Page 15 - FCW, May/June 2020

security guidelines and acquisition rules have become necessary to control the agencies’ exposure
to risk when outsourcing IT responsibilities to commercial entities. Unfortunately, these regulations have again limited
the available vendor pool and associated innovation.
Cloud computing exemplifies that shift. It elasticizes data, enabling agencies to distribute
it and users to access it remotely from a central processing control.
From a technology standpoint, that one element has broken
up how agencies are going to consume technology to meet
that new base state. From a networking standpoint, no longer are you seeing TDM-based circuits requirements from Building A
to Building B. Instead, Building
A and B connect directly to a vendor-provided virtual data center and consume associated data independently.
Architecture decisions now center around the origination, storage and distribution of data rather than the physical interfaces between agency facilities. The data and applicable security and regulatory controls can likewise be implemented separately for the underlying network architecture used to transport that data.
Modernization within an agency provides options for network technology to meet the increased capacity demands. One example is Ethernet, a Layer 2 technology that lets agencies separate the control and compliance of the data they send through the carrier from the transport layer itself. MPLS
is another widely used network technology that is provided as a managed service and requires some relinquishing of network control to the service provider.
Additionally, agencies have begun using existing internet connections and investigating architectures that allow use of widely available technology
over cost-effective internet connectivity scenarios to satisfy data connections to the virtual environment in a compliant, secure manner. The trends should further separation between the data and transport elements in agencies’ networking plans.
A Software-Defined Wide-
Area Network (SD-WAN), which enables internally controlled secure virtual tunnels built over internet,
is giving agencies the ability to manage a single logical network and security control end-to-end while taking advantage of a variety of cost effective access technologies to connected individual physical agency locations.
An agency can use MLPS, Ethernet or internet connectivity- based circuits and layer on an SD-WAN architecture to get a single view and secure control while letting the network act as a single logical infrastructure. We change the conversation from saying, “Give me a total solution for this one problem,” to, “Give me a network that can handle my different problems, doesn’t tie
me to a certain solution set and gives me the capability to adjust my underlying data requirements without having to make large-scale acquisition changes.”
Conclusion
Modernization begets modernization. As agencies change their procurement methods, they can more easily acquire
the technology, systems and applications they need to meet their missions in innovative ways and disentangle themselves from outmoded, legacy approaches.
Doing this gives agencies
greater cybersecurity, increased connectivity, and a solid foundation on which to layer emerging technologies that can make the government more effective and efficient.
Given the stakes, it is critical that agencies understand how to engage vendors that provide foundational IT products and services.
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