Public sector organizations can revolutionize their approach to technology by creating an interconnected web of devices, applications, cloud environments, network and more.
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An end-to-end technology ecosystem streamlines public sector operations
From disparate tools to a cohesive ecosystem
Inside the ecosystem
Ecosystem benefits for the public sector
Security in an interconnected environment
Public sector use cases
The future of government cloud operations
For public sector organizations, mission success lies at the intersection of security, innovation and agility. Between federal-civilian agencies interacting with millions of people each day, to defense and national security organizations operating in remote, often dangerous locations around the globe, the federal government needs a modernized, AI-ready infrastructure to support the full spectrum of its technology needs.
The technology needs of the federal government differ from those of individual consumers or even commercial businesses. While an unsatisfied user can switch from one personal email service or Internet provider to another with just a few clicks or a phone call, the stakes are much higher for the government’s technology choices. Given the complications of procurement and long-term budgets, government technology strategies are measured in years and billions of dollars.
From disparate tools to a cohesive ecosystem
Historically, this has resulted in agencies and departments taking a piecemeal approach, creating a complex web of applications that may each be best of breed in their own categories, but don’t necessarily work well together. As a result, public sector leaders are beginning to shift focus to the importance of an integrated technology toolbox — each application, tool or solution may work well on its own, but how does it fit in as a piece of a larger puzzle?
With 10 applications that serve a daily average of more than a billion people, almost every person is a frequent consumer of at least one Google product. While the company has spent many years optimizing these individual products, Google Public Sector is primed and ready for a more interconnected approach.
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Andrew Tash. “We have individual puzzle pieces that we deliver globally to consumers, so if we stitch all those puzzle pieces together, we can deliver an end-to-end ecosystem that makes information more accessible and useful for our public sector customers, too.”
The result is an ecosystem of Google devices, applications, networks and cloud platforms all coming together to create a unified enterprise IT infrastructure greater than the sum of its parts.
Inside the ecosystem
“It starts with our cloud platforms,” Tash said. “Our services have to meet strict government security requirements, so we deliver sovereign cloud capabilities for public sector in two different ways.”
Unclassified
Google Cloud Platform: The hyperscale, software-defined community cloud platform is certified to support unclassified workloads up to DoD Impact Level 5 (IL5). Google accredited its vast commercial cloud for government use instead of building separate cloud regions to provide greater elasticity, more features and better economics.
Classified
Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped: To support Secret and Top Secret workloads, GDC operates directly connected to secure customer networks and is air-gapped, or disconnected from the Internet.
Google Distributed Cloud appliance: GDC also offers a scalable option, down to a small portable appliance, to bring its capabilities to the edge. This supports workloads of all classification levels that may be disconnected due to necessity, as they operate in austere environments.
“Those cloud platforms are connected by the world's largest private network,” Tash said. “We have terrestrial and undersea cables that touch every continent creating a global mesh, and depending on which report you look at, carry anywhere from 25 to 40% of the world's Internet traffic on a daily basis.”
The cloud platforms and global mesh are the foundation to deliver Google’s three superpowers: artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision tools, data and analytics solutions, and robust cybersecurity, encompassing security analytics, risk management and threat intelligence.
Ecosystem benefits for the public sector
Altogether, one cohesive ecosystem results in an experience for users that goes from siloed to seamless. Essentially, it shifts the burden of reconciling and fusing data away from the user.
“Organizations have created strategies that purposely keep data siloed. Whether it’s because of classification level or operating environment, data is living in different places. It places the mental burden on the human to then bridge the gap across different network enclaves or security boundaries,” Tash said. “We can help bridge that gap by providing cloud environments that can secure and deliver data in new ways globally so users connect data across those different silos and share information with partners easier.”
This interconnected ecosystem also simplifies modernization. It can extend into on-premise environments through Google Kubernetes Engine Enterprise to provide a common software layer across hybrid environments. Furthermore, an open-source approach to connecting with other cloud environments allows organizations to create an integrated multi-cloud strategy.
Security in an interconnected environment
The public sector handles highly sensitive data, ranging from personally identifiable information and biometric data to national security secrets, which makes configuring applications before seamlessly shifting to a classified environment critical. It also makes the prospect of breaking down silos daunting for those who naturally feel protective of their data.
For public sector organizations balancing classified and unclassified workloads, Google Cloud Platform and Google Distributed Cloud can be used in tandem for secure development and operations. Many organizations follow a “develop low, deploy high” model in which they develop and test new applications using unclassified resources to optimize them before deploying in more secure environments.
“For the development use cases, users can leverage our hyperscale cloud to develop applications and emulate the GDC platform in our GDC Sandbox. And then, once they've customized applications or tailored models, they can push that to the edge,” Tash said. “A lot of the work actually happens in the unclassified space, so that allows the two to work together.”
At a broader level, the full ecosystem is protected by a comprehensive zero trust approach, initiated after a security breach 15 years ago from Operation Aurora that prompted Google to change its security model.
Any shift to a new strategy or new model takes time to accept, Tash added. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and there isn’t a silver bullet to immediately deliver the perfect system. This is why a new approach starts with education and reassurance about how it will deliver improved outcomes while still maintaining security.
“Once mission owners understand they don't have to physically separate data to make it secure, then they can start to fuse those data sets together with the appropriate role-based and attribute-based access with fine-grained controls,” Tash said.
To further instill confidence in public sector leaders, Google has mapped its ecosystem into zero trust frameworks developed by agencies such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the DoD, which have established similar strategies around 7-8 pillars.
“We've mapped our three cloud platforms — Google Cloud Platform, Google Distributed Cloud and Google Workspace — against those pillars, so customers can choose the zero trust capabilities that make sense for them,” Tash said. “And it's not just a Google only story, we're working with third-party partners, because no one company can deliver everything for zero trust.”
Public sector use cases
For the three key verticals in the government space — federal-civilian, defense, and national security — the ecosystem is customizable to fit their missions and greatest needs. In the federal-civilian space, improving federal customer experience is a high priority, one for which AI holds great promise. Take customers using call centers or chatbots, for example.
“Users can ask questions and interact with forms in their native language and the AI can actually help deliver answers in a very simple way,” Tash said. “So if people are non-English speakers, AI can search, translate and summarize English to another language where a customer can submit applications or find answers through self-service. And we can do all that securely, so we can protect private citizen data.”
Both defense and national security, meanwhile, deal with different complications, often around location constraints. They must operate around the globe, including in very remote, austere environments. In fact, some of the most essential work happens in those low-resource edge environments.
Through Google Distributed Cloud, the same hardware and software can be deployed to geographic combatant commanders or concentration areas overseas. GDC appliances can be used to deploy to the smallest form factors at the edge to ensure GDC operates across all three echelons — tactical, operational and strategic.
“We're the only cloud provider that can provide the same hardware and software stack at all levels,” Tash said. “Google Kubernetes Engine is the software layer that powers all of it, that allows workloads and data and security to connect across all these environments seamlessly, so it looks like one interface.”
The future of government cloud operations
Since the original Cloud First policy was introduced nearly 15 years ago, many government organizations that jumped into the deep end of the cloud revolution are now fine-tuning their approaches. Cloud First has evolved into Cloud Smart, as technology leaders seek ways to rein in sprawl and disparate systems.
“They’re starting to ask, how do I become more efficient?” Tash said. “How do I create a single pane of glass? How can I handle cloud sprawl?”
Or, perhaps, a single ecosystem to help fix the problem of disparate data sets and applications that once lived in different on-premise data systems now living in different clouds — new environment, same problem. One ecosystem that can pull technology tools and infrastructure into one cohesive system, closely guarded by robust zero trust security policies, holds the key to streamlining operations to the edge and back.
“Bringing all those together in an integrated way for more efficiency, I think, is a big thing,” Tash said. “Looking at Google’s journey of how we deal with data and how we deal with zero trust … we can provide the path for government organizations to modernize and be more efficient in the future.”
Learn more about the benefits GDC and the Googlesphere ecosystem can bring to the public sector.