Not every vote on a Pentagon program is cast in Washington, DC. Today, the Arkansas state legislature convened in special session to decide on an $87 million bond issue to benefit aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. The “super project” at stake — to use the Arkansas statute’s term of art — is the expansion of Lockheed’s… Keep reading →
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has contracted with Lockheed Martin and Microsoft to migrate the email and collaboration systems supporting approximately 25,000 employees to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 system, according to a joint announcement released by Lockheed Martin and Microsoft today.
The collaboration and communication service is expected to improve EPA employees’ access to communications and mobility tools and result in expected savings of $12 million over the four-year contract period. Keep reading →
The U.S. General Services Administration announced today that it is now offering cloud-based email services available to government agencies, through a new package of purchase agreements. The move is expected to make it easier for government agencies to migrate email operations over to Internet-based cloud computing service providers and reduce costs.
GSA developed 20 blanket purchase agreements and awarded them to 17 businesses today, GSA officials said. As a result, federal, state, local and tribal governments will be able to access a variety of cloud based email services. Keep reading →
Federal managers aren’t the only ones spooked by the prospect of sequestration-induced budget cuts. Contractors are worried about it too. But the potential numbers – dollars that would be cut – present a smaller problem than the lack of planning the government seems to be doing to prepare for the sequester. Unless Congress acts otherwise, a 10-year, trillion dollar cut in spending starts January 1. That’s a $100 billion a year, $50 billion for civilian agencies, $50 billion for Defense. Sequestration is more a reduction in future growth than absolute declines in spending.
In the grand scheme of things, the numbers aren’t that big. But it would be nice to know precisely where agencies are going to make their trims. It’s likely few agencies know. This is why a bill passed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanding that the executive branch detail its sequestration plans.
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The Defense Department’s release of a new mobile device strategy late last week provides a revealing snapshot of how much work lies ahead for Defense officials in rationalizing the rapid adoption of smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices across the Department. It also highlights the urgent challenge to secure the use of those devices on Defense networks – even if it fell short of describing how and when DoD planned to tackle ongoing security concerns.
While the new strategy is seen as “a huge step forward,” as Jeff Sorenson, former U.S. Army/G-6 CIO and now partner at AT Kearney, sees it, it also also reflects the continuing gap that exists between DoD’s ability to integrate commercial mobile technology compared to other, faster-moving organizations. Keep reading →
PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: You climb up into your new Joint Strike fighter in your flight suit, pull on the flight helmet and say, “Hey darling, It’s Squirt. Set up my screens the way I like em and let’s go get some bad guys.”
The MITRE Corporation, in partnership with the Federal Service-Oriented Architecture Community of Practice (SOA CoP), recently hosted the SOA for e-Government Conference: Practical Models Across the Federal Government.
The event drew more than 250 practitioners from industry and government to discuss examples of how government is effectively adopting SOA technologies to enhance flexibility, share data and operational capabilities, and reduce costs.
The day-long conference, held on October 11 at MITRE‘s McLean, Va., campus, was the 12th in an ongoing series launched by MITRE and the Federal SOA CoP in 2006. Co-sponsored by both, the conferences aim to enable government and associated organizations achieve the benefits of SOA through collaboration, demonstration, and community efforts. Keep reading →
I recently visited the Crystal City, Va., office of one of the technology companies we work with and learned what it takes to display many sources of brilliant video across a surface of any size without the unsightly black grids that once defined video walls. The technology, referred to as collaborative telepresence or CTP, was developed and battle-tested in the rough-and-tumble oil and gas industry. It is now finding its way into high-end collaboration environments in the government.
Instead of multiple monitors or projectors separated by a grid of dividing lines, like traditional video teleconferencing or command and control systems, Cyviz mounts high power projectors with pixel-perfect alignment so there are no “seams” in these stunning video walls. Keep reading →
If you like saving taxpayer money — to the tune of $13.1 billion to date and counting – then you already love Energy Savings Performance Contracts or ESPCs.
ESPCs are a super deal for American taxpayers and federal agencies alike. But despite the impressive savings they have produced, ESPCs are not well known in the IT world. Keep reading →