Shawn McCarthy

  • The White House is looking for new ways to stay ahead of the technology curve. One consideration is to upgrade its smart phones from blackberries to Androids or other smartphones. But making the switch is not that easy. There are things to consider such as security issues, effectiveness, and cost. For perspective, Tom and Emily spoke with Shawn McCarthy research director at IDC Government on the Federal Drive. He explains why the White House is not switching from using the blackberry in the near future.

    June 02, 2014
  • The popularity of big data is helping your agency earn more money for its information technology budget. IT spending across the federal government rose about half a billion dollars over the past two years. A third of the overall spending goes to the IT infrastructure that keeps the big data flowing. Shawn McCarthy, research director for IDC Government Insights, was Francis Rose's guest for Industry Chatter.

    March 27, 2014
  • On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories and resources we discuss.

    December 26, 2013
  • On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories and resources we discuss.

    July 18, 2013
  • Kevin Brancato of Bloomberg Government talks about cuts Congress is facing from sequestration. Shawn McCarthy of IDC Government Insights discusses how much agencies are spending on cybersecurity. Attorney Debra Roth explains what rights employees have if they are singled out unfairly for furlough. Karen Heath of the USPS discusses how her office deciphers poor handwritten addresses. Peter Suber of the Harvard Open Access Project advocates for greater access to federally-funded research.

    February 26, 2013
  • Shawn McCarthy is the research director at IDC Government Insights.

    June 30, 2011
  • The argument is over Google\'s Apps for Government. Google says they\'re FISMA certified. But Microsoft has released some court documents to refute that.

    April 15, 2011
  • Shawn McCarthy, research director for IDC Government Insights, describes some IT budget trends and what they could mean for your agency in the long-run.

    March 04, 2011
  • Federal agencies have been ordered to consolidate their datacenters, and both government IT managers and commercial systems integrators are focusing on select open source solutions and open software stacks to help ease this transition. IDC\'s Shawn McCarthy explains how all this works together.

    December 08, 2010