Digital Modernization: Managed Services

Teri-Lee Holland, division head for data center and cloud hosting services, performs engineering work for sailors, including cloud hosting services for payroll and HR systems.

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VA pushing out about 150,000 help desk end users to their homes as the result of the pandemic was a feat which Lynette Sherrill in the Office of Information Technology’s said only a managed service provider could have spanned as quickly as it did.

The document was not only for its employees and other agencies the DIA works with — it was also a message to vendors and other partners on what the needs are and how they can help.

Managed services have come a long way in the 30 years since federal agencies first sought to escape the cycle of buying, maintaining and replacing PCs and the software they ran. Today vendors offer a range of up-to-date programs that lower the capital expenditure, or CapEx, obligations and move them to a recurring fee operational expense, or OpEx model.

  • TSA plans to set up ‘data mesh,’ coordinate efforts through cloud center of excellence

    “Our goal is to allow for our users, our business users, across TSA to be able to better access their data and have it readily available,” Deputy CIO Kristin Ruiz said.

  • An industry perspective on CISA’s latest plan to get more software security assurances from vendors

    Starting sometime next year, companies that want to sell software to the government will need to sign new attestations – certifying that they have taken certain steps to make sure their software is secure. Earlier this month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released its latest draft of the form companies will need to submit. One of the biggest changes is the attestations will have to be signed by a company’s CEO. But there are several other updates, too. For more about them and get an industry perspective, Federal News Network Deputy Editor Jared Serbu talked with Leopold Wildenauer, the Senior Manager for Public Sector Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council.

  • Air Force working to transform with new 10 x 10 vision

    The Department of the Air Force needs to work on several areas to meet its modernization and transformation goals, including improving data quality and accessibility, complying with set DoD standards, retiring legacy systems and thinking about how it can improve to meet its future needs.

  • NASA wants to be your new favorite streaming app

    NASA is taking a page from big time TV streaming services as it revamps its multimedia offerings. This month, the agency relaunched its longstanding NASA TV service, which is now called “NASA plus.” There is a new mobile app to go with it.

  • The quantum battle for the Indo-Pacific theater: Intersections of technology and territory

    Quantum technologies have the potential to revolutionize various fields, from communication and cryptography to material science, financial modeling, drug development, logistics, navigation and more. However, both the U.S. and China recognize the significance of quantum in enabling new military capabilities such as advanced sensing and imaging technologies, quantum radar, and quantum cyber-attacks.

  • New DHS supply chain center aims to head off future crises

    DHS’s new Supply Chain Resilience Center will aim to marshal stakeholders to help avoid the type of shortages and bottlenecks that roiled the country during COVID-19.

  • Turning the White House AI EO into action

    The White House executive order on artificial intelligence gathered into one place all the concerns and cautions floating around for years. How to protect privacy in training data. How to avoid algorithmic bias. For more on how agencies can improve their AI game, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the founder of the FAIR Institute, Nick Sanna.

  • Average security-clearance-processing speed, hits a speed bump

    The federal government’s made huge progress in reducing security clearance processing times over the last several years. But there are some early signs of backsliding. As Federal News Network reported last week, the latest data shows top secret investigations took an average of 115 days in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 – up from 84 days during the same period last year.