Building a Foundation for an AI Future

Posted on by Mike Adams

It might seem like agencies are hesitant to adopt artificial intelligence. But really, it is quite the opposite. As Lori Wade, the Intelligence Community’s chief data officer, put it: “It is no longer just about the volume of data, it is about who can collect, access, exploit and gain actionable insight the fastest.” The realization is clear: Humans alone cannot keep pace. They need AI so they can make decisions based on the most relevant and most current information — and make those decisions in a timely manner. It is really as simple as that. Download the guide, “Building the Foundation for Your AI Future,” to pick up pointers on data management and AI, plus take a glimpse at the latest technology developments, tips for best practices and an explanation of the early value that AI is delivering to agencies across government.

How to Revolutionize Government Translation with Generative AI

“In situations where accurate and timely translations are crucial, the shortage of qualified and vetted linguists poses significant challenges. Equally, non-linguist analysts are not equipped with secure, at-desk tools to translate foreign language material at the speed of relevance. For example, during the ongoing war in Ukraine, there has been a scarcity of linguists available to provide real-time updates on the ground. This shortage not only has affected the ability to gather vital intelligence but also hindered the timely dissemination of information to national security and defense agencies in the U.S. and abroad.”

Read more insights from Jesse Rosenbaum, Vice President of Business Development and National Security at Lilt.

How Graph Databases Drive a Paradigm Shift in Data Platform Technology

“Federal agencies are awash in data. With recent modernization efforts, including the wide-scale adoption of cloud platforms and applications, it is easier than ever for agencies to receive streaming data on everything from logistics to finances to cybersecurity. But that volume of data requires new solutions to process and analyze it. Older methods like SQL and NoSQL simply are not up to the task of analyzing all of the connections between the government’s many massive databases. That is where the new graph paradigm of data platform technology comes in.”

Read more insights from Michael Moore, Principal for Partner Solutions and Technology at Neo4j.

How Agencies Can Upskill in AI to Achieve a Data Mesh Model

“Data mesh behavior actually goes a step further. AI has become so easy to use, business owners can actually join in the development alongside the data scientists. Therein lies the challenge: Upskilling subject matter experts across an entire organization is a big lift. The way it works best is to start with a center of excellence, a small group of people who begin working with business owners across the enterprise, office by office. They can then prove the value and evangelize it, and then the agency can move to a hub-and-spoke model, where the data scientists are co-developing alongside business owners. As successes pile up, the data scientists can take a step back and allow frontline workers to do the development, governing the new data products on their own.”

Read more insights from Doug Bryan, Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku.

How Agencies Can Build a Data Foundation for Generative AI

“Generative artificial intelligence tools are making waves in the technology world, most famously ChatGPT. Although the code of these tools is significant, their real power stems from the data they are trained on. Gathering and correctly formatting the data, then transforming it to yield accurate predictions, often represents the most challenging aspect of developing these tools. Federal agencies that want to start leveraging generative AI already have massive amounts of data on which to train the technology. But to successfully implement these tools, they need to ensure the quality of their data before trusting any decisions they might make.”

Read more insights from Nasheb Ismaily, Principal Solutions Engineer at Cloudera.

How to Democratize Data as a Catalyst for Effective Decision-Making

“One of the key best practices in the Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Data Strategy calls for using data to guide decision-making. But that is easier said than done when the ability to analyze the data, much less access it, is limited to an agency’s often overworked and understaffed data science specialists. But now that every line of federal business has their own data silo and a mandate to use that data to guide decisions, agencies need a way to democratize access to that data and empower every federal employee to become an analyst.”

Read more insights from Kevin Woo, Director of Federal Sales at Alteryx.

Download the full Expert Edition for more insights from these artificial intelligence leaders, additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

The Best of What’s New in Automation

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the conversation surrounding automation in government featured a lot of skepticism. For some, automation seemed too difficult or risky to implement. For others, it represented a threat to human workers. And for many, change in general is hard to embrace because it means leaving behind the familiar and venturing toward the unknown. But when COVID-19 infection rates skyrocketed, and when programs like unemployment insurance (UI) faced unprecedented spikes in demand, governments felt compelled to consider and adopt technologies they may have once resisted. And so, in 2022, the dialogue on automation has a much different tone. The focus has shifted toward identifying opportunities, challenges and best practices so that agencies can figure out where automation fits best. Learn how your agency or municipality can take full advantage of the growing momentum behind automation in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Modernizing Expense and Payment Management

“When you have an automated system, if someone is about to do something that is noncompliant, the system flags them. Depending on how an organization sets policy, the system can stop the employee completely or allow the spend to proceed but with a warning that the behavior is out of compliance and will be flagged. That impacts how people make their buying decisions. As part of auditing overall, AI, ML and other technologies also work together to detect abnormal or potentially fraudulent behavior. Continual noncompliant behavior is tracked, marked and reported on. In terms of decision-making, intelligent automated solutions give organizations actionable data—sometimes for the first time ever. Organizations can see where they are in their cash flow, their debts, and so on and use that data to make decisions that drive the business outcomes they need.”

Read more insights from SAP Concur’s senior director for state and local government, Jim McClurkin.

Having an Automation-First Mindset

“Some executives don’t realize how much repetitive work their teams do until we talk to their staff and then show them the power of the possible. The best ideas for automation come from the people doing the work, so simple education is the best way to prepare employees. We partner with organizations to help educate their end users and show them what’s possible. It’s also helpful to use terms like “digital employee” or “digital workforce” rather than the term “bot,” which isn’t always well received. People understand they can have a digital assistant right on their desktop. Adoption is important because state and local governments need digital workers to address their current and future workforce needs, just like the private sector.”

Read more insights from UiPath’s vice president of sales for state, local and education (SLED), Phil Calzadilla.

Getting Intelligent Automation Right

“We’ve seen the most success where there’s initially enough investment to have an impact and get the organization behind it. Projects that are too small often pass below the visibility of executive leadership and tend to die on the vine. At the same time, projects can’t be more than the organization can chew at one time. The Covered California project started in a discrete area around document processing. Over time, they decided to apply analytics to it, and then improve workflows. Eventually, they added robotics to move the data to various systems. It became this very large but modular step-by-step layering in of different levels of automation. All of this resulted in an incredibly robust automation system that handles 50 million records a year and 300,000 processes per month, but it was done judiciously.”

Read more insights from Kofax’s vice president of public sector and federal sales, Jeremy Hogg.

Preparing For a New Wave of Automation

“Based on trends in the federal government, I expect both state and local governments to continue adopting the cloud over the next five to 10 years. As organizations consider new deployments in the cloud, it would be great to start with automation from the beginning. Instead of making it an after-the-fact approach, bake it into the solution from the start. Also, don’t be afraid to try new tools, and don’t be afraid to accept that you might need to get some training for your team. These are new skills, and enablement is valuable from the beginning.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s principal solutions engineer, Ian Brooks.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these cybersecurity thought leaders and additional industry research from GovTech.

Adapting with Evolving Higher Education Challenges

Posted on by Tim Boltz

For many colleges and universities, the global pandemic served as a wake-up call for more innovative teaching models. They quickly discovered that remote learning is no longer an occasional tool for specific situations. Instead, a mix of in-person and online platforms has become an imperative to ensure digital equity and educational excellence. Even before the pandemic, researchers cited the importance of course design and the need for a pedagogical shift to ensure success in blended learning. Now, many believe that as faculty and students become more proficient with the technology and adapt to online education, outcomes will improve. Close collaboration between faculty and technology teams is also important as both groups adapt to new teaching models. To ensure clear communication, many institutions will need to invest in cameras, microphones and speaker systems, and many classes may benefit from a technology assistant who keeps track of the messages students post and resolves any technical issues. Incorporating such modern tools alongside institutions’ legacy solutions presents a diverse set of challenges. In the Campus Technology survey, staying within budget constraints (44%) was the top challenge cited by respondents, and it goes hand in hand with choosing the right products, services and solutions (41%). Technological challenges also include getting legacy and modern solutions to work together (36%), sharing data between legacy and modern systems (27%), and managing and securing a diverse IT ecosystem (25%). Learn how, by investing in further modernization, your institution can boost its ability to meet current demands while maintaining flexibility to respond to the unknown challenges ahead in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Education report.

Embracing the New Normal in Higher Education

“By allowing students of different backgrounds, perspectives, and ages to interact with one another, a hybrid or HyFlex approach enriches the classroom experience. That flexibility should be used as a recruitment tool: By offering a range of options for in-person and online learning, institutions can dramatically expand their reach nationally and even internationally. The success of the new normal in education hinges on being able to measure student engagement. In a face-to-face classroom, instructors can note whether students are making eye contact and how many of them are raising their hands or asking questions. At Class Technologies, we enable instructors to bring that same emphasis on student outcomes into an online format.”

Read more insights from Class Technology’s Senior Director of Advocacy and Community, Dr. Kim Oppelt.

Using Data Analytics to Enhance Student Services

“In addition to automation, artificial intelligence can transform the way colleges and universities provide services to their students. When higher education leaders understand the value and availability of AI, they can create a vision for its adoption. Then data analysts can use AI to accelerate the institution’s delivery of student services and improve its ability to predict outcomes early, enabling educators to address trouble spots early or invest in key initiatives. With AI, analysts can focus at the level of the entire student population, a certain demographic profile or the individual student. For example, AI can integrate with a campus learning system to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out. To be successful, AI must be part of an institution’s overall data management strategy, and the IT infrastructure should be built or updated to support that strategy.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Senior Solutions Engineer, Brian Hagan.

A Cybersecurity Mesh Speeds Digital Transformation

“Research firm Gartner defines a cybersecurity mesh as a “flexible, composable architecture that integrates widely distributed and disparate security services” — in other words, it enables institutions to leverage a suite of complementary tools. A mesh architecture creates efficiency and greater coverage across the digital surface, while enabling the IT team to understand what’s happening on its network and better prepare for the next cybersecurity event. This concept can also reduce the number of point security solutions and products. To make the business case for taking that approach, focus on demonstrating return on investment. A mesh architecture reduces costs because it consolidates tools and services while simplifying digital transitions. The mesh components will enable standardized training and raise the bar on knowledge transfer across the distributed IT environment.”

Read more insights from Fortinet’s Field CISO for Education, Bob Turner.

Why Student Experience Equals Student Success

“Student needs are so individualized that a single, one-size-fits-all approach to services is ineffective. Institutions need systems that can constantly learn from students as they’re navigating their experience on campus and then take student-specific action. Qualtrics’ experience management platform enables students to share feedback in a host of different ways and then crucially, pairs that data with internal systems to help institutions gain a holistic view of those students. Campus leaders can listen, understand and act through a platform that gathers information and converts it into real-time insights for decision-makers. In addition, the Qualtrics platform uses artificial intelligence to help schools understand what friction points exist in the student journey and then helps to automate actions, such as connecting students with the right resources, at scale. By giving the right people the right information at the right time, AI enables institutions to intervene at the moments that matter most. It also helps decision-makers measure the impact of those actions.”

Read more insights from Qualtrics’ Vice President Higher Education Strategy, Joshua Sine.

Pivoting to Continuous Modernization in Higher Education

“Continuous modernization involves making small changes and regularly deploying those changes under a methodology called continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). Users try out new features, and developers get immediate validation and testing throughout the entire process, which results in targeted and ongoing improvements. Another key element is automation. When rote tasks such as spinning up virtual machines, configuring networks or resolving users’ help tickets are automated, IT administrators can focus on more complex activities, such as improving processes or incorporating new technologies. In addition, containerization makes it easy to migrate applications and workloads back and forth from on-premises systems to the cloud as needed.”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s Chief Architect for Education and the North America Public Sector, Damien Eversmann.

Using the Power of Data to Support Collaboration

“Data analysis can help institutions gain a fuller understanding of their cybersecurity posture. For example, it can enable risk-based alerting, so staffers are not overwhelmed with security alerts that aren’t important. In addition, many institutions are merging their development, security and operations cycles in a methodology called DevSecOps. That collaborative approach ensures that security is an integral element of IT systems rather than an afterthought. Collaboration also results in deeper insights. When institutions can access and analyze student experience and outcomes, they have a much clearer picture of what they need to do from a strategy and planning perspective to enhance academic programs and student services.”

Read more insights from Splunk’s Strategic Advisor, Frank Myers, and Business Development Manager, Elizabeth Thompson.

A Data-Informed Approach to Recruiting and Retaining Faculty

“UT Austin has a strong commitment to nominating faculty for major awards across racial and gender lines. However, we wanted to pinpoint any gaps in the nomination process to make sure we retain talented faculty members by recognizing a diversity of research. We chose to partner with Tableau because the company offers a user-friendly process for developing self-service dashboards. In this case, an awards analysis dashboard helps us quickly identify under-awarded faculty in each department and drill down into race/ethnicity and gender information. As a result, we have achieved better equity in the awards nomination process and improved our faculty recruitment and retention efforts.”

Read more insights from the University of Texas at Austin’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Director of Institutional Reporting, Research and Information Systems, Shiva Jaganathan.

Creating a Single Source of Data Truth

“The ability to make those kinds of informed decisions hinges on robust data sharing. Unfortunately, many institutions still lack consistency in data access and management. And when data exists in silos, there is no single source of truth. Breaking down silos to give end users the power to do their own research is crucial, and that culture change starts at the top. Leaders must drive the demand for universal access to data so that everyone can be confident in the data they’re using and the decisions they’re making. At Tableau, our mission is to help people see and understand data. We continually enhance our product to ensure that decision-makers at all levels have access to the data and insights they need.”

Read more insights from Tableau’s Regional Vice President of Education and Nonprofit Sales, Cassidy Macias, and Vice President of U.S. Education Enterprise Sales, Adam Ingram-Eiser.

Discovering the Endless Possibilities of Automation

“From recruitment through graduation and beyond, automation can play a crucial role in ensuring that students have the experience the college or university wants them to have. Automation can help students succeed, and after they graduate, automation can be used to stay in touch — for example, by congratulating them on a new job when their LinkedIn profile changes and encouraging them to give back to the university. In the past couple of years, a mental health crisis has arisen in higher education, and many students withdrew from institutions or struggled to keep up with their studies. Tackling the issue should be a top priority in higher education because the crisis will continue for at least a few more years as people become accustomed to going back to campuses and in-person learning. Automated services can help institutions check in with students to see how they’re doing and connect them with mental health resources if necessary.”

Read more insights from UiPath’s Global State, Local and Regional Government Industry Lead, Dan Horan.

A More Immersive Experience for Students and Staff

“Zoom was a market leader in higher education even before the pandemic because our tools are affordable and easy to use. We have built a unified communications platform on top of our popular videoconferencing technology and, for the past two years, have focused on creating a superior on-campus experience by integrating communication across all operating systems and expanding capabilities via cloud telephony with Zoom Phone. For example, among many amazing features, using the Zoom application on a smartphone gives users the ability to have Zoom Phone voicemail messages transcribed and sent to their e-mail. In addition, while most people are familiar with the chat function that’s enabled during a Zoom meeting, we have a separate, robust Zoom Chat collaboration tool built into our unified communications stack. It allows users to create communication channels for particular projects or teams and conduct one-on-one or group chats.”

Read more insights from Zoom’s Global Education Marketing Lead, Johann Zimmern.

Download the full Innovation in Education report for more insights from these IT modernization thought leaders and for additional industry research from Campus Technology.

The Best of What’s New in Cybersecurity

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Cybersecurity reached a tipping point in 2021. One big driver is a wave of disruptive attacks — some targeting critical infrastructure and important supply chains — that has put a national spotlight on this long-simmering issue. These attacks are a wake-up call to elected officials and line-of-business leaders regarding the risk presented by growing cybercriminal activity. That call has gone all the way to the Oval Office, where the Biden Administration issued an executive order aimed at shoring up the nation’s cybersecurity through better sharing of threat information, greater adoption of Zero Trust security architectures and secure cloud services, and other measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has been another important driver, turning up the heat on modernizing security approaches and tools in state and local government. Another critical factor: There’s new money available for cybersecurity modernization. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in cybersecurity in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Achieving a Sustainable Cybersecurity Strategy

“The pandemic accelerated trends that were already in motion. Digital innovation increased to meet the need for digital interactions when face-to-face interactions weren’t possible. In addition, the massive shift to working from home impacted risk. When the pandemic hit, most organizations didn’t have all the policies, procedures and tools in place to effectively secure those environments. Another disruptor is the changing geopolitical landscape. Cyber warfare is becoming a mainstream weapon for many nation states. And then there is the explosion of fraud as a service. Attackers are taking advantage of the fact that organizations’ defenses are not ready for remote work and these other changes.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Field CTO, Carolyn Duby.

Intelligent, Ubiquitous Security

“Organizations need prevention and visibility on the endpoints themselves because these devices are in varying risk environments and will eventually be connected to the network, if they aren’t already. Very few sizable breaches occur without accessing or compromising an endpoint. Organizations should focus on prevention first and then visibility because the value of visibility lessens if you don’t have the resources to act on what you see. Preventing an attack early is far less expensive and time-consuming than stopping it later. Organizations need to apply a uniform Zero Trust defense strategy across all devices — mobile included — and personnel.”

Read more insights from Blackberry’s Vice President of Global Services Technical Operations, Tony Lee.

Disaster Recovery in the Age of Ransomware

“One reason cloud storage services are succeeding is because they provide high performance at a much lower cost than the large cloud providers. Many hyper-scale cloud storage providers use service tiers where organizations can store certain data “deep and cheap” for governance or compliance reasons. However, data retrieval can take hours or days and data egress fees can be very expensive. By contrast, a high-performance storage service that doesn’t use service tiers offers a better model for organizations that are fighting ransomware and need active data and a fast response time. Cloud storage services also don’t charge a data egress fee — unlike many hyper-scale cloud providers. This means disaster recovery teams can regularly practice restoring their data without paying a fee every time they do so.”

Read more insights from Wasabi’s Director of Product Marketing, Drew Schlussel.

Cybersecurity at Scale

“The first thing to understand is whether you’re going to lift and shift on-premises workloads or have everything cloud native moving forward. Understanding your cloud strategy will inform your security approach. For example, if you’re going to lift and shift a data center where applications are hosted on servers, your workload protection needs to be tuned toward server vulnerabilities, which are very different from vulnerabilities on laptops and desktops. Also, it’s not just endpoints that are vulnerable. The automation or orchestration layer can also be an attack vector. Finally, it’s important to have tools that monitor conformance to your cloud governance standards so you can avoid misconfigurations that expose your environment to attack.”

Read more insights from Trend Micro’s Vice President and General Manager for U.S. Federal Business, Chris Radosh.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these cybersecurity thought leaders and additional industry research from GovTech.

Building a Data-Driven Government with AI

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

The federal government created the National Security Commission on AI in 2018 to make recommendations on how to advance the development of AI and related technologies for addressing national security and defense needs. The independent, bipartisan group of technologists, national security professionals, business executives and academic leaders released its final report in March. The 756-page report includes dire warnings about the U.S. falling behind adversaries that are already using AI to spread disinformation, hone cyberattacks and gain a technological advantage on the battlefield. It also offers comprehensive recommendations for boosting AI development in the U.S. and emphasizes AI’s vast potential for good. Experts say the use of trustworthy, reliable AI across government is essential to ensuring the public’s and agencies’ confidence in the technology and its outcomes. In a recent survey of FCW readers, 60% of respondents said the biggest obstacle to using AI was a lack of employees with the right skill set, followed closely by budget constraints (54%) and legacy technology that doesn’t support or integrate with AI (42%). Fortunately, government leaders are looking for ways to facilitate AI adoption. In June, the Biden administration established a task force that will create a blueprint for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), as specified in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government^® report on AI.

How NVIDIA Helps Enable the Government’s AI Journey

“Federal spending on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) has been growing year over year and could exceed $4 billion by 2023, according to a report by Bloomberg Government. In addition to the increased spending, in 2021 there have been a number of federal actions that further lay the groundwork for AI adoption. Most notably, the National Security Commission on AI called for the government to invest $200 billion in AI over the next 10 years. The federal government is now investing in AI at all levels, but there is much work yet to be done to enable the government’s adoption of AI. NVIDIA, a leader in AI computing, has been helping to enable the government’s AI journey in five key areas.”

Read more insights from NVIDIA’s Inception Lead for Public Sector, Margaret Amori.

Creating Explainable, Ethical AI Models

“The outcome of an AI model should be properly explained and communicated, and agencies must follow ethical standards for responsible AI. The Defense Department’s recent memo on AI spells out the importance of ensuring that the technology is traceable, governable and reliable, which maps to our core tenets at H2O.ai. Fortunately, the industry continues to make advances in the interpretability of increasingly complex machine learning models. There are many methods and tools that enable users to automatically create documentation to explain how a model works, identify biased data and detect changes in important elements, such as data drift. By enhancing operational transparency and oversight, agencies can ensure that they’re using ethical AI.”

Read more insights from H20.ai’s Vice President of Federal, Rohit Dhanda.

Taking the Guesswork Out of AI Adoption

“The problems that government needs to solve are often massive and complex. For example, huge and varied volumes of data are necessary for agencies to respond to natural and man-made disasters. It’s impossible for humans to glean insights from information at the scale and speed that machines can, which means AI is a perfect fit for government challenges. The optimal strategy is to consolidate AI tools and choose a platform that supports all of them. That approach requires less work than stitching together disparate tools, but more importantly, it ensures that those tools will work seamlessly together. As a result, agencies can streamline the way AI models are trained and deployed, and they can benefit from the expertise of the vendor’s team of AI experts. The goal is a turnkey AI solution that will scale in response to agencies’ needs.”

Read more insights from Clarifai’s Founder and CEO, Matt Zeiler.

Smart Government: The Convergence of Cloud, Data and AI

“The government’s progress on cloud adoption is central to its success with AI. Because agencies are trying to find answers to new questions, they need more and flexible compute and storage power than they have had in the past. Cloud technology provides a robust platform for those activities that is scalable to meet the demands of machine learning algorithms. AI is fueled by data, but information sharing has been a challenge in government for quite some time because organizational culture often encourages data owners to maintain discrete control over their information. Agencies must change that attitude so people can use whatever data they need and are entitled to access to address mission challenges.”

Read more insights from Cloudera Government Solutions’ President, Rob Carey.

Pioneering a Path to Robust Algorithm Testing

“Let’s say a program office wants to buy an algorithm to understand and better inform investments in public housing. Such an algorithm can make sure that every dollar spent is going to the best use. But what if the data from one part of the country is a little different? Or what if an unusual situation happens, such as a drought slowly displacing thousands of people? These subtle changes might result in untrustworthy results. Performance scores will remain high, and yet millions of dollars will be misspent and people will be worse off. Every day, new weaknesses are discovered as algorithms are revealed to generate racist, sexist or other undesirable behaviors. How do agencies know if an algorithm is reliable? How can they compare algorithms from different vendors? These problems are slowing federal AI programs to a snail’s pace.”

Read more insights from CalypsoAI’s Director of Product, Mitchell Sipus.

How Synthetic Data Changes the AI Game

“Deciding how to leverage government data to increase the safety and security of our country is a central question in computer vision. Most solutions rely on machine learning models that have been trained with real-world data. Unfortunately, 80% of the work required for an artificial intelligence project is collecting and preparing data. As a result, capturing and labeling the right data becomes a heavy resource burden. That’s why synthetic data is a game-changer in AI. It reduces the time and costs involved in training the models because it removes the need for manual collection and labeling.”

Read more insights from CVEDIA’s Head of Data Science, Miguel Ferreira.

A Commitment to Wielding AI for Good

“Before we can scale AI and machine learning solutions for ourselves or our customers, we must first provide frictionless access to the robust tools and processes that every data scientist requires. To do that, we tap the best open-source software, develop some of our own internally and partner with leading tech companies like NVIDIA. Our AI Factory is a modular ecosystem for training, deploying and then sustaining AI models at scale. It streamlines access to compute, data, software and security to eliminate many of the complexities that can plague machine learning operations. As a result, users can focus on building models that solve complex challenges and allow them to iterate rapidly.”

Read more insights from Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of AI, Justin Taylor, Director of AI Foundations, Greg Forrest, and Director of AI Innovations, Mike Harasimowicz.

The Evolution in AI Technology

“AI and high-performance computing are intrinsically tied together. To process data and AI algorithms at the speed the technology requires, agencies need to upgrade their hardware. HPC architectures are the natural choice. Today agencies can essentially buy HPC systems for AI workloads that are scalable, flexible and efficient right off the shelf. Dell Technologies and other companies are building infrastructure solutions, and customers are layering on the software stack from places like GitHub. Companies are also creating composable architectures with virtual workloads across compute, memory, networking, storage devices and software.”

Read more insights from Dell Technologies.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these government AI leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

The Ongoing Quest for Cybersecurity

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Government agencies were already under pressure to modernize their cybersecurity strategies before the pandemic hit, and as workplaces closed and government employees struggled to access data and systems from makeshift home offices, the cybersecurity risks grew. The use of virtual private networks in the U.S. increased to match the early spike in COVID-19 cases, rising 124% in the two weeks from March 8 to March 22, 2020, according to Statista. Around the same time, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an alert titled “Enterprise VPN Security,” which offered both warnings and guidance on how to handle the surge in usage. With so many employees logging in remotely, agencies found that they had to shift their focus from securing a well-defined perimeter to securing the data that fuels government operations. In a recent survey of FCW readers, protecting data topped the list of cybersecurity priorities, with 75% of respondents citing it. In response to such concerns, CISA released its Ransomware Guide in September 2020. And in May, President Joe Biden mandated that agencies adopt zero trust in his Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, and the National Security Agency released a paper a few months ahead of that mandate titled “Embracing a Zero Trust Security Model.” Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government^® report on cybersecurity.

The Future of Cybersecurity is Autonomous

“Analysts have too much atomic data and not enough context about that data. When they don’t have the full picture, they can’t take appropriate action. Re-creating each attack by hand takes painstaking care. And though analysts often relish this challenge, there’s simply not the time to do so for every presented case. Forward-thinking organizations are using artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities to fortify user endpoints and server workloads across an array of operating systems. These automations are designed to monitor the growing number of attack vectors in real time and present the full context of an attack in an easy-to-understand view that’s modeled after a kill chain.”

Read more insights from SentinelOne’s COO, Nick Warner.

Tailoring Zero Trust to Individual Users

“Zero trust is an important construct for helping agencies protect their infrastructure in today’s cybersecurity landscape. It focuses on accrediting individuals and their access to government resources. Agencies should make those decisions about access based on a comprehensive understanding of users. Security policies that treat all users as equally risky can be restrictive. Such policies set the bar high and hamper employees’ ability to work, or they set the bar low, which defeats the purpose of having security. Instead, agencies should evaluate users on an individual basis by taking the time to understand what employees do and how they do it — what’s normal behavior and what’s not. Then they can assess the risk of an individual based on that context.”

Read more insights from Forcepoint’s President of Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure, Sean Berg.

Modernizing Security for a Mobile Workforce

“Securing data and apps begins with positively identifying the user. In government, agencies have used multifactor authentication and all kinds of certificates, but those are simple pass/fail security checks. Once users are allowed to cross the security barrier, they often have wide-ranging access to government resources. This means adversaries and malicious (or careless) insiders passing the security checks receive free rein as well. Government needs to move to a continuous authentication model, which leads to better security and a better user experience. It involves seamlessly authenticating users every step of the way — when they touch the keyboard or scroll through an app on a screen. That activity, down to the microscopic vibrations in a person’s fingertip, can be sensed and understood so that IT administrators can answer the question: Is this really the authenticated user, or is it somebody else?”

Read more insights from BlackBerry’s Chief Evangelist, Brian Robison.

The Dangers that Lurk in Mobile Apps

“Government employees are increasingly reliant on mobile applications to do their jobs. But without formal monitoring programs in place, agencies might be unaware of the risks inherent in commercial and government-built apps. As a result, few agencies are investing resources and time to address a serious problem. The average mobile device has 60 to 80 apps, representing a huge potential for vulnerabilities at agencies whose employees are using those devices for work. Thousands of apps could be tracking employees or intercepting data. NowSecure founder Andrew Hoog has said mobile apps are the ultimate surveillance tool, given the mix of personal and mission activities in one space.”

Read more insights from NowSecure’s Chief Mobility Officer, Brian Reed.

Why Data is a Critical Cybersecurity Tool

“Once agencies have gathered their data in a scalable, flexible platform, they can apply artificial intelligence to derive insights from the data. AI speeds analysis and is particularly effective when agencies move from signature-based to behavior-based threat detection. A signature-based approach is good for detecting threats we already know about, but a behavior-based AI approach can adapt to new threats by looking for anomalies such as changes in the behavior of a server or endpoint device. AI also helps with investigations by reconstructing the sequence of events that happened during an intrusion, which fuels agencies’ ability to prevent future attacks. With AI, agencies can start to apply more sophisticated algorithms in their hunt for vulnerabilities and cyber threats.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Principal Solutions Engineer and Cybersecurity SME Lead, Carolyn Duby.

Zero Trust Data Management Foils Ransomware Attacks

“Agencies must ensure recoverability because none of these protections matter if they can’t recover data and systems that run their critical missions and operations. Agencies need to gather and protect data at the edges of their networks, in their data centers and across different clouds. And regardless of where agencies decide to store that data, they need to be able to access it instantly. Recoverability service-level agreements of minutes and hours are possible and delivered today across the whole of government and the Defense Department. Gone are the days of weeks and months to get back online.”

Read more insights from Rubrik’s Public-Sector CTO, Jeffrey Phelan.

Reclaiming Control over Complex IT Environments

“When employees were sitting in a government office behind a firewall, IT administrators had a clearly defined perimeter to protect. Now IT administrators are still focused on protecting the agency’s mission and assets, but the responsibility has become more difficult because they’ve lost some visibility and control over the infrastructure. In response, many organizations are moving toward strategies based on zero trust, which requires validating users and devices before they connect to government systems, or least privilege, which involves only giving employees access to the resources and applications they need to perform their jobs. Zero trust and least privilege require continuous monitoring and a risk-based approach to adding or removing authorizations.”

Read more insights from SolarWind’s Group Vice President of Product, Brandon Shopp.

The Role of Authentication in Data Protection

“Users who need to access low-risk applications and data — for example, publicly available product information — can use an authentication method such as one-time password tokens. But if that same user wants to access higher-value data such as corporate finance records, the required level of authentication should increase, perhaps requiring public-key infrastructure (PKI) authentication with a smartcard. The key is to manage those activities via one pane of glass or one platform that supports the entire risk-based and continuous authentication process. In the past, we’ve been able to base decisions on where users are located — for example, whether they’re accessing data from within the network or remotely via VPN — but that is no longer enough. New technology tools enable agencies to gain a deeper understanding of users’ online behavior so they can make more informed decisions about authentication.”

Read more insights from Thales TCT’s Vice President of Product Management, Bill Becker.

Verification and Validation to Enhance Zero Trust

“Networking teams rely on standard configurations to maintain the security policy. These standard configurations dictate connectivity and traffic flows to ensure users can access appropriate resources while preventing unauthorized access. The idea of a standard configuration seems simple, but maintaining it is extremely difficult. Validating configurations is clearly mission critical, but monitoring and validating network behavior are even more telling and help ensure that policies are not inadvertently being circumvented and that there is no unintended connectivity.”

Read more insights from Forward Networks’s Technical Solutions Architect, Kevin Kuhls.

Extending Zero Trust Down to the File Level

“A software-defined perimeter integrates proven, standards-based security tools to create the ideal foundation for zero trust. When used together, those two approaches give agencies the granularity to customize their security protocols. For example, the IT team could allow USB mice but not USB thumb drives that can store data, and they could block potentially unwanted applications that anti-malware engines might not identify as malicious, such as bitcoin-mining or file-sharing apps. Zero trust is a mindset rather than a specific group of tools. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Special Publication 800-207 on zero trust architecture advocates taking a holistic approach to authenticating devices and users and extending that attitude to agency assets, services and workflows.”

Read more insights from OPSWAT’s Senior Director of Government Sales, Michael Hylton.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these government cybersecurity leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

The Best of What’s New In Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

State and local governments are dramatically expanding their deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), moving the use of these technologies from theoretical to practical. More governments are using AI in the form of machine learning to scour system activity logs to detect suspicious behavior that may signal a cyberattack. Intelligent software can automate this task and perform it at a scale that’s difficult for humans to match. But although states and localities are moving rapidly to take advantage of AI and ML, the first wave of deployments often focused on individual programs or tasks: chatbots, for example, that answer questions about unemployment insurance claims or help utility customers restore service. Broader and deeper use of AI will require governments to rethink traditional data management policies and upskill IT teams. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in artificial intelligence and machine learning in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

From Call Center to ‘Experience’ Center

“Agent assistance is a great example of how AI can improve both the agent experience and the customer experience. An agent assistance solution detects keywords within a spoken or written dialogue, and then uses those keywords to automatically present helpful information to the agent. In the case of new hires or agents who lack subject expertise, this type of solution not only saves time. It provides “training wheels” for the agent until they’re up to speed. AI models like agent assistance can also learn from agent feedback. Agents basically agree or disagree with the information that the AI presents, which helps the AI solution continually refine what it provides based on the context.”

Read more insights from Genesys’s Principal Solution Consultant, Nathan Hamrick.

Why Wait? Simple Strategies Put AI and ML Within Reach

“You don’t have to be a data scientist or develop custom models to be effective. There are very good AI solutions that are purpose built for specific use cases and don’t require customization, such as our Vision AI. I would start there. A software engineer can do what’s needed, and the solution will likely address a lot of the organization’s needs. Over time, software engineers and others can expand their skillset to retrain custom models in lightweight ways for slightly different use cases the generalized AI doesn’t accommodate. For example, Google Cloud’s Auto-ML products can be used by non-data scientists to retrain our best-in-class AI models for more custom use cases. Just remember that the AI solution is only one part of a larger automated processing use case, and organizations need to plan for how AI is going to be incorporated into that bigger process, so it can be used efficiently.”

Read more insights from Google Cloud Public Sector’s Strategic Business Executive, Chris Haas.

Reducing Complexity and Preparing for Success

“Zero trust security is becoming a common expectation for managing access. The basic concept is that the network should not assume any user is trustworthy — regardless of whether they’re outside the network or already in. Organizations using a zero trust approach implement access controls inside and outside the network. Another important tactic is to minimize the number of handoffs. In other words, simplify the network architecture. Nodes — and connections between those nodes — create complexity, and complexity leads to management challenges and greater risk.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Senior Manager of Professional Services Strategy, Timur Nersesov.

Building a Human-Centered Foundation for Advanced Analytics

“Organizations often struggle to advance because of legacy processes. It’s important to be open to new thinking and new methodologies to accelerate the maturation process. Many organizations also lack a solid grasp of their strengths and weaknesses regarding analytics. In addition, their processes may be hostage to legacy systems, data silos or poor alignment across enterprise teams. To address these issues, organizations often need to work first on breaking down traditional barriers between data scientists, IT, citizen data scientists, analysts and domain experts. One way to support this is via a unified, human-centered analytics platform. Such a platform augments human capability regardless of one’s technical acumen, which allows everyone to take advantage of geospatial, predictive and ML-based analytic capabilities to collaborate, innovate and solve problems.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Vice President of Sales for State and Local Government and Education, Chuck Ellstrom.

Getting the Most from a Next-Generation Contact Center Platform

“AI enables better automation that empowers both end customers and agents through high-quality self-service and agent assistance. Numerous studies have shown that citizens and customers alike prefer self-service channels. Intelligent automation can make those channels much more effective with AI-powered virtual assistants and agents — not just for informational requests, but also for more complex transactions like understanding eligibility or checking claim status. In addition, intelligent automation can help increase agent productivity through things like agent assistance and help new agents become effective faster, which ultimately results in a better citizen experience.”

Read more insights from Talkdesk’s Vice President of Industry and Strategy for Public Sector, John Bastin.

Reimagining Talent Management

“A single platform is uniquely able to provide deep insights at scale. When you can use AI on one side to rationalize job requirements and on the other side to create a capabilities matrix of individual job seekers, you create some very powerful outcomes. So, a talent intelligence platform really becomes foundational to enabling a number of use cases such as dramatically reducing the time to re-employment, minimizing underemployment and reimagining learning and apprenticeship opportunities. And because AI is self-learning, a talent intelligence platform means these outcomes continually improve over time.”

Read more insights from Eightfold AI’s Vice President of Applied AI & Public Sector, Dan Hopkins.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these AI/ML thought leaders and additional industry research from GovTech.

Teaming Up on Emerging Technologies

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

In recent years, agencies’ growing need for IT modernization has prompted their biggest suppliers — federal systems integrators (FSIs) — to look for innovative ways to meet that need. FSIs’ deep working knowledge of government operations gives them a distinct advantage, but to provide all the expertise an agency needs on a contract, FSIs have always partnered with subcontractors. Now they are broadening their reach by seeking out cutting-edge companies that can help them develop solutions that incorporate the latest innovations in technology and strategy. Those “greater than the sum of their parts” solutions have a profound impact on agencies’ ability to meet mission-critical demands in a wide range of areas. In a recent survey of FCW readers, only 19% said they always know about the latest technologies. Adopting those technologies requires acquisition processes that are fast and flexible. 75% of respondents said their agencies rely on FSIs for complex IT projects. Many agencies are turning to agile methodologies, either on their own or with contractors, to develop and deliver solutions incrementally rather than taking years to launch a complete system. How can FSIs continue to meet these needs by partnering with innovative tech companies and small businesses? Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in emerging technology in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government^® report.

A Risk-Adaptive Approach to Data Security

“Protecting data in today’s heterogeneous, highly dynamic IT environments is one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges agencies face, especially now that data is potentially being stored and touched by many people, devices, apps, services and systems. That’s why a strong data protection strategy goes well beyond encryption to incorporate zero trust principles. Rapidly changing IT environments and continuously evolving cyber threats require proactive, high-performing cybersecurity solutions that can adapt on the fly and constantly answer questions about what’s happening to data in terms of who, when, where, what and how. It is essential to create a platform in which tools and analytics can be integrated quickly to respond to current threats. In other words, rather than hundreds of best-of-breed solutions stitched together, agencies require a comprehensive, integrated solution.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Senior Director of Global Alliances, Jenn Azzolina, and Raytheon Intelligence and Spaces’s CTO of Cybersecurity and Special Missions, Michael Daly.

Eliminating the Boundaries to Health Care

“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the reality that our health care system is not a system at all but a series of disconnected providers who struggle to coordinate with one another and support patients on their health journeys. The first generation of health IT was not built around patients. A patient is a different person in every medical system he or she encounters; hence, continuity of care across providers is filled with barriers. The same challenges are pervasive in federal, state and local government health agencies. Even when data comes into a system in a timely manner, it’s often unstructured and cannot be reconciled with the existing record. That puts a heavier burden on doctors, who have to build their own mental model of what a particular patient needs.”

Read more insights from Perspecta’s Chief Medical Information Officer, Shane McNamee, M.D. and Red Hat’s Field CTO for Federal Health, Ben Cushing.

A Framework for Achieving Data Intelligence

“Highly adaptive adversaries confront the U.S. and its allies in every domain: air, sea, space, land and cyber. The aircraft, satellites, ships and ground vehicles that military forces operate collect an abundance of information, but processing and analyzing that amount of data can be daunting, especially given the multiple levels of security in which systems must operate. The Defense Department is pursuing a new way of warfighting based on a concept called joint all-domain operations. By synchronizing major systems and crucial data, DOD provides a complete picture of the battlespace and empowers warfighters to quickly make decisions that drive action so they can disrupt and overwhelm adversaries in seconds versus minutes when seconds really matter. There’s a new asset helping DOD and its allies realize this vision of the future battlespace: data.”

Read more insights from Collibra’s Senior Vice President for Public Sector, Aileen Black, and Lockheed Martin’s Vice President, Mike Baylor.

Partnering to Modernize the Customer Experience

“Working together allows ServiceNow and GDIT to respond to newly emerging capabilities very quickly. Because of its deep understanding of government agencies’ business operations, culture and processes, GDIT can support ServiceNow’s ability to deliver value in new ways. In one example, GDIT saw increasing demand from government customers for solutions authorized at the FedRAMP High level and helped ServiceNow meet this capability. The company now has an offering on Microsoft’s Azure cloud that has been authorized at FedRAMP High and the Defense Department’s Impact Level 5. In another example, GDIT uses insights from initiatives for large federal agencies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, to drive investments in leading-edge capabilities that have the best chance of achieving the desired outcomes.”

Read more insights from ServiceNow’s Vice President of Solution Consulting, Anto Tossounian, and GDIT’s Vice President of Federal Civilian, Brian Fogg.

Constructing a Next-Generation Data Architecture

“The conversation about data should start and stop with the mission impact and how quality data can improve decision-making and customer services. Once they have a clear understanding of their internal and external data assets — what data they have and how it can be used, along with the owners and sources of that data — agencies can progress toward intuitive AI-driven data catalogs. In addition, agencies should encourage a data-savvy culture across all layers of the organization and continually improve their data so that they can take advantage of modern applications. The volumes of government data would overwhelm any on-premises system, so moving to the cloud is essential for building a modern data architecture. However, simply lifting existing datasets into the cloud doesn’t solve the problem. People will work the way their data is organized, so rather than build data silos and create siloed workforces, agencies must combine data to empower their employees.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Chief Federal Technologist, Nicholas Speece, and Deloitte’s Principal of Strategy and Analytics, Vishal Kapur.

A Faster Route to Secure Cloud Adoption for DOD

“Three substantive challenges have made it difficult for Defense Department agencies to adopt cloud technology. First is the complex and lengthy procurement process to obtain cloud services. Second are the networking and security challenges to establish a cloud environment and connection. Third is the costly challenge of refactoring applications for a specific cloud environment. The partnership between DISA’s milCloud 2.0 contract, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and VMware effectively eliminates all three of these challenges. A native, on-demand milCloud 2.0 VMware environment dramatically simplifies migrations, lowers the risk of cloud adoption by eliminating the refactoring of applications and workloads, and allows users to leverage familiar VMware solutions for a consistent operating model across their enterprise.”

Read more insights from VMware’s Vice President of Federal Sales, Bill Rowan, and GDIT’s Partner Accounts Director for milCloud 2.0, Brian Whitenight.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these government emerging technology thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

The Best of What’s New in Government Performance and Innovation

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

The COVID-19 crisis underscores the growing importance of data analytics to state and local governments as they tackle complex challenges. It also shows how technological improvements are making data-driven insights easier to achieve and share. Although the COVID-19 response kicked public sector data analytics efforts into high gear, states and localities have been steadily working to become more data-driven over the past several years. Twenty-eight states now have a chief data officer (CDO), and similar positions are found throughout local government. The rise of the CDO is just one indication of the push among states and localities to use data to improve internal operations, strengthen citizen services, improve safety, and boost transparency and engagement. Learn the latest insights from industry thought leaders in government performance and innovation initiatives in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Continue reading →

The Next Phase of AI in Government

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

For government, artificial intelligence (AI) promises to streamline operations, facilitate decision-making and improve customer services in ways that weren’t possible before. Agencies have already begun using machine learning, robotic process automation, the internet of things and other AI tools to improve operations, but in many ways, AI’s potential is still untapped. In a recent survey of FCW readers, 72% said their agencies have not begun deploying AI-based tools, and 70% said their teams had no training in data science or AI. Learn the latest insights from industry thought leaders in artificial intelligence in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.
Continue reading →