Podcasts about federal it

Jeremy Wood is a Federal IT implementer, strategist, and enthusiast specializing in complex business systems. He focuses on providing value to business through technology solutions to reduce cost and increase efficiency. Jeremy is currently in a pivotal role at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will help transform both the business and IT roles and systems through planning, alternative analysis, developing business cases, and facilitating the investment review process. He is also the host of The Geek Within Podcast where he talks to people in his network that have passion projects, side hustles, or amazing hobbies in addition to their day job. Listen NOW to discover, "How To Monetize Your Passion Project"

Today's guest is Stephen Bailey, Chief Technology Officer at Chainbridge Solutions. Founded in 2010, Chainbridge Solutions is a woman-owned small business specializing in workforce security software solutions for the public sector. Their solutions have been rigorously tested and implemented across numerous government agencies and organizations, incorporating optimal PERSEC workflows that align with government regulations and industry best practices. Stephen is crucial in driving the technical, strategic and innovation efforts at Chainbridge Solutions. With over 25 years of experience in the Federal IT sector, Stephen brings a proven track record in technology integration. Stephen leads the R&D team, which incubates new ideas and innovations to enhance Chainbridge Solutions' application modernization capabilities. He is the driving force behind the company's technological evolution, consistently aligning IT strategies with the ever-evolving demands of the digital landscape. In the episode, Stephen talks about: His Federal GovCon career from HR to CTO at Chainbridge, How Chainbridge improves federal background checks for safer onboarding, Prototyping solutions to enhance efficiency for federal clients, Streamlining DoD budgeting workflows with a ServiceNow tracking solution, How their dedicated Scrum teams tailor solutions to client needs, How BRIDGESECURE simplifies continuous vetting for federal compliance, Focus on applying AI to federal use cases through ServiceNow, Seeking skilled, communicative engineers for growth and product management, Why ServiceNow is a great career accelerator & why strong communication is key, Offering a fast, nimble and innovative work culture

The DOJ shuts down the Warzone rat. Ransomware hits over twenty Romanian hospitals, and Rysida gets a decryptor. Canada may ban the Flipper Zero. Chinese espionage claims against the US are light on facts. Australia looks to criminalize doxxing. Federal IT leaders seek better coordination with CISA and the JCDC. Wired looks at the effect of cyberattacks on inequality. Our guest is Manny Felix, Founder and CEO of US Cyber Initiative, sharing their work in unlocking cyber career opportunities for young people. And this thumb drive will self-destruct in five seconds. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Manuel "Manny" Felix, Founder and CEO of US Cyber Initiative, sharing their work in unlocking career opportunities for young people who are interested in cyber and emergent technology. US Cyber Initiative grew out of AZ Cyber. Learn more about AZ Cyber here.  Selected Reading DOJ shuts down ‘Warzone' malware vendor and charges two in connection (The Record) Ransomware attack forces 18 Romanian hospitals to go offline (BleepingComputer) Decryptor for Rhysida ransomware is available (Help Net Security) Canada moves to ban the Flipper Zero amid rising auto theft concerns (TECHSPOT) China's Cyber Revenge | Why the PRC Fails to Back Its Claims of Western Espionage (SentinelOne) ‘Doxxing' laws to be brought forward after Jewish WhatsApp leak  (The Sydney Morning Herald) Exclusive: Duke Energy to remove Chinese battery giant CATL from Marine Corps Base (Reuters) Federal IT officials call on CISA for tougher standards, more coordination (FedScoop) Priorities of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative for 2024 (CISA) The Hidden Injustice of Cyberattacks (WIRED) Ovrdrive USB stick with data-hiding and overheating self-destruct features nears crowdfunding goal (TechSpot) Share your feedback. We want to ensure that you are getting the most out of the podcast. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey as we continually work to improve the show.  Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © 2023 N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal IT is experiencing an explosion of complexity. At the same time, government is being asked to innovate and move faster. To meet these requirements and reduce complexity, agencies must change the way they work – both technically and culturally. In this episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk's Gail Emery is joined by Brian Mikkelsen, Datadog's vice […]

GovCast had a banner year in 2023, featuring dozens of interviews with federal IT leaders, officials and experts. We take a look back at the year's work around AI, zero-trust implementation and many other issues and topics facing all IT staffs throughout government. On this year-end episode of GovCast, Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune, and Staff Writers Jayla Whitfield and Jordan McDonald as they reflect on the most memorable episodes and themes of 2023. Featured conversations include: 1:00: Brian Mazanec, Deputy Director, Office of Preparedness in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response 5:15: Will Cahoe, 10x Program Communications Lead, GSA 9:00: Wayne Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal and Cyber Division, FBI Washington Field Office 13:00: Francis O'Hearn, CIO, U.S. Mint 14:45: Melvin Brown II, Deputy CIO, Office of Personnel Management

Bad actors accessing sensitive government data through vulnerable weak points is an ongoing concern for federal IT officials, who are making securing data a top priority amid digital modernization. Challenges in data security arise when you need to balance it with efficient data access while keeping threat actors out. In this episode, we break down some of the best practices in this area and feature insights from federal leaders at the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense. Cited officials include: Army Cyber Command's Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett (https://governmentciomedia.com/live-afcea-technet-cyber-army-cyber-command-tackles-emerging-trends-cyber-workforce ) DOD Principal Director for Cybersecurity Mark Hakun  (https://governmentciomedia.com/listen-dods-portfolio-management-office-accelerates-adoption-zero-trust ) VA Deputy CISO Jeff Spaeth (https://governmentciomedia.com/listen-look-inside-vas-zero-trust-first-cybersecurity-approach ) This episode is sponsored by Cohesity.

What emerging technology is transforming how government agencies operate? How are federal agencies pursuing IT modernization? What are some of key challenges facing the chief information officers of federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Federal IT — sharing insights from key […]

What emerging technology is transforming how government agencies operate? How are federal agencies pursuing IT modernization? What are some of key challenges facing the chief information officers of federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Federal IT -- sharing insights from key senior federal IT leaders on the IT journey of their agencies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What emerging technology is transforming how government agencies operate? How are federal agencies pursuing IT modernization? What are some of key challenges facing the chief information officers of federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Federal IT -- sharing insights from key senior federal IT leaders on the IT journey of their agencies.

Podcast: Control Loop: The OT Cybersecurity Podcast (LS 33 · TOP 5% what is this?)Episode: OT cybersecurity concerns in the federal space.Pub date: 2023-06-28The US Department of Energy was affected by Cl0p exploitation of MOVEit Transfer. Canada's oil-and-gas sector is a likely target for Russian cyberattacks. Nuclear weapons cybersecurity is lacking. Access to a US satellite is being hawked in a Russophone cybercrime forum. ICS patches.Today's guest is Christopher Ebley from Blackwood talking with us about OT cybersecurity concerns for Federal IT leaders.The Learning Lab has part one of a 3-part discussion between Dragos' Mark Urban and Vulnerability Analyst Logan Carpenter talking about vulnerabilities in the OT world.Control Loop News Brief.US Department of Energy affected by Cl0p exploitation of MOVEit Transfer.US government hit by Russia's Clop in MOVEit mass attack (The Register)Energy Department among ‘several' federal agencies hit by MOVEit breach (Federal News Network)Canada's oil-and-gas sector a likely target for Russian cyberattacks.The cyber threat to Canada's oil and gas sector (Canadian Centre for Cyber Security)Nuclear weapons cybersecurity is lacking.Nuclear Weapons Cybersecurity: Status of NNSA's Inventory and Risk Assessment Efforts for Certain Systems (GAO)Access to a US satellite is being hawked in a Russophone cybercrime forum.Military Satellite Access Sold on Russian Hacker Forum for $15,000 (HackRead)ICS patches.ICS Patch Tuesday: Siemens Addresses Over 180 Third-Party Component Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek)CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories (CISA)Lessons learned from the electrical power sector.Electric Industry Cybersecurity: Lessons Learned from the Frontlines (Dragos)Control Loop Interview.The interview is with Christopher Ebley of Blackwood talking about OT cybersecurity concerns for Federal IT leaders.Control Loop Learning Lab.On the Learning Lab, Mark Urban is joined by Dragos Vulnerability Analyst Logan Carpenter in the first of three segments to discuss vulnerabilities in the OT world.Control Loop OT Cybersecurity Briefing.A companion monthly newsletter is available through free subscription and on the CyberWire's website.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from N2K Networks, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

The US Department of Energy was affected by Cl0p exploitation of MOVEit Transfer. Canada's oil-and-gas sector is a likely target for Russian cyberattacks. Nuclear weapons cybersecurity is lacking. Access to a US satellite is being hawked in a Russophone cybercrime forum. ICS patches. Today's guest is Christopher Ebley from Blackwood talking with us about OT cybersecurity concerns for Federal IT leaders. The Learning Lab has part one of a 3-part discussion between Dragos' Mark Urban and Vulnerability Analyst Logan Carpenter talking about vulnerabilities in the OT world. Control Loop News Brief. US Department of Energy affected by Cl0p exploitation of MOVEit Transfer. US government hit by Russia's Clop in MOVEit mass attack (The Register) Energy Department among ‘several' federal agencies hit by MOVEit breach (Federal News Network) Canada's oil-and-gas sector a likely target for Russian cyberattacks. The cyber threat to Canada's oil and gas sector (Canadian Centre for Cyber Security) Nuclear weapons cybersecurity is lacking. Nuclear Weapons Cybersecurity: Status of NNSA's Inventory and Risk Assessment Efforts for Certain Systems (GAO) Access to a US satellite is being hawked in a Russophone cybercrime forum. Military Satellite Access Sold on Russian Hacker Forum for $15,000 (HackRead) ICS patches. ICS Patch Tuesday: Siemens Addresses Over 180 Third-Party Component Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek) CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories (CISA) Lessons learned from the electrical power sector. Electric Industry Cybersecurity: Lessons Learned from the Frontlines (Dragos) Control Loop Interview. The interview is with Christopher Ebley of Blackwood talking about OT cybersecurity concerns for Federal IT leaders. Control Loop Learning Lab. On the Learning Lab, Mark Urban is joined by Dragos Vulnerability Analyst Logan Carpenter in the first of three segments to discuss vulnerabilities in the OT world. Control Loop OT Cybersecurity Briefing. A companion monthly newsletter is available through free subscription and on the CyberWire's website.

Brendan Schwartz is the Co-Founder and CTO of Wistia, software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow your audience with video. Victoria talks to Brendan about the latest updates on the platform, interesting problems he found that Wistia was able to remove and help his team get to speed and velocity, and the personal value that drives his decision-making. Wista (https://wistia.com/) Follow Wistia on Twitter (https://twitter.com/wistia) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/wistia/). Follow Brendan Schwartz on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanschwartz/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/brendan), or visit his website (https://brendanschwartz.com/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Brendan Schwartz, Co-Founder and CTO of Wistia, software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow your audience with video. Brendan, thank you for joining us. BRENDAN: Thanks so much for having me. VICTORIA: And I believe this will be your third time, at least, on the Giant Robots Podcast, right? BRENDAN: Yes, I think this is my third appearance. Thank you for having me back. VICTORIA: Yes. BRENDAN: Is there anything I receive? What is it when you host SNL in a [crosstalk 00:39]. VICTORIA: You get a jacket. BRENDAN: A jacket, yeah. VICTORIA: Yeah, we should. BRENDAN: [laughs] VICTORIA: We should do a Giant Robots jacket or something from returned guests. I love it. So it's been great to follow along your journey here. So, for those who don't know, like, what is Wistia? And I'll say, just a precursor, that thoughtbot is a client of Wistia. So we use it ourselves. But why don't you just give us a little bit about what is the product and what makes it different? BRENDAN: Sure. And thank you so much for being a customer all these years. You kind of hit it at the top, but we help businesses of all sizes thrive with video. And so we serve mostly marketers. To dive a little bit into the history of the business, we'll be around seven...is that right? 17 years. It sounds like a long time when I say it out loud, [laughs] 17 years this June. And, for most of our history, we were, I'd say, a video-hosting platform for marketers. So if you want to put video on your website, track who's watching it, how they're watching it, and integrate that data with your other marketing systems, that was our focus and what we did. And over, I'd say, the past two years, we've brought in that focus to help businesses with all aspects of their video marketing from creating video...We recently introduced a live video product for webinars and for live events last fall. We just launched last week, which I'm very excited about native video recording in the Wistia platform. So you can record your webcam and your screen. And there's also a very simple video editor in the platform, which has been really powerful for folks to make small adjustments to content or to atomize content, take out highlights or sections of things, and to be able to publish them to their audiences. VICTORIA: Thank you for providing that context. And I'm curious if there were any, like, environmental or market forces that pushed you in that direction with the latest updates on the platform. BRENDAN: So, like I mentioned, we...in a large part, our success came (We're a relatively small team.) it came from being focused. And so for, you know, that decade or more, there were a lot of things that we had heard from the market or from customers. Like, live video was an obvious one we had been asked for a really long time. When will Wistia do live? When will Wistia do live? And, you know, our approach to that is we want to be really good and excellent at the things that we do and be focused. And I think that has served us well over the time that we've existed. And some of that came out of; I'd say, the really early days of the company where...it's funny, [laughs] we've always built Wistia, you know, sometimes we say in the shadow of YouTube, so YouTube and seeing YouTube. My co-founder was the first person who showed me YouTube in 2005, I think it was, and that was part of the inspiration to start Wistia. We are both really into video. And we saw that and having video be more accessible on the web, we knew was something that was going to change the world. There was a question...this sounds kind of dated nowadays to say, but there was a question if you were starting a business, you know, let's say, in 2006 or 2007 or '8, right? What are you going to do when Google enters your space? [laughs] It was a funny one for us to answer because we said...well, I forgot when YouTube was bought by Google. It was maybe in 2006 or something like that. Like, Google is already in our space, and it's free. So that was always an interesting challenge. And the way that we were successful there [laughs]...obviously, YouTube is at a much larger scale [laughs] and level of success than Wistia is. But to the extent we have a business at all against a very well-known and free competitor from those early days, it was being really focused on our customers and keeping the product footprint fairly small. Our business changed a lot during the pandemic. There were some obvious things, right? Video was used a lot more. So existing customers had a lot more usage. We saw an influx of customers, people who maybe were late to adopt video in their organization, and then that became a much obvious way that people could reach their audiences and grow. So that was something of a tailwind for us. And then it also forced us to kind of take a step back and look at the market in general with clear eyes. It was a funny moment, I think, for me and my co-founder because in the years leading up to that, you know, it had been like 12,13 years of doing Wistia, and it felt like we had solved a lot of problems in the product. We were still building new things, but they were for the most mature part of our audience or the most advanced marketers, which was pretty fun. But it felt like a lot of the problems had been solved. We were always, like, is the product done? Is the product complete? And when we took a step back and looked at the market, what we had found was that we had kind of just, like, got ourselves into this, you know, more mature corner of the market. But in a large part, because of COVID, so many businesses, existing and new businesses, were very new to video and were using video in new ways. And people who had been using video, their solutions to do that were super fragmented. You'd have one product that is providing...[laughs] You might have a different product you're using for internal meetings, video meetings, and that's different than a live event product, that's different than a webinar product, that's different than where you might publish your videos or host your videos, which is different than how you'd, like, analyze your performance. And as video became more important to organizations, that fragmentation of the solutions was something that was super painful. And we had heard from a lot of people who were Wistia customers and people who were not...having this as an all-in-one platform was something that they really desired, which I was also kind of, you know, we were, like, cynical about a little bit, right? Because if [laughs] you're in the world of product, it's like you can ask, you know, if you had a magic wand, what would you want? And someone says, "Oh, I want it all in one. And if you could just do everything for me, that would be so great." You know, it's hard to say, is that what people really want? And what gave us more confidence at that was, correct, is when we started digging into some of the details and hearing about existing workflows that existed that marketers have to deal with, including ourselves. We do a lot of content marketing. A lot of the really interesting things you could do in a product that is all in one it opens up new opportunities. And you could just imagine...you've hosted a webinar before. Almost always, it's the best practice that you host a webinar; after you're finished, you probably have a good marketing asset there. You should publish it to your website. You usually need to do some light editing. Maybe you're going to take off the Q&A before you publish it. And you put it on your website. And then, a while later, you're like, was this effective? Did it work? And then you have to, you know, probably have a spreadsheet somewhere. You have to go into the tool used to host the webinar to figure out who was watching it and [laughs] who registered. Did they attend? And then where's the data for how it performed on your website? How many people watched it? Did you get subscribers if you were, you know, had an email gate on that content? It's cumbersome, and it's a mess. And then, you know, the most motivated people who are well-resourced have the time to do that and analyze the performance. But then a lot of marketers who are on smaller teams they just don't have time to do that, which means a lot of content gets under-utilized or under-marketed. So a lot of evidence and motivation to change what we were doing and expand the product footprint. So that had us make a big investment in our product design and engineering teams, and we almost...we doubled them in about 18 months. And then that kind of set us on this journey that we started maybe two years ago to greatly expand what we're doing. VICTORIA: Well, that's great. So just to play that back, staying close and focused on your customers almost had you to a point of being stable with your product until COVID happened. And you have this increased demand for video that opened it up to almost have Wistia be like a startup again and create a whole new feature branch, right? BRENDAN: Yeah, that's exactly right. And that was really fun and motivating. I mean, we...that early-stage energy and not having all the answers to things where stuff is a little bit, you know, less-researched, and it's faster paced is something that I really like. That was a big shift for the company. So there was some, I don't know, I think we had some self-doubt a little bit if I'm honest, of, you know, when you've been so focused for so long. Like, can we do this? Like, will we be able to create something really good with this expanded footprint, and what resources that take? And is it going to take shifting the culture and mindset of the team, like, in ourselves? But, I don't know, that's kind of why I started the [laughs] business in the first, like, the adventure and not knowing what's next is very appealing. So that's been the fun part of it. VICTORIA: And how did you go about shifting that mindset? Or even what was the moment where you realized that you needed to go after this shift? And how did you start lobbying everyone around you to get on board? BRENDAN: A lot of those customer interviews and market interviews, we worked with an outside firm. We worked with Boston Consulting Group, who was a really great partner. We have obviously worked with folks outside. We hadn't worked with somebody; I'd say, at that scale in terms of kind of, like, tie-in with our company strategy today. But that was really helpful to have a partner, especially to push us. We got to something different than we had been doing, I mean, not dramatically so. But it was expanding what we were doing. So that was really helpful. It helped...that put some structure around it to what we had, and the whole company knew this was happening and was along for the ride. So I'd say the communication and getting to a clear strategy was something we did pretty well, and telling that story internally. I'd say where we didn't do as well [laughs] and were maybe late to make some decisions is how the culture would need to change to support that strategy. Again, like I said, we've doubled the product design and engineering teams. That is now feeling in a pretty good spot, but that was a lot of growth for us. And was, I'd say, pretty messy along the way. So the beginning, I'd say, was clear, and I think communicated well. And then I feel like in the middle it was, I don't know, a big mess where we got maybe a year in, and we're like, wow, we have this new strategy, but we really haven't executed much on it. Some of these things we're building are taking a lot longer than we thought. Our velocity doesn't feel great. Like, maybe we didn't plan some of this stuff out. Like, we've hired a lot of people, but, like, are they productive yet? And so, yeah, I think we were in a pretty [laughs] tough spot maybe last summer. We were a year into this strategic shift, but it didn't feel like we were really moving against it as much as we had hoped. VICTORIA: It makes sense that it would take some time to change strategic direction and then get to that high-velocity point that you would expect. Were there other blockers that you found you were able to remove to get the team back up to that high velocity on delivering features for clients? BRENDAN: [laughs] Well, it's funny that you say that. I wish; I mean, that is pretty obvious, I think, and obvious in retrospect. But, for some reason, when you're in this, or when we were in this, you're impatient, and you want it faster. And I think probably [laughs] having some clear expectations would have made the ride a little smoother along the way for this. I feel like I have to remind myself of this pretty frequently. I mean, Wistia is not big. We're 180 people or so but certainly bigger than...I can think back to various other sizes. Doing that strategic shift it takes time for leadership, let's say, or me to shift my mindset about some of those things. And then once you've changed your mind, you kind of... it's easy, or at least for me, to discount the time it took and all the information it took to lead to that, which needs to cascade through an organization. And so that's where some of that impatience...or just the piece you said about, yeah, it makes sense that this would take time. I was like -- VICTORIA: [laughs] [inaudible 11:56] BRENDAN: [laughter] You're like, once you've got it, you're like, wow, this is so exciting. Let's go. Let's go. And everybody is like, what are you talking about? VICTORIA: Yeah. My background has been in, like, Federal IT consulting. So you're used to kind of the pace of things being a little slower. And I think people forget that as an organization gets to any amount of size, that kind of bureaucracy tends to creep in. And, like you're saying, the information just needs to cascade down throughout everybody. I think my original question was, were there any blockers or interesting problems you found that you were able to remove and help your team get to that speed or velocity you really wanted? BRENDAN: Yeah, there were a lot. I think most of them and most of the hardest ones to move centered around cultural change, and they weren't necessarily so clear at the onset. And so, you know, one thing that kind of partway into the strategy change that became clear is, and you had said it, it's like going from, you know, basically thinking of ourselves as being in a late stage or more mature market to being in an early-stage environment. And the type of culture that, you know, succeeds in those worlds is different. One thing that we've learned along the way at Wistia that we have employed and I think been successful with is this concept that when you update your strategy as a company, you should be thoughtful and, like, make conscious updates to your culture and values. And so much is that...so you're saying culture is the way that you work. You want that to be in support of strategy. And I remember when I first heard this concept, and we were earlier into our journey. I was like, what is this, like, corporate nonsense? Culture is just this, like, intangible, you know, it's this sum of how everyone works. And it's, like, this beautiful symphony of values. [laughs] It was a more kind of, like, idealistic [laughs] view of it or more organic view of it, which I think is reasonable. But you can also be intentional about your culture. So when we wrestled with that the first time...this was many years ago when we updated. I forgot even what the strategic changes at the time. But we updated our values, and we set about making a conscious cultural change. So when we changed the strategy this time, we did the same thing. I'd say we were a little bit late doing it, like, getting to it. But we did do it. And so some of that was there were certain things...so, for instance, being so focused. We had a really lean team. And we were optimizing for things like predictability of outcomes and needing to be correct. So, for instance, if you're only going to make...let's just, like, say, on the product side. Like, if you're only going to be able to ship or do, you know, a few big improvements to the product per year, like, you're well served to kind of go slowly and make sure those have a reasonable chance of success. This was, like, the culture and the mode that we were in. That doesn't really work very well when you're in an early-stage environment where things are pretty unpredictable and things are moving really quickly. So that was an example of something that we kind of identified, and we're like, we're going to need to change this. So it was this shift from teams feeling the need to be correct and really well-researched about something to moving towards; I'd say, you need to talk to a lot of customers to build customer intuition in order to make decisions faster. But that shouldn't be the case that; for every product decision you need to make, you have to talk to 5 or 10 customers to validate that. You should be able to build an intuition to be able to make those decisions faster, and we should be more tolerant of failure. And so, we should work in a more incremental style. I mean, some of this is, like, super familiar to anybody [laughs] listening to this, right? It's like a more agile style. So work more incrementally, like, work incrementally towards great as opposed to, you know, this big thing that's going to be super polished and correct from the jump. VICTORIA: I think that's really interesting. And it's not necessarily wrong to be so thorough in your changes when you're in that steady state, and you, like, know what clients you have, and you have a pretty well-defined product. But it's interesting that it took quite a bit of effort, it sounds like, to shift back into a flow state where you're incrementally doing changes very frequently to get that new product and find those new customers that you're targeting. BRENDAN: And it continues to be. We've made a lot of progress on this. And maybe it's helpful...I don't know if it's helpful to folks listening to dive into some of the details of how we went about making those changes. It's still really difficult, right? There's a lot of things in tension. So I'd say in our previous mode, one thing we were pretty good about is when something was released, it was well-tested. It was high quality. It was, like, well-communicated. Throughout the org, people knew what was coming. Obviously, there were hiccups with that, but, like, that's the side of the spectrum that we were on there. And then in this mode where we're building faster and more incrementally, we have a lot of internal tension in terms of quality, like, is this good enough? Is this first version good enough? Are we going to make a bad first impression? And so, obviously, you do this for a...it's a set of trade-offs, right? There's no free lunch, but that is still very much we're trying to find the right balance. VICTORIA: Right. So, like, in your role as CTO, how do you make people feel comfortable failing [laughs] [inaudible 17:06] describing. BRENDAN: Some of this cultural change, I think, it's been interesting to go through because some of the properties of how we had been working are, you know, things that are part of the way I like to work. Like, it makes me uncomfortable to release something that you know the flaws in it. And that's an old kind of startup advice that I think is generally right. Like, if you release something and it doesn't make you a little bit uncomfortable, you have waited too long. [laughs] Advice is very easy and abstract. It's hard to apply. Like, there's a huge spectrum there of, like, how uncomfortable [laughs] you want to be. But I will say that that's been something that's been, yeah, hard to reconcile with. And I guess that the piece that I'm able to do in my role is, like, remind folks where we're headed, right? So the first version can be a bit rough. What matters is what happens after that. So, if we're quick to listen to customers, to fix those things, to correct that, and people can see that momentum, I think that matters for a lot. And I think that's, like, something...I've been telling that story repeatedly. Internally, I've had other leaders, and that's what we've really been leaning on is, like, we've adjusted how we're delivering customer value. And that we're going to push things out that might be a little bit more raw, but where we ultimately are going to get them to and get them to quickly is something that we're really proud of. So that has helped. And then, I'd say we still haven't figured out, which is, again, like, in these smaller increments, things can be a failure, and that's okay as long as we learn something and correct and move forward. And one thing that's been a little bit tricky to recognize, too, is there's some places where you have some experiment, and you're not actually sure if there's a market or if there's a need for a feature. So you might do something, and it really doesn't land well. And then you learn something about the market or the customer base and say, okay, that isn't what people needed. But, in a lot of places that we're building product, like, let's say, take live video, for example. [laughs] When we launch a live video product, it may be a failure. Like, the first version may not be completely right or may be a failure. But the customer need for [laughs] a live video for a webinar exists, right? So that's not the type of failure that you go, oh, I guess there's not [laughs] a market there. Or, it's like, you go back and say, okay, how do we need to improve this to make it work? I don't think we have the right language internally around that. You know, there are certain areas where it's like a failure, and then it's like, okay, we've learned not to do that again. And there's other areas where it's like, we're going to keep...[laughs] not we're going to keep failing. I mean, there are goals to succeed, right? But we're going to keep improving this until we get it to work because we know there is a market here, and there is a customer need. VICTORIA: Making a culture where it's acceptable to run experiments [chuckles] and as long as you're learning from the failures. And honestly, it sounds like you all are very connected to your customer. Like, you're talking to them regularly. You're testing out features with them and getting that feedback. And that sounds like that's really what you want to focus on and want your whole team to focus on. BRENDAN: Yes, yeah, exactly. Mid-Roll Ad: As life moves online, bricks-and-mortar businesses are having to adapt to survive. With over 18 years of experience building reliable web products and services, thoughtbot is the technology partner you can trust. We provide the technical expertise to enable your business to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. We start by understanding what's important to your customers to help you transition to intuitive digital services your customers will trust. We take the time to understand what makes your business great and work fast yet thoroughly to build, test, and validate ideas, helping you discover new customers. Take your business online with design‑driven digital acceleration. Find out more at tbot.io/acceleration or click the link in the show notes for this episode. VICTORIA: You mentioned a little bit about your values. So, what would you say is, like, your most important personal value that drives your decision-making at Wistia? BRENDAN: So, like I mentioned, we've changed our values over time when we've changed strategy. And we think of our values as a decision-making framework, not as a set of things that we value. For instance, if you go on our website on wistia.com, I think about/values, about/company. It's somewhere. And you can see our values. It's not a list of everything that Wistia values or even the things that we value the most. For example, Wistia has, like, creativity is something that I value a lot that is very built into Wistia's culture that we value a lot, but it's not a listed value. It used to be at one point, and then we found that as a decision-making tool, it wasn't very helpful. [laughs] If you're faced with a decision, and you say, okay, one of the values is creativity, how do I make this more creative, right? VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: That's not usually the question you want to ask. So we have, over the years, shifted towards the values are a decision-making framework. And I'd say the one value that has stood the test of time in there is simplicity, which is not unique to Wistia, but it's something that I care a lot about personally. It's served us well as a business. It's almost always harder to get to a simple solution or answer than it is to get to a complex one. It takes a lot of failure. Sometimes there isn't a simple solution, but I think it's always worth the pursuit of trying to find one. And that's served us well in keeping a focused and easy-to-use product. I think that's fairly self-evident [laughs] why that matters to customers. And it's something that I think it's hard to do as you grow, and add, and get bigger. And it's an important feature of the product. And it's an important feature of, I don't know, companies' internal policies or the employee experience. The simpler something is, it's easier to understand. I think the more someone who works inside your company can wrap their arms around more of that context or, you know, more of the product, more of the all the ins and outs of how it is to work there, the better informed they'll be, the better faster they'll be able to make decisions, and the better work they'll be able to do. So, yeah, simplicity, minimalism, those are things I think that have served us well over the years. VICTORIA: Oh, I appreciate that. I could see how that could apply to how you're writing your code, or how you're designing a feature, or even your pricing structure. BRENDAN: Yeah, and I don't think...we definitely don't always get it right. So, you know, all of this is aspirational, but I think it's the right thing to aspire to. VICTORIA: Right. Oh, I'm familiar. [laughter] It's like that, I mean, the Marie Kondo, like, keeping it simple and organized. It's definitely aspirational [laughter] in my personal life as well. But that makes sense. Okay, I have a fun one for you. What is your favorite viral video style that you think people should do more of on Wistia? [laughs] BRENDAN: Oh, whoa. That's a hot-button one. [laughs] I think we have long said...this, like, feels like it takes me back to when we first started Wistia. The term viral and viral video was a new thing for the internet, I guess because video on the internet was still fairly new. I've always been on the side of this, like, hardworking video. And most of our customers are B2B businesses, so these are, like, marketing teams at B2B companies. I'm sure a lot of people who are listening to this have seen some very cringeworthy, you know, attempts at a viral video made by various corporations. Those usually don't land well. There are some people out there maybe that can crack this and make something that is viral through some art and science, but most everybody else cannot. VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: It's like, not something that can be kind of, like, bottled and captured. So we've always been on the side of, like, be authentic, be yourself, make these harder-working videos. But -- VICTORIA: I think that's generally good advice for businesses that was, like, maybe don't try to just do viral trends...[laughs] Like, make your own authentic content. But you personally now, like, yeah, if you were going to do whatever the latest TikTok trend is, which one would you pick? BRENDAN: You know, okay, maybe here's one. So we have always been, as I described it, on the side of, like, do not do this. It is, like, almost always going to be cringe-worthy. But do you remember...I don't know what year this is from, the Harlem Shake. It was mostly kind of a business trend, right? You'd play this track, the Harlem Shake, and have, like, when the beat dropped, it would go from normal office to everyone dancing in a costume. VICTORIA: Oh, that's fun. BRENDAN: So it was, like, a fun trend. But it was...we were and still are, I'd say, fairly, like, anti-trend. I don't know what, you know, like, contrarian when it comes to marketing trends or things like that. But then, when this happened, we were like, this will be really funny. We should set a calendar reminder to do this, like, ten years in the future. Actually, the last onsite that we had; unfortunately, it was the last day. Our head of production [laughs] who, like, we kind of had this, like, running joke of he randomly saw a news article. I think that it was the 10-year anniversary of the Harlem Shake [laughs] or whatever. He's like, oh, this would be...this is the perfect time to do this, now that it's so, so, so out of vogue. But, you know, people, like, maybe have fond memories of it. And now this is so out of fashion. I think it could be funny to do it. [laughs] VICTORIA: Yeah, right. You don't want to do it just because it's the trend. But if it fits your personality and your business, then I think it would make sense. BRENDAN: Yeah. VICTORIA: I've heard that there might be a Wes Anderson style. [laughs] And I wanted to do a Wes Anderson goes to RailsConf video, but I'm actually meeting this -- BRENDAN: Did you do it? VICTORIA: I didn't do it. I'm not actually good enough. I think tomorrow I'm meeting with the Wistia customer success team. [laughs] I'm going to ask them to help me. BRENDAN: Oh yes, we'll help you. VICTORIA: Yes. BRENDAN: I do like...that trend is nice. That feels like a; I don't know, like, less aggressive. I've seen a lot of those, and they don't feel, I don't know, cringeworthy to me because maybe it's a nice shell in which to put some personality and content, as opposed to -- VICTORIA: Just being goofy or whatever, yeah. [laughs] BRENDAN: Yeah, I don't know exactly how to describe it. But I think that one works better. Yeah, someone at Wistia did that the other day in the office, and people enjoyed it a lot. That was more for, like, internal consumption. But those ones are nice. VICTORIA: Yeah. Well, I like the idea of bringing some of these editing tools to marketing teams where they can maybe not create viral videos all the time but do a lot of very highly editing and having it all in one place as well. Like you mentioned, I do run webinars, [laughs] and I'm familiar with the bouncing around between different tools to get everything to work. And there's even sometimes, like, security issues with different types of video-hosting tools. So I think there's a lot to offer for a marketing team who may not have as many resources to do the individual pieces. BRENDAN: Yeah, that's a story we've heard, yeah, from a lot of customers. And we have a lot of video resources internally because we're a video company, and we invest a lot in that. But even so, yeah, if you talk to folks on our marketing team, they'd say it's hard to get those resources, especially if you have something small that you want to do. I think it's always better if the person who has the need can easily do the thing themselves, right? More and better work gets done that way versus if it's, like, this chain of having to, like, ask other people because then you're like, should I really ask? It's like, do I want to, you know, spend social capital or budget on this thing? Will it work, will it not? But you can be, I think, faster and also experiment more when you have those tools available to you. VICTORIA: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Because I don't know if it's worth [laughs] me spending my team's time to make this Wes Anderson video, but I want to do it for fun. So we'll see if I can do it at RubyKaigi next week. BRENDAN: You should. That's great. That's, like, the perfect example of it because I feel like, yeah, well, maybe not. You might be sheepish to be like, yeah, I'm going to spend, like, ten grand with this, like, contractor to make this Wes Anderson...and to be like, what do you...what? What are you doing? VICTORIA: [laughs] That makes sense. BRENDAN: But if you do it, I think, you know, it's very likely it'll be really well-received, and you'll learn something about your audience. And then that could, like, blossom into, you know, a whole bunch of other things. I feel like that's been the case for us in our content marketing. We've long said, and this is, like, much more commonplace now, but one of the advantages of having a video producer in-house, like, is exactly that you now are employing someone full-time. And so you've, you know, like, maybe knocked off, like, the major pieces of content that a business would make with video, some of the obvious things. But then it's exactly what you're talking about that, oh, we could take a risk, and we could try this. And that's where you learn and figure out new things and things that are different than your competitors might be doing or more creative approaches. VICTORIA: Oh, That's great. You know, something I like to ask everybody who comes on the show, and it will be super interesting since you've been on a few times before, but if you could go back in time to your younger self when you first started Wistia, what advice would you give yourself? BRENDAN: Patient...One funny thing of when we started Wistia, we had really unrealistic expectations. I don't think that's [laughs] unique when starting a business when you're young. But yeah, I was 22 or 23, as was my co-founder, Chris. And we really honestly thought—this is, like, this is cringeworthy to say—that we would either be really successful and, in six months, build this great business and sell it to Facebook or now Meta, right? But that was, like, a hot company at the time. So we'd be wildly successful and sell to Facebook in six months, or we would fail in obscurity. That was, like, our honest-to-goodness business plan, which is so naive. [laughs] And here we are, you know, 17 years later and having a wonderful time. So I guess I would say, I mean, it's the most cliché advice, and you're young, and you never listen to stuff like this, but it's, like, enjoy the journey. [laughter] Things haven't always been easy. And there are, you know, hard challenges and, like, times filled with self-doubt. But even in those moments, if you have support from people around you, if you can learn to enjoy the growth and the journey, that is what keeps you motivated to do something for a long period of time. And usually, you know, people who stay focused on something for a long period of time you figure it out and can be successful. This sounds like the most generic advice as I say this out loud. VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: It really is. Enjoy the journey. [laughs] VICTORIA: Enjoy the journey. But I think that's common. And even actually talking with Chad a few weeks ago and interviewing him about thoughtbot, is his younger self would tell him to have more fun [laughs] during the whole process and really enjoy it. And I think it's also interesting that you had either the most optimistic and the most [laughs] pessimistic as options and, like, nothing in between [laughter] that you expected would happen. Which is funny because I have people ask me, like, is there still money in building apps and building new products? And it's like, yeah, like, it feels like there's these big people in the space, and they're doing everything you could think of possible. But there's still niche market that you can pursue [laughs], right? And there is still the ways that you can differentiate yourself as a product. BRENDAN: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. What advice would you give to your younger self? VICTORIA: Oh, me? I think, you know, probably something similar. Like, I feel like all of the times in my life where I've been, like, what am I going to do next and been really stressed out about it, within, like, three to six months, I found a new job, or I found something better where life improved a hundred-fold. [laughter]. So I think that's something even now I like to keep in mind is, like, if things turned down badly, like; usually, things turn around in a few months after that, [laughs] and a lot of times for the better. And that's, you know, true with, like, moving to California across the country from DC a few years ago. And yeah, a few other points like that. I think the other part I think about is who I might have invested more time in and who I would have invested less time in. And like what you were saying, like, having the support of people around you, and finding the people who really have your back and support you, and, for people who don't, maybe letting go a little sooner. [laughs] BRENDAN: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's good advice. Yeah, I feel like both of those things are things I should probably remind myself of more frequently. [laughs] VICTORIA: Right? And have more fun, which means...there's another quote I heard that's, like, when people travel back in time, they're worried about changing a small thing that will affect the future. But people don't think that they can make small changes now that will affect their future big time. BRENDAN: Oh, that's a good one. I haven't heard that. But that's a good one. VICTORIA: Well, super cool. Just to kind of really summarize or go back to some things we mentioned already about video, just how important do you think video really is to marketing in the current landscape for businesses? BRENDAN: I mean, [laughs] I'm a very biased party, but I think it is becoming increasingly more important. I think it is the default way a lot of people want to consume information. This is a whole other tip that we didn't talk about with what's happening in the world of generative AI. And I'm sure a lot of people listening to this have voice cloning and how good those things have been getting. I think it's going to make the value of authentic connections in video much more important in the short and medium term. And there's some challenging questions about how do you tell what's real in an environment where we've gone past the uncanny valley in terms of generating, you know, an avatar of me or you with the perfect voice clone? But I think people are going to rely a lot on video to break through. VICTORIA: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's going to be just more video world [laughs] as it goes. What does success look like for Wistia six months from now and even five years from now, the longer term? BRENDAN: I think for six months from now, so there's a lot of new areas of the product that we've added. And, in the next six months, we should be able to make pretty substantial progress to have those parts of the product have really solid adoption and repeated usage by customers. I think that's what success looks like, which we're seeing it now for our editors, probably the farthest along, that it has really good adoption among the customer base, and repeat usage, which I think is, like, a really good sign of success for a product. Live is still really early for us. You don't get a lot of shots if something goes wrong with a live event. [laughs] You know, I'd be pretty quick to look for another platform. And that's a pretty mature market where there are a lot of really strong competition. I think if we can get to a place in six months where we've got, you know, a few hundred customers using that every week or every month, we'd feel like we're on a path towards success. And the five-year version, I don't know, we recently started making three-year goals for the company a few years ago that have been pretty helpful to have as an anchoring. We have not made a five-year goal. But the thing I'm very excited about right now and what we're doing is, again, like, live is a small example. The market for live itself is much bigger than the market that traditionally Wistia has been in, and just in terms of video hosting, which itself has always grown a lot over the years. And it's itself a big market, as is video recording and creating video. So we have entered into a bunch of new markets that are all really quite large. And it's pretty humbling to be in a spot where I feel like we have a really solid base with a lot of in-depth knowledge of marketing and our customer to be able to build a really excellent product for that set. We're playing in a much bigger market than I ever thought we would. VICTORIA: It's like, success already achieved. [laughter] BRENDAN: Well, I don't know. It doesn't feel that way. It doesn't feel that way. But -- [laughs] VICTORIA: Maybe next time you come on the podcast, you'll have another success story to share with us. [laughs] BRENDAN: I hope so. Yeah, I feel like that's always the case, right? It's like, yeah, there are moments where we're certainly very proud of what we've been able to achieve. But most of my time is spent [laughs] in the headspace of, you know, why are we so slow? Why is the product not good enough? Why are we, you know, like, all the stuff that's going wrong, right? Which drives you to be better and is exciting. VICTORIA: Right. That makes sense. Well, hopefully, this helps remind you all the good stuff that you all have done so far, too. BRENDAN: [laughs] VICTORIA: I'm really excited to hear about just how your values drive your decisions and then how that goes to the rest of the team and how closely you're listening to your customers, too, on the product. I think those are all just really great cultural examples and ways to build great products. So, thank you for sharing your story with me. And you can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. And if you have questions or comments, you can email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter at @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com. Special Guest: Brendan Schwartz.

What emerging technology is transforming how government agencies operate? How are federal agencies pursuing IT modernization? What are some of key challenges facing the chief information officers of federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Federal IT -- sharing insights from key senior federal IT leaders on the IT journey of their agencies.  

What emerging technology is transforming how government agencies operate? How are federal agencies pursuing IT modernization? What are some of key challenges facing the chief information officers of federal agencies? Join host Michael Keegan for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Federal IT -- sharing insights from key senior federal IT leaders on the IT journey of their agencies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After more than 34 years of federal service, acquisitions pioneer Mary Davie announced her retirement at the end of 2022. Much of her career was spent at the GSA, guiding development of well-known procurement practices like shared services and category management. She's won a panoply of awards for her work (including some from ACT-IAC), so we're very excited to welcome Mary to the show this week.Mary is joined by her colleague (and friend of the show) Renee Wynn, former CIO of NASA, to look back on Mary's many accomplishments and experiences in federal service. ACT-IAC would like to profoundly thank Mary for her many contributions to Federal IT. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on Twitter @ACTIAC or visit http://www.actiac.org.

Join this episode of Doing Tech Better in Government with Brian Fox and Special Guest, Graham Baggett, Chief, Interactive Update Systems Branch/DITD, U.S. Census Bureau as they sit down to discuss Mr. Baggett's journey through Federal IT, the technical and digital improvements happening at Census, changes in the next decennial, and their engagement with the American public.

Federal IT modernization is a continuous process, and agencies are focusing on the different avenues and strategies they need to pursue to seek improved IT capabilities. Senior Researchers Kate Macri and Melissa Harris break down the top takeaways of the July 28 Blueprints of Tomorrow event featuring civilian and defense federal agencies and their work around data management, foundational tactics, workforce development and more. 

This week, The Buzz with ACT-IAC presents a discussion about the many pieces of successful digital transformation -  cultural change, new software and technologies, service design and more - from leaders in the Federal IT community who have undertaken these changes first-hand.This episode is hosted by Ben Kutil, Director for Technical Solutions at Ad Hoc, with guests Christopher Corpuel, Co-Founder and CEO of Catalest, and Melvin Brown II, Deputy CIO at OPM. This episode of The Buzz is sponsored by Ad Hoc. Learn more at https://adhocteam.us/Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on Twitter @ACTIAC or visit http://www.actiac.org.

On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week. Dave Powner, executive director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former Director of IT Issues at Government Accountability Office and Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners, LLC and former E-Gov Administrator and chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discuss their top three stories of the week. Dave's list: 3. FedScoop's Best Bosses in Federal IT 2022 2. Three new TMF awards for network security projects 1. GAO says the Department of Defense should emphasize IT cybersecurity and supply chain risks Karen's list: 3. Doubts on the idea of a major data privacy bill from Capitol Hill 2. VA's Electronic Health Records rollout harmed at least 148 veterans, according to an agency watchdog draft report 1. Creation of a federal cybersecurity rotational program The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

FedHeads welcome Director of IT Data Transparency at GSA Dan York to discuss the latest modernized Federal IT dashboard to enhance customer experience, build trust with key stakeholders, and to further understand Federal IT spending. Tune in to learn more!

Join this episode to hear from Bill Bunce, Pegasystems, and Special Guests, Robyn Rees, Senior Advisor, Office of Human Capital, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Emily Camardo, Director of Operations, srcLogic, and Robert Gasser, Chief Revenue Officer, Revature, as they discuss: The current low code workforce. How build, hire, and grow software engineers. The status of the low code workforce in Federal IT. How low code/no code effects software engineers jobs. The future of low code/no code in Federal IT.

Endpoint devices, or personal laptops, government-issued devices, tablets, mobile phones, etc. used outside of the network perimeter are key factors in a successful telework model. Keeping those devices secure from any location at any time is at the top of all IT team priorities. But are the security tools in place strong enough to combat bad actors, could Federal IT teams have too many endpoint security tools in their toolkit, and what is often overlooked on the journey to better endpoint security?

Endpoint devices, or personal laptops, government-issued devices, tablets, mobile phones, etc. used outside of the network perimeter are key factors in a successful telework model. Keeping those devices secure from any location at any time is at the top of all IT team priorities. But are the security tools in place strong enough to combat bad actors, could Federal IT teams have too many endpoint security tools in their toolkit, and what is often overlooked on the journey to better endpoint security?

Join us for this episode of the Federal Low Code Trailblazers Podcast with Bill Bunce, Pegasystems, and Special Guests Tracy Bannon, Senior Principal/ Software Architect & DevOps Advisor, MITRE and Alex Sutherland, Director, Salesforce Architecture, Liberty IT Solutions as they discuss DevOps, DevSecOps, and containerization throughout the Federal Government. See what processes they recommend to build and sustain DevOps practices, and the current status of of DevOps in the Federal IT ecosystem.

While Jay and I were speaking at 365 EduCon D.C., we were able to sit down with Jeremy Wood and talk about Teams in Government and how the US Government uses Teams. Jeremy Wood is a Federal IT implementer, strategist, and enthusiast specializing in complex business systems. His expertise and career spans infrastructure, service desk,... Continue Reading →

About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

This week, the Buzz presents a quick breakdown of some of the top stories from world of Federal IT, as well as some updates on upcoming events and opportunities from ACT-IAC. ACT-IAC Voyagers: https://www.actiac.org/overview-0ACT-IAC Communities of Interest: http://www.actiac.org/participation/communities-interestFor ELC sponsorship inquiries, email Carol Miller at mailto:cmiller@actiac.orgSign up for the ACT-IAC Newsflash: https://www.actiac.org/act-iac-news-flash-email-subscriptionSubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on Twitter @ACTIAC or visit http://www.actiac.org.Sources for this episode's news stories:JEDI Contract Cancellationhttps://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/article/2682992/future-of-the-joint-enterprise-defense-infrastructure-cloud-contract/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2020/12/dod-microsoft-ask-court-to-dismiss-amazons-political-bias-claims-in-jedi-case/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/defense-department-jedi-information-paper-jan-28/825ec1c1-fa9d-449d-a63f-ba3bfc2384ed/?itid=lk_inline_manual_31 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/technology/amazon-jedi-pentagon-contract-microsoft.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/technology/JEDI-contract-cancelled.html Ransomware Attacks and Federal Responsehttps://www.meritalk.com/articles/critical-infrastructure-special-report/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/business/meat-plant-cyberattack-jbs.html https://www.npr.org/2021/07/03/1012849198/ransomware-cyber-attack-revil-attack-huntress-labs https://www.cisa.gov/stopransomware https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-government-launches-first-one-stop-ransomware-resource-stopransomwaregov https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/ 

About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

Join us for the FEDSpace Conference on June 16, 2021. Register for free here!About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

Join us for the FEDSpace Conference on June 16, 2021. Register for free here! About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

Learn more about Jason here.About ActiveNav- Visit our website- Follow us on Twitter- Connect with us on LinkedIn

Ian Yee, Public Sector Strategy Manager at Tableau, joins the show to talk about how agencies can make better use of their data by practicing good governance, encouraging data literacy, and embracing a data culture.

DevSecOps within the Federal landscape has been a topic of growing priority, implementation, and necessity over the past several years. Join this webinar to hear from leaders in DevSecOps practices as they discuss the current status, modern projects, and drive forward of Federal DevSecOps platforms used to push IT modernization, operational efficiency, and cybersecurity. Listen as topic experts discuss the middle point of where DevSecOps, Zero Trust, and enterprise IT as a service (ITaaS) meet, and create effective, secure, modern, operational systems within the Federal IT ecosystem. Hear first-hand the current status, challenges, successes, and vision for the future, as viewed by DevSecOps leaders and practitioners in Federal Agencies. What do Government decision-makers see as the future of DevSecOps? Where within the government are best practices in place? Where is there still the most room for growth?

What will it really take to become compliant with M-19-21? We brought in-house ActiveNav M-19-21 experts Tom Jacobs and James Jones on the show to talk about the common "gotchas" agencies face on their journeys to compliance, plus solutions that will get them to the compliance finish line.

Join the ATARC 2021 Low Code Virtual Summit on March 2, 2021, from 1:30-4 PM EST to hear Federal IT topic experts discuss how an agile approach such as low code allows teams to effectively meet their agencies mission requirements, even with the constant changes we have seen over the past year. Hear thought leaders share how they are using low–code technologies to not increase their mission delivery and remain adaptable to changing climates.

In this panel discussion, Federal IT executives address how to better manage the risk of sensitive data exposure through improved cyber compliance. What steps can be taken to verify trust in the Federal Government supply chain? How to source reliably secure solutions? Where and when to use automation as a compliance, monitoring, and remediation mechanism? Listen to our panelists explore the “art of the possible” as well as share lessons learned and best practices.

Federal agencies have been tasked with leveraging data as a strategic asset. ​During last year's FEDSpace Conference, this rock star panel talked about how the Government and the Federal Data Strategy can transform the way data is stored, protected, accessed, and managed.

Rebecca Conner, Records and Information Management Manager at Amtrak, joins the podcast to talk about making records management easy and understandable. Tune in as Rebecca shares lessons learned from both private and public sector experience!

ActiveNav recently hosted a panel featuring 3 state Chief Data Officers about how public sector data can be used to drive change and serve public needs. During this episode, we highlight some key soundbites from the panelists.

It's enough to make the heart quicken. Imagine a sudden, 10% bump in federal spending on information technology. Yet that's exactly what the Biden administration has proposed in its request for $9 billion in the technology modernization fund. Congress has been super-stingy with the fund until now. That could change with Democratic control, though. Here with how the money might schmear around, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

2020 has proven to be a difficult year for almost every industry. In sales, it has forced the community to find new, unique ways to connect with potential clients and produce new customers in a COVID environment. Join this event to hear leaders in Federal Sales discuss how they are remaining optimistic and successful in the light of new COVID challenges such as, loss of trade shows, interpersonal communication, lead generation, and reevaluating priorities. During this panel, the speakers will also discuss how the new Federal IT goals set forth by the incoming administration will affect the overall sales processes, and priorities in the upcoming years. How have they seen sales change throughout 2020 and what do they see having an impact on Federal sales in 2021 and beyond?

Looking for practical steps agencies can take towards M-19-21 compliance? Look no further than this week's episode. NEOSTEK's Kevin Parker and Slim Msadek join the show to talk to share actionable insights for modernization.

As 2020 comes to an end, we took a look back at some of this year's podcast episodes.

Cyberspace Solarium Commission amendments in the NDAA Sen. Angus King (I-ME) discusses the new national cyber director role, continuity of economy planning and other recommendations from his commission Updates on the Defense Enclave Services contract Lauren Williams, Staff Writer at FCW, and Andrew Eversden, Federal IT and Cybersecurity Reporter at Federal Times, talk potential bidders and possible pitfalls of DISA’s Defense Enclave Services contract Open letter from bipartisan former officials calls for end to Schedule F Danny Werfel, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group, and Allan Burman, President at Jefferson Solutions, explain what motivated them to sign a letter against the implementation of the Schedule F executive order

As the first agency to officially adopt the NIST Privacy Framework, the CFTC privacy team is leading by example in the federal government. Charles Cutshall, the CFTC's Chief Privacy Officer, joins the show to talk about the agency's data privacy initiatives and predicts trends in the data privacy landscape.

Federal IT leaders face a looming deadline to move to a next-generation telecommunications contract. Agencies have until 2020 to transition to the governmentwide Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract. The transition lines up with other Trump administration priorities including the President's Management Agenda and the White House's IT modernization report. But some agencies are feeling squeezed by the upcoming deadline. Federal News Radio's Jory Heckman had more on the upcoming telecoms migration on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

So, everyone in the company is on the same page, and each employee's personal brand fits the corporate brand like a glove. Great! All you have to do now is turn that brand goodness into a big, lucrative government contract. Right. In this week's episode of The Brand Ambassadors, Merritt Hamilton Allen and Gary Potterfield will attempt to scale the Federal Sales Vertical. To guide them on their climb will be Kevin Mahoney, CEO of Sanctum Federal and blogger-in-chief at KevinFederal.com. In his 25 plus years of Federal IT sales and marketing, Kevin has learned that success in the Federal sales vertical requires both a clearly defined plan and honest to goodness interpersonal relations. With more than $127 million in revenue generation, when Kevin talks, The Brand Ambassadors listen.