Government Policy, Business and Technology

Cloud-Driven Databases Improve Service Quality, Reduce Costs

Most agencies have migrated at least a few applications to cloud services, but progress has been slow, due primarily to internal IT complexities, cybersecurity worries and a reluctance to abandon physical resources. Increasingly, however, agency leaders find that optimizing data management provides a critical first...

GSA proposes new cybersecurity reporting rules for contractors

FedScoop: The General Services Administration is proposing new rules shaping how contractors protect government information on the IT systems they manage.

Tucked in a Friday Federal Register post detailing the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory...

Overcoming Aging Infrastructure

Explore the use of IoT sensors to monitor vibrations and better track the safety of bridges and other structures. Using real-time, cloud-based, advanced analytics and IoT sensor data, government executives can measure vibrations that would help federal, state and local organizations more closely monitor aging...

Was Amazon's HQ2 Search a Waste of Time for Cities?

Governing: After Amazon’s announcement that it would split its second headquarters and coveted 50,000 jobs between the Washington, D.C., area and the New York City borough of Queens, the losing cities put a positive spin on the news. Columbus, Ohio, officials, for instance, said they were just glad to get attention for being a finalist.

A Natural Evolution: From Data Center Consolidation to IT Optimization

As federal IT organizations make progress consolidating and modernizing their IT infrastructures, the impact of legacy platforms, technologies and traditional data centers still weighs heavy, along with each agency’s ability to attract and maintain the skill sets and applications needed to meet 21st century requirements. If...

State Department clears $944 million in missiles for Japan, NATO

Defense News: The U.S. State Department cleared a trio of foreign military sales Monday, with an eye on arming some of America’s closest partners.

The potential sales, announced by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), include a package of SM-3 missiles...

Growing Government Cyber Intelligence (ebook)

As traditional network perimeters surrounding data centers dissolve, agencies face enormous difficulties fending off attacks using a patchwork of traditional security tools to protect classified or personally identifiable information (PII). Time and again, traditional security practices have proven porous and/or unsustainable. This is why public sector officials...

CMS will study quality measures at home health agencies

Modern Healthcare: The CMS wants to make sure it's using the right quality measures to track care given by home health agencies, which costs the agency around $18 billion every year. The agency has issued numerous new quality measures for HHS going back to 1999, but it's unclear what, if any, impact on care they've had, according to a federal notice.

NY simplifies interconnection standards to ensure 'robust' clean energy pipeline: PSC chair

Utility Dive: Some of the work done on New York's interconnection requirements is "in the mechanics and in the weeds," said Rhodes. Tweaks include managing upfront deposits better, improving technical screens and further streamlining routine connections.

New Uncertainty on Title IX

Inside Higher Ed: Last week Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released her proposed overhaul of federal standards for how colleges handle campus-based sexual misconduct. The rule includes a key demand from supporters of accused students, requiring that colleges allow those students to cross-examine, through an advocate, the person who accused...