Join Carahsoft at Agentforce World Tour D.C.

Posted on by Bethany Blackwell

Are you ready to explore the future of AI-powered CRM and connect with industry leaders? Join Carahsoft at the Agentforce World Tour D.C. on March 19 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center! At this year’s event, experience exciting and informative demos, expert-led sessions and innovative speakers informing on the latest industry trends and products available. Explore virtual, hands-on trainings to learn how Salesforce can support your organization’s productivity and delivering modernized solutions.

Why Attend?

As a proud Groundbreaker sponsor, Carahsoft is excited to showcase how we are helping Public Sector organizations leverage Salesforce’s innovative solutions. Visit our booth #102 in the Campground (exhibit hall) to gain insights on:

How AI is revolutionizing government service delivery

Success stories from federal agencies leveraging Salesforce

Ways to maximize your existing Salesforce investments

Featured Government Sessions

Do not miss these insightful sessions focused on Public Sector innovation:

AI for Government: Responsible Implementation Strategies

FedRAMP and Compliance: Navigating Security in the Cloud

Digital Service Transformation: Agency Success Stories

Meet Our Leadership Team

Connect in person with Carahsoft’s onsite Salesforce leadership team members:

Bethany Blackwell, Kate McDonald, Victoria Ritter, Tyler Miller, Stephen Dickerson, Allison Mackin, Brian Mays, Kathryn Rodriguez, Terra Fawley, Kelsey Hall, Giovanni Rodriguez, Laura Howton, Sebastian Pagliarello and Tayo Akinduro.

The #1 Networking Event: Public Sector Reception

Continue the conversation at the anticipated after-party of Agentforce World Tour D.C.!

Details:

Date: March 19

Location: Planet Word Museum, Washington, D.C.

Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Join Government leaders, Salesforce experts and industry partners at our annual reception that brings together the entire Public Sector Salesforce ecosystem for an evening of networking and collaboration.

Carahsoft Salesforce Agentforce World Tour Blog Embedded Image 2025

Event Sponsors

We thank our reception sponsors who make this premier networking event possible:

Slalom, Brite Systems, S-Docs, IBM, Booz Allen, Southpoint Consulting, Sprout Social, Flosum, Odaseva, MB&A/Gridmate, ThunderYard, Higher Echelon, V3 Gate, Second Front, Copado, Provar and Accenture.

Cannot Make It to D.C.?

The Agentforce World Tour is coming to a city near you! Contact Salesforcemarketing@carahsoft.com to learn how we can partner at upcoming events:

April 14: Denver

April 24: Minneapolis

May 21: NYC

June 26: Boston

October 14-16: San Francisco at Dreamforce

Additionally, join us one of our collaborative Innovation Days events featuring Salesforce, tailored specifically for State, Local and Education agencies within the Public Sector. Check out the full line up of cities and dates coming up soon!

With the rise of AI in business, agencies and organizations must ensure they are modernizing to utilize the unlimited potential of AI in the Public Sector. Whether you are new to Salesforce or familiar with all Agentforce World Tour has to offer, join us to engage in a full day of innovation and pursuing the advantages AI and other technologies.

Register with Carahsoft now and secure your spot at Agentforce World Tour D.C. to learn more about how Salesforce can help your agency modernize and improve efficiency!

Transforming Public Sector Efficiency: A Two-Pronged Approach to Modernization

Posted on by Josh Green

Throughout the history of government technology adoption, agencies have continually adapted to the ever-changing technological landscape. With the increasing demand for digital governance, the drive to modernize both the workforce and the citizen experiences is more important than ever. This dual focus ensures that agencies can not only improve their internal operations but also foster stronger, more responsive relationships with the public. This means fulfilling their overall missions easier than ever while rising to meet the ever-growing expectations of the people they serve.

Modernizing the Workforce

Government employees are the backbone of public service, working day in and day out to ensure that citizens receive the support they need. As the demands on these employees grow more complex, it’s crucial that we provide them not just with advanced tools, but with a work environment that fosters collaboration and encourages ongoing learning. The shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about creating a culture where innovation thrives, and where every team member feels empowered to contribute to the agency’s mission.

With a rising demand for digital services, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector employees have faced unprecedented challenges. From adopting new technologies to managing complex workflows to rapidly adapting to this surge in service demands, their roles have become more fundamental than ever. This period highlighted the importance of equipping government workers with the skills and tools needed to thrive in a digital-first environment.

To navigate these challenges effectively, agencies must prioritize seamless collaboration and strategic work management. This involves adopting tools that enhance communication, align projects with agency goals, and provide transparency into progress. We’ve seen that by fostering a culture of collaboration and transparency, agencies can ensure that every project contributes to the broader mission, empowering employees to deliver results more efficiently.

Adobe Transforming Public Sector Efficiency Modernization Blog Embedded Image 2024

Moreover, modernization also means streamlining outdated processes that have long hindered efficiency. For example, enrollment processes have traditionally been slow and cumbersome, often relying on paper-based systems. By modernizing these workflows through automation and digital tools, agencies can reduce administrative burdens, improve accuracy, and speed up service delivery. This allows government employees to focus on more strategic tasks, ultimately enhancing the overall employee experience. These enrollment processes are not simply internal agency constraints but also form a core element of the drive to modernize the citizen experience as well.

Modernizing Citizen Experiences

In today’s digital world, citizens expect the same level of service from government agencies as they do from their favorite online retailers. This means that government websites and online services need to be intuitive, accessible, and responsive to the needs of every user. By prioritizing user-centered design and using data to inform decisions, agencies can ensure that their digital platforms are not only functional but also welcoming. It’s about making every interaction count, whether it’s a simple information request or a more complex service transaction.

It is often the case that the online presence of a government agency is the first point of contact for residents seeking information or services. However, many government websites still struggle with outdated designs and inconsistent content, which can negatively affect public perception and engagement. This is why creating those meaningful, personalized experiences is an integral part of digital transformation in the public sector. By doing so, agencies can create more cohesive, accessible, and engaging digital services that resonate with citizens. This approach ensures that online interactions are intuitive and aligned with the diverse needs of the public, leading to higher satisfaction and trust in government services.

Furthermore, in an era where information is consumed rapidly across multiple channels, the ability to quickly create, manage, and distribute content is crucial. Delays in content delivery can result in missed opportunities for engagement and a failure to address the immediate needs of citizens. By increasing content velocity—improving internal workflows, streamlining content management, and ensuring that content is tailored to specific audiences—agencies can more effectively communicate with the public, delivering prompt and relevant information that enhances citizen engagement.

Conclusion

The challenges facing government agencies today are significant, but they also present opportunities for innovation and growth. Modernizing the workforce and citizen experiences are two sides of the same coin in the journey toward a more efficient and responsive government. By adopting strategies that streamline work management, modernize enrollment processes, enhance web experiences, and increase content velocity, agencies can better serve their citizens and build a stronger connection between government and the public it serves. This dual approach to modernization is essential for navigating the challenges of the digital age and fulfilling the mission of serving citizens effectively.

View our Adobe webinar series to learn more about creating experience-driven government services.

Enterprise Service Management in the Physical Realm: Understanding PPESM

Posted on by Ross Marks

Public sector organizations face a unique challenge: efficiently managing a vast array of property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) while adhering to strict regulations and budgetary constraints. Traditional methods, relying on siloed systems like spreadsheets and paper forms, create a tangled web of inefficiency. Here’s where Plant, Property & Equipment Service Management (PPESM) steps in, offering a modern, extensible solution for the entire asset lifecycle.

PPESM: A Real-World Example

Imagine a U.S. Navy shipyard bustling with activity. A complex web of stakeholders — the yard, contractors, the Navy, the ship’s crew, and various regulatory bodies — collaborate on critical repairs to ensure a ship’s timely return to service. Traditionally, this process has been plagued by paper forms, communication silos, and the high cost of mistakes. Let’s see how PPESM can revolutionize this environment.

PPESM replaces paper forms and carbon copies with a centralized digital platform. Work requests, inspections, condition found reports, and corrective actions are all electronically submitted and tracked, ensuring real-time visibility. Automated workflows keep everyone informed and expedite the repair process, and digital forms with pre-populated fields and data validation minimize the potential for errors and rework.

But there’s more. Plant, Property & Equipment Service Management goes beyond process improvements; it delivers tangible business and strategic results with on-time availability completion, continuous yard improvement, and increased stakeholder satisfaction.

How PPESM works

PPESM: A Holistic Approach to Asset Management

PPESM builds upon the foundation of Enterprise Service Management (ESM), extending its capabilities to address the specific needs of PP&E. Imagine a single, user-friendly system that seamlessly tracks assets from acquisition request to decommissioning. PPESM delivers this vision, empowering government agencies with:

Centralized Asset Register: Consolidate data from disparate sources into a central repository, providing a clear view of all assets, their locations, specifications, and maintenance history.

Streamlined Acquisition Process: Manage acquisition requests electronically, eliminating paper trails and streamlining approvals.

Automated Workflows: Automate routine tasks like scheduling preventive maintenance, generating work orders, and sending notifications for certification renewals.

Mobile Functionality: Empower field service technicians with mobile access to asset data, work orders, and service manuals, allowing for real-time updates and improved efficiency.

Enhanced Reporting and Analytics: Gain valuable insights into asset health, utilization rates, and maintenance costs. Use this data to optimize resource allocation and make data-driven decisions.

How PPESM Bolsters Security and Compliance

PPESM strengthens your organization’s security posture by centralizing asset data and access controls. User permissions can be tailored to specific roles, minimizing unauthorized access to sensitive information. Additionally, by automating document management and streamlining compliance workflows, PPESM ensures critical certifications and approvals are never missed, reducing the risk of being out of compliance and operational disruptions. This centralized, auditable system provides a clear picture of your assets and compliance activities, fostering transparency and accountability.

Addressing the Challenges of Smaller Asset Pools

PPESM offers particular benefits for organizations with smaller asset pools (under a few hundred). These agencies often struggle with inefficient ad-hoc methods. PPESM provides:

Reduced Breakdowns: Preventative maintenance becomes a breeze with automated scheduling and reminders. Early detection of issues minimizes equipment failures and extends lifespans.

Compliance Made Easy: Never miss a certification deadline again. PPESM tracks upcoming renewals and simplifies document management, ensuring smooth compliance audits.

Optimized Scheduling: Eliminate scheduling conflicts with a centralized, accessible system. Prioritize critical projects with ease and improve overall operational efficiency.

Faster Approvals: Mobile access and electronic workflows expedite the approval process for maintenance requests, ensuring timely repairs and minimizing downtime.

Beyond Efficiency: The Power of PPESM

PPESM goes beyond streamlining processes. It empowers government agencies to:

Reduce Costs: Minimize breakdowns, optimize resource allocation, and decrease administrative burdens, leading to significant cost savings.

Improve Service Delivery: Faster response times, efficient maintenance scheduling, and readily available asset information enhance service delivery to citizens.

Increase Transparency: A centralized system fosters accountability and improves visibility into asset management practices.

Enhanced Decision-Making: Data-driven insights empower informed decisions about asset acquisition, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning.

A User-Centered Approach

Traditional PP&E management systems often suffer from poor usability and accessibility, hindering user adoption and data accuracy. PPESM prioritizes a user-friendly experience with:

Intuitive Interface: A modern, easy-to-navigate interface ensures user acceptance and facilitates quick adoption across departments.

Mobile Accessibility: Empower staff with on-the-go access to information and tools, fostering real-time updates and improving field service effectiveness.

Offline Functionality: Ensure uninterrupted operations even in areas with limited connectivity.

The Key to Streamlined Operations, Cost Savings & Better Decision Making

PPESM is not just a software solution; it’s a catalyst for the transformation of PP&E management. By leveraging a centralized, user-friendly system with automated workflows and mobile accessibility, PPESM empowers agencies to streamline processes, optimize resource allocation, and ensure regulatory compliance. This holistic approach ultimately translates to improved service delivery, increased cost savings, and better decision-making. As your agency strives for operational excellence, consider PPESM as the key to unlocking a future of efficient and effective asset management.

Schedule a demo with our Atlassian team to learn how you can equip your organization with service management solutions.

Partnerships for Public Sector Solutions

Posted on by Mike McCalip

Systems integrators have evolved to simplify and streamline the process of deploying complex solutions to complex agency challenges. SIs have years of experience working with agencies on the kinds of systems that have many moving parts. Therefore, they have a clear understanding of agency missions and know how to navigate the government’s procurement process. However, SIs don’t work alone. They thrive by partnering with companies that have transformative new approaches for addressing the government’s needs, such as providing innovative digital services, supporting a hybrid workforce and protecting government networks from cyberthreats. In a recent report, research firm Quadintel states that the global systems integration market was valued at $327 billion in 2021 “and is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 13% over the forecast period 2022-2028.” SIs are well-suited to helping agencies make that shift in thinking. Learn how Sis can help your agency thrive by partnering with innovative companies in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

The Power of Embracing a Partner Mindset

“Success for integrators and their partners is delivering secure solutions that provide meaningful and impactful mission outcomes. Leidos invests heavily in testing and building relevant solutions for public-sector customers to ensure that innovative technologies are cost-effective, resilient, compliant with government requirements and best positioned to solve mission problems. Investing in a continuous innovation cycle is critical. Leidos and Red Hat recognize that we are in the business of continuous modernization. When Red Hat and other key partners offer innovative new solutions, our partnerships enable us to move fast in testing and proving that the technology works and can scale to meet the government’s needs. Leidos leverages innovative technology to drive great mission outcomes in our Aviation Security Product business unit (Security Enterprise Solutions). By using cloud-native AI/ML modeling solutions, Leidos had been able to achieve significant performance gains in our process for developing algorithms for security detection products, ultimately improving travelers’ experiences at airports.”

Read more insights from Peter O’Donoghue, CTO of the Civil Group at Leidos, and Adam Clater, chief architect of the North America Public Sector at Red Hat.

A Collaboration That Far Exceeds the Sum of its Parts

“In 2020 KMPG and ServiceNow recognized that a large and newly formed Defense Department agency was facing a number of challenges in its efforts to transform its business, consolidate systems and processes, and modernize its technology. We began having conversations with the executive leadership and department heads across different lines of business to gain a clear understanding of their mission, current challenges and desired outcomes. As the ServiceNow program was being established at the agency, the customer required a robust governance and platform team to ensure utilization of development best practices and policy generation, platform management activities (e.g., upgrades) and a secure, scalable, federated development model. This technical rigor and governance structure supported the creation of a stable environment in which application development teams could configure and deploy new, unique applications rapidly.”

Read more insights from Kyle McKendrick, senior enterprise account executive at ServiceNow, and Daniel Gruber specialist managing director at KPMG.

Driving Modernization with Deep Strategic Partnerships

“In response to the challenges agencies face, Leidos has been focused on building deep strategic partnerships that help us create at-scale solutions for our government customers. These partnerships are characterized by a commitment to open lines of communication and transparency in terms of strategy and investments. We also operate in what we describe as a badgeless environment in which experts from different companies work side-by-side to engineer new capabilities and solutions.”

Read more insights from Derrick Pledger, senior vice president and CIO at Leidos.

Why Success in Zero Trust Requires a Team Effort

“Zero trust focuses on the connection between users and the data, applications, networks and systems they want to access. In zero trust architectures, new administrative tools continually evaluate whether allowing an individual user to have a certain level of access privileges is the right thing to do. The approach gives agencies much more flexibility as they modernize because they can make decisions at a granular level that enable them to secure data and entire IT ecosystems.”

Read more insights from Meghan Good, vice president and director of the Cyber Accelerator at Leidos.

How Multi-Domain Operations Accelerate Modernization

“By design, multi-domain operations must involve a broad range of partners to achieve the desired mission outcomes, particularly as threats continue to rapidly evolve. Making such a shift allows military and civilian agencies to far more rapidly add new capabilities to individual systems. The approach also enhances agencies’ ability to partner with industry to harness the power of cross-domain, cross-agency and even cross-company digital synergies.”

Read more insights from Chad Haferbier, vice president of multi-domain operations solutions at Leidos.

Balancing Speed and Security with SecDevOps

“As one of the largest systems integrators, Leidos understands the government’s mission domain and individual agencies’ unique challenges. We also know where they are in their evolution. Some are still easing toward agile and SecDevOps, whereas others have fully embraced those approaches. Our partners in the commercial world are some of the fastest, most forward-leaning technologists.”

Read more insights from Paul Burnette, vice president and director of the Software Accelerator at Leidos.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from SI cloud thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

Harnessing the Power of Cloud Technology

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

During the pandemic, government employees shifted to remote work, and the demand for digital services skyrocketed. To meet those needs, agencies turned to the cloud. The experience gave them a taste of how essential the technology is to modernization efforts. In a recent survey of FCW readers, 87% of respondents agreed with the statement that cloud technology is a foundation for modernization at their agencies. The shift to cloud-based systems often requires a corresponding shift in budgets, employee skill sets and IT management techniques. When asked what steps would enable broader use of cloud technology at their agencies, 79% of FCW respondents said revamping their approach to managing a mix of on-premises and cloud-based systems. One solution is hybrid environments, which blend in-house legacy systems with cloud services, while multi-cloud environments are spread across many cloud platforms and providers. Hybrid environments will likely be the reality for most agencies. In a recent NASCIO survey, 89% of respondents said hybrid cloud was their ideal cloud state. Learn how your agency can determine an optimal cloud strategy in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Cloud’s Unprecedented Capacity for Innovation

“To make data-driven decisions, an agency needs to be able to access its data without concern for capacity constraints based on recent storage and compute contracts. Public cloud services can offer unprecedented scale and speed, and a cloud provider like Google can help government ingest data, and compute as necessary to answer complex analytics questions in real time. Some of our customers have stored tens of petabytes of data in Google Cloud’s serverless, cost-effective multi-cloud data warehouse, BigQuery. Analysts decide what questions they should ask and BigQuery will determine how much computing is necessary to consume it on demand – all without having to manage or configure the underlying infrastructure and services.”

Read more insights from Google’s Head of Customer Engineering for Federal Civilian Agencies, Andy Murphy.

Why Cloud is the Best Path for Modernization

“Accommodating demands to boost engagement while enabling remote collaboration is a complex challenge. At Microsoft, we think about collaboration as an operating model of people, places and processes, and we’re developing capabilities based on the recognition that each dimension has its own nuances, strengths and weaknesses. For example, when cloud technology is combined with the zero trust-based security approach required by the executive order, it facilitates collaboration among government employees by granting access and participation based on identity, physical location and/or the device they’re using.”

Read more insights from Microsoft Federal’s CTO, Jason Payne.

Maximizing Mission Success with the Cloud

“Most agencies operate hybrid environments that combine on-premises systems with cloud platforms and services. However, there are challenges associated with that approach. Hybrid environments require the ability to manage a diverse set of technologies, tools and operating models and to integrate workloads, applications and services across clouds and on-premises systems. A hybrid cloud environment also changes the traditional security boundary and introduces new vulnerabilities related to the nature of off-premises managed services and the unique attributes of cloud, which include ephemeral services and API-driven, software-defined everything. Fortunately, advanced cloud-based cybersecurity solutions are helping agencies move to zero trust architectures by shifting security services from primary data centers to edge locations to enable rapid analysis and a stronger security posture.”

Read more insights from Peraton’s Vice President of Cloud and Application Services, Gary Wang, and Cloud Architect and Expert on Public Cloud Products for the U.S. Public Sector, Bob Ferrari.

How to Build an Open Hybrid Cloud Ecosystem

“When agencies have a strong cloud environment, they can leverage open source solutions to achieve key modernization goals, such as improving digital services and making better use of data. That’s because open source is at the heart of all innovation. For the past 20-plus years, open source has been where leading technologists first experiment with new ideas that often become enterprise products. Companies like Red Hat and cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google begin new projects by working upstream in the open source community and making broadly shared contributions to the Linux Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Red Hat Enterprise Linux, for one, is the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform that is fully built on open source software. The open source community is also contributing to agencies’ ability to comply with the Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity and the government’s zero trust security initiatives.”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s North America Cloud GTM Lead, Tres Vance.

Robust Databases for Modern App Development

“Cloud computing has the ability to scale on demand to support modern application development and meet user demands quickly in a secure environment. That’s why we created Atlas for Government, an independent environment of our flagship cloud product MongoDB Atlas. Atlas for Government allows federal, state and local governments to build and iterate faster using a modern database-as-a-service platform. Our innovative approach gives agencies the versatility they need to modernize legacy applications and support the unique requirements and missions of the U.S. government — in a fully managed and secure environment.”

Read more insights from MongoDB’s Sales Director, Jennifer Hayes.

Adopting Zero Trust Data Security in the Cloud

“On the National Association of State CIOs’ 2022 list of its members’ top priorities, cybersecurity is in the first slot, followed by citizen experience. Those two go hand in hand. When a school is hacked and its data stolen, that school will likely be forced to close for days. When a department of corrections is hit with a ransomware attack, it will be in lockdown. And when a public health department’s systems are breached, it will be unable to provide vital services. Those are real-world examples of impacts that are happening across the country, and they illustrate why government agencies can’t wait until tomorrow to address these vulnerabilities. CIOs, chief security officers and IT directors at all levels of government know they need to do something today because they are vulnerable every minute until they do. At Rubrik, we focus on simplifying the protection of data in the cloud while keeping the citizen experience up and running.”

Read more insights from Rubrik’s Vice President and Head of State, Local Government and Education, Jared Vichengrad.

Three Key Goals for Modern IT Environments

“To take full advantage of cloud-based technological advances, agencies must address their legacy IT. In fiscal 2022 to date, the federal government has spent roughly $83 billion on IT, as reported on ITDashboard.gov. A third, or roughly $34 billion, has been spent on the operation and maintenance of legacy IT systems. The rising cost of maintaining legacy IT crowds out investments in newer cloud-based systems that can better serve citizens and federal workers. Mission-critical legacy applications, technologies and services also have many other dependencies that make modernization difficult. Those dependencies exist in the source code and runtime platforms, leveraging specific databases and using data in proprietary formats. Additionally, agencies have unique processes to manage these applications or services and specialized employees. Simply ripping and replacing mission-critical legacy systems is not an option, so successfully modernizing legacy IT requires addressing those issues.”

Read more insights from Micro Focus Government Solution’s Public-Sector CTO, Kevin Hansen.

A Proactive, Automated Approach to Security

“First, cloud dramatically reduces the time it takes to go from the conception of an idea to production. There are no data center build-outs, no equipment purchases, no months-long planning cycles. With cloud, new technologies can be tested almost instantly. Second, cloud providers offer a nearly infinite selection of tools and applications that are readily available on demand. Third, it may not be universally true that cloud costs less, but when it’s managed right, it absolutely should cost less than on-premises systems. Although cloud technology presents agencies with a tremendous opportunity, trying to manage the extended enterprise as it expands into and across the cloud will require a proactive approach to monitoring and security.”

Read more insights from Oracle’s Director of Solution Engineering, James Donlon.

Data Protection in Hybrid Cloud Environments

“Colonial Pipeline’s situation is something of an anomaly because one study showed that 96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks. However, only 31% of organizations test their disaster recovery plans, which is crucial to ensure that agencies understand the steps involved and can respond effectively in a crisis. Therefore, agencies should choose data protection solutions that include the ability to conduct automated disaster recovery rehearsals on a regular basis. The key to any disaster recovery solution is automation. Without automation, a timely wide-scale recovery is not achievable. Agencies should also be aware that many commercial solutions were born in the enterprise data center and run on architectures that do not support autonomous solutions that scale up or down based on the client’s demand.”

Read more insights from Veritas’s Director of Sales Engineering for Public Sector, Mike Malaret.

Providing a True Mac Experience in the Cloud

“People enjoy the Mac experience and are using more and more macOS-based tools, but they often don’t have remote access to Mac hardware for their jobs. As agencies continue to provide support for remote workers, they must consider how to provide access to Macs for the employees who rely on them for development, design or general office use. Some IT teams set up a physical Mac in a data center and create a network to attach to it, but creating remote access to a machine that’s far away makes it hard to fix problems when they arise. Instead, MacStadium has developed purpose-built technologies that create cloud-based Mac desktops. Cloud Access delivers high-performance remote desktop experiences from the MacStadium cloud to any device. And this year, we are adding Orka Workspaces, which enables high-performance desktop access to cloud-hosted macOS resources via a browser from any workstation or device. Those scalable, flexible technologies can be pushed out on demand to achieve a true Mac experience.”

Read more insights from MacStadium’s Senior Vice President and CTO, Chris Chapman.

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

Your Data Literacy Guide to Improve Everyday Collaboration

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

The world of data analytics is changing faster than ever. And government employees have to keep up or get left in the dust. By 2024, 60% of government data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) projects are predicted to directly impact real-time operational decisions and outcomes. As public servants, you need to increase your literacy of the larger data ecosystem to do your jobs efficiently and effectively. This guide will help you learn four key competencies inspired by that lifecycle so you can enhance everyday collaboration and bring continuous improvement to your team and agency. The four key competencies are data visualization, data storytelling, automation and innovation. With the help of experts who do this work every day, here are best practices to help you better use and share data at work. According to the Federal Data Strategy 2021 Action Plan, “By the end of 2022, agencies should have a solid foundation throughout their workforce, including a minimum level of data literacy among all staff and a sufficient accumulation of data skills to allow for effective performance of all aspects of the data lifecycle.” Download the guide to learn how to reach these goals with the four key competencies.

Data Literacy for Government Transparency

“Technology has changed so much, but our skill sets haven’t kept pace. People and organizations that previously didn’t use data all that much suddenly have to start using it at a more advanced level. That’s why it’s imperative to establish a data literacy program at your agency. First, it needs to be agile. Data training cannot be a one-and-done deal. Second, have accessible assessments. Are you developing sustainable programs that meet people at the skill levels they’re at? And are you assessing the actual skills of your target audience, or the employees who are impacted by data? Third, co-design, or design solutions with users and stakeholders from the start. People can resist change especially when they are not involved in it. When you build data solutions or programs, you need the perspectives of users to inform the journey, particularly when they’re non-data experts.”

Read more insights from Tableau’s Senior Manager of Customer Success, State and Local Government, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and Higher Ed, Sarah Nell-Rodriquez.

What Story Is Your Data Telling?

“Let’s say defense analysts are trying to connect the dots around terrorist activity. Using various data points such as bank account numbers, location coordinates, equipment types and names, analysts can derive a cohesive “story” from the data that aids the mission. To do this, traditionally, analysts combed through data from various sources — spreadsheets, databases, cloud storage, etc. — to manually input into an Excel file and then make connections between the fields. ‘To get to a story or result on one particular mission-critical use case, it was taking six to nine months of two full-time employees just combing through this data,’ said MarkLogic’s Eric Putnam, who has worked in the U.S. defense community. In other words, this manual integration was taking too much time and too much effort.”

Read more insights from MarkLogic’s Senior Account Executive for National Security Programs, Eric Putnam.

How AI Opens Up Other Types of Data

“Imagine you have a massive cache of digital family photos, and you’re looking for images of your child’s kindergarten graduation. Sure, it’s great having all those photos on the computer, but unless you tagged them in some way, there’s no quick way to find what you need. This dilemma mirrors how valuable information can be so difficult to find when it comes in the form of ‘unstructured data.’ Unstructured data includes images, video, audio and other types of information that cannot be stored in traditional databases or analyzed with traditional data tools. Structured data appears in rows and columns that are clearly labeled, making it easy to sort and analyze. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with unstructured data.”

Read more insights from Micro Focus Government Solutions’ Senior Solution Architect for AI/ML/Data Privacy/Data Governance, Patrick Johnson.

Finding the Solution in Unexpected Places

“Democratized analytics is the technological capability that enables data workers of various technical skill levels to leverage data and share its insights with other employees of various skill levels. Put simply, it’s analytics accessible for and inclusive to all. Unified analytics is technology that allows data workers to perform the entire analytic life cycle in one place. From data prep and blend, which identifies and combines data for descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics, to machine learning, an advanced form of AI that gets smarter over time — unified analytics allows a range of data transformation processes to be done in a single location, no matter the data source or type. No-code/low-code analytics is analytics that does not require coding skills to prep, clean, analyze and share data. And we’re not talking spreadsheets here.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Director of Solutions Marketing for the Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Let’s Get Back to Basics for Collaboration

“Everyday work is more than what happens at the task level. You may think updating spreadsheets and responding to emails are low-value chores, but these and countless other tactical to-dos impact how the larger mission is carried out. How task-level activities get done reflect the health and success of strategic-level goals and initiatives. However, some federal agencies are missing out on the efficiencies and insights that can be captured at the tactical level. A survey commissioned by Smartsheet, a cloud-based work management platform provider, found that 76% of government officials estimate that using collaborative work management software could increase their organization’s efficiency. However, nearly one in three federal workers today are prevented from achieving success because their teams are siloed. Federal workers need visibility and access to information if they’re expected to collaborate with others and make informed decisions.”

Read more insights from Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Advisor for Insight Partners and Senior Fellow, Nick Sinai.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these data literacy thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of data.

Creative Projects and Compatible File Types Built for Government

Posted on by Gary Reburn

Accessibility and Compliance within the Public Sector

When designing creative projects for Government entities, there are many angles that need to be taken into consideration to ensure that your creative work can be accessed and distributed throughout as many channels as possible, with as few restrictions as possible. Depending on the type of work, this can range from closed captioning on promotional videos, to accessibility on 508 compliant documents. In the proper context, ensuring that your work is compatible for distribution can be even more important than the project itself. Focus points such as readability, interactivity, tracking, and platform distribution are paramount to making your work excel in a regulated government space. Now, let’s discuss some of the best file types for different types of projects.

Working with Portable Document Formats

Let’s start with one of the most adaptable types of multipage documents: the PDF (Portable Document Format). When creating accessible work documents, the PDF is by far one of the easiest documents to create. However, in terms of design there are many options to consider. PDF documents can be modified and converted to the EPUB format, which is essentially a document type that turns a standard digital file into a variant that is more interactive. EPUB files allow digital documents to excel and provides freedom to include videos, animated shortcuts and buttons, integrated website content and even audio tracks. In terms of expression and design freedom, an interactive EPUB can be very appealing. However, many government bodies require documents to be properly accessibly (i.e., 508 compliant). This directly refers to the document’s content being appropriately tagged, determine an assigned reading order, as well as assigning figures for the appropriate alternative tags. PDFs still excel in being able to cover all the categories in question, however sometimes a straightforward design and filetype can be the better choice depending on the audience and distribution.

Color Modes and File Types for Print and Digital Media

Visual content can be a complicated space for a new designer. Working with images may seem relatively straightforward but there are many variations of image file types and settings to consider. A classic choice is the decision between color profiles for print: RGB and CMYK. RGB is a color profile that primarily provides a higher density of contrast when mixed with light, while being viewed on a monitor or device. CMYK provides a wider range of color distribution making it the better choice for any color document being sent to print. Therefore, image quality and color profile needs to be considered first and foremost when design content. Depending on the situation images should primarily be used in the PNG format as opposed to JPEG. PNG image formatting allows content to have transparent backgrounds, which allows for more creative freedom. PNG files are also lossless in terms of reformatting, meaning they will keep their resolution over multiple saves, unlike JPEG files. This simply means that over multiple instances your images will not slowly become more and more pixelated, which is something to look out for with JPEG. WEBP files are an excellent type to use for images hosted in an online environment. While SVG files allow for use of vector images, which can scale to an infinite degree. Understanding these options will allow you to take your work to the next level in terms of productivity and compatibility.

Make Your Vision Move with Video Formats

And finally, we cannot discuss efficient file types without venturing into video production. Video files are truly where content and compatibility can become very complicated, since they are usually both large and contain audio. Fortunately, there are many options available to creators in terms of rendering out video projects and your options will vary based on what platform you will be sharing the project on. Video resolution, framerate, and size aside should all be considered when setting up a final render. In terms of output for IOS devices, the MOV video format is still one of the best options and works well with Apple’s QuickTime player. WMV is the file extension for Windows Media Video and can be thought of as the alternative platform option. MP4 video files are a standard and can encompass many different settings and are still a standard adaptable type for your projects in case its final distribution method is unknown. However, regarding video output on the web, you should consider the H264 file format. The H264 moniker refers to the compression used during the rendering stage and is popular for high-definition video. This is the file format used for most HDTV, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray. Please note that while the H264 compression can be used, it is still generally referring to an MP4 video file.

Our access to all these options is truly what allows creatives to curate quality projects for the government space. We have all the tools necessary to succeed, but we need to understand the breadth of our options in terms of what we can output. I recommend reading up on file options that are relevant to your own workflows as the knowledge will only allow you to create better and more stable content for distribution in the future.

Additionally, if you or anyone you know would like to dive deeper into the Adobe creative applications and how they can be applied to current government projects, watch the on-demand recordings from our 8-part webinar series, Reimagine Creativity through Optimized Digital Collaboration. Explore how Adobe is inspiring government agencies nationwide to elevate their use of creativity and design through state of the art digital solutions. Our product specialists take a deep dive into the newest tools, features, and upgrades, in efforts to increase productivity and ramp up your existing creative workspace.

Minimizing Your Cybersecurity Risk in the Public Sector

Posted on by Jason Pohlman and Jeremey Pommerening

Eighty-eight percent of government agencies have experienced at least one cyberattack in the past two years. Why? Public sector organizations offer an abundance of sensitive data for hackers, including social security numbers, confidential health and finance records, and valuable intellectual property. The number of ransomware and cybercrime events aimed at government agencies will only continue to grow. Such attacks cost organizations an average of 21 days of downtime and 287 days to fully recover.

The days are gone when an agency could install a cybersecurity solution and stop worrying; unfortunately, antivirus programs can easily be bypassed. Even if organizations implement the latest and greatest solutions, they may leave some holes that they thought they had secured. The fact is that there are a whole host of things that agencies need to do to really protect themselves now, including repetitive training and education of end users. There are also a number of technological solutions that agencies can use to protect their data.

Central Logging

If your system doesn’t perform logging, then when malware hits your organization, you cannot tell where it originated from and how it is spreading. Central logging is particularly important. Hackers might be able to get on a local system and change logs to cover their tracks. But unless they get access to the central logs, it’s possible for an agency to track where they’ve been. It’s important to find the initial source of an attack, but often agencies can’t locate it until they start looking through logs.

Multifactor Authentication

The famous attack of Solar Winds could have been mitigated or even prevented if the company had used stronger passwords, role-based access, and multifactor authentication. Multifactor authentication, in particular, gives an extra layer of protection. Even if an attacker is able to harvest credentials they don’t have the additional information needed to access the target account which is usually out of the attackers control.

Incident Response Team

It’s important to have a team in place to respond in case of an incident. Your organization needs to know not only who is on such a team, but also what each person is responsible for. The team should meet regularly, test backups, and do tabletop simulations; they should have a plan in place if the agency encounters ransomware. The incident response team should include representatives from all your organization’s stakeholders to make sure you have a workable plan to get back online as soon as possible.

Copies of Your Data

Backups are absolutely mission critical to the overall function to the organization. Experts recommend having three copies of your data in at least two different forms of media: spinning disk, SSD, or NVMe drives that are paired with tangible disk or tape. One copy should be off site; make sure that backups flow from on premises to the cloud server, which is making that offside bounce or potentially landing and then copying that data or just moving the entire chain off. This ensures geographic separation of the data.

When ransomware was new and attackers started encrypting files, nobody anticipated it. If you didn’t have good backups, then you were in a bind. Agencies run the same risk today if something newer than ransomware comes out and gets past all their defenses. Everyone needs to have a good backup strategy so that they can recover if something does get through.

It’s critical to test the backups. Make sure you have a plan in place to test the backup daily, weekly, or monthly. Your daily backup routine should include everything: your email, your app server that you were developing yesterday, all that unique data that needs to be available for the end users. At the end of the day, recovering from a ransomware attack usually comes down to whether you have a good backup and recovery strategy.

Zero Trust

Zero Trust is treating every network identity as a potential threat. Once you start thinking like that, you can break down where you need to focus your attention. Zero Trust really came about because cybersecurity used to focus primarily on perimeter protection. But the perimeter, the edge, is now distributed more than ever and most recently because of Covid—with so many people working from home—the perimeter has disappeared in a lot of ways. Zero Trust reminds agencies that it’s important to secure endpoint devices, not just on-premises devices—but do some sort of posture checking somewhere along the pathway when accessing data.

View our webinar to learn more about Otava can support your cybersecurity missions and help your agency reduce public sector-specific risks by understanding today’s cybersecurity climate.

Monitoring Just Might Prove to be a Lifesaver for the Public Sector

Posted on by Brandon Shopp

One of the business consequences from the pandemic—increased remote working—is causing technology challenges across most industries, including the public sector.

The pandemic interrupted “business as usual” and caused a spike in the need to work remotely. As a result, applications organizations once took for granted consequently became mission critical. Now, as remote work has evolved into the new normal, custom apps must not falter—in fact, the demand for them to operate at an optimized level has never been more important because even a small performance degradation or outage could be disastrous.

How can agencies best cope with the increased demand for accessibility and visibility? Their IT teams must ensure applications work as expected and users can navigate the network seamlessly. Specifically, IT teams need to bulletproof their organizations’ applications and infrastructure to ensure nothing fails. Infrastructure monitoring has never been more vital.

To troubleshoot problems impacting users in a remote work environment, IT teams must prioritize IT monitoring across applications, databases, storage, and the network. Specifically, IT pros must:

Ensure a frictionless experience for remote workers
Troubleshoot applications and system access problems
Plan for fluctuations in demand

Let’s take a closer look at how best to accomplish these goals.

Ensuring a frictionless experience for remote workers

For the remote work experience to be truly frictionless, an agency’s applications and data must be as readily available—the same way they were when all workers were onsite. If they’re in the agency’s portfolio, encourage the use of cloud-based collaboration platforms, so the workforce can continue to communicate in real time and share work products easily.

Next, be sure to develop and maintain IT dashboards to actively monitor system, application, and network health and accessibility. The dashboard should quickly and easily identify areas of quantifiable improvement. As an example, matching the number of software licenses to actual users ensures the workforce can remain productive and your agency can contain costs.

Troubleshooting applications and system access problems

For better or worse, IT support team requests increase as work conditions change. This means the agency help desk support team must be adequately staffed to carry them through the increased workload; the last thing an agency needs is employee burnout.

By providing self-service options wherever possible, individual employees can resolve common requests on their own. And, since there’s still uncertainty around when the workforce will return to the office, ensure they can request support through multiple channels such as phone, email, dedicated support applications, and collaboration tools. A VPN service is also an option for personnel needing secure remote access.

Monitoring each component application and network segment’s performance will help determine whether challenges reported by the remote worker are local to the agency or as a result of a shortage of bandwidth at the employee’s end.

Planning for fluctuations in demand

Capacity planning is challenging during “normal times.” The pandemic has introduced new fluctuations in demand as workers shift to remote work or work on site as part of a skeleton crew. Agency IT pros have an opportunity to make use of the quiet time onsite by optimizing the network and computing environment and building in future capacity for the returning workforce.

The first step is to monitor the network and computing assets to develop a baseline of behavior. Next, review the aggregated log data to determine where bottlenecks currently exist and develop and implement an improvement plan. If a given timeline for purchase and implementation is greater than the agency’s tolerance for risk, consider whether the workload can be safely and quickly migrated to a cloud service provider or product offering. In addition to reducing the procurement cycle, a cloud offering may provide fast scaling that meets demand automatically.

Meeting mission requirements

Change is challenging for any organization. The pandemic has accelerated change faster than any IT pro could have anticipated. That said, there’s absolutely a way to continue with “business as usual”—ensuring the agency workforce can continue to meet mission requirements.

Visit our website for more information on key features of network performance monitoring.

How Using a Cloud Security Management System Can Enhance Network & Email Safety

Posted on by Willis Zhang

Eighty-eight percent of public sector organizations have faced at least one cyber attack over the past two years, according to an independent study. Preventing attacks against IT infrastructures is a top priority for all agencies. However, public-sector cybersecurity teams face some fundamental challenges in the race to stay ahead of malicious actors and their increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.

Here’s a look at how a cloud security management system can help. Continue reading →