CESG Connections Magazine 2020 Issue | Page 37

This is why we are now regularly seeing data and workloads being repatriated from the public cloud, back to private cloud resources. The added flexibility provided by technologies like Kubernetes and containers make this a trend we expect to see much more of going forward. SECURITY Spoiler alert: security will never be out of anyone’s top five IT priorities list. IT security is the epitome of partnership between government and industry. It is a shared responsibility and cannot be outsourced to a third party or left to the buyer to determine. We consistently see stakeholders hesitate to adopt cloud technology due to security concerns. But with the right vendor partners, and everyone shouldering the burden of security, there is no reason to believe that legacy or non-cloud technologies are more secure than the cloud. For a price tag that exceeds $90 billion most years, the Federal government’s IT enterprise should be the most technologically advanced, capable, and secure operation in the world. Continuing to lean into modern technologies, managing and maintaining a diverse ecosystem of IT models and vendors, limiting dependence on legacy technology and vendors, and contracting for the greatest flexibility to the government are the steps to take to reach that goal. 1 United States Government Accountability Office (2019), INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Agencies and OMB Need to Continue Implementing Recommendations on Acquisitions, Operations, and Cybersecurity. www.gao.gov/assets/710/703114.pdf. MEET CHRIS HOWARD Chris Howard is the Vice President of the Federal organization at Nutanix. In this role, he leads a multi- disciplinary team of more than 50 professionals in sales, engineering, channels, professional services and marketing to support U.S. Defense, Civilian, Intelligence, and FSI organizations. Chris’ expertise has developed over more than 20 years supporting Federal government customers in the areas of data center infrastructure, virtualization, and cloud computing. Prior to Nutanix, Chris held leadership positions at VMware and Dell. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting from West Virginia University. Your infrastructure, apps, and clouds. All together now. nutanix.com/together