I’ve always been a very private person, but it’s time for me to stop being such a coward – I have OsteoArthritis. I guess it can happen to anybody – even Steve O’Keeffe. In fact, one in seven American adults has OA – that’s more than 32 million folks stateside. So, I’ve spent the last two years […]

As we tilt into this new year in the Federal IT events community, I wanted to point to the absurdity of Federal gift giving regulations. We all know that industry’s not allowed to give a Fed food and drink worth more than $20 at one time – and no more than $50 in a year.  […]

We’re excited to welcome Joe Biden, the 46th President, to office. […]

With the Solarwinds breach and CDM budget shortfall, it’s never been more important to communicate the importance of cyber security to the Hill and appropriators. Time to change the menu to increase the appetite for cyber security investment. […]

Is it a noun or a verb? What the heck is a MeriTalk and why were you so dumb to call your publication that? Why not put Fed or Gov in the name – like every title? Good questions. So, here goes. We gave our publication a different name, because we wanted to stand aside from the other business-as-usual titles – to challenge the status quo in relationships, content, and format. So why not go different? […]

Like many of you, I have read the news every day for the last four years. Every day was like a visit to the proctologist – anger, fear, frustration. And, yes, the A word – anxiety. […]

I’m a foreigner who’s proud of my heritage – and I’m an American patriot ready to stand up for this great country’s principles. […]

What does Covid-relief legislation mean for Fed IT? So far, not nothing, but in the big picture, not enough to move the needle on any large-scale modernization push. […]

Federal CIOs are going down like Lannister banner men. Is this just the typical transition turmoil or is there something broader afoot? Speculation abounds that the Trump administration may be cutting Federal CIOs as part of a strategic initiative to centralize Federal IT under one CIO. […]

Who’s running IT in the transition? Who’s up as the new Federal CIO? What’s with the new Cyber EO? Right now, we’ve got more questions than answers in Federal IT. Here’s a short pour. Insights from the Hill, Trump transition team, GSA, DHS, and across government. […]

Reacting to a battery of recent MeriTalk articles on GSA 18F and FedRAMP, voices inside and outside GSA have called for MeriTalk to name our source. Well, this time, we’re completely transparent. […]

So, you heard it here first–GSA does indeed have its underpants full of alligators. This week’s IG report on GSA’s 18F $31 million flutter makes the $800,000 Las Vegas boondoggle look like a pocket-change indiscretion. And, we understand the IG’s not finished yet–not one, but two more IG reports on the way in November and December. […]

Word on the street is that two new IG reports on GSA 18F/TTS will see the light of day in October. We understand that the reports were supposed to hit the street this summer–but that the IG keeps finding new issues and interviewing more folks at GSA and across the government. So, do the delays mean there’s more than smoke? […]

Word is that www.fedramp.gov–and even the new, shiny FedRAMP dashboard–are running in a cloud without a FedRAMP ATO. Now, that’s embarrassing. […]

So, as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducts its archaeological spadework to unearth ancient Federal IT systems – consider, things could be worse. OGR asked the 24 Cabinet-level agencies for an audit of their legacy systems and migration plans by January 29. Capitol Hill tells us many agencies missed the deadline – but most of the 24 have now submitted their reports. […]

The Prez really gets the cyber problem–that’s why he jacked the FY17 cyber budget to $19 billion. That $5 billion hike was, driven by OPM, the Cyber Sprint, and terrorist threats. The 2015 Cyber Information Sharing Act set new government and public-private bidirectional intelligence swapping requirements. […]

FedRAMP certainly has its issues. The PMO opted out of the Cloud Caucus meeting, refused to comment on Fix FedRAMP. That said, we understand the PMO’s working hard to make amends – and rolling out the long-awaited FedRAMP 2.0 on March 28th at GSA. Want a sneak peek at what they’ll roll out? Seems they took the hints in the Fix FedRAMP recommendations. Here’s what we hear. […]

The Fix FedRAMP paper released a few weeks back from the FedRAMP Fast Forward Industry Advocacy Group has given a cohesive voice to widespread concerns about the cloak – and – dagger and inefficiencies of the FedRAMP process. […]

Innovation ignites America’s economy. China’s not trying to steal our Constitution. Europe doesn’t covet our right to bear arms. Isn’t Putin trying to make Russia great again?

Think Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle. These tech titans define this nation’s competitive advantage. Tech provides the juice that powers our economy, which feeds our tax base, which pays for healthcare and muscles up our military. It’s that excitement that makes people want to come here. […]

We love FedRAMP. How could you not? It’s the smart gateway to secure cloud computing across the government. Without a clear, centralized, easy-to-understand cloud computing security model, cloud’s vaporware. Without cloud we can’t consolidate applications, embrace shared services, and modernize our IT. Without cloud, we’ll continue to waste 80 percent of our $80 billion annual IT spend on legacy systems. […]

Anticipating the release of the Fix FedRAMP paper, GSA and the FedRAMP PMO released this blog Wednesday evening. Let’s hear it for change. […]

They say that art is a mirror to our society. It’s time to stop looking backward – to move past yesterday’s successes. They inhibit our progress. As we consider our New Year’s resolutions, I’m asking for new ideas, new thinking. […]

Senators Tom Udall and Jerry Moran unwrapped the Cloud Infrastructure Transition Act, the son of FITARA legislation… […]

Between the Hill scorecard and the imminent agency self-assessment read out, FITARA’s hot and sometimes hard to follow. So, where are we? what’s next? and why should you care? […]

Which of the turkeys running for the President would you invite to gobble with your family? […]

The Kansas City Royals just won it all by playing great defense and following the old baseball motto – “hit ‘em where they ain’t.” It’s also a motto that fraudsters have embraced as they continue hitting agencies from all angles. […]

If little girls are sugar, spice, and all things nice. And, little boys are slugs, snails, and puppy dog’s tails. Then the September 2nd Synergy Research Public Cloud Infrastructure report puts the gadget guts of public clouds into plain view […]

How would the Queen of Soul spell FITARA? R-E-S-P-E-C-T. That’s coz the new IT law is all about Federal CIOs getting some swagger – and harmonizing Federal IT efficiency on the same track. […]

Fluffy comes to mind as good cloud adjective – difficult to define.  But never fear, it’s raining cloud metrics this week – and we’re bringing you the chance to get face to face with the facts at our November 5th Cloud Connect conference. […]

Donald Trump might quip that there are two kinds of insider threats – the Edward Snowden kind and the Hillary Clinton kind. But our nation’s cyber security’s no laughing matter. […]