The Oakmont Group

How to increase your podcast downloads

Blog

by on Leave a Comment

Successful Federal Cloud Transitions


#552 Federal Tech Talk
with John Gilroy


successful cloud transitions
Tim Hurlebaus, CGI Federal

Date:  May 22, 2018
Guest:  Tim Hurlebaus, CGI Federal
Length: 40 minutes
Topic: CGI Federal – Successful Cloud Transition

Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #552 .




He was recently given an award called the Fed 100 for his company’s work on a project at the Department of Agriculture called “Momentum.” It was a complex project that involved taking an application to the cloud. He gives insight on business process management, systems integration, and provides guidance for other agencies considering making a move to the cloud.
During the interview he discussed aspects of a successful transition that included some gaps in the process he has seen. When it comes to technology, it can change during a move and this possibility must be taken into consideration.
When a transition process is considered, one must have a list of priorities, one being securing data in transit. Another one is a complete understanding of the billing process in a cloud environment.
Finally, some cloud transferals may have change—move to anther cloud, or go back to the premises. This also must be considered.

by on Leave a Comment

Understanding Red Hat and Open Source


#551 Federal Tech Talk
with John Gilroy

Dave Egts, Red Hat

Date:  May 15, 2018
Guest:  Dave Egts, Red Hat
Length: 40 minutes
Topic: Red Hat = Open Source, Open Shift, Open Brand Project

Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #551 .




Red Hat has been around since 1993 and has seen drastic increases in adoption in the federal government. Ten years ago it was touted as one of the fastest operating systems — one reason was the open source community constantly offering improvements. One can argue that the rise of convergence has made that argument moot.

Today, agencies are challenged with such rapid change that they must embrace agile methods of software distribution. Red Hat is stepping up to the challenge with offering open source solutions that fit well in the new “DevOps” concept of development.

During the interview, Dave Egts talks about an event called DevNation. It is held in Washington DC and has a focus on development and open source.

by on Leave a Comment

Can Open Source Reduce Cost for Federal IT? [radio]


#550 Federal Tech Talk
with John Gilroy


open source
Founder, Chief Strategy Officer of Cloudera

Date:  May 8, 2018
Guest:  Mike Olson Cloudera
Length: 40 minutes
Topic: Insights on innovation in the federal government

Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #550 .




Cloudera began in 2008 with an idea to help manage large amounts of data – probably why part of their tagline is, “empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights.”
His company is well known for its hybrid open-source Apache Hadoop distribution.

Today’s interview takes a Silicon Valley founder and has him examine the $89 billion federal information technology spend to give his observations on improvement. This is a discussion that covers everything from open source and cybersecurity to machine intelligence.

Mike shows how the federal government should take advantage of open source to improve services to citizens as well as to capture, store, and process unimaginable amounts of information.

by on Leave a Comment

Emergency Notifications in the Cloud [radio]

emergency notifications
Don Hall, Onsolve

Date:  May 1, 2018
Guest:  Don Hall Onsolve
Length: 40 minutes
Topic: Emergency Notification Systems — options
Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #547 .


Very few people really consider the importance of our national emergency notification system. The United States has 3,007 counties. Very few are interconnected with emergency communication. Today we have Don Hall from Onsolve talking about solutions to this issue. He has decades of experience in life and death situations — working in fire departments.

He combines this with a high degree of technical knowledge when it comes to local, state, and federal emergency notification systems.

by on Leave a Comment

Machine Learning, Search & Big Data [radio]

Elastic can find the needle in the haystack

George Young, Elastic

Date:  April 23, 2018
Guest:  George Young from Elastic
Time: 40 minutes
Topic: The different flavors of search
Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #547 .
Twitter: @elastic

Here is a fun fact: when the Mars Rover sends data back to NASA, it sends it to a system based on Elastic. Well, if those rocket scientists can trust that kind of data to Elastic, then you may want to consider it as well. Many federal information technology professionals need new ways to understand big data. Elastic provides an opensource solution that you can test drive for free.

by on Leave a Comment

Options for Federal Authentication: Duo Security [radio]

When authentication costs can be reduced

reducing costs for authentication
Sean Frazier, Advisory CISO – Federal at Duo Security

Date:  April 17, 2018
Guest:  Sean Frazier from Duo Security
Topic: Multi Factor Authentication
Audio link: Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy: #546 .
Twitter: @duosec

Duo Security has worked with a wide range of organizations to improve security and reduce costs for administering authentication. During the interview, Sean Frazier differentiates among authentication methods like two-step verification, multi-factor authentication, and strong authentication. Sean gives an overview of how to manage authentication in a world where traditional methods like PIV may be limited.