech innovators I have concluded they are all trying to accomplish the same thing: tell how they can help get the word out that they may have a slice of the solution for federal information technology. One of the best ways to “get the word out” is through a community of interest. During the interview today, Derek Weeks details his success in forming a community around Development Operations, or DevOps. In fact, he has published a book detailing that wildly successful endeavor: Unfair Mindshare LINK One of the keys is to listen to problems and gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges in remedying complex tech concerns in the federal government. The community is called DevOpsDay https://devopsdays.org/ Derek and a colleague started with an idea to have a couple of hundred developers have access to each other in an informal meeting. It became so popular that it has blossomed into a group of 30,000. Some key takeaways ·Start with a user-lead experience. There is no use in guessing what topics will be of interest to the community. Reach out personally to dig deep into current issues and concerns. ·Give without expectation. User generated content is closest to the problems than anything from the marketing department. Content from sponsors as well as from members should be shared willingly. ·1,000-hour rule. There is a commitment of at least 1,000 hours a year to accomplish a successful community. This is not a “set it and forget it” initiative. Careful nurturing and growth of the community needs a real effort. ·Localize community relationships. We have seen meetups all over the world. One way to get the word out is to contact like-minded professionals. A problem in Sao Paulo, Brazil could be the exact concern in Kigali, Rwanda. ·Sustaining the relationship is as crucial as beginning it. Derek gives specific tips on maintaining the relationship over the long haul. The success of community building tells us more about software developers than anything else. Aggressive pitches will be discounted. Generic email blasts are outdated. Digital natives appreciate authentic experiences. This means that a community leader does not look at a member of a community as a “prospect” but as a “person.” = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 146 Tactical Edge Network
04/30/2024
Ep. 146 Tactical Edge Network
The federal government has a myriad of technological challenges: legacy systems, Zero Trust, and even maintaining existing equipment! Most companies who work in that environment solve problems from a traditional office, or, even more comfortably, a home office. Unfortunately, life at the tactical edge is not that easy. Today, we dive into the tactical edge network with Sumner Lee, the CEO of a company called Fuse Integration. He started his career at the U.S. Naval Academy and has served in a variety of different geographical environments. As a result, he has an appreciation for warfighters being in remote and contested environments where communications are critical. Because today we rely heavily on digital systems for targeting and coordination in the field, any loss of communication can result in grave consequences. One of the keywords in the interview is the term “resilience.” In common tech talk, this means having a backup server in another state. When it comes to the tactical edge, it means establishing a system that has backups. For example, if a cable connection goes down, a satellite can provide backup. If someone loses all communications, they still have basic functioning capabilities. During the interview, Sumner provides examples of how difficult resilience can be in contested environments that are geographically disparate. When a warfighter is under pressure, it is even more important to provide seamless information that is user focused. When friction is reduced, difficult tasks can be completed in a more efficient manner. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 145 DDOS Attacks & Federal Agencies
04/25/2024
Ep. 145 DDOS Attacks & Federal Agencies
Cybersecurity threats are like fashion; wait a few years and they come back in style. The Internet was designed to take a series of digits and resolve them to a website address. This was deemed the Domain Name Service, or DNS. In 1996, we saw the first malicious actor flooding a system with an attack. This was called a Distributed Denial of Service Attack, or DDOS. Over the years new methods of attack have proliferated and DDOS has taken a back seat. However, the number of endpoints has risen exponentially. It certainly looks like we are in a perfect storm to revive good old-fashioned DDOS. During today’s interview, Rob San Martin tells the audience that Akamai processes over 11 trillion DNS requests a day and can see trends. According to Akamai’s internal threat intelligence, in 2023, 60% of DDOS attacks had a DNS component. Looks like we are Back to the Future! Sean Lyons from Akamai shared an amazing story from last year. A local government was attacked more than 6,000 times. This attack was sustained for over three- and one-half hours. If you work for a federal agency and are looking for an on-premises solution for this problem, you may want to consider Akamai’s new offering in hybrid DNS infrastructure security called Shield NS53. Listen to the interview to gain a better understanding of options for controlling DNS issues in your system. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 144 Process automation and no code platforms Appian
04/23/2024
Ep. 144 Process automation and no code platforms Appian
Appian Corporation is a 25-year-old technology company that focuses on improving process automation for large organizations. Once a year they have an annual conference for developers and partners. They rotate this meeting all over the world, we are lucky enough to have them meet in Washington DC where we have the chance to sit down with one of Appian’s co-founders, Michael Beckley. During the interview Michael Beckley covered topics like the impact of artificial intelligence on process automation; process automation and acquisition professionals; and how to improve process automation. Appian Corporation was one of the first companies to embrace a platform that was described as no-code, low-code. The interview will give you a detailed understanding of the benefits of that approach. After these questions, we pivoted to looking at how Appian Corporation can help the federal audience reach agency goals. Michael detailed concepts like re-using code, compliance, and how Appian uses objects. During the event, I decided to meet some developers and ask them what questions they would ask if they had the opportunity to sit down with one of the founders of Appian. Let us begin with the questions from the “floor.” Minor Mata from Costa Rica. “No questions, we just appreciate all the free training.” He expanded on the concept of not just technology training, but instruction in solving business problems as well. Appian understands that software needs to enable execute in practice. Noe Miniel from Miami. “Can you improve the speed of the interface?” Appian gives you the tools to speed up the system. That is the purpose of the Appian data fabric. Jason R. from the federal government. “Can you make the code easier to review?” Appian incorporates the ability to configure Appian. This can allow senior architects to review the code and not create redundancy. They have template libraries as well as visual tools to allow comparison of code in development. Listen to the interview to get a bird’s eye view of the progress Appian has made over the years to help federal agencies develop flexible code as well as maintain high compliance standards. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 143 Selling to the feds (Bonus episode) Breaking into the federal technology marketplace.
04/16/2024
Ep. 143 Selling to the feds (Bonus episode) Breaking into the federal technology marketplace.
In connecting with some new listeners, I learned that some have never sold to the federal government and listened to the podcast to see how other companies manage to work with federal agencies in reaching agency goals. Well, it seems time to pull back with a bonus episode on how to sell technology to the federal government. To accomplish this task, I looked for a person with twenty years of experience in public sector marketing. The logical choice was Brian Chidester. He has worked for many companies in the past two decades and, as a bonus, has a podcast as well. His podcast is called The Government Huddle https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-government-huddle-with-brian-chidester/id1506796636 In a far-ranging discussion, Brian overviews topics like regulations, contract vehicles, and partnerships. COMMERCIAL VS. FEDERAL The interview begins by listing how selling to a commercial organization differs from a federal agency. For example, you may not realize that a contracting officer for an agency may be prohibited from discussing the purchase with the end users. For-profit companies may have some compliance requirements, but none come close to the layer and layer of regulations on a federal site. The federal site cannot just respond to the needs of one segment, like shoe buyers. They serve the public and, as such, must provide access for all citizens equally. CONTRACT VEHICLES The federal government is allocated funds in a completely different manner than a commercial organization. For example, an agency like NASA may have Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP). It provides information on products available to contractors. PARTNERSHIPS During the discussion, Brian details what can happen. The federal government may have allocated money for a project and mandated a certain amount for small businesses. Your company may be a perfect fit, but you do not qualify to bid on the contract. It is perfectly feasible to partner with companies like Carahsoft or The Immix Group on a proposed solution. You may have the technical talent, and a company like Carahsoft understands the complex compliance process. It is a win-win proposition. Brian Chidester ends the interview on a high note. He reinforces the idea that the federal government is actively seeking talent that will solve their problems. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Want to connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 142 Artificial Intelligence applied to Threat Intelligence
04/09/2024
Ep. 142 Artificial Intelligence applied to Threat Intelligence
Not all threats to the United States are discussed in English. That simple concept is well known in the intelligence community; however, making an obvious statement and being able to understand the nuances of a foreign language is a different matter. Today’s interview is with John Weaver, the Chief Strategy Officer for a company called Babel Street. The company began in 2009 with its name recognizing its ability to understand languages. From this humble beginning, it has grown into a powerhouse for looking at open-sourced information and doing advanced analytics. During the interview, John Weaver talks about the dilemma many federal agencies are encountering. On the one hand, they have an increased number of sensors and storage where they can amass tremendous amounts of raw data. The dilemma federal leaders face is how to unlock the insight that matters. Babel Street focuses on open-sourced information for situational awareness on topics that go beyond linguistics. Of course, they can do a multilingual search, but they have enhanced that basic skill to include social media monitoring, entity resolution, and situational awareness. Listen to the interview to gain insight on how Babel Street can help you ingest insights promptly. John Weaver refers to an article called “” that can help you understand how to leverage your budget and resources to reduce threats to your agency. = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 141 Data privacy: the Data Behind the Dazzle
04/02/2024
Ep. 141 Data privacy: the Data Behind the Dazzle
Artificial Intelligence is at the phase where federal and commercial technology leaders are amazed by novel model architectures. Each one can perform a function like data preprocessing, feature extraction, or prediction. The demonstrations are impressive; today we look at the data behind the dazzle. Adam Kowalski from proximal has spent years helping organizations follow a data-centric AI approach. During the interview, he expands on having high-quality, relevant data has precedence over any model architecture. One weakness of generative AI systems is they can be subject to bias. You may have insufficient data. Taking a data-centric approach can eliminate many of the errors we are seeing in AI results. The results of varying from this precept can be disastrous as well as entertaining. In the commercial world, this can result in millions of dollars of loss. In the federal government, there can be much more grave consequences of ignoring the data. It is not all serious. Adam Kowalski mentions an entertaining term from the AI community. If you ask a public language model a question about ancient Rome, you may discover a key player was Abraham Lincoln. This is called a “hallucination.” = = = Want to leverage you next podcast appearance? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 140 Getting Value from Massive Federal Data Sets
03/26/2024
Ep. 140 Getting Value from Massive Federal Data Sets
Cheap storage and fast Internet have made data collection cheap and fast. It is no wonder that we have federal agencies that are drowning in data. Some will argue that the federal government is the largest collector of data in the world. That may be a fantastic fun fact that will dazzle your neighbors, but how is that data being used to move forward the goals of the agency? Today, we sat down with Jason Green from Virtru. He brings his considerable experience to bear when he describes how agencies can optimize that data. He provides his thoughts on digital strategy, collaboration, and safeguarding that data. STRATEGY During the interview, Jason makes a sage observation. He remarks that when looking at the overview of digital transformation strategy, the focus has been on applications and not the data itself. AI will be making increasing inroads around decision-making and serious decisions cannot be derived from dirty data. COLLOBORAGE – When a data analyst is limited to one data set their conclusions can be biased. The need for collaboration is obvious. The “how” is the tricky part. Jason suggests that more careful attention be paid to tagging data so that some fields can be shared and some not. SAFEGUARDING – Years ago, data was guarded with hashing techniques. In today’s fast-changing world, mere hashing is not sufficient. Data stores can be injected with poison data; this means continuous monitoring must be stretched into the data stores themselves. If you would like to learn more about managing data, you may want to attend “DMV Rising” a networking event at Virtru headquarters in Washington DC on September 5, 2024. You will be able to sit in on sessions as well as ask face-to-face questions for subject matter experts. = = = Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 139 Applying Generative AI to improve citizen services
03/21/2024
Ep. 139 Applying Generative AI to improve citizen services
In 2021 the federal leaders recognized a problem with citizen experience on federal websites. As a result, was released dedicated to improving citizen services for federal technology. However, a 2023 report states the average score for federal services is only 31%. Justin Fessler from Yext appears on the Federal Tech Podcast to offer some insights on how to improve the citizen experience, especially as it pertains to search. Everyone has laughed at the misleading results that a search engine gives. Everyone has opinions. It is one thing when you search for some obscure historical fact, and another when you are looking for a tax ruling. During the interview, Justin Fessler observes that much of the information citizens require may be sitting in a data store somewhere in the agency. He suggests that generative AI can be applied to these data sets to provide answers more easily and in the context of the user. One concern that is expressed by everyone is the “black box” nature of generative AI. How can you trust the answer from a faceless system? Justin Fessler provides the answer: citations. In the Yext search platform, stacks of data are searched quickly, and citations are offered for the answer. Improving citizen experience means documents can be retrieved for important ranging from legal to emergency services. = = = Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 138 Is Identity a 10-billion-dollar problem?
03/19/2024
Ep. 138 Is Identity a 10-billion-dollar problem?
The recently estimated that nationwide fraud tops ten billion dollars. Most of the efforts to stop this abuse start with identification. However, the federal response has been weak. Today, we have a former federal leader and current Vice President and Head of Public Sector Strategy for Society on the podcast, Jordan Burris. He opens with the obvious – if malicious actors are leveraging artificial intelligence to attack identities, then the only logical response is to use AI against AI. AI allows malicious actors to assemble identity information for fast access. Recent reports highlight a concept called an “identity access broker.” This is a company that stores compromised credentials and sells them like one would buy shoes. From his perspective, the federal government has not moved away from legacy systems fast enough and is leaving itself vulnerable. For example, a traditional system may approve an identity, but not be able to continuously maintain that identification. It has been shown that Multi-factor Authentication can leave sessions open where an initial valid identity can be compromised. Identity is not stagnant and innovative approaches can look at many aspects of identity, including liveness detection. CrowdStrike’s shows a 147% increase in identity attacks. Federal agencies are not immune to these attacks. = = Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 137 How Artificial Intelligence can help the Warfighter
03/12/2024
Ep. 137 How Artificial Intelligence can help the Warfighter
ChatGPT has overwhelmed the headlines in the past few months. It has brought the concept of artificial intelligence to the forefront of many discussions. Like everybody talking about swimming in the Olympics and then forgetting about it for four years. Well, Primer.ai has been deeply involved in artificial intelligence since its inception seven years ago. It did not start with creating a bot for a site selling shoes, it got its start from I-Q-Tel and has a laser focus on helping the defense community apply technology to real-world problems. The company has deep relationships in the defense community and understands the need of applying natural language processing to the warfighter’s needs. During today’s interview, Mark Bruner from Primer set up the discussion by talking about innovation from Silicon Valley and the requirements of the hardnosed military community. Rather than walking away from the potential benefits of technical innovation, Primer sees itself as an intermediary with the skill set to be able to bridge the gap between real-world requirements and the software community. One of the key elements that is glossed over is the need for ethical application of artificial intelligence. This means understanding how large libraries are assembled and then, at the output end, knowing when to assist the data analysis with human values. The military knows it must adapt to a rapidly changing world, Primer can broker relationships and see value where others cannot. Here is an article from Primer that may help https://primer.ai/featured/to-go-faster-on-ai-think-small-and-build-trust/ = = = Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 137 Can Codeless Software Help Feds Reach Agency Goals?
03/07/2024
Ep. 137 Can Codeless Software Help Feds Reach Agency Goals?
In most of my interviews, I sit down with a company and talk about innovation in solving federal technology goals. Today, a twist. Sonny Hashmi was at the center of the battle for improving federal technology. For the past three years, he was the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the GSA. This has given him a unique perspective on what the bottlenecks are in streamlining federal technology. He dealt face-to-face with issues like Zero Trust, remote work, and digital innovation. After looking at a myriad of issues, he decided that the way to apply Occam’s law to federal technology was to reduce the complexity of software development. Sonny Hashmi explains that 80% of the technology budget is spent on maintaining systems. This means continuous monitoring, patching, and applying new compliance regulations. His approach to solving the problem is to start at the beginning, software development itself. The solution is quite simple: adopt a codeless method that allows a wider range of people to work with legacy systems, rapid application, and compliance. During the interview, Sonny Hashmi details some problems he has seen. He talks about everything from struggles with ATO to end-of-life application management. Listen to the interview to learn how the Unqork approach can assist in many aspects of the major digital transformation the federal government is undergoing. Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 135 Networking at the Speed of Light
03/05/2024
Ep. 135 Networking at the Speed of Light
Everyone reading this has seen the movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and heard the classic phrase, “The Need for Speed.” Well, a desire for speed is not limited to Naval Aviators. People in federal technology may not have call signs but need to optimize communication speed between data centers. If you were to stand in front of a whiteboard with a bunch of enterprise architects, they would dazzle you with CPU and GPU speeds. Memory tricks with virtualization give you tons of memory. However, at the end of the day, the real choking point is the connections between those stacks of silicon. During today’s interview, Rob Shore from Infinera unpacked how optical speeds have drastically changed over the years. Today’s speeds allow for transmittal of 1.2 Terabits per second. That makes the speed of your home wi-fi look like a bicycle racing a Maserati. The conversation took a fascinating twist. While everybody is debating the methods of data collection for artificial intelligence, systems engineers are worrying about the hardware being able to “catch up” to the speed demands that, for example, driverless cars demand. At the end of the conversation, Rob talks about applying the concepts for fast optical cable to inside the data center. Same principles, a need for speed between servers and routers inside a data center as well as between data centers. You can watch the short video starring Rob Shore that explains one technical aspect of technology, coherent optics. = = = = = = Got a podcast interview coming up? What's your score? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other episodes?
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Ep. 134 Is Automation, branching logic, and optimizing paths
02/29/2024
Ep. 134 Is Automation, branching logic, and optimizing paths
An American poet once wrote about reaching a fork in the road and he considered which path to take. When one attempts to consider branching logic and automation in complex technical systems, there is a lot of consideration given to which path to take. There may be lessons to be learned from Robert Frost’s 25-line masterpiece. Today’s discussion is with Thomas Kinsella, Chief Customer Officer and Co-founder of a company that focuses on improving automation. It is appropriately called Tines. Thomas Kinsella was asked to discuss a typical day in the life of a person working in a Security Operations Center, or SOC. He describes it as a plethora of alerts, new data, and disjointed tools. His description of the SOC was kind of like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The story is almost as monotonous as a Soviet era gulag, although the remuneration may be slightly higher. Thomas Kinsella describes issues with alert fatigue, difficulty of finding good staff, and incompatible systems that make duplicative works. He and his co-founder decided to come up with a better solution, they founded Tines. During the interview Thomas Kinsella describes how they have been able to use technology to assemble data from a variety of sources. This was to address the idea of alert fatigue, if an incident was possibly confirmed, then it should be pursued. Secondly, the way to address staff shortage was to design a visually based system so that an untrained individual could drag and drop actions into a sequence. In fact, Tines provides playbooks for many scenarios in a secure environment, he calls them playbooks. The result is a system that can produce a Secure Orchestration Automation and Response system that is easy to use, scalable, and doesn’t need the expertise of a PhD. in computer science. For more on Tines, please read the blog = = = What’s your score? Take the Podcast Appearance Scorecard Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other technology podcasts?
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Ep. 133 Champions of innovation instead of captives of compliance?
02/27/2024
Ep. 133 Champions of innovation instead of captives of compliance?
Today we sit down with Susan Kidd and Valinder Mangat and discuss FedRAMP. Some will argue that FedRAMP is an unruly thirteen-year-old. Although FedRAMP has authorized over three hundred public service cloud providers, there is much work to be done. For example Valinder Mangat opens the discussion by noting that we have approximately five hundred applications in the pipeline. We have a situation where manually reviewing compliance is going to be too difficult. As a result, FedRAMP is making changes. They are starting to automate the process, causing companies to become familiar with a new acronym, Open Security Controls Assessment Language, or OSCAL. During the interview, Susan Kidd reviews her philosophy that ties into understanding OSCAL. It has been her experience that there is a limit to working hard; the best results are accomplished when one takes advantage of automation and can work smart. To that end, Susan Kidd launched something called Idea Labs, an initiative that can assist federal agencies in modernizing their automation processes using OSCAL. Today’s compliance is not just a check box item. In the interview, Valinder Mangat details aspects of software development. There was a time when code was released and approved, like a snapshot. Today, there is a continuous improvement model in effect along with continuous testing. The only way to accomplish that is to leverage technologies like OSCAL to keep up with changes in threat actors and best practices for handling mountains of data. Valinder Mangat has a nice summary of this consideration: champions of innovation instead of captives of compliance. In other words, technology can be leveraged so a company does not take six months to get approved. OSCAL puts tools into the hands of federal leaders faster. More details about the IdeaLab at . = = = What’s your score? Take the Podcast Appearance Scorecard Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast Want to listen to other technology podcasts?
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Ep. 132 Enhancing Collaboration in Federal Systems
02/22/2024
Ep. 132 Enhancing Collaboration in Federal Systems
If you were to take a class in Data Management 101, you would walk into the classroom on the first day and be bombarded with terms like data lake, data warehouse, and data mart. Phew. Where to begin? Let us jump to a federal agency. They are being deluged with data from low code no code, big application platforms, and let us not forget legacy applications that are not in the cloud. How to manage this ball of data confusion. Once it is overseen, how can an agency share information with outsiders to allow for data collaboration? We begin today with a solution offered by a company called Snowflake. Winston Chang suggests that if can take advantage of a single platform, you can abstract the data layer which allows you to manage the data more effectively. OK. Now that we can look across data sets, we encounter the problem of what eyes get to see. Who gets to see what columns and rows and who does not? Winston Chang suggests that a data platform will enhance collaboration by allowing leaders to be able to decide which information, or parts of information, will be available to which parties. During the interview, Winston makes some provocative statements. He argues that if we want to focus on infrastructure, then the data itself must be considered as the infrastructure. If this discussion provokes more detailed information, you may want to consider attending the “Data for Breakfast” conference on March 7, 2024, at Tyson’s Corner Ritz Carlton. You can question experts from Snowflake on topics as varied as artificial intelligence and managing data as a platform. What’s your score? Take the Podcast Appearance Scorecard Want to listen to other technology podcasts? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast
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Ep. 131 Exploring and Understanding Data
02/20/2024
Ep. 131 Exploring and Understanding Data
A recent study by Deloitte indicates that 67% of executives struggle with data analytics. The knight in shining armor that offers a rescue is artificial intelligence. Today’s interview pours the promise of artificial intelligence into both ends of the spectrum: qualifying data sets that are being used and, subsequently, producing explainable results. The headline overview of artificial intelligence involves writing a report by ChatGPT. Although that may be true, the article will be derivative and will not move the ball intellectually. You will hear Kyle Rice discuss how Virtualitics can use artificial intelligence methods to look at data sets that are being investigated. Once those libraries are produced, then they can take artificial intelligence to look at making conclusions. When analysis is approached from that point, you eliminate the guess-and-test method. That is to say, there is a good chance that the hypotheses that are created by humans. In other words, you will not spend precious time trying to answer the wrong questions. Virtualitics poses that a rational way to generate data sets can give users the ability to form elusive data-derived decisions. During the interview, Kyle describes the approach as “intelligent data exploration.” The added value of this approach is defensibility. For example, if a data scientist produces a conclusion, their sources can be questioned. Instead of pointing to a black box in the corner, a team can produce explainable artificial intelligence. Interested in reading more from Virtualitics? What’s your score? Take the Podcast Appearance Scorecard Want to listen to other technology podcasts? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast
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Ep. 130 Reducing Risk in the Hybrid Cloud through Identification
02/15/2024
Ep. 130 Reducing Risk in the Hybrid Cloud through Identification
We begin this episode with a shocking statistic: 80% of hybrid cloud breaches involve credential abuse. During the interview, Jimmy McNary from Semperis unpacks the whole concept of protecting identities in the hybrid cloud. The interview covers a wide range of topics. First, we start by taking a view of how large systems have evolved. Larger systems tend to have two or more identity processes, and Active Directory from Microsoft has a 90% share of that overall market. Secondly, some identity systems can use outdated Identification Access Management systems. Thirdly, we have employees and contractors who enter and leave systems. This can produce confusion in de-provisioning access. Putting all three together produces a perfect storm for malicious actors. They can use tools to scan systems for vulnerabilities in, for example, identification processes, and set up an attack. Semperis uses Active Directory as the starting point to orchestrate identification. They can stop malicious actors before they attack, during the attack, and help post-attack. In a poignant example, Jimmy McNary relates the story that some organizations spend significant amounts of money on backups, including immutable backups. Unfortunately, they forget about backing up Active Directory. We know that it is likely the attack vector included Active Directory, but it is not protected. This is a scenario where the system is restored, and the malicious actor has retained credentials to allow him back into the system. Jimmy McNary provides practical tips to avoid these frustrating situations. = = What’s your score? Take the Podcast Appearance Scorecard Want to listen to other technology podcasts? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn Got goin’ to Mars on your bucket list? Listen to Constellations Podcast
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Ep. 129 Bringing data to the hands of federal officers on the front line
02/13/2024
Ep. 129 Bringing data to the hands of federal officers on the front line
The title of this podcast is “Federal Tech Podcast.” For many people, this evokes an image of stacks and stacks of servers in a windowless data center. Today’s interview shows listeners how that data can be unlocked and put in the hands of front-line officers, whether they are federal or civilian. Bob Griffin from Siren has been involved in bringing data to online operators for decades. During the interview, he presents a challenge that many encounter. In one example he gives, a person drives up to a warehouse in the middle of the night and sees an unexpected car. The idea I to get as much information as you can in front of the officer. In years gone by, this has been done with desktop computers. An officer may have to communicate with an office where someone may run a search. There is no doubt that this is an effective method. Siren has been the leader in the unique ability to look at various data silos and search them for salient information. In this interview, Siren announced a breakthrough that takes the traditional ability of a desktop and puts it in the hand of a mobile device the officer. Finally, time is not wasted. An officer can approach a situation and be prepared with actionable insight into perpetrators and take appropriate action. Finally, data that fulfills the role it was designed for, making burdensome tasks faster and easier for users. Get any mileage out of your last podcast appeareance? Take two minutes to complete the
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Ep. 128 Understanding Risks in the Hybrid Cloud
02/08/2024
Ep. 128 Understanding Risks in the Hybrid Cloud
Today, we look at the proper way to manage the hybrid cloud for federal projects. Our guest is the Chief Technology Officer for Thundercat Technology, Kurt Steege. Kurt has an extensive background that includes a stint as the Chief Enterprise Architect at the FBI. An argument can be made that the move to the hybrid cloud can increase flexibility and reduce cost; an equally valid argument can be made that the increasing complexity of the hybrid cloud can cause poor visibility, insecure data transmission, and compliance issues. We see federal agencies not getting boxed into a corner by using more than one cloud service provider. This may be great for financial reasons, but the hybrid cloud, by definition, is going to be much more difficult to observe. The risks are always changing, some cybersecurity experts say that Application Program Interfaces are the new attack vector; a multi-cloud system makes accounting for all of them hard. Another obvious fact, if your agency moves to the “XYZ” cloud, there is a transmission of data. If they go ahead and send another application to the “ABC” cloud, there is another communications port. Each one adds to the attack surface for an agency. Finally, each cloud service provider has diverse ways of offering compliance. At the end of the day, a federal official must sign off on the compliance. Understanding the subtilities of these differences may cause excessive delays. Thundercat Technology has a white paper that could help. It is titled
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Ep. 125 Overcoming Challenges in Federal Technology Leadership
02/06/2024
Ep. 125 Overcoming Challenges in Federal Technology Leadership
If you do a Google search on “Leadership” you get five billion results. Seems like a topic that has been given tons and tons of attention. A better way to gain an understanding of leadership is to seek out examples of poor leadership and try to avoid them. Enter, How NOT to Lead: Lessons Every Manager Can Learn from Dumpster Chickens, Mushroom Farmers, and Other Office Offenders. The latest book from Dr. Chase Cunningham This is an interview with Dr. Chase Cunningham where he gives his reasons for authoring the book and the origin of many of his stories. He has a fascinating background that includes being raised on a farm in Texas, working in sensitive military areas, and completing a Ph.D. Some of the chapter titles look like a setup from a professional comedian. He has chapter titles like Do not be a Dumpster Chicken Go Slow to Be Fast Beware the Brilliant Jerk Do not be a mushroom farmer. Do not chase unicorns. Yes, the chapter titles are brash and so are Chase’s recommendations. Let us one tiny aspect of the book: the idea of starting a company, getting investors, and becoming a millionaire. That certainly is the goal of millions and millions of entrepreneurs. Chase has seen investors and innovators in action. He has seen naïve startups get dazzled with investment dollars give up control of companies, and become employees to a demanding task master. Wait a minute, one of the reasons for starting a company was to become independent. Chase tells the untold part of the “rags to riches” story of technology startups. An innovator may produce an idea and surround themselves with a core group that develops and makes the company grow. Many are hired with the promise of riches when the company goes public. What can happen is the founder falls for the trap where the company’s value gets diluted, and the promises made to the initial group have been cast aside. When you buy and read this book you will be drawn into memorable stories about roping cattle, small boar maintenance, and keyboard warriors. Buy this book today to help you become a successful entrepreneur, a better leader, and a decent human being.
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Ep. 126 Herding Containers with Rancher Government Solutions
02/01/2024
Ep. 126 Herding Containers with Rancher Government Solutions
Over the years some technical terms are easy to understand for mere mortals – data centers, high-speed internet, and even identity management. However, when you mention the term “Kubernetes,” a normal professional eye would glaze over. Some technical professionals may have to revert to making up some applications. Well, the wait is over. Today, world-famous Paul Smith from Rancher Government Services will give a working definition of Kubernetes and show how efficiently using this technology can reduce costs and improve security for federal systems. We begin the interview from 40,000 feet with a general guide to open-source software and Paul Smith gives an overview of Linux and Red Hat. That parallel seems to ring some chords. Next, the concept of “container” was expounded upon. A container is merely a bundle of software, this is portable. It can be used as plastic blocks children use. You can pick up the container and run it anywhere. When it comes to three-year-olds, the blocks end up all over the house! Now that the foundation is set, Paul Smith indicates that in and of itself, the open-source Kubernetes provides high availability and scaling; on the other hand, it can be difficult to install, complicated, and needs to be monitored. Today’s federal hybrid clouds need a way to manage these containers. Enter, Rancher Government Solutions. During the interview, Paul Smith presents some of the challenges in a multi-cloud world. He includes comments on legacy systems, edge computing, and orchestration. If you would like more information on Rancher Government Solutions, please download the free whitepaper titled If you would like to attract customers to your company on your next podcast appearance, then should fill out the . See where you stand and get some pracical tips and suggestions so you can leverage that next podcast appearance.
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Ep. 125 The Secure Hybrid Edge
01/30/2024
Ep. 125 The Secure Hybrid Edge
When people think of Amazon Web Services, they normally think of a data center. This was certainly top of mind when AWS hosted 10,000 at its Public Sector Summit in 2023. Today, we go in a different direction. Dave Rubal is a well-known innovator in the Washington DC technical community. He has decided to throw his hat into the ring with something called the Secure Tactical Edge. It makes sense. If you look at how storage and computing are changing. In a recent study, IDC predicts that in the future 75% of data will be collected at the “edge.” The federal government has a myriad of ways to manage this “edge” concept. Civilian agencies may have one approach, and the DoD has another. In addition to being on the edge, they need to be able to deploy this concept in a tactical as well as secure method. During today’s interview, Dave Rubal sketches out one aspect of that movement to the edge. He talks about how the DoD can securely use edge cases. In other words, the Secure Tactical Edge. Let us take a small task as an example, storage of video feeds. The DoD has facilities all over the world and needs physical security. It would be ridiculous to store these feeds in a data center across the globe. Further, there are retention policies that are in place to reduce the burden of storage. Another example may be unstructured data being collected all over the earth, and even above. Agencies must be able to architect a solution that takes advantage of innovation on the edge to reduce cost, improve flexibility, and provide data rapidly so warfighters can make decisions quickly. Here is a hashtag summary: #TacticalEdge #OperationalEdge #HybridCloud #EdgeComputing This is the episode that introduces the tried and true, “Up close and personal” Dave’s avocation is to volunteer at his local fire station. He is a licensed EMT and has saved lives with his skills. Follow John Gilroy on LinkedIn Listen to past episodes of Federal Tech Podcast
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Ep. 124 Is Digital Transformation Evolution or Revolution?
01/25/2024
Ep. 124 Is Digital Transformation Evolution or Revolution?
James Eselgroth will lead a discussion about innovation and change in federal technology. Normally, one would think about solutions to problems. Traditionally, develop a list of changes, check each off the list, list, and move on. That may be a fantastic way to build a house, not that it simply does not work in today’s dynamic software environment. In today’s fast-moving technical climate, one approach is to use something called an MVP. No, not the National Football League kind of MVP, not Most Valuable Player, but a “Minimal Viable Product.” A “Minimal Viable Product” is a concept that originated in agile software development. The idea was not to submit a complete, finished product but to present the essence, framework, or basics of a product and get feedback. This initial offering had to include working elements but omitted many of the details like user interface concerns and complex integration projects. During the interview, Jim explains how this concept applies to the federal audience. He references a quote from Federal CTO Clare Martorana who said “Demos, no memos.” This temporary solution would be presented to stakeholders and see if it was a good fit. Alterations are made and the next iteration is presented. Listen to the interview to hear how Jim provides an overview of his innovation lab. This results in the MVP approach allowing for solutions to be built in two to four weeks. Highlight has a new offering called EdgeWerx. Look for announcements at https://highlighttech.com/
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Ep. 123 Is Artificial Intelligence limiting the Value of Process Mining?
01/23/2024
Ep. 123 Is Artificial Intelligence limiting the Value of Process Mining?
AI? Process mining? We owe it to the listeners to put the strange title into perspective. Some will argue that a federal agency is a collection of business processes. For example, a company turns in its taxes; a laboratory applies for a grant; and even federal agencies must comply with cybersecurity requirements. Some will label this process management. Because the federal government deals in billions of dollars these processes can be quite complex. Experts have evolved who can examine these processes and determine ways to improve the process. Because there are stacks and stacks of petabytes of data to be concerned with, the term “mining” has become popular to describe this kind of examination. OK. Step Two. We all know that artificial intelligence is trying to be applied to as many aspects of federal technology as possible. Many are talking about potential savings. However, this may be true with simple tasks like creating reports; however, complicated processes may present a challenge to artificial intelligence. If someone arbitrarily slaps an AI Process into a system, it could wreak havoc. Please remember that AI is derivative, and can absorb previous systems but not necessarily offer anything new. During this interview, Christopher Radich breaks down some concepts that Celonis uses to gain a deep understanding of complicated processes before AI gets a chance to work. For example, they have pioneered applying the concept of digital twins to processes. This is a way that a process can be evaluated to discover the implications of process change. Follow John Gilroy on LinkedIn Listen to past episodes of Federal Tech Podcast Process Mining for Dummies
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Ep. 122 Safe & Secure Artificial Intelligence
01/18/2024
Ep. 122 Safe & Secure Artificial Intelligence
In today’s interview, Guarv “GP” Pal from stackArmor presents a warning call to let people know that a sudden jump into any technology can present unintended consequences. He offers suggestions to make AI meaningful, safe, and dependable. Everyone remembers Bill Murray on Groundhog Day having the same experience over and over. After a few years of experience in federal technology, we are looking at something similar. First, the commercial sector I dazzled. Next, federal technology leaders feel like they must get in the same boat. A few years ago, many agencies jumped headfirst into the cloud, and then FedRAMP had to come along to put some guides on the cloud experience. Fast forward to 2024, today’s Artificial Intelligence is falling into the standard pattern. Federal technology leaders can feel left out and make a quick adaptation, then later guidance emerges to rectify some of the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence. Researchers are seeing security vectors that are unique to AI. What security principles should be considered when putting together a Large Language Model? Can a bias be introduced? What controls do you have in place today that you can apply to your agency’s AI journey? To bring in a diverse set of opinions to offer guidance, GP discusses his company’s development of an AI Risk Intelligence Center of Excellence. They have assembled a high-power group of leaders with federal experience to provide training models and actionable steps for making a safe and secure transition to AI.
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Ep. 121 The Godfather of Zero Trust, John Kindervag from Illumio
01/16/2024
Ep. 121 The Godfather of Zero Trust, John Kindervag from Illumio
The first part of this interview is a fascinating description of how John Kindervag produced the concept of Zero Trust. In the early days of networking, many users were described as “trusted users.” John questioned as to why they did not take the next step and verify then. The response was classic – because it would be rude. Fast forward a few decades and we see countless breaches and billions of dollars of intellectual property lost because of fear of offending the sensitivities of users. Back to 2011. Interfaces on firewalls could have varying levels of trust associated with them; the question from John Kindervag was, “why any levels at all?” His idea of zero trust resonated in the commercial and federal marketplace. For example, an Executive Order was issued in May of 2021 mandating the adoption of zero trust for the federal government. During the interview John Kindervag presents a fascinating contrast between the attack surface and the protect surface. This is a framework to allow federal leaders to prioritize what data to protect. To gain a better understanding of how to deploy Zero Trust, The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee was established. It presents a five-step model and shows how to build Zero Trust one protects surface at a time. Listen and learn about the Cloud Security Alliance and myriad ways to develop expertise in the nuances around incorporating Zero Trust into your federal network. Mentioned in the interview: What is Zero Trust Architeture? https://www.illumio.com/blog/what-is-a-zero-trust-architecture
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