The digital landscape for federal agencies is a constantly evolving battlefield. Adversaries are leveraging rapidly advancing technologies, including artificial intelligence, to devise more sophisticated attacks, while government leaders strive to keep up by modernizing systems and fortifying security measures.

This creates an urgent, almost daily re-evaluation of strategies. One of the most significant pain points we consistently hear from government clients isn’t just mastering the technology itself. It’s the interrelated challenges of keeping pace with technology’s relentless evolution while navigating procurement processes that often make it hard to accommodate the nature of modern, commercially driven solutions. Traditional, often extended, fixed-price contracting models are not always conducive to acquiring the dynamic, outcomes-based cyber services and expertise needed today.

If the charge is to achieve IT and cybersecurity objectives faster and more efficiently, then the contract constructs in the federal space must also evolve to readily embrace commercially available solutions and products. This isn’t just a minor hurdle; it’s a significant muscle movement for contracting shops, and it directly impacts an agency’s ability to deploy cutting-edge defenses and capabilities.

In the meantime, how can government leaders cut through this complexity? It begins with a fundamental shift in approach, asking a series of critical questions:

1. Do we truly understand the problem we’re trying to solve? Is it an operational challenge, a genuine security risk, or a resource and skill set deficit?
2. Who are our trusted partners in the ecosystem? Considering the speed of AI and the evolving threat landscape, do we have the necessary internal expertise, or do we need to look to those with deep institutional understanding and proven experience — be it a systems integrator, a specialized firm, or a cloud provider?
3. What existing solutions can accelerate our objectives? It’s also essential to think beyond traditional confines and explore what commercial products, open-source tools, or marketplace offerings can be leveraged to reach our goals more rapidly and efficiently.

Embracing this mindset — and tapping the expertise of partners with proven cybersecurity experience in the government market — combined with robust cloud platforms, can dramatically accelerate identifying and acquiring the right solutions for your agency’s particular needs:

First, by delivering higher-impact outcomes with greater speed. Agencies need to move beyond incremental improvements, deploying modern capabilities within weeks, not months, that can, for instance, automate complex tasks and detect and mitigate sophisticated threats. This requires partners who not only understand the mission but have invested in developing and codifying their tradecraft into accessible, powerful solutions.

Second, by successfully navigating the procurement maze for modern solutions. This is where experienced partners who understand the government’s needs, its complex acquisition rules, and the commercial innovation landscape become invaluable. They can help bridge the expertise and labor gap and fast-track access to the appropriate technologies designed for agility and rapid deployment without getting bogged down by acquisition processes ill-suited for cyber defenses.

Third, it also aids in making informed decisions in the AI-driven cyber era. The “build vs. buy” dilemma for AI capabilities is a significant challenge. Agencies need to ask: Do we have the specialized talent? Can we afford the long-term investment if we need a solution today? Too often, we see attempts to “add cyber in later” to AI projects, which rarely yield the secure, effective outcome initially envisioned. Actual progress requires integrated expertise where cyber and AI proficiency are developed in tandem.

Firms with a deep bench of talent, like Booz Allen, with nearly 10,000 cyber professionals and decades of frontline experience combating real-world adversaries, are uniquely positioned to accelerate agency cybersecurity. This isn’t just about staffing; it’s about an ingrained understanding of adversarial tactics and continuous investment in simulation environments through our National Cyber Platform to test, iterate, and rapidly deploy truly effective solutions. It’s also about our extensive strategic partnerships, working with innovative companies and hyperscalers, further amplifying our ability to bring robust, cutting-edge solutions to our clients.

For instance, our collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) serves as a powerful multiplier in this equation. Building our cybersecurity products as “AWS native” solutions provides an “easy button” for government agencies. They gain access to our deep tradecraft and expertise more economically and can deploy capabilities faster, often leveraging the AWS marketplace or their existing AWS environment. Crucially, deploying those solutions on AWS’s FedRAMP-approved GovCloud means agencies comply with well-established federal security controls. That translates to significant time and cost savings.

A prime example of this collaboration is our work with Army Cyber on the Panoptic Junction program, which utilizes our Dark Labs Detect system. This agentic AI-powered capability was developed to expose adversaries in real time, providing custom-tailored detections that deploy automatically to their Security Operations Center. What would manually take large teams six to eight weeks to analyze, we can now achieve in under a couple of minutes—a powerful intersection of AI, deep cyber expertise, and accessible technology.

The pace of technological change and the sophistication of threats will only continue to accelerate. Government leaders must embrace strategic alliances to stay ahead and do so securely. By partnering with firms that bring specialized cybersecurity expertise, a forward-leaning approach to innovation, and an understanding of how to leverage powerful cloud platforms like AWS, agencies can not only meet today’s more immediate challenges but also build a more resilient and secure future.

Learn more about how Booz Allen and AWS can help your agency accelerate its cybersecurity efforts.

Discover how other AWS partners are helping agencies accelerate their AI and cloud modernization efforts.

This article was sponsored by AWS and Booz Allen.

The post Why cyber modernization requires partners with technical plus acquisition expertise appeared first on CyberScoop.

Identity has become the new cybersecurity perimeter. As federal agencies rapidly adopt cloud services, AI-powered tools and hybrid work models, identity security is now central to mission assurance.

However, for many federal leaders, identity management remains a complex puzzle. The abundance of tools — from password managers to identity governance systems — often leads to fragmented environments and operational gaps. Even when agencies understand its importance, aligning identity investments with mission objectives remains a significant hurdle.

Adding to this complexity is a rapidly evolving environment in which cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated. AI-driven attacks mimic human behavior, bypassing traditional defenses with alarming speed. Static controls and perimeter-centric thinking can’t keep up. Identity governance, behavioral analytics and adaptive access controls must work in tandem to stay ahead of AI-enabled threats.

Federal agencies need integrated, adaptive identity architectures that continuously verify users and devices in real time. Implementing these layered protections not only improves security but also enhances user experience by adapting to risk in real time. In addition, agencies that adopt these capabilities are better equipped to defend against emerging threats without sacrificing efficiency.

A trusted partner for identity security

That’s where Optiv + ClearShark makes a difference. We bring a cybersecurity-first approach to identity, helping federal agencies reduce risk, meet compliance and streamline operations. Unlike one-size-fits-all providers, we help agencies optimize their existing investments — whether they use SailPoint, BeyondTrust, Ping or Okta. Our team understands how to integrate these technologies into a framework that fits the federal context. In other words, we tailor solutions to the mission, not the other way around.

In fact, our edge lies in our people. Many of our consultants and engineers are former federal employees with clearances and firsthand experience navigating agency environments. Their insights help bridge the gap between vendor capabilities and federal mission needs.

In the past 18 months, we’ve delivered managed identity services across the defense and intelligence communities. These solutions include secure monitoring and identity operations in highly classified cloud environments, supported through partnerships with AWS, Splunk and others.

By offloading infrastructure and operations to our cleared teams, agencies gained enhanced identity assurance and significant cost savings while maintaining full compliance with federal security standards.

Accelerating modernization with confidence

Modernization doesn’t need to come at the expense of security or compliance. A pilot-driven approach allows agencies to validate identity solutions in their own environments before scaling. This reduces risk, accelerates return on investment and ensures audit readiness.

For example, one civilian agency we supported had invested heavily in identity tools but continued to fail penetration tests and struggled with governance gaps between identity and security teams. By deploying SailPoint and BeyondTrust in a phased, integrated rollout and aligning the solution to compliance and security objectives, we helped the agency pass red team exercises, reduce manual identity processes and establish a scalable identity framework for future growth.

The mission starts with identity

Identity is the most targeted attack surface in federal IT today. Protecting it is not just an IT imperative; it’s a mission-critical requirement. But success requires more than tools. It requires deep expertise, integration and continuous improvement.

With the right strategy and trusted support, agencies can secure their identity infrastructure, meet audit requirements, and modernize with purpose. The stakes have never been higher, and identity has never mattered more in federal cybersecurity.

Learn more about how Optiv + ClearShark takes a cybersecurity-centric approach to identity management for government.

This article was sponsored by Optiv + ClearShark.

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