Federal Tech Podcast: for innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs who want to increase reach and improve brand awareness

John Gilroy

The federal government spends $90 billion on technology every year. If you are a tech innovator and want to expand your share of the market, this is the podcast for you to find new opportunities for growth. Every week, Federal Tech Podcast sits down with successful innovators who have solved complex computer system problems for federal agencies. They cover topics like Artificial Intelligence, Zero Trust, and the Hybrid Cloud. You can listen to the technical issues that concern federal agencies to see if you company's capabilities can fit. The moderator, John Gilroy, is an award-winning lecturer at Georgetown University and has recorded over 1,000 interviews. His interviews are humorous and entertaining despite handing a serious topic. The podcast answers questions like . . . How can software companies work with the federal government? What are federal business opportunities? Who are the cloud providers who work with the federal government? Should I partner with a federal technology contractor? What is a federal reseller? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com

  1. 1d ago

    Ep. 337 40% Faster Contract Awards with AI

    Today, we sat down with Rajan Venkatachalam from Icertis to discuss the evolution of federal contract lifecycle management. The main takeaway is that contract management is becoming harder to ignore, even though many organizations still overlook it. Perhaps it is too difficult; perhaps changing management with compliance is too complex. Rajan begins the interview by putting AI into perspective. He coins a great phrase when he states that AI has gone from "Buzzword to Backbone." In other words, the value of AI is so clear that it should be applied across all aspects of running a federal agency. If you are asking for specifics, he gives them. Rajan states that agencies, contractors, and Icertis have seen up to 40% faster proposal-to-award cycles. Icertis has been in the contract management world since 2009. Building on that experience, they have honed their commercial skills to the point where they can examine every sentence in a contract to assess its limitations and strengths. If you sell to the federal government, Icertis can monitor rapid changes in compliance requirements and ensure your offering stays current. They highlight the shift from paper-based to automated and digital processes, driven by AI and compliance frameworks like FAR, DFAR, and CMMC. Finally, Rajan sees the future as autonomous contracting. He can see a future where a solicitation is reviewed and a proposal is generated. This increase in speed allows humans to review the process before submittal. This points to faster, more predictable, and compliant-friendly contracting, which is crucial for agencies under pressure to deliver quickly.

  2. 3d ago

    Ep. 336 Securing Federal Critical Infrastructure with AI

    IT modernization carries unanticipated risks. Take operational technology, or OT, as an example. As modernization has increased the number of OT and IoT assets across many federal locations, it has also introduced new vulnerabilities. Federal leaders are warning that the situation has reached a tipping point. CISA maintains a growing list of vulnerabilities, and the NSA has issued warnings about OT and IoT risks. A recent SANS report indicated a 20% increase in confirmed OT attacks. To explore these challenges, we sit down with Chris Grove, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Nozomi Networks, to discuss the cyber-physical security challenges facing the federal government, particularly the modernization of older OT systems. He highlighted the difficulties in maintaining asset inventories, the impact of AI in both attacks and defenses, and the complexities of implementing zero trust in OT environments. During the interview, Grove addresses topics such as remote access, older technology not designed for updates, and OT devices that move around on ships and planes. Thirty years ago, "unified communication" was introduced by technology like VoIP. With the proliferation of OT devices, Grove recommends a unified security architecture. Grove emphasized the importance of resilience and the need for AI-enhanced tools to manage alerts and anomalies effectively. He also noted growing concerns about drone security and the significant workload expected to result from AI-discovered vulnerabilities.

  3. Jul 21

    Ep. 335 Building Secure Research for Federal AI Innovation

    Taylor Johnston, President of the Institute of Applied Engineering at the University of South Florida, discussed a secure research environment developed with AWS and the federal government. This initiative allows researchers to work with classified information, progressing from unclassified to top-secret levels. The partnership uses AWS GovCloud for multi-domain, multi-accessible research. Many organizations train models on unclassified data, but classified data has different nuances. Analysts need to build that model in IL6 using those data sets. Johnston highlighted the university's proximity to key military commands and its results-based research, emphasizing the importance of human performance and AI in military applications. During the interview, Johnston observed that AI is an enabler for productivity, not a job stealer. The university aims to bridge gaps among academia, the defense industrial base, and venture capital, helping enhance operational capabilities.

  4. Jul 14

    Ep. 334 Modernizing Federal Security for the AI Era

    At one time, reacting to a cyber threat was enough; signatures and blocklists could cope. But AI is now amplifying every aspect of cyberwarfare, including speed and scope, leaving these traditional defenses in the dust. Today's threats can be numerous and personalized, making old approaches worthless. Patricia Titus, Chief Information Security Officer at Abnormal AI, discussed the challenges of transitioning from legacy to modern AI-driven security architectures at the AWS Public Sector Show. During the interview,  she advised focusing on asset visibility, decision-making platforms, and non-human identities to enhance cybersecurity. So many federal organizations are deploying tools that it is difficult to get a baseline or inventory of what is on a system. Titus recommends starting with an accurate inventory to establish a "normal" baseline and detect abnormalities. She also stressed the necessity of modernizing security architecture in parallel with cloud migration and the dangers of relying on outdated tools.

  5. Jul 9

    Ep. 333 CMMC 2.0: Why Compliance Is Now a Business Issue

    The Department of War realized it was dealing with a supply chain risk of vulnerable vendors; back in 2019 they launched the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. The goal was to ensure defense contractors protected sensitive unclassified information. Over the years it has transitioned from being a "checkbox" compliance to moving way beyond the minimum to pass. During today's interview with Travis Goldbach from Coalfire Federal,  he gives us overview of how CMMC  has made the transition to building a security program that protects the mission, supports growth, and earns trust. Goldbach continue by stating the cybersecurity is going to impact just about everybody – from sales, to legal, to operations, to finance and even executive leadership. Travis highlights the importance of CMMC for acquisition, noting that many defense contractors are unprepared. CMMC 2.0, implemented in November 2025, simplified the framework from five levels to three, focusing on basic cyber hygiene, CUI protection, and advanced protection. He also discusses the impact of remote work and AI on CMMC readiness and the importance of a robust ecosystem of trusted partners for sustained compliance. Rather than detailing the number of controls in the varying levels of CMMC, the discussion moved on to the concept of documentation. The challenge Goldbach sees is the conflation of documentation with readiness. More must be added to documentation to make it viable. For example, companies need ownership, governance, and accountability in a repeatable process.

  6. Jul 7

    Ep. 332 Why Compliance Alone Won't Protect Federal Agencies

    In this episode of the Federal Tech Podcast, Robert Salvia of Fortress Information Security explains why agencies must move beyond a compliance mindset and adopt continuous risk management. One key insight stands out: "It's not what you find, it's what you fix," showing that mission impact should guide vulnerability priorities rather than compliance boxes. One insightful observation Salvia makes concerns observability. Many companies pride themselves on being able to see network details, including potentially unknown vulnerabilities. Salvia says the ability to find is important, but the ability to fix that problem is more valuable. He suggests that AI can assist in that endeavor, but it is a force multiplier, not an answer to everything. His main theme is to move from compliance to continuous risk management. Salvia explores the complexities of supply chain risk management (SCRM), emphasizing the need for comprehensive, enterprise-level solutions that address both hardware and software vulnerabilities. Salvia highlights the importance of collaboration, continuous monitoring, and adapting to new threats and regulations. He also discusses the role of AI, such as Mythos, in increasing the scale of vulnerability detection and the necessity of integrating AI with human expertise for effective risk management and remediation.

  7. Jun 30

    Ep 331 Autonomous AI and Observability in Federal IT

    In this episode of the Federal Tech Podcast, John Gilroy interviews Justin Fessler, Vice President of Public Sector at LogicMonitor, about the growing role of autonomous AI and observability in federal government IT operations. Fessler explains that autonomous AI is not about replacing people but about automating repetitive operational tasks, correlating complex system events, and helping IT teams make faster, better-informed decisions. Rather than allowing AI to operate without oversight, LogicMonitor focuses on keeping humans "in the loop" while AI handles time-consuming analysis and routine remediation. A central theme is the importance of complete visibility across increasingly complex federal environments. LogicMonitor's agentless monitoring technology discovers devices, cloud resources, applications, and shadow IT without requiring software agents on every endpoint. This broad visibility enables agencies to identify unmanaged assets, reduce blind spots, optimize cloud costs, and strengthen security. The discussion also highlights observability's critical role in Zero Trust. Fessler notes that agencies cannot secure or verify assets they cannot see. By discovering everything connected to the network—including servers, cloud services, IoT devices, cameras, badge readers, and physical infrastructure—LogicMonitor helps agencies build a stronger Zero Trust foundation. Gilroy and Fessler examine the challenges of managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments, emphasizing that agencies require a single operational view regardless of where workloads reside. LogicMonitor integrates information across cloud providers and third-party platforms, including ServiceNow, Splunk, Dynatrace, Datadog, and IBM Watsonx, enabling AI-driven event correlation and faster incident response. The conversation concludes with the future of autonomous IT. Fessler predicts increased automation, AI-assisted self-healing infrastructure, and significantly reduced mean time to identify and resolve incidents. Rather than replacing IT professionals, autonomous AI will eliminate repetitive work, allowing skilled personnel to focus on higher-value mission objectives while improving operational resilience, reducing alert fatigue, and delivering better digital services to citizens.         For more information, visit www.logicmonitor.com/solutions/federal-government.

  8. Jun 25

    Ep. 330 Lessons from Ukraine on Defending Against Cyberattacks

    Craig Bowman, Senior Vice President at Trellix, discussed Trellix's project to secure Ukraine's cyber environment against nation-state attacks, highlighting the rapid evolution of attack vectors from Ukraine to the U.S. He emphasized the importance of AI in cybersecurity, noting Trellix's use of AI to autonomously mitigate attacks, as seen during the 2025 cyber espionage campaign. Bowman also explained Trellix's detonation chamber technology, which isolates and analyzes threats without affecting live data, and its Agentic AI, which operates on-premises without data movement to provide real-time cybersecurity insights. Ukraine has become the world's most concentrated cyber battlefield, giving security teams unprecedented visibility into emerging attack techniques. In this interview, Trellix's Craig Bowman revealed that attack patterns once took six months to reach the U.S. after appearing in Ukraine—today, that gap can be as short as six seconds —highlighting why AI-powered cyber defense is becoming essential for federal agencies. It is essential because a human simply cannot fight an autonomous machine by clicking through alerts. It is time to use AI to fight AI.

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The federal government spends $90 billion on technology every year. If you are a tech innovator and want to expand your share of the market, this is the podcast for you to find new opportunities for growth. Every week, Federal Tech Podcast sits down with successful innovators who have solved complex computer system problems for federal agencies. They cover topics like Artificial Intelligence, Zero Trust, and the Hybrid Cloud. You can listen to the technical issues that concern federal agencies to see if you company's capabilities can fit. The moderator, John Gilroy, is an award-winning lecturer at Georgetown University and has recorded over 1,000 interviews. His interviews are humorous and entertaining despite handing a serious topic. The podcast answers questions like . . . How can software companies work with the federal government? What are federal business opportunities? Who are the cloud providers who work with the federal government? Should I partner with a federal technology contractor? What is a federal reseller? Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com

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