In an increasingly digital era, networks are key to enabling the federal mission. In this regard, government agencies can turn to the private sector to ensure they have the most relevant, modern capabilities to support not just telecommunications, but also the ready flow of data that helps to drive mission outcomes.
“We thrive as a nation when public and private enterprises are working together,” said Jason Porter, president of AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet.
In his role, Porter is working to ensure government has access to the latest networking tools in support of public safety, education and across the federal mission set.
As the only carrier delivering FirstNet, the nation’s first dedicated broadband network for first responders, AT&T has been working to elevate the performance of public safety organizations.
“We just announced that we hit 2.8 million FirstNet connections. We now have 18,500 public safety agencies using FirstNet, and that includes FEMA and the FBI,” in addition to state and local authorities, Porter said.
The nation just marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, which helped give rise to FirstNet. As the pandemic has shown, robust connectivity for emergency personnel “has never been more critical,” Porter said, noting hospitals, ambulance services and even the National Guard all leveraged the network in support of COVID-19 response.
With the FirstNet rollout well under way, Porter said AT&T now is working with agencies to ensure they can make robust use of the video-sharing and other key capabilities inherent in the network.
“We put a powerful tool in their toolkit,” he said. “Now, we’re enabling them to take full advantage of that tool.”
AT&T also is working in support of education. The company, for example, has undertaken a 3-year, $2 billion project to help address the digital divide, delivering internet access in support of educational goals. Federal government has a key role here, with diverse agencies working in support of improved connectivity.
In higher education, AT&T has supported the University of Miami, Purdue University, the University of Connecticut and many others in their efforts to adopt 5G capabilities.
“This is going to be a game-changer for the way that students live, work and play,” Porter said. “It also supports research across a range of fields, from autonomous vehicles to climate initiatives. Just as with FirstNet, there’s strong potential for public-private partnerships there.”
Within government itself, AT&T has been working across civilian and defense agencies in support of network modernization, including a move toward software-defined networking and network-as-a-service.
“They’re moving increasingly to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, or EIS, which makes all these new, modern options available to federal agencies,” Porter said. “We’ve won nearly five dozen EIS awards and have more still pending, with significant wins in areas like the Department of Justice, Treasury, Transportation, Homeland Security, the VA and others.”
Network modernization “opens up a lot of flexibility for federal agencies,” he said.
“It can help them be more efficient, with higher speeds,” Porter added. “Software-defined networking provides the flexibility to optimize the way you work, especially in support of remote working. Modernization also provides advanced security capabilities.”
In fact, Porter said, advanced networking can be a significant safeguard against the rising wave of cyber concerns that presently engulfs government agencies.
“The network plays a vital role in any security architecture,” he said. Rather than merely securing a plethora of diverse endpoints — a labor-intensive and often inefficient approach to cyber — agencies can build in safeguards across the network.
By leveraging network-based security tools, “you can now move from a traditional ‘castle-wall’ security infrastructure to having locks on every door inside the castle,” he said. “You can use threat analytics to watch what’s going on with the adversary, to identify and mitigate that risk as quickly as possible.”
In particular, a new offer from AT&T called AT&T Trusted Internet Connection for Government brings to life this promise of software-defined networking combined with advanced security capabilities.
“It gives you that integrated threat view so that you can not only respond to the attacks, but also put in place the controls to mitigate the threats,” he said.
Overall, Porter said, there’s tremendous opportunity right now for GovCons to work in support of agencies’ efforts. There’s direct business opportunity — AT&T engages a slew of subcontractors in support of its federal work — and there’s also opportunity in a broader sense.
“We all have a chance to work together, through public-private collaboration, in order to move our nation forward,” he said. “Our efforts with FirstNet, our work in education — these are all example of the ways in which government can work in partnership with private industry to drive meaningful change.”
For those who work in the GovCon space, he suggested, this sense of shared opportunity can be a driving force.
“We all have a shared obligation to help move our country forward,” he said. “We can all be working together to provide comprehensive solutions in support of federal government.”