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being able to streamline business processes and change them quickly as required. It’s really about speed, Rubin says. “Time is the enemy of agility. You can’t be agile without speed.”
requires manual updating. By implementing a modern orchestration and automation platform, the agency was able to deliver stable environments at scale. It can now deploy infrastructure via code across its multiple clouds while ensuring 100 percent availability at all times.
Modernizing IT and data center infrastructure can help improve overall cybersecurity efforts in many ways. For example, legacy systems may not work well with current encryption technologies, and older security tools may be focused more on perimeter defense without protecting assets inside the perimeter.
looking for a way to satisfy an initiative to move to a software-defined data center, it wanted to make sure that the data center would be fully secure. That required ensuring encryption between all resources, not just from the network perspective,
The cloud remains a foundational requirement for increasing agility. By using cloud resources, platforms and applications become more available, scalable and secure. Equally important to achieving agility is automation, which speeds up processes and fosters greater accuracy. One way to increase automation is by using an automation engine like VMware vRealize Suite, a multi-cloud management platform that not only automates infrastructure, but becomes a building block for advanced
Security issues
but all the way down to the storage
level. CDW·G identified the necessary requirements and implemented a key management system to maintain control of encryption keys and ensure that traffic was secure at all points and at all times.
The Human Side of Modernization
Technology is very important to IT/data center modernization, but it’s equally important to ensure that you are following newer methodologies and processes internally. John Rubin of CDW·G gives this advice:
• Any new modernization project should be preceded by a maturity assessment to better understand what is required, both in terms of technology and new processes.
• Modernization results in both process and culture changes. Instead of fighting those changes, embrace them.
• In a more decentralized environment, collaboration and constant communication are critical. Don’t ignore this.
processes based on DevOps and machine learning.
More modern technologies and processes, including the cloud, allow agencies to deploy the latest security
tools. For example, software-defined networking allows for more automated and comprehensive enforcement of security policies. Modernization also allows for micro-segmentation, next-generation firewalls, data encryption and threat intelligence, monitoring and prevention.
While IT and data center modernization has been an ongoing goal for many agencies, the pressure to do so has never been stronger. Most agencies benefit by adopting cloud platforms, infrastructure and software as a first step. Using the cloud as a springboard, agencies can begin to increase efficiency, boost agility and upgrade cybersecurity. In addition, these upgrades will enable agencies to better communicate and collaborate, expand mobility, boost shared services, satisfy compliance and other mandates, and position them for whatever comes next.
Enabling agility also is often synonymous with decentralizing the infrastructure.
One way to do that is by using container orchestration technology like Kubernetes, which can help manage and orchestrate distributed architectures across multiple clouds.
One government agency with a mission to start deploying Infrastructure as Code (IaC) needed this type of agility. IaC is the process of managing and provisioning data centers through machine-readable files. It is a key DevOps practice that helps solve the problem of many unique configurations in a computing environment. As an environment grows over time, manual configurations and a lack of consistency often lead to environment drift, which
At the same time, modernization can cause potential security challenges, especially surrounding visibility. That’s because modern environments typically are more decentralized, with data moving within or between multiple environments.
Conclusion
There are many ways agencies can
move ahead with modernization. One of the easiest, most flexible and cost-effective ways is by using the Chief Information Officer-Commodities and Solutions (CIO- CS) contract. As a Best-in-Class contract vehicle, CIO-CS allows agencies to quickly order any commodity products they need, along with associated services.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has created a premier contract eligible for all Federal Agencies with CIO-CS “It’s the most agile vehicle I have worked with in my 35 years of Government Contracting” says Sheryl McCurnin, Senior Manager for Federal Programs at CDW·G. “The process of ordering through it is simple, and it has the lowest fees of all GWACs.”
There are plenty of tools that can address these issues around governance, risk and compliance (GRC).
When one branch of the Army was
Visit www.cdwg.com/federal to learn more about CDW·G, our capabilities and contracts. Contact us at 800.808.4239 to orchestrate a secure solution customized to your agency’s needs.