In this episode, I sit down with SAIC Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and longtime Federal/Defense leader Bob Ritchie to discuss his experience securing public sector digital modernization, including everything from large multi-cloud environments to zero trust, identity, and where things are headed with AI.

• Bob starts discussing SAIC and his background there. He went from intern to CTO over 20 years with this public sector industry leader, including a brief stint with Capital One on the commercial side.
• We covered the current state of the federal cloud community across multiple clouds (e.g., Azure, AWS, and GCP) and some of the challenges and opportunities on the security front.
• We often hear phrases such as “identity is the new perimeter,” but the perimeter is porous and problematic, especially in large, disparate environments such as the Federal/Defense ecosystem. Bob touched on the current state of identity security in this ecosystem, where progress is being made and what challenges still need to be tackled.
• The government is doing a big push towards Zero Trust, with the Cyber EO 14028, Federal/Defense ZT strategies, and more. But how much progress is being made on ZT, and where can we look for examples of innovation and success?
• We dove into the rise of excitement and adoption of AI, GenAI, Agentic AI, and protocols such as MCP, A2A, and where the public sector community can lean into Agentic AI for use cases ranging from SecOps, AppSec, GRC, and more.
• Bob explains how he balances a good business focus while staying deep in the weeds and proficient in relevant emerging technologies and nuances required as a CTO.

I’ve known Bob for several years, and you would be hard pressed to find a more competent technology leader. This is not one to miss!