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good morning welcome back and for those joining us for the first time today i'm thelma barker president of the independent telecommunications pioneers association the national capital chapter on behalf of itpa i'd like to wish each and every one of you a very happy new year today itpa proudly presents the first of the 2021 installment of our monthly virtual event series in collaboration with the united states army corps of engineers today's humble beginnings webinar is the first of a three-part series part of and part of itpa's ongoing and popular series of information exchange sessions from in-person lunches to now remote sessions as part of our monthly virtual series a little bit about itpa ncc the independent telecommunications pioneers association is a non-profit professional association created by and for the telecommunications industry dedicated to community service itpa has been serving the public on behalf of telecom companies since 1920. our goal is to provide networking and learning opportunities across industry and government for our professionals to expand our membership and grow our association we've created a mentor protege program of our very own this program provides a unique pathway for young professionals within the first 10 years of their careers to join our organization as well as network and serve their community having worked directly with them previously members of our itpa executive board nominated our inaugural cohort of itpa proteges these the mentors and members of our board have been able to and will continue to instill their institutional knowledge and wisdom to help guide these proteges throughout their career this new program will enable them to attend our events learn about our industry and lend new ideas and perspectives to our organization if you'd like to nominate a potential protege for our local chapter please reach out to us for more information now a little bit about the local charities and causes that itpa ncc supports the capital area food bank helps provide food assistance to those in need and our contributions to our local juvenile diabetes research foundation chapter helps support research and treatment for type 1 diabetes this year our annual charity golf tournament had a team of veterans and service members from smga which included those wounded or injured in post-9 11 military operations the salute military golf association's mission is to provide rehabilitative golf programs experiences and family inclusive golf opportunities for post-9 11 wounded war veterans in an effort to improve the quality of life for these american heroes we are proud of our long-standing tradition of supporting the salute military golf association during our november virtual event we announced the kickoff of our christmas charity drive for the uso's project elf project elf helps to ensure that our local national capital chapter military families have a great holiday season we were able to ignite and maintain an email and social media campaign throughout most of the giving season by asking everyone to reach out to their colleagues friends and family we were able to exceed our goal we plan to match up to three thousand dollars in donations i am proud to announce that we eclipsed our projections this year we were able to more than double our fundraising and our fundraising effort and goal and with all of your support we raised over seven thousand dollars for project elf a heartfelt thank you from all of us at itpa as your generosity was greatly appreciated during such a challenging holiday season for so many the strength of our organization was on display as we were able to support our deserving military families speaking of our local chapter itpa is thrilled to recognize the contributions and support of our sponsors our platinum sponsors our comcast government services granite communications hughes and lumen our gold sponsors are avaya converge 1 metel sus consulting and verizon as well our silver sponsors include bjj and associates collab 9 corning equinix gbi ges turning point sprint t-mobile and graybar we are grateful for our ongoing sponsorship support and thrilled to have an array of new sponsors in this 2020 2021 season now a few quick items before we get started our press policy we welcome our friends and colleagues from the media as a reminder today's session is all on the record for questions thank you to those who submitted questions our moderator will try to get through as many as possible if you're having any technical difficulties use the chat box in the toolbar to chat with our webinar host today's webinar is being recorded and will be available for viewing on our itpa ncc youtube channel post event if you would like a copy of our slide deck please reach out to info at itpa ncc.org we have a special treat for you today by way of our season 2019 2020 itpa ncc government and industry partner of the year awards these awards are usually given during our june annual dinner which didn't happen as a result of the covet 19 pandemic last year now i would like to introduce patrick amos executive director federal government program management at mettel and itpa ncc vice president to present the awards pat thank you thelma first i'd like to read a little bit about the itpa ncc government partner award it's presented to an individual who has been extraordinarily impactful within the federal community a strong collaborator with industry con contributions in the spirit of the itpa ncc mission and promotes ideas that create effective innovative and responsive government this award is given to qualified government candidates who have and continue to partner with the itpa ncc i'd also like to tell you a little bit about our awardee this morning miss sariah correa a 2018 distinguished presidential rank award winner soraya correa was appointed as the department of homeland security's chief procurement officer in january 2015. in her capacity as the senior procurement executive ms correa is responsible for the management direction of the acquisition systems of dhs including implementation of the unique acquisition policies regulations and standards of the agency she oversees the work of 10 heads of contracting activity that provide operational procurement services to dhs components directorates and offices she has initiated and led several key efforts designed to improve how the 1400 member dhs procurement workforce focuses as a team on finding the right solutions to enable and support the dhs mission these efforts include the acquisition innovations motion framework including the procurement innovation lab and the education development growth and excellence mentoring program also known as edge additionally miss correa has continued to grow and enhance efforts including the homeland security acquisition institute the acquisition professional career program the strategic sourcing program office and office of small and disadvantaged business utilization miss correa has been with dhs since its inception serving in key leadership positions including head of contracting activity for immigration and customs enforcement and associate director of the u.s citizens and immigration services enterprise services directory ms correa has also held leadership positions at other federal agencies including the naval systems command general services administration nasa and immigration and naturalization service her accomplishments as a leader are well recognized by the government and industry communities she has received rewards including the secretary's award for excellence management support awards federal 100 recognition public sector partner of the year top women in tech and several other accolades that reflect her commitment to the acquisition workforce and procurement innovation and promoting meaningful communications with the industry i'd also like to say this morning that on behalf of the itpa national capital chapter i'm honored to present the government partner of the year award for the 2019-2020 federal fraternal year to miss sariah correa adding to her long list of accomplishments in recognition for exemplary public service it is no secret that ms correa is a valued supporter of the itpa ncc mission she has twice accepted our organization's invitation to provide enthusiastic and invaluable insight as the keynote speaker it is also no secret that each time that she has spoken the house is usually filled with industry and government representatives eager to receive her timely and energetic message it is without further delay that i humbly introduce the 2019-2020 itpa ncc government partner of the year recipient miss soraya correa thank you patrick and i'm going to hold up this award so everybody can see it it's a lovely award and i am honored to receive this award i also want to thank president barker and members of the board for having me here today i can't express my appreciation enough for being recognized as a partner of the year award it in my humble opinion speaks loudly about what i do and why i do it you are our partners industry is our partner we cannot accomplish the missions that we serve without the partnership of the industry that supports us so i'm truly grateful to have this honor and i'm and i deeply appreciate being recognized for some of the innovations that we've had at the department of homeland security specifically our procurement innovation lab that is focused on finding ways to improve the process for all of us for industry and government together so as i received this award i do have to say that this award really belongs to the men and women in the procurement community at the department of homeland security so i humbly accept this award on their behalf i thank you on their behalf and i look forward to continuing to work with all of you to make sure that we continue to improve the processes that we that we work on the the businesses that we serve but more importantly that we continue to execute on this vital mission that we perform every single day thank you all very very much over to you patrick thank you sorry next i would like to introduce our next recipient this individual is someone who is also a member of the itpa ncc board he is a dear friend and colleague and his name is brian bonacci brian is receiving the inaugural diana gowan industry partner of the year award for the fraternal year 2019 2020. let's talk a little bit about brian brian has been an active leader in the federal government i t and telecom industry for over 25 years he recently joined equinix where he is charged with building and leading partnerships and channels for equinix government solutions mr bernacci has served key industry associations such as act i act as executive committee vice chair at large networks and telecom shared interest group chair and vice chair executive leadership conference industry vice chair and gsa ns2020 working group co-chair in addition to the government business executive forum brian currently serves on the board of itpa national capital chapter as treasurer and the atarc industry advisory board prior to joining equinix brian served as senior director for government markets at infinera and held key leadership positions for level three government markets such as director of business development and advocacy and chief of staff mr bernacci has also held other senior business development positions at quest now lumen unisys and seic where he spent eight years as assistant vice president in addition to business development he also had held leadership roles in business operations and business and practice management excuse me ryan started his career with the u.s general accounting office as computer scientists and later work at the u.s internal revenue services system integration office developing strategies and architectures for their tax systems modernization program brian holds a master of science degree in business information technology management from johns hopkins university and a bachelor of science degree in computer science from west virginia university originally from new jersey brian now calls oakland virginia home where he lives with his wife and two sons the itp ncc diana gowan industry partner award is presented to an individual in recognition of their significant contributions in strengthening government and industry relations exemplary leadership and exceptional volunteer service this award is presented to a qualified industry candidate who has been extraordinarily impactful and continues to contribute to the mission of itpa ncc and the federal community this award has special significance for me because it is named after my friend of nearly 20 years mentor and former boss miss diana gow diana served in many positions within the itpa ncc she loved this organization and was integral to bringing industry and government together through various collaborative efforts when diana's name was mentioned in any conversation respect and credibility are immediately attached so in 2017 when diana decided to no longer continue in her role as an itpa ncc board member she immediately encouraged me in only the way that diana could to seek her vacated position for the 2018-2019 fraternal year once i was voted into the position by members of this esteemed chapter she then challenged me to hit the ground running inject my leadership traits and ideas into the organization fast forward to today our 2020-2021 fraternal year and i am humbly sitting before you as the vice president of our executive board it is with this great honor and responsibility that i carry on as always keeping diana's thoughtful leadership and spirit to serve in mind now again without further delay it is with great honor that i introduced the inaugural itpa ncc diana gowan industry partner of the year award to my dear friend colleague and fellow itpa ncc executive board member mr brian banachi thank you pat uh yeah it's it truly is an honor and first of all to receive it from you uh you know one one of the that's one of the great people i know in this industry and we've we've been working together since the days of level three and and so it's just uh having having you hear those time words and and uh presenting this to me is is really an honor so um i i and i and i'd be remiss obviously if if i didn't recognize sarai and everything that you've done and and congratulate you and your award as well uh i i think we first met back when when i was on the acti board and you were just getting into your role and uh one thing i i just i noticed immediately was your refreshing approach on taking on um a government procurement executive role and you're engaged with an industry immediately and you set the tone i think for a lot of your your peers and colleagues in government on how they are now working with industry and and taking their procurement strategy forward inside government and so you've been a pioneer in so many ways across the the uh our government procurement uh industry and so thank you for all that you've done and and also of course for all your support of itpa ncc in recent years um to get this award that has uh diana gowan's name next to it and seeing sean here today um you know diana when i when i first um when i first was in government obviously early on uh with with our gao and irs i spent many years uh in the area and then left town and i was in texas and in atlanta with saic uh when i first came back to work for quest uh you know diane diana was leading the quest government team there and um i'll never forget quick story you know i never thought it would get any tougher in an account review uh than sitting in front of ray guyan during my verizon days and then i sent my first count review with diana and i realized the game had changed and uh if i was going to uh if i was really going to um survive and really thrive inside this industry now that i was back in town uh i needed to up my game and it wasn't just because the game had changed but because diana gallon was leading that game and and she she just really set the tone for me just not only by setting the bar high on what you brought to the table but by just her loyalty to her team to serving government and everything she did in her her day-to-day life was all about serving others and and having that that that friendship and loyalty around her and and i'm forever in debt to her in in my career my life and and what she's done and i know so many of us are and so to have her name on that award and being this recipient it just means the world to me um just real quickly and i know you guys have one hear a lot of other stuff other than me chat today so i'll try to get through this quickly um really want to thank the board and especially thelma barker thelma you've done so much in moving uh and transforming itp and cc in the time you've been in in the royal president and uh and and going forward what your you've got envisioned for us i i think forever uh for a long time uh itpncc is going to be forever in your debt for i think where you're taking this organization uh built up obviously from years of great work from all the volunteers and participants um and and just seeing what you're going to do and involving us is just and being a part of that is is really is really tremendous um i also want to thank mary beth jones who is deputy treasurer and all the work she's doing in helping us set ourselves up for the future on the financial side and getting us set up as an organization uh really just in debt to her for for all the work she's doing and uh nithya lashminarian she's amazing thank you warren for hiring her uh if you ever let her leave we're gonna have a chat if she does she's gonna come work with me by the way probably but uh nithya really just don't know what we'd do without you and warren thank you i i'm so great to see you on here today this would none of this would be here without warren suss warren's got this whole thing started for us at itpa ncc and um your constant contribution and support with you and sus consulting on this organization i i i can't thank you enough and i i don't think you get anywhere near the recognition uh you deserve because you're such a humble guy and and and you just do so without expecting it and and thank you so much for all for all that you do um and then lastly you know the reason we do this is is and we're all volunteers here right the reason we do this is to me it's two main reasons one is serving government and and i never lose sight of that in in this role in what i try to do with itp and cc it is the reason it's one of the few organizations i still get actively involved with it's because i get to serve government and do so directly and interactively in supporting our telecommunications providers uh and and and organizations in government that deliver that to our to our uh our our government employees and then secondly is the charities i mean we get to help so many people day in day out whether jdrf and the uso metro dc baltimore chapter and capital area food bank and the salute military golf association to be a part of an organization that helps these great charities is is one of the proudest parts of what i get to do in all of my job and and it's why i love this organ one of the main reasons i love this organization so much so thank you i'll do something proudly sitting behind me thank you so much and and look forward to many many more years working with this great organization thanks thank you brian um now i would like to introduce um mr sean gowan uh son of um i apologize a past board member my my apologies um pass board member mike brennan i just want to send a heartfelt thank you um you are transitioning off of the itpa board after serving the itp itpa ncc in various roles after serving on many committees and subcommittees in support of the ideals and the mission of the itpa ncc we just want to thank you for your service to our organization and wish you continued success we also hope that you continue to participate in whatever capacity that you deem agreeable with your schedule and your lifestyle job well done sir and thank you pat thanks so much um apologize for my freezing video but uh in these times i guess technology doesn't keep up with what we need but i wanted to just express my appreciation for being allowed to participate in itpa over the years uh having it moved from that old pier 7 location down the wharf to the keybridge marriott now to the westwood location it's been it's been a lot of fun and impactful just in from the fact of networking with government and industry here and all the great speakers that we've supported through this organization through the years it's really just been a pleasure and an honor to be participative you know and a volunteer status on that and it's just been a nice organization i look forward to continuing to support however i can and thanks again pat thomas and everybody else thank you mike and now um i would like to introduce your sean gallon um the son of good grief is warren i keep screwing this up i'm sorry everyone again i'd like to thank mr warren suss brian you have said more than i could ever articulate about the contribution and the service that mr warren sus has has provided to the itpa ncc thank you again warren for your continued support your continued effort and we just want to thank you for you know again being such an active participant and and really spearheading the ability for us to serve the mission of the community in which we serve and also the mission of our federal government pat thank you so much so now we'd like to just before we move on to our keynote and the introduction of our keynote i'd like to roll it back just a quick moment and introduce mr shawn gowan um don't worry there's not a slide for sean um so we can just leave it there where um warren is but we'd like to bring on mr gowan to have a few mo to have a few words um in regards to diana and the industry award part the industry partner award being conferred in diana's name so sean good morning and um let me just say i'm both humbled and honored to be here on behalf of my mother diana gowan um when i was approached to you know to say a few words i was you know had a whole lot of different thoughts flying through my head and then things crystallized when recently someone introduced me to the book the five people you meet in heaven by mitch albert auburn um for those of you who've never heard the story or read the book it's a story about a guy an 83 year old man he dies goes to heaven and he meets five people whose lives either he impacted or impacted his life and it the book explores what the impacts were for him but the central point of the book is that good or bad consciously or unconsciously every life touches another one every life leaves an impression and everything we do is connected so it got me thinking about you know who would my mom be meeting in heaven when she got there and the truth is i have no clue um but then i thought about what if i flip the question you know who would she be greeting when they arrive in heaven and when i flip framed it that way suddenly i was overwhelmed with possibilities and choices um and i think that if you know we talk about you know people always talk about what kind of legacy are you gonna leave behind and um just some background to frame this next comment is that about four years ago i abandoned an i.t career to become a high school teacher and this year i had a student approach me for a letter of recommendation for a scholarship she's applying for through the center for women in technology at umbc and um when i closed out her letter i i said this that i grew up with a mother that was a trailblazer in the telecommunications industry she broke glass ceilings as one of the first female executives in her field she was known for nurturing talent especially in women when she found it this student is the kind of person my mother would have taken under her wing to ensure she had opportunities to fully develop her talents and i think that's one of the um one of the lasting legacies that my mother leaves behind is the way that she nurtured the talent around her um it took me a while to understand that that's what she was doing um as you know get coming out of college uh you know i'll call my mom for one reason or another while she was at work and usually i would get her administrative assistant and you know we'd have conversations get to know each other a little bit you know i'd get to the point where i finally recognized the person's voice knew their name and then somebody else would pick up the phone and i would ask my own well why you know what happened here you know this this was a good assistant you had she's like yeah she she was a very good or he was a very good assistant but it was time for me to help them find a better job and by the third time this happened i recognized the pattern um and she did the same thing for her families for in the hobbies she pursued you know if she if she found someone who she thought had talent or had ability or whatever it was then she was going to push you to to fulfill that talent and to become as much of a person as you could be in whatever that field was now i you know i make this sound very idyllic and but for those of you that worked with her you know like i know and like her grands kids know that that the encouragement she gave sometimes was less than gentle but i think that's because she really really wanted you to fulfill your potential um pat mentioned her pushing him and you know in her own unique way and i think that sort of echoes what i'm trying to say here i think she was sort of like you know the mother bird that pushes the hatchling out of the nest even if the hatchling feels like it's unprepared but i think she always knew that people were ready to spring their spread their wings and fly on their own um one of the other legacies i think from her uh was brought to mind for me when uh by one of her uh top ten galvanisms if if anybody worked with her at centurylink uh when she retired from there they gave her this list of top 10 galvanisms the list of her most common sayings uh one of them on there was just it takes a village uh and i think that the villages she built is part of what she leaves behind and helping people understand the importance of building community because wherever she went she built community and if anyone has ever been to one of her annual christmas parties that was a showcase for these communities her house would be filled with friends family current and former co-workers and all over the house you would see many reunions you'd see it around the famous crab station or the cookie table with some 20 odd types of cookies that i and some other people have been enlisted to bake as part of our annual saturday cookie marathon um but what i was oblivious to because you know diana gallon was mom so but what i was oblivious to is that these mini many reunions featured like all sorts of high level of executives from government from telcom from from the i.t world and but to me they were just you know pat or they were jerry or rick or joan um and the thing that i could tell though was that she was admired and trusted and that she was really liked and and that was despite the fact that she was a tough task master um the previous speaker mentioned brian mentioned you know how he you know forced her or how she forced him to step up his game and but i think she did that again like i said before because she wanted to push us push all of us to be the best person we could be so the last thing i want to mention about her is that is that she was really big about philanthropic philanthropic efforts as part of her passing i've had the duvious task of going through her mail for the last few months and i could fill a big through ring binder with all of the thank you letters from all the organizations that have sent her you know thank you for donating thank you for giving your time your money whatever it is um and she really believed strongly in in advocating and giving to those less fortunate than her but i think her biggest philanthropic effort was always reserved for the national ms society some of you here may have been the recipient of fundraising letters for her for the challenge walk ms this was a cause that was near and dear to her heart because her brother had an unsuccessful battle with the disease um together with her sisters linda and paula they formed a team called sister act and then after they started doing this event for a number of years they called it sister act repeat and for over 15 years they would get together once a year and they would walk 50 miles in three days to raise money for ms and i know a number of possibly a number of you have donated to that cause over the years eventually they even dragged me into it and i have to say that i loved every minute of it i think that all of us want to know that our lives mattered that we've made some sort of impact that we left a mark on the world while i have no clue who my mom would be meeting in heaven um i do know that for many of us she will be one of the five people that we meet when we go to heaven and if many many many years from now when i finally shake off this mortal coil if i've impacted half as many lives as my mother has i'll consider that a life well lived and i think that based on the acknowledgments and the expressions of respect and love that i've heard from so many of the people that worked with her that a lot of you feel the same way i miss my mom terribly but seeing how much she's respected and loved in this community it really helps to lighten the heaviness of my heart so thank you so much for letting me share some of my thoughts but most importantly thank you so much for honoring her it means the world thank you sean sean thank you so much for joining us today diana was a true influencer and partner to government and a force within industry as a leader a mentor and a friend and i would like to extend my warmest congratulations and sincere gratitude to you soraya and to you brian for your support of itpa ncc and now i'm pleased to introduce warren suss president of suss consulting past president and long time supporter of itpa ncc to introduce our keynote speaker for today over to you warren thank you velma and i i could spend all of my time and all of our time here talking about diana and the legacy she left so dawn your your words were heartfelt and she was just extremely highly regarded with this community and soraya and brian congratulations but today uh it's my honor to introduce today's keynote speaker uh mr dovarius l peoples was selected for the senior executive service in january of 2016. he assumed the position of chief information officer cio g6 in april of 2019 with the us army corps of engineers in this role he serves as the principal advisor to the commanding general on information technology issues he is responsible for all aspects of information resource management and information technology for the corps of engineers prior to his current assignment mr people served as the deputy commanding general u.s army netcode in this capacity mr peoples provided senior technical leadership to ensure army theater level networks were integrated into the army's portion of the department of defense information network the dota and enterprise constructs the command employed over 14 000 military civilian and contractor personnel located in every theater in 20 countries around the world with an annual budget in excess of 1.4 billion mr people good morning good afternoon depending on where you are watching um first off thanks for the opportunity uh i definitely appreciate having the opportunity to be around and amongst in the presence of many great professionals um so i definitely kind of a privilege just to be able to share for a short while with you some of the the things that the army corps of engineers are doing to support our great nation um so so with that being said just to slightly orient you as you know we all are going through through covet 19 of trying to stay safe and healthy and one of the major things within the army corps of engineers we do have a responsibility to continue to engineer solutions to some of the nation's toughest challenges so with that being said we have seen a lot of success i mean we've also had some challenges especially as we provide it support to allow our end users or our customers the ability to be able to engineer those solutions needed so some of the things we've done we had to really truly assess uh the the the current operating landscape post covert uh pre-covet and then as we go through covet as you know the army corps of engineers is set up conus as well as oconus in country and out of country we are made up of 55 districts uh nine divisions they are within the united states supporting your various local local areas we're about 37 000 users strong inside of the corps of engineers and we provide a lot of engineering construction services supporting military programs on the army side supporting the disaster relief efforts which we coordinate and collaborate heavily with the civilian sector and then we have a huge disaster relief civil works mission as well so those are the three various components within the army corps of engineers in which it is that we provide critical services to as well as they are part of our mission um some of the things that we've done as we move through the coveted landscape as we navigate through the coveted landscape we like to consider this the new now because we don't know what the new norm will eventually look like um so right now all we can do is continue to adapt and continue to adjust as we go forward so some of the key things we've done technically um we have enhanced or we did enhance our vpn capacity uh when we first started throughout cobia 19 we were actually we only could handle about maybe 500 users per per day on our vpn capacity and we started off with a fiber cut we received our fiber services down south as our two major data centers one in vicksburg mississippi and the other one is in portland oregon and our vicksburg mississippi data center had a fiber cut so as you know everybody is working home you have 37 000 users working from home and only maybe sporadically about six or seven hundred users could connect to the enterprise so we started off pretty rough um not to mention where we only had a small limited capacity that could actually get onto the vpn so within about seven days or so we we aggressively expanded our vpn capacity to handle 80 000 40 and 40 distributed um so with that being said over the course now over the past maybe about six to eight months we've continued to maintain a current operating posture where about maybe 30 000 users connect on average every day to our vpn services being able to leverage a lot of their mission critical applications um such as email microsoft pro 365 and those things are like so we have definitely seen a lot of success had a lot of challenges but but overall as a mission enabler from an i.t standpoint we have definitely done a significant job in being able to allow our end users to effectively do their job some of the key initiatives that we have been embarking upon within the corps of engineers especially for this fiscal year fy21 definitely enhancing our data posture uh being able to properly secure that data as well as being able to properly access the data so i'm looking at things concepts such as zero trust uh looking at connectivity aspects through our various telco providers for my various meet me points and data centers so there's a lot going on in the uh in the space of the cio from the army corps of engineers many may be tracking um the corps of engineers is structured just as the big army is structured as you know the army has separated the cio as well as the g6 component in order to gain more efficiencies within the army corps of engineers we are currently structured in that capacity as well the cio shop handles a lot of the policy oversight and guidance of the g6 side of the house handles a lot of the execution and implementation that has allowed us to be able to access a lot more efficiencies as an enabler be able to deliver services not just on time but also accurately as well and then be able to provide the checks and balances the verification validation and strategic aspects on top of those we provide critical services whether that's network telecom we provide cyber cyber services as well data services i mean with our various team members we provide all types of enterprise services and that's just a few that we were able to name um with from our civilians they work very hard um some of the things we're beginning to do now is put more emphasis on training our federal civilian and our federal workforce to really be a more 2028 type of workforce and be able to handle a lot of the things that that come about for this audience here i really want to specifically kind of dive into some of the things we're doing centered around disaster relief or some of our usage disaster relief capabilities um so why is that important because we work closely with some of our mission partners such as firstnet att verizon and the likes to ensure that we can effectively have calms as we deploy to the various sites when a disaster happens a good example of a disaster cobia 19 we were building alternate care facilities ensuring that our technicians had the ability to properly connect to their devices uh to be able to properly access a lot of the mission applications we were able to successfully do that by leveraging some of our critical capabilities firstnet telco firstnet through telco and those type of things to really ensure that they could connect and the disaster relief mission is probably one of the most important missions within the corps because every day somewhere in the united states there is a disaster whether that's snow that eventually turns into water that could potentially flood saturate the environment ground there's hurricane season tornadoes those type of things even the wildfires out in california which we support as well too to include some of the things we're doing uh with with as i said before coven 19 and with that we all need some type of telco in order to communicate that's the bottom line being able to effectively communicate to uh to do our job so with that being said ensuring that we've either ran the right fibers or we have the proper mobile units in order to be able to connect um it is a huge mission granted there are limitations but within the core we try to overcome a lot of those limitations working closely with our mission mission partners out in industry there is no loss of work in the court we have a lot of room for improvement and and collaborating and working with industry we are definitely looking forward to being able to move the ball forward and take things to the next level as we look for the out years of 22 through through 26 hour years so one of the efforts and emissions we've really embarked upon here over the course of the past six months is our i.t modernization and as a part of the modernization roadmap um it is more centered towards the digital transformation aspects of things um based with the foundation of governance i'm looking at it from a cloud smart perspective the analytics the ai aspects um this this nice thing we call the enterprise virtual viewer for a lot of our data components which we've broken data into three areas the platform the data management data quality aspects and the visualization because ultimately we want leaders to be able to make more informed decisions having access to real-time data that is that is quality manageable and on a on an excellent platform whether that's in the cloud or in a hybrid concept cloud and on-prem so we are moving forward as you know within the army corps of engineers we are the the army's component for for our army geospatial command we are the engineering research component for for the army and the department as well too so the corps of engineers has a huge responsibility and and within that responsibility we are we're relied upon to be able to ensure that we can properly provide the nation as well as our mission partners with the things in which it is that they need so lastly um one of the things i definitely like to really convey to you all is that as we've worked from the po from the pre-covet to the postcode which i'm going to call it and then trying to find that hybrid that sweet spot in the middle current present um there are a lot of things we've done in collaboration with big army as well as with omb we have worked with the dod to leverage the microsoft cbr capability which is which has the teams which allows for effective collaboration that has proven to to prove well for us because it has allowed us to talk across the platform um to all of our various components and services and video capabilities as well as mission collaboration with documents and those type of things so within the course some of the things we're beginning to do is actually build upon those mission collaboration services um to ensure that we can effectively meet the mission working to to enhance our civil aspect of the mission uh as well as our army dod aspects of the mission um so so with some of those things being said telco is important um connectivity is important our end users are important as well as funding is is also very important so we have moved a lot of our efforts and initiatives that were in the right column to the left to be able to meet some of the challenges that have been going on and we're also reassessing our budgets as well to ensure that we can effectively meet those challenges because you can't move forward unless you have the funds so so we've been going through through intense budget budget drills um internal and external to the army as well as internal to usage and efforts of being able to secure the proper funding to be able to move things forward um so so with that being said that's just a brief introduction to the core some of the things that we've been doing to to move the i.t mission space forward and some of the things we're beginning to focus on i'm definitely looking forward to the the next rounds of engagement with the organization and with this dynamic team um so i'll pause there at the moment and turn it back over for any comments questions and concerns that may be had of me and again thank you for the opportunity well thank you mr peebles that was quite a bit of information in a short period of time but it's amazing to hear what you all have been able to do and how you were able to pivot um so quickly as a result of covid and when i think about what you initially said with that outage and having you know the majority of your workforce unable to connect um just just astounding so we too look forward to the continuation of this story and i like your uh your phrase the new now i've been struggling with the new normal because i don't believe that we are going back to where we were so i really like that new now focusing on today so with that i would like to introduce our q a moderator for today's event mr tony bardo vice president federal ed hughes and past president of itpa ncc tony take it away thank you thelma welcome mr peoples and uh i'd like to say um first of all just to give a nod to the rest of the program i am i'm really moved by the awardees and their their careers and their uh accomplishments their service to uh this organization and and to our industry um it's it's really moving and further moving um was shawn gowan's um tribute to his mother and um a woman i knew uh very well and worked with at uh at mci and uh in my many years there and uh it was just just really har a heartfelt um gathering here this this meeting um i wish i wish i could say thelma that lunch was delicious but um you know we're doing this virtually now because of the new now and i too uh echo that um uh that embracing that uh that phrase i i just have come to hate the new normal i gotta tell you but um um mr peoples i've got some questions we have a tough crowd here at itpa and they've asked some some questions that uh hopefully won't uh that i'm sure you're going to be able to handle um with the plum and um let's let's get started um devarious what was the driving factor a lot of the um these questions are going to be about the new now and what was the driving factor to focus on tethering the user um and going mobile within the army corps yeah so so right now the core of engineers is we've operated always as a distributed workforce so we have never truly been tied to the to the office space in the in the old norm uh as you know so many are just used to going into the office and seeing a face in the office but when you think about the corps of engineers when you think about construction that's we are we are a construction heavy-based organization we support a lot of the local areas at levees locks dams for critical network infrastructure those type of employees are not really at your conventional office space so with that being said we have to ensure that those users have the ability to connect to the uh to the enterprise in some form or fashion because they're not at their desk so that automatically screams mobile right that screams ipads that screams mobile cell phones uh whether it's android or apple um and when covet 19 happened it was just more so okay we have to really kick that into high gear because now nobody's really going into the office anymore so with that being said we had we had planned for this and maybe in the 23 24 out years to get that together a little bit more but when cover 19 happened it was like okay reality is hit we may never go back to the office these individuals need to have access to a lot of mission critical data so we had to begin to put the foundational building blocks in place and as a part of that story ensuring that the network and the infrastructure was solid first that's what we've been working on so in 22 23 and 24 it'll be ensuring that the applications are modernized in order for those users to really be able to effectively do their jobs well you you illustrate uh and expand upon um for us to hear and learn the the tremendously wide role that the army corps um plays in our lives and um we appreciate that that we appreciate just how much you all do for us in ways that are very visible in ways that are not not terribly visible so we thank you for that uh so along the same lines how did how did cohen how has cobit 19 and and the pandemic affect your push toward modernization did anything have to stop no nothing nothing stopped um because you know when you think about the things that are going on in the nation for cove at 19 the all-state care facilities we have 50 states in the united states and when you think about those every state is affected by cobit and at some point in time there were alternate care facilities being stood up in some arena throughout the country so when you think about how aggressively those things happen that alone like you know that the core of engineers was never took a break there was never a time out so so with that being said the goal was how do we effectively get calms into the hands of those users so that was our mission challenge and that's what we had to effectively do so we we stopped nothing uh we continued our day-to-day mission um and even through cover 19 there were wildfires going on in the western side of the world there were floods and and whether that was mississippi in the southern on floods and hurricanes all the way down to florida so you name it and the mission was still continuing so there was really no time to stop it was just we just had to see how resilient our calms were so we just jumped out there um luckily we were we were pretty resilient we were in better shape than what we thought we were i put it that way and based off of that we were able to continue to build upon some of those things and we're far from being where we want to be but we are moving the ball forward meaning pulling a lot of those things that were to the right to the left and we're moving forward with implementation and continuing the mission well it's clear that um your leadership over the years in the organization has prepared you for that so appreciate that in your vision of a mobility future for the core uh what role does innovation play and how do you motivate your team to tackle what has has i mean to some extent you've already answered that these unprecedented technical challenges yes so i kind of use the term incentive you know and it's not to say that we'll never go back to the office but i found that a lot of people um a lot of people do really like being in their own personal spaces um you know not having to spend three hours in dc traffic to get back and forth to the office and then have to do kid pick up and those type of things so with that being said some of our incentives is hey if we want to continue to operate in this new now construct then coms must always be up and running and even from the technical perspective our technical team are continuing to move the ball forward we've also looked at it from the people aspect as well to effectively recruit and not just recruit but to retain uh because industry is industry is out there and we're competing for the same resources so to be attractive you have to have some of those things so those are all the things we begin to look at as we think about mobility and and how we can leverage mobility in the future and what innovation will do for it innovation will allow us to get the right talent that allow us to keep the right talent and also allow us to keep our workforce uh more energized so those are all the things that we look at as we talk mobility because it's here to stay and in this new now construct it's showing us that if you don't have affected effective calms then you're pretty much putting yourselves out of business or you're ineffective in delivering mission services well you're among those cios who recognize that for all the innovations and and money and and effort put toward the i.t infrastructure and capability um it doesn't work as well unless the comms are there hence that's why you're here at the itpa and uh don't know why we haven't had you here before but we're glad you you have what role did data governance play at the outset of executing the modernization vision uh as as the cio yeah data is data's huge right data is data is the center piece for everything we do right uh when you think about it even when you look at just traveling right you look at how many right turns you make on on waze or google maps and those type of things for efficiencies all of that is data um and within the core i can specifically let you know as far as our leaders the leaders use data to make a lot of critical decisions especially around a lot of our mission areas such as disaster relief so at the end of the day if the data isn't quality is if it's not quality data if it's not effectively managed nor if it's not coming from an authoritative source then it does us no good um so we have put a lot of emphasis in that not just the quality and the management but also the security of the data itself ensuring through concepts such as zero trust we've taken that from a conceptual or theoretical perspective and then we begin to operationalize how we secure that data because again you're only as good as the weakest aspect and within a data construct securing that data through zero trust methodology is critical to keep blocking denying all and then allowing by exception to meet some of the critical mission areas we use data heavily that's the reason why we set out as our data strategy we look at it in three areas the first area as i stated is the foundation the house where does it sit um do you have proper communications um the calms can you always connect from many different access points the second layer looking at it from a data management data quality perspective ensuring that you can always access that data in real time that there is no no latency associated with it and that you can make informed decisions and then last but not least the visualization component because we as humans are visual people so being able to see that data to make informed decisions and get it whenever you need it is critical and key but it has to be in a consumable form that any leader at any level can really understand what they're looking at so all of those things go into our daily strategy to include some of the beautiful terms such as cloud and several others but data is at the heart and forefront of everything we do and we are in lockstep with the bigger army as well as omb as we go about modernizing our data strategies um thelma i would want to ask i've got a couple more questions to ask davarius but i want to make sure we're okay with time tony we can probably take two more okay um so sir what was the out of all the lessons you you mentioned um you've learned what was the most important lesson during this initial phase of the um army corps modern vision uh i would say people people people first right and and it's not just to say people first as far as health uh but people first as far as health the the mental the physical uh people first in regards to the the training um empowering the workforce because ultimately now in this in this construct that we're working in there is less there's less of the physical touch and there's more of the virtual interaction so sometimes it's hard to really be able to gauge the the health status of an individual by looking at them on btc or the video sometimes it's also hard to train users as well through these conventional methods so ensuring because at the end of the day those that do the work are they are the professionals they're the ones that really make this thing run and if they're not skilled if they're not trained at their specific area of expertise then we're only as good as how far they'll take us so we've been investing heavy and ensuring that our users or our employees have the ability to be trained they they have full resources whether it's online um you know allow them to take that time and we're working with army to pilot this quantum leap effort initiative which is centered around the the training aspect versus the certification because again a certification shows that an individual can learn they have the ability to learn but a lot of times what you learn in a textbook isn't translated to the hands-on technical aspects of the on-the-job training so we really put a lot of focus in that i would tell everybody to really invest in your people uh because ultimately if you don't invest in them someone else will and the talent is is very it's not a lot of talent out there when it comes to the at it arena because everybody's trying to get the same talent so those are some of the things that that we've definitely learned and funding properly playing from a funding aspect because if you don't invest in it then you're not going to be successful you can't you can't piecemeal this you have to really make sure you really focus and and identify the right resources well um from our tough panel of uh of contributors for the questions that was a great question and sir that was a great answer thank you um last question here and at what point did you know that the changes related to covid were unavoidable or were longer lasting than perhaps um thought what were the most important planning considerations at that time um one of the things i said when when we've done a lot of preparation for disaster recovery and those type of things um and we kind of got the sense that this could really become we could be in this for the long haul when from an army standpoint we do a lot of things called rock drills we stimulate we practice how we're going to perform we do a lot of right just right which is a lot of army terms but when we started to do those exercises that's when i got in my mind that hey we're in this for the long haul because a lot of times when you start doing those type of preparations it's not just to do it for fun it's something that's coming so with that being said we begin to plan early say hey what is that we need from an infrastructure standpoint funding what funding do we need and how can we be best posture so we begin to have our our employees the stagger working from home testing out the vpns and testing a lot of our mission critical applications um we started doing that maybe about a month before we got the word to say hey everybody must go in um and start working remotely so those pre-planning things allowed us to really be prepared for for the for the long haul in this and uh and from a from an i.t standpoint i think that's really investing in our wireless um really investing in our wireless capabilities definitely uh helped us out a lot as well too wireless and remote because what we do at home or in our remote capacity we could do in the office so all of those things really really did help us out to various people's thank you very much uh for answering our questions um proud to uh proud to serve with you and thank you very much hey thank you for the opportunity tony thank you so much for that um that was quite an extensive uh session but extremely good information so thank you for moderating you're welcome so if i could get everyone to join me in a virtual round of applause for mr devarious peoples uh a dynamic keynote speaker today and then also for the service of the army corps of engineers so as we uh prepare to close out for our event today just a couple of items i would like to give you a sneak peek into the remaining events for our 2021 portion of this season in february we're going to feature colonel jeff rector from disa he will be speaking on modernization for the dod 4th estate and in march we have a special event featuring gsa with a focus on small business and then i'm very excited to welcome mr peebles back for part two and part three of his series in april and may so we have a full slate for the remainder of our season as we near the one-year mark since the outbreak of covid19 and the resulting economic downturn itpa ncc is looking to help out now more than ever as some families have been directly affected with food and security we hope to have a greater impact for the capital area food bank and will be sharing much more information during our february virtual event once again i'd like to thank all of our sponsors we greatly appreciate you our platinum sponsors comcast government services granite communications hughes and lumen our gold sponsors avaya converge 1 metel sus consulting and verizon and our silver sponsors bjj and associates collab 9 corning equinix gbi ges turning point sprint t-mobile and gray bar itpa will continue to hold an array of events as part of our monthly virtual series throughout the remainder of the year for questions please reach out to us at info itpa ncc.org lastly thank you again to everyone who supported our project elf efforts last holiday season thank you to our speakers our sponsors and all of our special attendees today including our awardees and our presenter vice president pat amos thank you again everyone have an amazing rest of your day and we'll see you next month