AFCEA International is a non-profit organization comprised of members responsible for maintaining a forum in which government, military branches, and assorted industries can join forces to plan how to best use available technologies and stratagem. Since its creation in 1946, it has grown to over 30,000 members with 140 chapters and 1,605 corporate members. One of its chapters, AFCEA Bethesda, is based in Maryland and shares the mission of bridging the federal government and the private sector to allow for more partnerships on crucial IT innovations and applications.
Bethesda hosted the 11th annual Law Enforcement and Public Safety Technology Forum recently; the theme was Reimagine: The Intersection of Technology and Modernization. It started with an evening reception the night before the main symposium, featuring an executive briefing on ‘Enhancing Mission Delivery – The Intersection of IT and Mission’ with Colleen Manaher of DHS; Melinda Rogers, Deputy Chief Information Officer for DOJ; and Major General Linda Singh of the Maryland Adj. National Guard.
'Enhancing Mission Delivery' panel with Colleen Manaher, Melinda Rogers, and Major General Linda Singh.
Opening remarks the following morning were made by Chad Fulgham, Chief Information Officer of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund on the three big Cs: culture, cyber, and cloud and converting from Cloud First to cloud only. This was followed by the Opening Panel, ‘The LEAPS Community at the Crossroads: Charting a New Way Forward.’ Karl Mathias, Chief Information Officer for the US Marshals; Brian Griffith, Section Chief of IT Management in the FBI; Margie Graves, Federal Deputy CIO of the OMB; Kevin Nally, US Secret Service Chief Information Officer; and Wanda Gibson, Chief Information Officer for Fairfax County Government spoke about scalable platform, modern tools, and the benefits of a modular contract.
One of the first breakout sessions offered was ‘Big Impacts without Big Budgets.’ Beth Buck, Chief Inspector of the US Marshals Service’s Portfolio Management Branch moderated. Ira Baron, Chief Technology Officer for the OJP, shared his experience with how clouds used to be custom built but there has since been a shift to buying and, now, a push rather to rent them, partially which he saw as a convergence of agencies following policy and procedure, but also traditions. A later breakout session, ‘Solution Roundtables: Converging IT with a Modernized Workforce’ was spearheaded by Capt. Michael Dickey, Commander of C4IT Service Center in the US Coast Guard; David Bottom, chief Information Officer in the DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis; Shea Jones, an IRS Criminal Investigations Deputy Director; and Jeremy Wiltz, Assistant Director of FBI Information Technology Enterprise Services Division.
GovDataHosting is proud to have the opportunity to sponsor another AFCEA Bethesda event, benefitting our law enforcement with advances in technology that better serve their mission while keeping them safe. Additionally, choosing a cloud service provider offering the appropriate controls and processes is critical. GovDataHosting's services have been the subject of comprehensive audits, recently earning FedRAMP High Impact Certification, making us one of a select few. You can look forward to cost savings while still increasing agility for chosen systems and lowering risk levels with the only vendor in the industry offering clients a full bundle. Reach out today to request a consultation or quote.
