Open source software is foundational to modern application development and deeply embedded across federal systems. That ubiquity brings enormous flexibility and speed, along with a growing security challenge for the systems integrators that design, build, and support federal technology environments. They must help agencies understand, manage, and reduce risk across a constantly changing software supply chain. Frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models are intensifying that challenge by accelerating vulnerability discovery and exploitation, compressing response timelines, and increasing pressure on organizations to embed security more deeply throughout the development lifecycle process.

The program will explore how federal systems integrators can respond to the evolving threat landscape by helping agencies build a more trusted software foundation while addressing executive orders, security mandates, and compliance requirements (including classified enclaves and air-gapped environments). It will examine ways to improve transparency, attestation, SBOMs, and provenance across the software supply chain.

The core challenge has shifted from software visibility to agility and resilience. Today’s priorities are helping teams quickly adapt code, providing developers with secure enterprise environments, and making architectural decisions that can support federal programs for years. These stronger foundations can help federal teams reduce engineering toil and vulnerability-management burden, support compliance and assurance requirements, and spend more time delivering mission capability.