/
PV Puvvada, President of Unisys Federal, Receives Sixth Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic
Published on
PV Puvvada, President of Unisys Federal, Receives Sixth Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic
PV Puvvada, President of Unisys Federal, Receives Sixth Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic

Jim Garrettson, founder and CEO of Executive Mosaic, presented Venkatapathi “PV” Puvvada, president of Unisys Federal, his sixth Wash100 Award as a part of the 2020 selection.

Executive Mosaic recognizes Puvvada for advancing information technology (IT) modernization, cloud and other capabilities for federal agencies while also driving revenue for Unisys.

Under Puvvada’s leadership, the company saw great success and growth by securing contract awards across the sector, including an overall total of $252 million from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) in March 2019 that pushed Puvvada’s missions towards IT and cloud applications. 

In addition, Unisys also received a contract from the VA to provide cloud advisory services to accelerate its transition to the cloud and support the department’s goals of delivering secure digital experiences to benefit the U.S. veteran community. Unisys will apply CloudForte, tailored to VA requirements, to create a strategy that accelerates the secure move of data to the cloud. 

“This series of contract wins highlights the value Unisys is providing to U.S. Federal agencies with best-in-class commercial solutions and deep domain expertise,” said Puvvada. “Unisys is deeply proud of its role in successfully delivering modern digital services that provide better mission outcomes for these agencies and the citizens they serve.”

More recently, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has agreed to buy Unisys’ federal business unit for $1.2 billion in cash as of Feb. 6th, 2020. SAIC expects the deal to enhance its capabilities in modernizing IT, cloud migration, managed services, development, security and operations.

Among the benefits that Unisys will gain from the sale, the unfunded pension deficit is expected to be reduced from $1.74 billion as of year-end 2018 to approximately $1.14 billion on a pro forma basis. Unisys will also have the flexibility to make additional discretionary contributions to future funding requirements beyond 2022.

Executive Mosaic congratulates PV Puvvada and Unisys for his 2020 Wash100 Award selection. His continued drive for excellence in the government contracting sector and focus to support federal agencies as they advance IT modernization, cloud and other capabilities while also driving revenue for Unisys. 

About The Wash100

The Wash100 Award, now in its seventh year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.

/
Viasat Adheres to FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge in Lieu of COVID-19 Outbreak; Mark Dankberg Quoted”
Published on
Viasat Adheres to FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge in Lieu of COVID-19 Outbreak; Mark Dankberg Quoted”
Viasat Adheres to FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge in Lieu of COVID-19 Outbreak; Mark Dankberg Quoted"

Viasat Inc. has announced today its commitment to meet the FCC's "Keep Americans Connected" pledge and will work with its residential and small business customers to keep them connected, lessening potential health and economic impacts associated with the coronavirus, the company announced on Monday. 

Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of Viasat commented, "We understand this is an extremely unsettling time for many of our customers as the world confronts the threat of COVID-19. Our goal is to help provide internet continuity to all of our customers who count on us to stay connected—whether at home or at work.”

In alignment with the FCC's request to all Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Viasat has pledged for the next 60 days to not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, the company will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic. Viasat also plans to open its Wi-Fi hotspots, in conjunction with partners, to any American who needs them.

“We are committed to enable our customers to stay informed, productive and connected to friends, family, colleagues and loved ones," added Dankberg. 

About Viasat

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 30 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people's lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea.

//
How COVID-19 Outbreak Affects DoD CMMC Implementation; Katie Arrington Quoted
Published on
How COVID-19 Outbreak Affects DoD CMMC Implementation; Katie Arrington Quoted
How COVID-19 Outbreak Affects DoD CMMC Implementation; Katie Arrington Quoted

Katie Arrington, 2020 Wash100 Award recipient and the chief information security officer for the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition, stated that training of third party assessors for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program was slated to start in mid-April, but the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak may affect the projected implementation. 

"Everything was on schedule; I have no idea how this is going to impact things. I don't know if it will, I don't know if it won't because we were doing online training in some cases," Arrington said. DoD previously said the training would take place from January to June.

Arrington noted that DoD has announced that the department will stay as close to on schedule as possible while respecting health concerns. The training may implement remote training via webinars and live streams. 

The first version of CMMC was released in January with its independently-assembled accreditation body selecting a chair and standing up soon after. The CMMC Accrediting Body is now developing the curriculum for third party assessors and structuring itself to tackle issues surrounding the cyber standards governance and implementation. 

Ellen Lord, DoD's head of acquisition, also warned businesses of people claiming to be CMMC assessors, which have not been finalized. "Moving forward I am confident we will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body on the accreditation, certification and approval processes relating to the Defense Supply Chain. When that happens we will make an announcement."

That date could be soon, according to Arrington concluded that deliberation had been finalized and the memo is "in queue to be signed" by Lord.

Arrington will serve as a keynote speaker at the CMMC Forum 2020. She will address the CMMC’s timeline, how the certification process could change and will provide a memorandum of understanding with a newly established CMMC accrediting body.

A full expert panel will include Ty Schieber, senior director of executive education and CMMC-AB chairman of the University of Virginia and Richard Naylor of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency among other members of the federal sector and industry.

Register here to join Potomac Officers Club for its CMMC Forum 2020 to learn about the impact DoD’s CMMC will have on cybersecurity practices, supply chain security and other aspects of the federal market.

//
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Launches Fraud Risk Signal to Efficiently Manage Risks; Kimberly Sutherland Quoted
Published on
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Launches Fraud Risk Signal to Efficiently Manage Risks; Kimberly Sutherland Quoted
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Launches Fraud Risk Signal to Efficiently Manage Risks; Kimberly Sutherland Quoted

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has integrated LexisNexis Behavioral Biometrics to its portfolio of fraud and identity solutions to enable organizations to make more reliable fraud and risk decisions, the company announced on Tuesday. 

"Gathering device interaction data across multiple touchpoints in the online journey helps build richer digital profiles," said Kimberly Sutherland, vice president of fraud and identity strategy at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "As fraudsters continually adapt their strategies to bypass controls, security solutions must be able to distinguish between trustworthy and malicious users in real-time, without adding unnecessary friction for good customers.

LexisNexis Behavioral Biometrics will be added into and accessed by LexisNexis ThreatMetrix, an enterprise solution for global digital identity intelligence and authentication powered by insight from billions of transactions. 

The embedded machine learning and a decision platform will include an additional layer of defense and analyze user interactions that differentiate between different user profiles. LexisNexis’ combined software, integrating behavioral biometrics with digital identity intelligence, will provide customers with additional risk signals, including account openings, high-risk pages and payments. 

Behavioral Biometrics will also enhance an organization's ability to distinguish between human and bot account activity, identify customer profiles, detect reliable profile fraudsters, recognize session anomalies and build confidence relating to returning customers.

LexisNexis’ algorithms create a unique profile for users by analyzing patterns in their activity, ranging from typing speed and phone tilt to mouse movements and keystroke behavior. Organizations will be able to then use the data to recognize returning users and evaluate risk on any given account.

"Where the interplay between behavioral biometrics and digital identity is key, the integration of digital and identity assessment capabilities with behavioral biometrics allows customers to detect high-risk scenarios to allow our customers to better understand the legitimacy of the transacting user. Behavioral biometrics adds an extra passive layer of intelligence to existing fraud and identity solutions," added Sutherland. 

About LexisNexis

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based and analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers across industries. 

/
SpaceX Partners with Intelsat to Launch IS-40e; Mike DeMarco, Tom Ochinero Quoted
Published on
SpaceX Partners with Intelsat to Launch IS-40e; Mike DeMarco, Tom Ochinero Quoted

SpaceX Partners with Intelsat to Launch IS-40e; Mike DeMarco, Tom Ochinero Quoted

Intelsat has selected SpaceX as its launch partner for Intelsat 40e (IS-40e) in 2022 on SpaceX’s American-built Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the company announced on Tuesday.

“We look forward to working with SpaceX to launch Intelsat 40e in 2022,” said Intelsat Chief Services Officer Mike DeMarco. “IS-40e will join the Intelsat Epic high-throughput satellite fleet and integrated IntelsatOne ground network to provide our customers with the managed hybrid-connectivity they need in today’s ever-changing world.”

Intelsat 40e is an advanced geostationary satellite that will provide Intelsat’s government and enterprise customers across North and Central America with high-throughput, coast-to-coast services. The satellite’s capabilities will support the growing number of customers that depend on Intelsat’s managed services and solutions to easily integrate satellite into their overall networking and communications strategies.

“We are honored Intelsat, one of the world’s premier satellite operators, has selected a flight-proven Falcon 9 to deliver its next geostationary communications satellite to orbit,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero.

This is the second launch for Intelsat and SpaceX. In 2017, SpaceX launched Intelsat 35e, a satellite currently providing high-throughput coverage for Intelsat customers in portions of North and South America, Europe and Africa.

Intelsat also announced that Maxar Technologies will manufacture IS-40e in Feb. 2020. Maxar Technologies will build a geostationary communications satellite that will work to provide high-throughput network coverage across North and Central America.

The Intelstat 40e is designed to support managed services users and will house NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, space-based instrument. NASA chose Maxar in 2019 to operate the TEMPO payload. Maxar will integrate TEMPO with the satellite prior to the launch that the company expects to take place in 2022.

Maxar noted the findings from the TEMPO payload will potentially optimize air-quality forecasts and allow early pollution incident warnings in the U.S. Stephen Spengler, CEO at Intelsat, said the satellite will join the firm’s Epic platform, a system that employs C-, Ku- and Ka- frequency bands to support customers.

About SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. As one of the world’s fastest growing providers of launch services, SpaceX has secured over 100 missions to its manifest, representing over $12 billion on contract.

/
Axon Appoints Chris Harris to AI Ethics Board to Supervise AI Technologies; Jeff Kunins Quoted
Published on
Axon Appoints Chris Harris to AI Ethics Board to Supervise AI Technologies; Jeff Kunins Quoted
Axon Appoints Chris Harris to AI Ethics Board to Supervise AI Technologies; Jeff Kunins Quoted

Axon has named Chris Harris to its AI Ethics Board to supervise the development and production of the company’s AI technology, Axon announced on Tuesday. 

"Our new AI Ethics Board members bring a wealth of knowledge and experience including privacy, social justice, and some of the most directly relevant core science and applied machine learning topics such as deepfake and image manipulation detection,” Axon Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Software Jeff Kunins.

Chris Harris is an advocate working to transform the criminal justice system. He currently serves as a Campaign Coordinator for Texas Appleseed, a public interest nonprofit that promotes social and economic justice for all Texans, and as a Public Safety Commissioner representing District 1 in the City of Austin. 

Harris has led and contributed to winning campaigns aimed at limiting: racial disparities in the criminal justice system, state violence, unnecessary arrests, ICE detentions, pre-trial incarceration, subpar indigent defense and further investment in police and prisons. 

Previously, he worked in the software industry with a focus on public sector solutions and held various roles, including analyst, consultant, and product manager. As data and policy analyst with Just Liberty between Jan. 2019 and Jan. 2020, Harris analyzed the criminal justice system data and policy to inform and strengthen reform efforts aimed at creating a more just and free Texas.

Harris also served in a variety of consulting and management positions during his nine-year tenure with Periscope holdings. Most recently, between 2015 and 2016, he served as a product manager. In the position, Harris performed strategic and tactical product functions for the BidSync sourcing solution and the company's flagship enterprise e-procurement suite, BuySpeed.

As a solutions consultant with the company, Harris provided business and implementation expertise to the Sales organization for prospect interactions and RFx completion. Organized and delivered product demonstration efforts, including high-stakes presentations to State and major city prospects. He served in the role between Feb. 2013 and Jan. 2015.

“I'm so grateful to have their advice and perspective, and am excited to be adding their diverse viewpoints and expertise to the Board," concluded Kunins. 

About Axon

Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, there are more than 465,200 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 225,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps and people.

/
Quantum Completes Acquisition of ActiveScale to Expand Object Storage Leadership; Jamie Lerner, Phil Bullinger
Published on
Quantum Completes Acquisition of ActiveScale to Expand Object Storage Leadership; Jamie Lerner, Phil Bullinger
Quantum Completes Acquisition of ActiveScale to Expand Object Storage Leadership; Jamie Lerner, Phil Bullinger

Quantum Corporation has completed its acquisition of the ActiveScale object storage business from Western Digital Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., to expand  Quantum's leadership role in storing and managing video, the company reported on Tuesday. 

"The strategic acquisition of ActiveScale bolsters our existing product portfolio and expands our addressable market providing critical software capabilities that enhance our go-to market strategy with minimal risk to Quantum,” Jamie Lerner, president and CEO, Quantum commented.

Quantum will acquire the ActiveScale product line, adding object storage software and erasure coding technology to the company’s portfolio. With the addition, Quantum will expand its product offerings in the object storage market. Object storage has emerged as a response to the exponential growth of video and other forms of unstructured data. 

The emerging content has required high-speed capture and processing, then retained for years or decades, including entertainment video and images, surveillance and security, and marketing and training. Prior to this acquisition Quantum successfully delivered and supported the ActiveScale object storage product line for over five years.

“With engineers who developed ActiveScale's erasure-coded object store software now on our team, we are in a position to pursue new object solutions truly optimized for managing video and other unstructured data," added Lerner.  

Quantum announced the acquisition of ActiveScale in Feb. 2020. The company stated that the acquisition will also add massive scalability, enabling storage, management and analysis of billions of objects, and exabytes of capacity. 

With the purchase, Quantum will also gain highly durable and available object storage, offering up to 19 nines of data durability using patented erasure coding protection technologies. The technology will also provide simple delegation, managing billions of objects and hundreds of petabytes of capacity and reduction of operational expenses. 

"With Quantum's resources, technical expertise and focus on solving customers' challenges with managing video and other unstructured data, we believe ActiveScale will enable new value for customers," said Phil Bullinger, senior vice president and general manager of Western Digital's Data Center business.  "Western Digital and Quantum are each committed to continuity of support for existing ActiveScale customers."

About Quantum

Quantum technology and services help customers capture, create and share digital content – and preserve and protect it for decades.  With solutions built for every stage of the data lifecycle, Quantum's platforms provide the fastest performance for high-resolution video, images, and industrial IoT.  That's why the world's leading entertainment companies, sports franchises, researchers, government agencies, enterprises, and cloud providers are making the world happier, safer, and smarter on Quantum.

//
ECS Named to CRN’s MSP 500 For Cybersecurity Initiatives Throughout 2020; Andy Woods Quoted
Published on
ECS Named to CRN’s MSP 500 For Cybersecurity Initiatives Throughout 2020; Andy Woods Quoted
ECS Named to CRN’s MSP 500 For Cybersecurity Initiatives Throughout 2020; Andy Woods Quoted

ECS has been named to CRN’s Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Security 100 category for its cybersecurity initiatives throughout the year, the company announced on Monday. 

“We are thrilled to be named one of CRN's top MSPs for the second year in a row,” said Andy Woods, vice president of enterprise managed services at ECS. “This distinction reflects ECS' continued ability to deliver a wide variety of managed security outcomes to customers in highly regulated industries.”

ECS received the nomination based on the company’s expansive network security endpoint security; security information and event management (SIEM); risk assessment and threat intelligence; web, email, and application security; data protection and identity access management. 

ECS has continued to provide a wide range of cybersecurity solutions for enterprise organizations across the civilian, defense and commercial industries. Through the Cyber Center of Excellence (CoE), the company has combined the expertise, training and thought leadership to design and implement customized, mission-oriented cybersecurity plans, from large-scale security operations centers (SOC) to day-to-day network and endpoint security management.

The company has demonstrated its expertise through its work on multiple contracts throughout 2019 and into 2020. In Feb. 2020, ECS Federal received a three-year, $85.4 million contract to research and develop artificial intelligence algorithms for the U.S. Army. The service branch's contracting command received one bid for the R&D project through an online solicitation process.

Work will take place in Fairfax, Va., through Jan. 26, 2023. ECS is also working with the service branch to engineer machine learning and computer vision platforms under a $78.8M contract awarded in late 2018. The company won a separate $484.7 million contract in September last year to help the Army build an unclassified network.

About ECS

ECS, a segment of ASGN, delivers advanced solutions in cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), application and IT modernization, science, and engineering. The company solves critical, complex challenges for customers across the U.S. public sector, defense, intelligence, and commercial industries. ECS maintains partnerships with leading cloud, cybersecurity, and AI/ML providers and holds specialized certifications in their technologies. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, ECS has more than 3,000 employees throughout the United States.

/
DOE Unveils Plastics Recycling Tech R&D Funding Opportunity
Published on
DOE Unveils Plastics Recycling Tech R&D Funding Opportunity
DOE Unveils Plastics Recycling Tech R&D Funding Opportunity

The Department of Energy has earmarked $25M in grants for research and development of technology platforms to reprocess waste plastic materials into useful products.

DOE said Monday its advanced manufacturing and bioenergy technologies offices issued the joint funding opportunity announcement, titled “BOTTLE: Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment," as part of the Plastics Innovation Challenge.

The BOTTLE FOA contains three topic areas that will focus on developing new biodegradable or recyclable plastics, generating mechanical, chemical or biological methods to upcycle and deconstruct plastic materials and establishing collaborative efforts to address goals of the newly established BOTTLE Consortium.

Interested parties can submit concept papers through April 22 and provide full applications by June 18.

DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory seek to collaborate with commercial and academic organizations through the consortium.

/
Navy Adopts Off-the-Shelf Shipboard Download Manager Tool
Published on
Navy Adopts Off-the-Shelf Shipboard Download Manager Tool

Navy Adopts Off-the-Shelf Shipboard Download Manager Tool

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Systems Command has implemented commercial off-the-shelf software that works to automatically copy files from a website built to help fleet personnel access product support data, technical documents and other tools used to sustain information warfare systems.

NAVWAR said Monday the Systems Command Acquisition Integrated Logistics Online Repository’s download manager tool is designed to process file transfers if shipboard users experience intermittent network connection and bandwidth problems.

The command received approval in September 2018 to install the tool on fleet shipboards and compared data download speeds on the website with and without the COTS application.

The software downloaded files at a speed of 584 kilobytes per second and processed up to 320 megabytes of data during September 2019, five times faster and larger than the average download speed and size when the tool was not used on the website.

Seventy-four naval ships have used the download manager as of February. The Navy authorized shipboard installation of the technology on 155 vessels.

1 … 1,490 1,491 1,492 1,493 1,494 … 2,595