While we all know AI can boost productivity, agencies everywhere are trying to figure out how that will relate to the government workload.

In this episode of Feds At The Edge, experts familiar with the Department of Energy's Genesis Mission unpack what it takes to move from AI experimentation to secure, scalable, mission-ready infrastructure across national laboratories and research environments.

Dana Grisham of Sandia National Laboratories explores a fundamental architecture question: how do you balance centralized control with the flexibility of a federated model, especially when innovation is moving fast and compliance can't take a back seat?

David Henderson takes the conversation deeper into data governance, examining how agencies can maintain control and visibility as information moves from databases to data lakes, warehouses, and beyond. A common data catalog, he argues, can help create the consistency and accountability these environments demand.

Frank Reyes of Maximus looks at architecture as more than infrastructure. Done well, it becomes a set of guardrails, helping federal organizations optimize performance while operating within demanding security, governance, and mission constraints.

The conversation also tackles some of the toughest realities of AI modernization: technical debt, data-sharing agreements, cross-organizational collaboration, and the security requirements that can determine whether innovation scales, or stalls.

For agencies working to turn AI ambition into operational capability, this is where the real work begins. Tune in on your favorite podcasting platform today.

Here is the final copy for this one and I will have the next over to you soon:

Software management presents itself as an easy task: install software, then deinstall it at the end of its life. Unfortunately, the complexity of modern systems has made managing software in enterprise situations more of a nightmare than a walk in the park.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, government and industry thought leaders share practical approaches to managing software assets, from establishing authoritative data across multiple tools to identifying duplicate software purchased by different departments. Even when tools are duplicative, turning them off can be difficult when they're embedded in critical systems.

The discussion also explores the challenges of acquiring software during an emergency, the risks of working with unreliable vendors and the importance of having the right processes in place to manage software throughout its lifecycle. They also underscore the risks posed by legacy systems and highlight why continuous, automated approaches are vital for managing software assets effectively.

From knowing what software you have to knowing what you can safely retire, effective software management is essential to keeping modern enterprises secure, efficient and resilient. Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to hear how experts are tackling these challenges.

The concept of EDR is flawless, but complex federal environments present distinct operational hurdles.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, we dive into Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) in the federal government and explore how expert-suggested approaches can help agencies overcome today's barriers.

While EDR provides continuous monitoring and automated containment across agency devices, federal civilian networks face unique challenges in practice. Broadcom's Paul Miller admits that EDR's core weakness is its reactive nature, discussing how AI can be applied to "move left" of an attack by leveraging historical data to predict threats before they strike. Meanwhile, Broadcom's Sam Romo breaks down the difficulty of defending against machine-speed attacks as AI increases the velocity of standard signature-based threats. Together, the panel examines how today's AI-assisted, adaptive EDR can serve as a vital protective layer for the fragile legacy systems embedded throughout agency cybersecurity stacks.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform for practical insights on how federal agencies can strengthen endpoint security and stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threats.

According to Greg Touhill, the first CISO of the United States, complexity is the bane of IT security. Today, that lesson remains especially relevant.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, several thought leaders share how agencies can reduce complexity, integrate legacy systems, balance usability with security, and build a Zero Trust environment that continues to improve over time.

Robert Skinner of Skinner's Strategic Solutions, explores the power of reducing system complexity and data flows to unlock clearer analytics. David Klink of Leidos explains the challenge agencies face when they try to "shoehorn legacy identity methods" into modern enterprise compliance. Continuous monitoring and tools that identify systems operating outside enterprise Identity, Credential, and Access Management requirements can help bridge that gap.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to hear practical, actionable ideas for managing out-of-compliance infrastructure, maintaining continuous evaluation, and driving modern security compliance without sacrificing user experience.

Listeners may be familiar with a quote from Frederick the Great, "He who defends everything, defends nothing."

Federal leaders understand this all too well. As they are deluged with data, attacks, and new technology on a daily basis, it can be confusing what to prioritize and in trying to defend everything, agencies can be left vulnerable to attack.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, several thought leaders share how they set priorities, leverage existing tools, and experiment with new solutions to enhance efficiency and security.

Bridget Carper-Arnone of the Department of Energy discusses how Enterprise License Agreements and centralized governance can reduce costs and streamline compliance across multiple systems. SEC's Jeff King emphasizes the value of understanding existing tools, noting that a deeper dive with vendors can uncover capabilities agencies may already have. While Emilio Escobar from DataDog highlights observability and AI as keys to modernization, explaining how greater visibility into the technology environment can help agencies deploy resources more effectively.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to hear federal technology leaders share practical strategies for prioritizing investments, maximizing existing tools, and modernizing with greater efficiency and security.

History shows that nations often enter new conflicts relying on old, familiar tactics. It's only after those tactics fail that they adapt to something new.

Today, thousands of defense contractors and companies are making the exact same mistake with Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). By applying outdated, static compliance tools to a modern, dynamic regulatory landscape, organizations face mounting delays, incomplete visibility, and soaring costs. In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, we sit down with leading experts from GDIT, Axonius Federal, Red River and ComplAi, who have successfully navigated these pitfalls to streamline the journey to certification.

They highlight why traditional governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) tools built for commercial frameworks fail under CMMC standards, why continuous monitoring must replace periodic rule-checking, and how essential a complete data inventory is for long-term success.

Everyone has heard about fraud, waste, and abuse, but building an effective fraud prevention program requires more than identifying problems after they occur.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, government and industry experts share practical strategies for helping federal agencies stop improper payments before funds go out the door.

Kim Brandt of CMS underscores the scale of the challenge, noting the agency processes roughly $1 million in claims every day. Justin Marisco from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service share how tapping into shared resources, such as Treasury's Do Not Pay list, the Social Security Death Index, and DHS databases can help validate individuals before funds are ever disbursed. Diligent's Jason Venner highlights why preventing improper payments is infinitely better than the traditional "pay and chase" approach and how the era of Big Data introduced agencies to analyzing massive datasets, while today's AI makes it possible to analyze entire datasets, rather than samples, to identify fraud risks.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to learn how modern technology and cross-agency data sharing are shifting federal fraud prevention from reactive damage control to proactive defense.

Permitting delays can increase construction costs, frustrate applicants and slow the delivery of much-needed housing. But modernizing the process requires more than simply replacing paper with technology.

In this week's episode of Feds At The Edge, we explore how government and industry leaders are combining policy reform, digital workflows, cloud technology and AI to reduce permitting backlogs and improve the building approval process.

John W. Lane of the Town of Caledon examines outdated bylaws, inconsistent processes and ways to accelerate reviews without sacrificing safety. Philip Mosher of the Municipality of North Grenville shares how updated zoning rules, integrated workflows and dashboards can help expose bottlenecks and move applications forward. James Nyhus of the District of Sechelt discusses moving from paper files to cloud-based permitting and tablet inspections, while Salesforce's Nadia Hansen explores how AI could support document processing, workload planning and routine applicant questions.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform for a practical look at how government can connect people, processes and technology to deliver faster, more responsive services.

Identity is central to Zero Trust, making it one of the most attractive targets for cyber attackers. While multi-factor authentication has long been a reliable way to ensure identity, traditional MFA has critical gaps.

This week on Feds At the Edge, Mark Brennan from the New Jersey Department of Health, and YubiKey's Jeff Frederick, explore how phishing-resistant cryptography and hardware security keys provide stronger protection against modern identity-based threats while improving the user experience. The panel also examines why hardware-backed authentication is recognized in NIST SP 800-63 Revision 4 as a highly secure approach to cryptographic MFA and shares practical guidance for implementation, including starting with a phased rollout, engaging executive leadership early, and continuously refining the program to build user confidence and support long-term Zero Trust success.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to discover how hardware-backed authentication can help agencies reduce identity-based attacks, strengthen security, and simplify the path to phishing-resistant MFA

Supply chain risk is about more than software and compliance checklists; it's about making informed decisions that strengthen security and support mission success.

This week on Feds At the Edge, Ryan Lewis of the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology joins us to unpack the practical realities of managing supply-side risk in the public sector. Rather than getting bogged down in software bills of materials or endless certifications right out of the gate, Lewis advocates for a broader view of risk assessment, one that starts with developing vendor risk profiles and building genuine personal relationships with vendor representatives.

He shares his strategy for balancing tight budget constraints with strict security requirements, urging organizations to evaluate the actual value of their data before deciding how to protect it and to thoroughly examine their existing tools before wasting resources on yet another solution.

Tune in on your favorite podcasting platform today as Lewis highlights that securing the supply chain isn't just about compliance and technology. It's also about fostering an organizational culture of collaboration, integrity, and openness.