Page 42 - FCW, May/June 2020

SEWP Contract Guide
Modernizing IT Architecture
Behind the perimeter. In the cloud. At the edge.
Meeting modern mission requirements with legacy technology and infrastructure isn’t easy. A 20-year-old application may not be compatible with surrounding infrastructure, and it is probably less secure than modern applications. Likewise, an older firewall lacks the granular controls agencies need to specify what users can and cannot access.
According to the GAO, the federal government is replete with critical legacy systems in need of modernization. Some use outdated languages, others have unsupported hardware and software, and many have known security vulnerabilities.
Agencies that have identified systems ripe for modernization are making strides toward realizing upgrades. By making wise procurement decisions, organizations ensure that components meet regulatory requirements and advance mission requirements.
Smart cloud adoption
Cloud-based technologies benefit organizations by improving operations’ costs, scalability, security and efficiency. But not every application, service, platform or infrastructure component is a good candidate for migration to the cloud. Recognizing this, the “Cloud Smart” approach prompts agencies to identify workloads that should move to the cloud.
“It’s important to understand what the agency is currently running, where it is running, the associated service-
level agreements (SLA), the uptime required for various workloads, and the sensitivity of those workloads,” explains Steve Thamasett, a senior security field solution architect at CDW·G.
Those insights help identify workloads that should stay on-premises and those that should move to the cloud. What about an older, custom-written application
that is important to an agency’s operations? It may make sense to keep it on-premises. How about a mission-critical application requiring 100 percent uptime that’s not possible with a pure cloud solution? A hybrid environment might make more sense.
Mining mountains of data
Data has become the lifeblood of federal government. Leveraging
artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze data allows agencies to better predict and prevent adverse events, improve decision- making, increase efficiencies, save money and improve service to citizens.
Nowhere is this more important than in cybersecurity. A persistent time gap typically exists between the infiltration of systems by hackers and attacks on those systems. It is critical to detect when breaches are occurring and to predict when they will occur.
Artificial intelligence and analytics can correlate actions that, although seemingly innocuous by themselves, appear suspect when considered in context. AI, machine learning and analytics help to thwart advanced techniques adopted by hackers for breaching systems’ defenses.
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