When the cloud was first introduced to the Federal Government, their implementation had a “lift and shift” approach, essentially moving servers from one location to another. But cloud technology has matured into a complex ecosystem spanning public, private, and hybrid environments – creating distinct management challenges.
This week on Feds At the Edge, federal leaders offer their suggestions on managing this ever-evolving and complex landscape, with a focus on training, understanding data and leveraging cloud functions.
Dr. Gregg Bailey, Deputy Chief Information Officer in the Office of the CIO for the US Census Bureau underscores the importance of recognizing data management in a hybrid cloud is different, and suggests training on native cloud functions to leverage the new technologies may be a path of success.
Kristin Ruiz, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Deputy CIO for TSA, keeps us focused on security implementation with zero trust principles and strong data governance.
Tune in on your favorite podcasting platform now to hear what they have to say, and how with the proper security controls, AI has the potential to enable improved management of these complex cloud environments.
To view this webinar: Improving Management of Complex Cloud Environments.
Featured Speakers:
Kristin Ruiz
Deputy Assistant Administrator, Deputy CIO
Kristin Ruiz is the Deputy Assistant Administrator, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In this role, Ms. Ruiz is responsible for establishing strategic direction, and overseeing a full spectrum of information technology (IT) functions. Ms. Ruiz is responsible for the information technology security that supports 63,000+ federal employees, and $2.2B in IT Spend across 430 federalized airports that routinely screen more than 2 million passengers, 5 million carry-on bags and 1.4 million pieces of checked baggage daily for explosives and other prohibited items.
Ms. Ruiz is a driven, mission-focused IT leader with over 20 years of experience in technology, digital transformation, application development, and cybersecurity compliance. She has built, modernized, and overseen more than 300 secure, innovative, user-friendly applications throughout her career and has a proven track record of translating technology strategies into effective actions.
Before joining TSA, Ms. Ruiz served as the first Associate Chief Information Officer (ACIO) for the Office of Applications and Digital Solutions at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). As ACIO of the Office of Applications and Digital Solutions, Ms. Ruiz led the implementation of the $3 Billion Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection (AMJP) Program grants solution and DOT’s $600 Billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enterprise grants management system. She pioneered a brand-new office setting the vision, direction, and organizational culture for DOT’s digital transformation with a focus on DevSecOps, cybersecurity, operations and maintenance, and capital planning investment control. Additionally, Ms. Ruiz managed the entirety of the DOT’s mandatory use Software Engineering Support (SWES) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), overseeing the successful award of over $375 Million.
Before joining DOT, Ms. Ruiz served as the IT Portfolio Management Director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS) Agency, where she managed and executed the FNCS portfolio of applications supporting the Supplemental NutritionC2 Program (SNAP) handling $85+ Billion in program funding with 50+ Million program recipients, and the Women Infants and Children (WIC) applications providing nutritional assistance to millions of families, school lunch support in 95,000 schools, and systems providing food to Americans during disasters.
Ms. Ruiz is a United States Marine Corps veteran and a George Mason University Alumni and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School Executive Development Program.
Deputy Asst. Administrator, Deputy CIO,
Transportation Security Administration
Dr. Gregg “Skip” Bailey
Deputy Chief Information Officer
Dr. Bailey is the Deputy Chief Information Officer in the Office of the CIO for The Census Bureau; a position held since June of 2018. He brings a strong background in public and private IT management and leadership. During the last 4 years he has been instrumental in supporting the ongoing work of Census as well as supporting the development of a Enterprise Data Lake, and creating the Secure Cloud Team. He enjoys time with family when not busy at work. He has 9 children and 13.5 grandchildren.
Previously Dr. Bailey was the founder and CEO of Elegant IT Solutions. Prior to that he was engaged with Deloitte Consulting LLC as a Federal Competency Director with the Technology Strategy and Architecture Platform for 6 years. Dr. Bailey brought to Deloitte excellent private and public sector career credentials that add to Deloitte’s Technology competency. His knowledge of change management, data center consolidation and operations, network design and deployment and IT services management, coupled with his outstanding reputation and record of performance within the Department of Justice positioned him well to be a transformation agent. Dr. Bailey has successfully shaped agile and effective IT organizations that support the agencies mission. His leadership and skill in transforming organizations have made him an effective change agent within IT. In addition to working with Department of Justice and other federal clients, Dr. Bailey has been the Federal Lead for Cloud Computing within Deloitte.
In his previous position as CIO, Dr. Bailey addressed strategy, organization, process and technology issues that impacted both the IT domain and key ATF mission domains. This included changing the culture of ATF IT into a agile customer service organization, successfully handling $350 million of managed services contracts, relocating a data center and refreshing more than 7,000 desktops without interruption of service, dramatically improving the information security profile of the organization and establishing a strategic planning process that is now being used by the entire Bureau.
Prior to his role at ATF, Dr. Bailey was responsible for all IT assets of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the CIO. His role included management of approximately 700 employees and 300 contractors and an annual operating budget of approximately $250 million. Specific relevant projects included upgrade of the FBI communications infrastructure with more than 1,000 nodes, a refresh of more than 35,000 desktops world-wide, and a dramatic improvement to the IT Planning and Architecture function for the FBI.
Prior to his role at FBI, Dr. Bailey held various senior leadership roles including: Chief Technology Officer and Director Engineering and Architecture, Director Global Operations, Director of Human Resources and Special Projects for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. His work included the installation of a world-wide network to more than 90 countries, establishing the Church on the Internet that resulted in one of the most popular websites of all time (FamilySearch.com), developing a 10-year IT strategic plan for the Church, designing a successfully executed plan to move the main data center into a consolidation with Brigham Young University, creating and successfully managing Centers of Excellence for developers as well as Human Factors Analysts.
Dr. Bailey is a recipient of the 2007 Presidential Rank Award – Meritorious Senior Professionals and Executives. This award is the top award in the Federal government for senior executives. He is credited with contributing toward a variety of publications and technical reports; as well as teaching at a number of universities. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from New Mexico State University and a B.S. from Brigham Young University.
Deputy CIO, Office of the CIO,
U.S. Census Bureau
Mark Canter
Chief Information Security Officer
Mark Canter is the Chief Information Security Officer at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In his capacity, Mark oversees the compliance, governance, and security operations. Previously Mark severed as Assistant Director in the Information Technology and Cybersecurity (ITC) team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). His portfolio at GAO includes a diverse list of engagements on such topics of financial and information systems internal control auditing, cybersecurity, emerging technologies such as blockchains, AI, and safeguarding/privacy of information. In addition, Mark has authored several compliance tools and published several common vulnerabilities and exploits.
Chief Information Security Officer,
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Chris Roberts
Director, Federal Sales Engineering
Chris Roberts is a seasoned technology leader with over 25 years of experience in the industry, having held various engineering and sales roles at market-leading companies such as Microsoft, Dell, and Quest Software. Currently, he serves as the Director of Federal Sales Engineering at Quest Software Public Sector Inc., where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of IT professionals. Their mission is to support governmental agencies with comprehensive software solutions around Zero Trust, securing Active Directory against unwanted intrusions, managing privileged access, and providing advanced recovery and governance tools.
Previously, as a Senior Solution Architect at Quest Software, Chris focused on building and delivering innovative solutions for IT operations in enterprise customer environments. His expertise lies in modernizing legacy workloads and specializing in performance analytics for large-scale applications in both private and public cloud spaces. At Microsoft Corporation, Chris held roles as an Architectural Engineer and Principal Technology Specialist. He was instrumental in driving the introduction of technologies considered the standard in enterprise IT today while driving customer sales and success programs, delivering comprehensive technology roadmaps, and leading competitive opportunity management.
Chris studied Computer Science and Marketing at the University of Maryland and Andrews University. His specialties include public speaking, enterprise software architecture, virtualization, cloud analytics, identity management, and technology management, among others. His track record of success, combined with his extensive knowledge and skills, make him a credible voice in the technology industry focused on solving challenges within the federal government.
Director, Federal Sales Engineering,
Quest Software Public Sector, Inc.
John Breeden II
Moderator & Contributing Editor
FedInsider Contributing Editor John Breeden II is an award winning journalist and reviewer who has spent 20 years working in the federal, technology and government space. Articles and reviews written by him have appeared in numerous national publications including Chief Security Officer, Stars and Stripes, The Washington Post, NextGov Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Technology, Network World, The Sacramento Bee, The Boston Globe, Government Computer News, Up Front New Mexico and many others.
For FedInsider, he has written many articles and white papers and acted as the moderator for over 20 interviews featuring federal, state and local officials discussing technology, policy and governmental issues.
In addition to his normal writing, Breeden has authored two technical how-to type computer books published by Prompt Publications. Those titles, Exploring Microsoft Office and Guide to Webcams enjoyed both commercial success and reviewer acclaim. He is also the founding publisher and chief editor of Gameindustry.com, one of the longest running publications covering the video game industry. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group of professional journalists who craft thought leadership projects for government and private organizations.
He has twice been awarded Jessie H. Neal gold medals for excellence in business journalism as well as numerous national awards for journalism by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
Contributing Editor,
FedInsider
