2015 Mingle and Jingle The Cloud Computing Exchange (CCX) and Data Center Exchange (DCX) hosted a Holiday quarterly meeting on Wednesday, December 16 at the City Club of Washington, D.C. with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), U.S. House of Representatives. We discussed the policies and legislation that will shape the landscape for the upcoming year. […]

On March 30, 2016, MeriTalk held its third FITARA Forum, co-located with the fifth annual Data Center Exchange Brainstorm at the Newseum in D.C. The event gathered more than 300 data center and FITARA thought leaders – industry and Federal alike – for a packed day of discussion and revelation. […]

With the deadline looming for Federal agencies to submit final implementation plans for FITARA, the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, it’s a good time to look back at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s scorecard, released in November. With no As in sight, what does success look like? […]

Congressman says the one-year old IT acquisition law is a good start, and now Congress will issue its controversial scorecards twice a year to ensure Federal agencies are implementing FITARA appropriately. […]

MeriTalk caught up with Department of Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer Karen Neuman Nov. 19 at MeriTalk’s Big Data Brainstorm in Washington, D.C. Listen to the podcast. […]

Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday outlined numerous shortcomings in efforts by Federal agencies to implement reforms in the bipartisan Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). The committee issued F and D letter grades to 17 agencies because of missed opportunities to cut costs and meet other benchmarks. The […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) produced some good commentary from members of Congress and witnesses alike. Here are five comments from testimony and the subsequent discussion that provide perspective on the hearing. “I am so grateful to this committee for FITARA. I think […]

When I came to Washington years ago on what was to be a one-year fellowship, the senior administrative management position in government departments and agencies was typically an Assistant Secretary for Administration (AS/A) or perhaps an Assistant Secretary for Management (AS/M). In the majority of cases, those positions and their deputies were long-time careerists, recognizing […]

Telehealth virtual consultations are expected to grow by more than 10 million over the next five years, according to research firm IHS, which projects these consultations to go from 16.6 million this year to 26.9 million by 2020. According to Nancy Green, global practice lead for healthcare strategy and thought leadership at Verizon Enterprise Solutions, […]

The massive, governmentwide efforts to consolidate data centers and squeeze more efficiency, cost savings and security out of cloud computing are not without their challenges. Both require new ways of thinking and a willingness to embrace change — two things that can be very difficult for entrenched bureaucracies that are uneasy with the perceived loss […]

The Federal government spends close to $100 billion each year on Information Technology (IT). That’s a lot more than the $80 billion figure that shows up in the President’s annual budget and reports from Deltek and others. The latter number only shows spending from the 24 so-called Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies. It does […]

The FAA awarded a $109 million contract Monday to IT services firm CSC and its team of previous rivals — including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and other strategic business partners — to deliver cost-effective cloud services, data center consolidation and cloud migration capabilities. Under the contract, which could be worth $1 billion over […]

Writers Guidelines MeriTalk is a property of 300Brand and provides a platform for news, information and thought leadership designed to improve the outcomes of government IT. MeriTalk welcomes new, independent voices to help improve the dialogue between the public sector and industry, enhance collaboration and facilitate sharing of best practices to address the most pressing […]

Why can’t the government successfully complete complex IT projects? This question persists whether one is talking about Healthcare.gov or the recent data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. The primary reason is the cumbersome way the government funds IT development. With agencies subsisting from one Continuing Resolution (CR) to the next, intermittent funding wreaks […]

Federal agencies aren’t the only ones trying to leverage analytics to get better at their game. Cyber crooks are doing it, as well. […]

The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) is driving change and savings – $3.2 billion by the end of this year according to some estimates. But surveys of federal IT professionals show that 72 percent of agencies have the same or more data centers today than before the initiative. […]

Thank you for attending the Data Center Brainstorm on Wednesday, March 25 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. At this half-day conference, more than 150 “data center-fluent” Federal IT professionals from a variety of agencies gathered to discuss pressing and trending topics, including Accelerating Energy Savings, Infrastructures of the Future, and Application Rationalization. Attendees heard […]

As government agencies tighten their budgets, virtualization is more heavily relied upon to increase their capabilities without increasing their expenditures. VMware continues to raise the bar with their innovative solutions to help IT staff do more with less. […]

Federal agencies are always looking for ways to serve their constituents and users more efficiently. Given the vast amounts of data agencies collect, integrating applications and data from numerous sources while also improving operational efficiency and increasing information consistency is critical. […]

Strategic sourcing is focused on reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while also delivering results, agility, and innovation. Private sector is well on its way to capitalizing on strategic sourcing, and in many industries, companies grow and die by how well they do strategic sourcing. Many of the public sector organizations, including federal, state […]

Thank you for attending the Data Center Brainstorm on Thursday, March 13 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. At this half-day conference, more than 100 “data center-fluent” Federal IT professionals from a variety of agencies gathered to discuss pressing and trending topics, including Accelerating Energy Savings, Infrastructures of the Future, and Application Rationalization. Attendees heard […]

Checked out the latest report by MeriTalk yet? The “Big Five in Overdrive: Are State and Local Networks Ready?”, underwritten by Brocade, examines how the implementation of the Big Five – data center consolidation, mobility, security, big data, and cloud computing – will affect state and local government IT. […]

As you start your planning for 2014, consider three numbers: 90 83 1.05 During the 2014 fiscal year, sequestration will cut $90 billion in Federal discretionary spending. With the soft options already eliminated in 2013, the only decisions left are between bad and worse. Where can agencies find maximum savings with minimal pain? On average, […]