Federal civilian agencies touch nearly every aspect of American life, serving individuals and communities daily and through unprecedented disasters. As hundreds of millions of constituents interact with the government yearly, fast, optimized connectivity is essential to safety, efficiency and satisfaction.
“Whether it’s providing health care to our nation's veterans, supporting our nation's farmers, helping to secure the food supply chain for our citizens, or practically any service federal civilian agencies perform, there's always some connection to you, your neighbors and your family,” said Stephen Matherne, client executive vice president at AT&T.
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing are poised to transform government service delivery. Still, agencies must ensure their network infrastructure is sufficiently modernized to support such advanced tools. Transitioning to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions can help agencies modernize effectively, but it’s only the beginning of an agency’s transformation journey — one with myriad benefits.
Jill
Singer
Vice President of Federal Solutions
AT&T
"Sometimes transition plans take
three-plus years. Transformation, if it's happening alongside that, can take even longer, and transformation behind transition can take even longer than that. So you do need to make sure you have a vehicle that enables long-term planning and long-term success for your transformation mission. EIS is really the perfect vehicle to enable that."
Stephen Matherne | Client Executive Vice President, AT&T
While contract transition can sound like a simple process, “a Task Order on EIS might mean thousands of port changes or thousands of new activities that have to happen to get you from Networx over to EIS,” said Jill Singer, vice president of federal solutions at AT&T. “OMB has deadlines and federal CIOs are being held accountable to those deadlines. Yet, it’s not just a lift-and-shift; it’s pretty significant work.”
Even as technologists plan and implement this change, they must consider what’s next. True network transformation versus transition requires future-proofing. As a longer-term contract, EIS is an excellent opportunity for agency leaders to plan a transformation roadmap.
“Sometimes transition plans take three-plus years. Transformation, if it's happening alongside that, can take
even longer, and transformation behind transition can take
even longer than that,” Matherne said. “You must ensure you have a vehicle that enables long-term planning and success
for your transformation mission. EIS is the perfect vehicle to enable that.”
Network transformation is fundamental to preparing for the future. It’s impossible to fully realize the potential of exciting new technologies without the right network capabilities to power them.
“You may even find that the new technologies you want to use are sensitive to latency, quality of service, or other metrics,” Singer said. “Ensuring your network architecture and converged communications are powerful enough to allow you to take advantage of new and emerging capabilities is super important.”
Office habits
impact LAN needs
As agency leaders consider transformation, their focus often centers on modernizing local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), according to Matherne. The LAN discussion has been significantly impacted by recent changes in how government employees work.
“[Before Covid-19], they were plugged in directly to an ethernet cable in the office and working,” Matherne said. “When they had to go meet with folks that weren’t directly adjacent to them, they picked up the telephone or had a conference call.”
The sudden shift to remote work sent employees home with laptops to meet on video. Even now, as more employees return to offices, most are still in the habit of jumping onto Zoom or Microsoft Teams instead of the phone.
“What becomes apparent very quickly to federal leaders is that the office environments and LAN networks of 2019 do not support the expectations and the traffic profiles of federal employees of 2024,” Matherne said. “There's a tremendous gap there, and modernization in that environment is helping to close that gap.”
Click here to learn more about how AT&T helps federal civilian partners transform to better meet the needs of the people they serve.
"A task order on EIS might mean thousands of port changes or thousands of new activities that have to happen to get you from Networx over to EIS. OMB has deadlines and federal CIOs are being held accountable to those deadlines. So it’s not just a lift-and-shift, it’s pretty significant work."
Jill Singer | Vice President of Federal Solutions, AT&T
"To really unlock quantum leaps in
your network capabilities, you must go to more of a software-based type of model."
Jason Tolbert | Vice President of Federal Operations, AT&T
As agency leaders consider transformation, their focus often centers on modernizing both local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), according to Matherne. The LAN discussion has been significantly impacted by recent changes in the way government employees work.
“[Prior to Covid-19], they were plugged in directly to an ethernet cable in the office and working,” Matherne said. “When they had to go meet with folks that weren’t directly adjacent to them, they picked up the telephone or they had a conference call.”
The sudden shift to remote work sent employees home with laptops to meet on video. Even now, as more employees return to offices, most are still in the habit of jumping onto Zoom or Microsoft Teams instead of the phone.
“What becomes apparent very quickly to federal leaders is that the office environments and LAN networks of 2019 do not support the expectations and the traffic profiles of federal employees of 2024,” Matherne said. “There's a tremendous gap there, and modernization in that environment is really helping to close that gap.”
Transition vs. transformation
AT&T
Client Executive Vice President
Stephen Matherne
AT&T
Vice President of Federal Operations
Jason Tolbert
Exploring
software-defined WAN
On the wide area network (WAN) side, agency leaders are exploring the benefits and pitfalls of software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) compared to traditional multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). MPLS, in use for decades, is known for providing reliable performance. However, as more agencies shift resources to the cloud, they seek greater scalability and agility than MPLS offers. Enter SD-WAN, which brings flexibility and reliability to the edge, and in some cases more bandwidth at a lower cost.
“In the past [with MPLS], we had to rely on appliances and physical infrastructure, so you have more of a linear growth in your bandwidth,” said Jason Tolbert, vice president of federal operations at AT&T. “To unlock quantum leaps in your network capabilities, you must use a more software-based model.”
SD-WAN also enables greater mobility and flexibility in location, a significant advantage for agencies managing dispersed and remote workforces.
“There's some real upside to SD-WAN's ability to take advantage of available bandwidth for a specific location in the specific geography in which it exists, because, let's face it, all geographies are not created equal where networking is concerned,” Matherne said. “SD-WAN can improve the overall network experience for those in sometimes challenging environments.”
However, it’s important to note that while SD-WAN has myriad advantages, software-based tools within a public network environment are more vulnerable to attack. Moreover, the more an agency implements software-based tools, the more it expands its attack surface area — a significant about-face from the earlier Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) recommendations promoting public network consolidation.
Approaching SD-WAN with foundational security protocols, as would be found in Zero Trust principles, helps mitigate risks associated with the increase in attack surface area. Examples of security protocols include authentication, network segmentation, and implementing granular access control. Adhering to fundamental risk protocols will enable organizations to take advantage of SDN benefits.
“Once upon a time, we did a lot of work to consolidate the surface area and exposure to public networks for agency enterprise networks,” Matherne said. “SD-WAN embraces
and takes advantage of those public networks. There's a
significant tradeoff on the security side, of which agencies
need to be mindful.”
The good news is that it’s not a binary choice. Agencies can strategically leverage the best of both MPLS and SD-WAN, depending on whether the agency is looking to prioritize reliability and privacy or scalability and mobility for that application.
“We can bring all those pieces together,” Tolbert said. “You might have a core MPLS, your edge access might be SD-WAN, and you might have your remote sites be 5G.”
As 5G capabilities expand, SD-WAN and 5G have the potential to complement each other to improve network challenges like latency, security, and remote/edge access even further.
“The network used by someone who spends 80% of their time in the field is critical to their end-user experience. 5G has been a tremendous enabler, particularly with its ability to efficiently deliver enterprise services that are often cloud-centric or cloud-focused,” Matherne said. Additionally, “SD-WAN can take advantage of a wide array of access mechanisms. Guess what? It's hard to find spots where 5G mobile access isn't available for a specific location.”
Stronger first responder communication
For some government employees, “in the field” means the site of a recent disaster or emergency — a time when communication is essential and challenging. One of the most significant emergencies in recent generations, 9/11, revealed fundamental emergency communication flaws. As a result, the 9/11 Commission recommended that the U.S. create a nationwide network for public safety communications. FirstNet, was “a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between the federal government and AT&T.”
“We are deeply humbled and honored to be entrusted with the responsibility to provide critical communications to our nation's first responder community,” Matherne said. “[FirstNet] provides a singular platform for interoperability across the full spectrum: volunteers onsite, boots on the ground, administrators, perhaps all the way up to Federal oversight administrators.”
The keyword is interoperability. Consider the response to a natural disaster, such as a hurricane. Local responders are first on the scene, but soon, they may be joined by volunteers, first responders from other cities and states, private search and rescue organizations, members of the National Guard and the Coast Guard, and representatives from FEMA and other
federal agencies.
“As these tragedies occur … we can bring the community of FirstNet together and integrate them appropriately,” Matherne said. “And that integration occurs via mouse clicks, not via scrambling to find a Land Mobile Radio set that may or may
not be available, may or may not be charged, and also
weighs considerably more than your cell phone that’s already
in your pocket.”
Moreover, because of the combination of reliability, accessibility, and low latency required in compromised locations, FirstNet is also helping to push standards forward in the industry. As AT&T expands coverage and makes its network more robust to connect responders, people living in those communities also benefit from the enhanced connectivity.
“Going back in history, in the wired network, everything was about access, but people weren't talking about the performance across the backbone. And then MPLS solved that — it was about end-to-end quality of service and classes of service to ensure your performance across the backbone,” Tolbert said. “FirstNet is bringing that idea to mobile networks. Mobile networks are all about, ‘Do I have a signal? Do I have access?’ But what about once you get the access? What about your traffic going through the network to the other side? In FirstNet, we have engineered a backbone that does everything an MPLS-type backbone does for your experience.”
To further bolster response, FirstNet has an entire fleet of
deployables, including Satellite Cells on Light Trucks (SatCOLTs), which are mobile cell sites that connect via satellite and do not rely on commercial power, and Flying Cell on Wings (COWs) — essentially cell sites on tethered drones.
“The ability to bring together emergency communications in a responsive manner is a game changer for the public safety community,” Matherne said. “There’s a lot of innovation coming to the first responder community, all enabled by FirstNet.”
AI-enhanced customer experience
Harnessing the power of AI is at the top of the list of government innovation goals. The Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, released in late 2023, emphasized that harnessing AI “demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society.” As agencies explore what that means within their organizations, AT&T is also internally invested in leveraging AI.
“AI is not something you buy; it makes the things you buy better. It’s the special sauce,” Tolbert said. “It’s already a big game changer for AT&T and will become more of a game changer…
it will be integrated into everything we do.”
According to Tolbert, procurement, delivery, and customer support are well-suited to AI enhancement. For example, in an ideal world, every field in a procurement form would always be perfectly completed. In reality, customers don’t always know exactly what they want. Many deliver descriptions in natural language, which must be interpreted internally, typically through a group discussion.
An AI-powered tool could instead take those natural language requests and quickly identify solutions, capabilities and previous projects that match the customer’s requirements, making human discussions more efficient. By the time internal experts convene, they already have detailed ideas and information to consider.
“We want to be faster. We’re not replacing all the humans but augmenting,” Tolbert said. “By the time the humans jump in, we’re already well down the road.”
Tolbert also referenced using AI to streamline omnichannel communications, or enhance company knowledge management by enabling workers to ask questions and receive AI-generated answers based on previous, similar problems.
“We’re experimenting with many [AI applications],” he said. “We’re already doing trials, and I think it’s going to make us more agile and change the game for us.”
Transformative partnerships
Network transformation can be a daunting task in the federal civilian space. Today’s technologies require a paradigm shift in how agencies have traditionally managed their networks.
“As we move toward these more decentralized networks, there’s a fundamental change that we haven’t seen in a long time. [Previously], many of the technology changes have been maintaining centralized networks but changing the transport technology,” Tolbert said. “Going into decentralized software-defined technologies, moving things to cloud infrastructure is a completely different way of doing business.”
Further compounding this monumental change, agency leaders may be hesitant to embrace next-generation technologies because of the criticality of their missions. Many federal civilian agencies can’t afford outages and downtime as they provide essential services civilians depend on.
Given the high stakes, public-private relationships are becoming more critical than ever. Agencies can turn to professional service partners, like AT&T, who can apply lessons learned in the commercial space to avoid pitfalls.
“Let’s talk about what you think is coming next in technology, in your mission, or for your end users and agency users. What problems do you have? What challenges are you facing?” Singer said. “Let’s build your future on a vehicle like EIS so that what we build is responsive to your mission needs and sets you up to be future-ready.”
Learn More
Agencies need modern network infrastructure to enable advanced capabilities.
Transforming federal civilian networks to support technologies of the future
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