Watch the podcast to hear experts from Broadcom, Google Cloud and stackArmor discuss how agencies accelerate software delivery, improve customer experience and maintain compliance while meeting deadlines and staying within budget. Gain insights into how the Federal Government navigates FedRAMP’s evolving framework, leverages AI tools for portfolio management and breaks down information silos with a unified platform.
Anthony Jimenez
Welcome back to Carahcast, the podcast from Carahsoft, the trusted government IT solutions provider. Subscribe to get the latest technology updates in the public sector. I'm Anthony Jimenez, your host from the Carahsoft production team.
On behalf of Broadcom, we would like to welcome you to today's podcast, focused on how AI-driven tools help federal agencies modernize service delivery and ensure compliance. Deon James, Generative AI Specialist, Indira Dhanagan, Federal CTO, Jennifer Castro, Solutions Engineer, and Gaurav Pal, CEO and founder, will discuss how federal agencies can accelerate software delivery, improve cross-team transparency, and fulfill their mission.
Gaurav Pal
I'm G.P. I'm the principal and founder of StackArmor, and I'm very excited to be on this panel with you all and talk about things like portfolio management, AI, all delivered through secure cloud services. Again, we'll be talking a lot about how different programs within the federal agencies and DoD enable the ability for agencies to do more with less, especially using commercial FedRAMP-accredited cloud services. Just a little bit of background about myself.
I go by G.P. You're welcome to try my first name, but generally G.P. is just easier. I've spent the last 15 years in the cloud business, helped almost 200-plus agencies and migrations over the last 15 years get to the cloud and implement secure and compliance frameworks, such as FedRAMP and DoD CCSRG. Again, had the privilege of supporting the first cloud migration way back in 2009, and since then have been privileged to receive a number of awards and peer recognitions from industry and agencies based on the work we have done around cloud modernization and delivery of secure solutions for the federal marketplace.
Really quickly about StackArmor. So we are the partner of Broadcom and Carahsoft. We were selected based on our experience with automation and delivering highly cost-efficient and compliant cloud environments for our customers.
However, today what I really want to do is talk to you about why we are here and how we can help agencies become more efficient given the environment we are operating in. So I just wanted to share with you some interesting data that is applicable to commercial organizations the world over. And software as a service has helped over the years organizations reduce their cost by about 30% and execute projects faster.
And this is, as you can imagine today, a critical need for a lot of our mission partners. How did we get here, right? So let's take a look at how the FedRAMP program is so important in helping our mission partners and agencies adopt world-class SaaS software while making sure that it meets federal and DoD requirements.
So as I shared with you, I'm dating myself. I began this ATO journey almost 15 years ago. Did the first system migration in 2009-2010, recovery.gov. That became the first government-wide ATO system on cloud, resulting in cost avoidance or savings for the agency, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. Since then, there has been a steady progression of different initiatives to help agencies align with the commercial entities and drive efficiencies and cost reductions. Again, the FedRAMP program has continued to evolve. We launched the Cloud First initiative a couple of years back, and then after that, Cloud Smart.
And now we have over, in 2022, the FedRAMP Authorization Act was signed with over 280-plus cloud services. Fast forward to 2025 and where we are today. Those of you watching the news and looking at what's going on in the federal tech space, the FedRAMP 20x program, the DoD RMF program, and a number of initiatives are all designed to make it even easier and faster to go in and consume world-class secure SaaS services.
And so really what we want to do today is talk to you a little bit more on how you can continue to support your mission using secure capabilities like Rally and SaaS that my co-presenters will be talking to you about today. So again, there is a huge drive within agencies to adopt commercial best practices. Commercial organizations have had almost a decade-plus of experience in driving down costs and improving efficiencies.
And we think that the federal agencies have an opportunity to play catch up and use some of these services that are available to you now. Again, the DoD, the Secretary of Defense, issued a memo last week, again, reemphasizing the need to use FedRAMP accredited cloud services. And also if you're looking for AI and driving even more productivity gains and efficiencies, again, FedRAMP accredited cloud services are critical.
It's very exciting for me to be on this panel with you all today, having a co-speaker role with the Google AI team, of course, the Broadcom ValueOps team that will be talking to you a lot about AI, ValueOps, program management, and how you can achieve some of your mission objectives. Just really quickly, you will receive a poll. Please do answer that poll if it pops up on your screen.
And we look forward to going and have a great conversation with you on AI, FedRAMP, and program management. With that, I will hand it over back to you, Bella.
Bella
Thanks so much, GP. All right, everyone, now we're going to be shifting gears to a panel discussion focused on how AI is enhancing strategic portfolio management and the ways that your agency can automate workflows to boost efficiency and compliance. Before we dive in, I'd like to reintroduce our other panelists.
Joining GP are Indira Rice-Donagan, Federal CTO at Broadcom, Jennifer Castro, Solution Engineer at Broadcom, and Deon James, Gen AI Specialist at Google. Let's kick things off with an important topic. Every agency is being asked to do more with less.
More data, more reporting, more accountability, all while under tighter scrutiny. What are some practical ways you're seeing AI and automation help federal teams not just keep up, but actually get ahead?
Indira Donegan
I'll volunteer as tribute to kick us off. Thanks, first of all, for all the viewers who joined us today. I'm Indira Rice-Donagan.
I'm the Federal CTO for Broadcom AOD, and Broadcom is a huge ship. After 23 years in the Army and serving in the joint environment, I would never get into a bigger organization than that. I have managed to do that at Broadcom with over 25 business units that they support.
There's a lot of capacity that's available when you're working through any kind of Broadcom offering. I think you're absolutely right. That question is a great way to kick off this discussion.
Doing less with more is something we're seeing across the board, but I can tell you as a former Army officer myself, with over 23 years, the warfighter and government agencies, I feel, have always been asked to move faster and make smarter decisions and do it all with fewer resources, even during a time of conflict. That was definitely nothing new to us. What has changed really, and especially in recent times, is this uptick in direct accountability.
We've seen that, especially in the last seven months. Honestly, when you're paying with taxpayer money, I think that accountability, it shouldn't be optional. It should be mandatory.
That's what makes, I think, what we offer from our portfolio here at AOD, and that stands for Agile Operations Division, a tried-and-true best-in-class offering for the most critical problems that U.S. public sector is charged with solving very quickly. What we're focused on, really, at Broadcom AOD, is helping customers shift from a reactive to a more proactive posture. We can do that in a couple different ways through AOD offerings.
We do that by automating workloads where virtual machine environments are running. We observe and optimize networks where those workloads live. We provide portfolio visibility that ties programs, funding, and infrastructure together for smarter decision-making.
Our unique take on implementing AI to accelerate those tasks and support smarter business decision-making is something we've invested in very, very heavily. Deon, would you like to add?
Deon James
Yes. Thank you, Indira. I appreciate that and appreciate the segue.
I would say, from the Google Cloud perspective, right, to answer Isabella's questions directly, doing more with less is not a new concept. But I think today, within the AI space, especially from a Google Cloud perspective, we are looking at the sheer volume of data that we have accessible to us. And data is the fuel to the AI revolution that we are all experiencing right now.
And from the vantage point, we want to think about using AI and automation not to just keep the lights on, but to also make strategic advancements where we can get our agencies heading in the right direction in a modern way. So being able to turn the data into actionable intelligence. We have agencies that are drowning in data.
There's different sensors. There's different people. There's different levels of education.
So how AI really helps is being adaptive, being able to meet our customers, our agencies, our constituents exactly where they are. And we want to do this in a way where we're not paralyzing our people with all technical jargon. A lot of the advances that we have today with AI really are stemmed by using natural language, which means every one of us can use it from the perspective of multiple languages as well.
All the additional capabilities that we have, whether it's through voice, text, audios, images, we have the ability to really get ahead leveraging these new technologies that are available to us. And from the perspective of resource allocation, you know, we want to look at things that are really manual in tasks, really manual in nature, and really figure out ways to architect with the decision makers how we can deploy orchestrated solutions that aren't really just focused on products. We're looking at overall workflows to really make these things, these solutions helpful for you all.
And a practical example of this could be, you know, an agency might have dozens of calls that they have, and we could leverage different technologies from the standpoint of agents, AI tools, large language models, databases, or even infusing AI into existing systems today. And what this really helps us with is freeing up the skilled staff to do things that are requiring us to focus our attention on more, right? We all deal with repetitive tasks and being able to have predictive operations.
It helps us move from a reactive standpoint to a proactive standpoint. And AI really helps by leveraging the predictive maintenance, and we could do different things with anomaly detections, where sometimes the human error comes into play, where there's a balance of the two. So getting ahead, we want to make sure that agencies aren't just cutting costs, but they're making sure that where they do cut costs, there is a strategic way we can leverage this technology to offset that.
So we want to really accelerate the impact, but also making sure that we are still maintaining integrity as well. I'll segue over to Jennifer. Do you want to add anything?
Jennifer Castro
Yes, I think you both have great points there. You know, what Indira said about, you know, forever having been asked to do, you know, more with less, move faster, execute, and do it all very well, right, has always been a thing. It's not new.
I think it might be getting a little more shine and a little more attention these days. But, yeah, I think you both had very solid points on that. And, you know, the tight scrutiny portion of the question is also particularly relatable, right?
I'm going to talk about this later, but for sure, the ability to have things like reliable audit trails, things that are just built into the system as you are doing your daily work, right, that you don't have to think about, but it'll have your back, right? So when it comes time for audits and that scrutiny, that that's already in place. So, yes, that's one of the ways that we support, you know, making sure that everything is traceable.
Bella
Thank you so much, Jennifer. Building on that, let's discuss another key aspect when selecting solutions for your agency, trust. Our second question is, in government IT, trust is everything.
From securing systems to making decisions with AI, how do you see the balance between innovation and accountability evolving, especially when it comes to AI in highly regulated environments? I'm going to pass this over to Indira and Jennifer for their responses.
Indira Donegan
That's a, I mean, it's a huge topic. There's so many incredible things happening this year. Like, I feel like we're living in historical moments that are going to be referenced for generations.
You've got all of the stuff with, on the DoD side of the house, the change with how do we update RMF, which was in and of itself an update to how we brought things into the network, right? Once we get through to really seeing how CMMC is applied, like that's going to be a game changer. You hear things like Golden Dome, where that's another huge game changer.
Operational technology or OT, that's a massive one that we're talking about really at a level of detail that I don't really recall ever getting into when I was in the service. And, you know, I really just left service in 2021, so it wasn't that long. But what I've noticed over the last few years in particular is trust is a non-negotiable, especially when we're talking about national security and the interests of the American people.
Trust is everything in government IT. And we're starting to see that proliferate in different types of frameworks that everyone from industry to everyone in public sector, they're going to have to wrestle with and figure out how to be accountable to. That's going to apply not just to the United States, but obviously all of our partners and allies that we work with as well.
So from securing systems to making decisions with AI, trust will be everything. I think trust has to be built in from day one. It can't really be an afterthought.
And frankly, in federal IT, if you can't show that your tools are secure, traceable, compliant, you're not going to get very far. Especially with the way things are rolling out. So one thing I like about solutions when I'm looking over the gamut of what's available, are they designed with governance and transparency at the core?
Every automation we enable is auditable. Every decision is traceable. And we make sure federal agencies can prove exactly what happened, when, and why.
So that even as they innovate with AI, they're doing it in a way that's defensible and it's aligned with their mission and their mandates. So innovation doesn't have to come at the expense of accountability. In fact, I think when it's done right, it actually really enhances it.
Jennifer Castro
Well said, Indira. There's multiple points where I think Broadcom strikes that balance between innovation and accountability and that evolution and what that looks like. And this is when we come to offer new technologies like artificial intelligence.
We have to do extremely thorough testing and listening to the voice of the customer to make sure we understand the why, before we just add what might be novel functionality to a solid product. So a lot of thought and work goes into that. And as you said, we embed those capabilities throughout all of our solutions.
So the accountability, the traceability, it's a given. The audit trails and value ops, atomic automation enforces policy as code. As another example, security teams that use NetOps can track network anomalies in real time.
So again, that's reinforcing that built-in accountability that I think we all agree is primary. It serves as a safe anchor that then allows exploration of innovative tech while inherently respecting the context of a highly regulated environment.
Indira Donegan
Yeah, I love that. I want to caveat just really quick, too, that trust goes beyond just the solution, but it's also in the relationship. So Broadcom, for example, is so huge.
Google is so huge. There's a lot that can be learned just by creating deeper relationships and having these honest discussions at the enterprise level, at the operational level, even at the tactical level. I think one thing, if I could have done it all over again and relived maybe the last five or ten years of my military career where I was directly engaging with a lot of industry and doing a lot of acquisition procurement type stuff, it would have been to be much more open.
Directly with the industry kind of juggernauts who are leading the charge in an industry that could completely change the game for me and our co-coms and our services. I don't think I fully appreciated that relationship and how easily it was to have that kind of relationship. But like we say in the military all the time, you don't ask, you don't get.
So that would be one, if I could leave one note of encouragement for any of our viewers coming in from the public sector is understand that FAR regulation actually really strongly encourages you to have these conversations and these discussions to build your network, not just the network upon which everything rides, but your professional network that allows you to reach in deep into the vendors who have been around for decades and who have invested billions of dollars into making sure what they deliver as a solution really, really is truly best in class. Not just because we say so, but because that's how the world has essentially designated what we're doing for industry and for our public sector customers.
Bella
Thank you so much Indira. Expanding on the importance of trust and transparency, let's explore how AI and unified platforms can do more than just accelerating delivery. Federal agencies are under immense pressure to increase transparency, streamline reporting, and ensure continuous audit readiness.
How do the unified platforms and AI from each of your organizations transform these traditional compliance burdens into opportunities for enhanced operational insight and proactive governance? Indira, Jennifer and Deon, you can take it from here.
Indira Donegan
That's a great question. I mean, so for us, I think it's such an important, this question, it highlights such an important shift. For a really long time, compliance was treated as something we scrambled to do at the end of a process.
And there's no engineer worth their salt that would disagree with me. Compliance is quite frankly the least exciting part of what we do as technical creators. And it's something very separate also from daily ops, daily operations.
But with the right platforms, compliance becomes baked into the way you work. That is a mind shift. If you want to down-select solutions that provide unified insights across the entire delivery lifecycle, which means leaders have essentially real-time end-to-end view of what's happening, not just during audits, not just during data calls or budget drills, but every single day.
That is powerful. So I strongly believe that the DoD really doesn't have a capability problem. It's always had a visibility problem because of how we manage things.
The right platform provides a superior level of visibility and it eliminates silos and simplifies reporting because everything is tracked in a centralized, consistent way. The best way to avoid a rice bowl fight when you're in the Pentagon is to actually know to the second, to the penny, every dollar that's been obligated. And the reality is that we're still struggling today to get that level of unification on our data so we can make decisions at the speed of need, really.
I've been hearing that personally over the last couple of years, especially from senior leaders out of the services, out of DISA. But then the question is, how do we get there? So I think more than that, it really gives federal teams, too, the power to act on that data and to improve processes, reallocate resources, and generally just make better decisions.
So compliance basically stops being a checkbox and becomes a strategic asset, which is what it should be.
Jennifer Castro
Yes. This is exactly what we do with the ValueOps platform, right? Our key values are increase visibility, create alignment, optimize efficiency.
Yes. So we've been talking about this for years as well in parallel. So this is exactly what these agencies are striving for and pretty much all organizations.
So we help our customers connect their data in a cohesive manner that gets it out of the silos, those stovepipes that they tend to develop in just naturally. And we enable them to form a collective source of truth, a comprehensive source of truth for all of the activities, the metrics, the data artifacts that comprise all of their operations, really. So reporting in this state becomes an actionable insight tool rather than the day-late, dollar-short, retroactive discovery of, uh-oh, what went wrong yesterday when it's too late to do anything about it.
This also allows for automated generation of things like audit trails, compliance reports, real-time performance dashboards. So in this state, the agency stays audit ready. And you know the saying, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.
Deon James
I appreciate that. Yes. So building on that trust foundation, right, we want to look at the inherent trust and the controls that we give our people to manage these systems.
So from the perspective of Google's technologies to offer the confidence that we need for agencies to enforce strict data policies, we have what we call assured workloads, which allows us to enforce strict data residency, personnel access controls, and encryptions when an agency decides to build a solution that needs to abide by certain compliance. From there, we also have building off of the zero trust principles as well. So our approach aligns with zero trust, ensuring that every interaction, whether it's by a human or AI model, is authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated.
So we're looking at role-based access controls, we're looking at identity permissions, and tying all that together, incorporating it with our responsible AI principles as well. So from the standpoint of this, the reason why our responsible AI principles are so important is because the innovation can sometimes outpace ethical considerations. And for government, that's just not acceptable, right?
So accountability means embedding these guidelines directly into the developments of what we're deploying. And assured workloads allows us to do that, as well as the transparency aspect. So explainable AI, a key aspect of accountability is understanding why AI, a large language model, made the decision that it made, and we're trying to really advance that level of transparency.
So with our latest foundation models, you'll see that those are thinking models, so you can get insights as to what these tools are doing on the back end, as well as always incorporating human-in-the-loop mechanisms. So for high-stake decisions in domain areas where AI should not be the final sayer, we're not trying to replace human judgment either. So our solutions are designed to take support from human oversight, and that is a huge component in terms of also even building out this actionable intelligence.
We can feed a system all the data information that we have, but while it's processing it and understanding it, can it understand it in an ethical way where we could use it? And then from there, once that is really all determined, we're just really looking at the continuous monitoring, the auditing, and the governance components, as Indira had mentioned, right? We're trying to add this into the workflow, so trying to change the behavior of the model governance, the versioning that we have.
So we really want to enable this accountability by providing visibility, standardizing these processes, and also being able to understand there is the way we did things, which we can learn from, but also tied into these newer approaches with our solutions that are available today.
Bella
Thank you so much, everyone, for all those insights. Let's explore how federal agencies can transform this uncertainty into opportunity. Given the increasing complexity of federal compliance mandates like FedRAMP, CMMC, and emerging executive orders, how can federal agencies effectively leverage Google Cloud's assured controls and assured workloads alongside the broader Google AI ecosystem, including advanced AI models and agentic approaches like agent space, to not only simplify reporting and automate compliance across complex environments, but also significantly accelerate software delivery and break down organizational silos? I'll pass this over to Indira and Deon.
Indira Donegan
Deon, I'm going to let you strike on this one first, because this is an awesome Google question.
Deon James
No, I appreciate it. So this segues off of our discussion of trust and how we can really take all the information and data we have and combine it with AI technologies to make use of it, where typically we see the hesitancy around moving data, understanding where data resides. Can we move the data?
If we do move the data, who has access to the data? So, again, building off of what I mentioned before with assured workloads, that's the foundation of trust that abides by all of our compliances that we support and have regulations for. And as all these new AI technologies are being developed, we are also positioning them to get authorized for the different level of compliances that we have.
With CMMC, with the new FedRAMP, emerging EO requirements that we see, the bedrock of trust really builds on that. And from there, we're looking at automated responses where we could build out a centralized hub for all of the things that we want to generate. So if you look at a solution like AgentSpace, that is our new AI flagship solution that we are building out where we have various connectors, whether that is first party connectors, third party data applications that we can connect into to use Gemini to have our large language model understand, ingest, and create information based off of the data that you feed it.
This data also takes into consideration the access controls that are already existing. So we're not creating new permissions. We're going to honor the existing security that's in place in order for us to really leverage this solution.
And being able to accelerate this really allows us to, again, have a change in our behavior from the standpoint of using all these disparate systems, having a central intelligence space where we can really speed up the unified approach of not working in silos anymore. So understanding sharing the data isn't that used to be taboo, right? We don't want to share data.
But doing it in a way where we can have collaboration and really advance into agentic approaches to facilitate better communications, more routines, and provide clear information to the people that need the information. So it's really an impact change from a holistic approach to transfer and transform the traditional compliance burdens that are really operating around cost and efficiency and becoming more agile.
Gaurav Pal
This is GP real quick. If I can add to something that Deon said, particularly from the Google perspective. So StackArmor is actually partnered with hyperscalers like Google.
So we have a solution. They're somewhat challenged by FedRAMP and compliance. I absolutely understand that.
And so, again, there is a lot of innovation and an ecosystem, right? So Broadcom, StackArmor, Google, and Carahsoft all working together to help the mission partners surmount some of these challenges. So, again, Google does an excellent job.
And, you know, again, providing assured workloads and the services that meet the different FedRAMP requirements. And then you have solution providers like ourselves who go in and solve the last mile problem, whether it is boundary definition, incident response support, or getting you a lot of the information that's needed to make sure that these systems continue to comply with all of the different requirements. I just want to quickly offer that comment.
Indira, over to you.
Indira Donegan
That's a great comment, actually. I mean, you know what's really exciting, I think, about the AI-powered side of these platforms is how they help federal teams see the big picture and see the big picture in ways that aren't always obvious through manual analysis. So we're talking about scanning across business priorities, tech projects, funding streams, mission outcomes, all at once, all at the same time.
AI looks for the patterns, the correlations, even the small anomalies that might otherwise slip through the cracks. So maybe it's a project that's getting overfunded but underperforming. Or maybe it's a tech dependency that's quietly impacting delivery timelines.
When you do this right, it's like having a smart assistant constantly watching the whole portfolio and saying, you know, hey, something's not adding up here. You have to dig a little deeper. And there's a myriad of ways that it can notify us to help accelerate our processes and our decision-making.
So we don't really want to give all of that over, especially in the case of, like, national security or where human lives are on the line in combat zones across the world. We don't want to risk any of that to AI. The decision-making, the rigor of the decision-making solely has to rest on the shoulders of humans in the loop.
So what we need the AI to do is have purview over all of the relevant data to help accelerate how we're going to make those decisions. Really do really great predictive analysis that humans have been doing forever, but we're at a point now in history and the data is so much that we need better tools to get through it. So for me, a lot of it is kind of, I liken this back to, like, the scientific calculator.
If you're a math person, you know, coming up, there was a time where people thought calculators and specifically scientific calculators was going to make us dumber. The reality is that those tools have allowed us to do higher-level, much more sophisticated mathematics very quickly. I think that's what AI does as well.
So the question is getting the right type of AI aligned in the solution so that you're doing your job with your due diligence and the level of responsibility and accountability that's required for things that are as important as really caring for the nation and her priorities.
Bella
Jennifer, did you have anything to add here?
Jennifer Castro
No, I think they really did a great job in addressing that, actually. Thank you.
Bella
Okay, perfect. Those are really great examples. Thanks so much for going over how to simplify compliance and accelerating delivery with AI.
Now let's shift our focus to a foundational challenge many agencies face, unlocking the value of their data. Federal agencies often grapple with the complexity of disparate data sources and the challenge of integrating vast siloed data sets to unlock insights for critical decision making. How can unified platforms like Google Cloud's Vertex AI, with its robust data integration capabilities, including seamless connections to BigQuery, cloud storage, and other data services, empower federal agencies to overcome these challenges, accelerate the preparation and analysis of data for AI model development, and ultimately drive more informed data-driven mission outcomes?
I'll pass this off to Deon, Jennifer, and Indira for their final thoughts.
Deon James
Sure thing. So from my perspective, I think the complexities really stem from us being able to break down the barriers of what specific use cases we are trying to solve. I think in terms of operational tasks, there's a lot of excitement around AI solutions today.
And a lot of times we don't know how to get from point A to point B. So being able to understand where you're at currently, where is your data, what are your users' comfortability level? I say comfortability level because there is an adoption that really resides around education and that comfort level that we have with these tools.
A lot of these technologies are new. And especially within government spaces, we like technology that's tried, trued, and vetted. So a lot of this stuff being on the cutting edge really does allow us to be a thought leader in how we go about issuing the next level of technology for the government.
And being able to build this out in a way that scales, where we can have efficiency and confidence rooted at the center of the outcome for the solutions that we are trying to provide. So being able to really look at predictive maintenance, advancing the solutions and skill sets of our existing staff, as well as looking at the future to the people that will be coming into the workforce, the people that will be enlisting into these various agencies and services. And also being able to leverage technology.
Like, I love the analogy earlier, the calculators are going to make us dumb. Same thing with these AI solutions. A lot of things are moving from search generation to answer generation.
So we are now inundated with so much information, where I like to look at that as a positive thing. So being able to advance with the way things are changing and making sure that we too are focusing on all the operational efficiencies that can come out of this, I think really helps us move the needle forward.
Jennifer Castro
I knew you'd be able to wax poetic about that idea. I knew that's probably in your heart, right?
Deon James
I appreciate it. Yes, most definitely.
Jennifer Castro
Same thing for us. Our objective is to create that transparent view across the entire value stream. So from ideation to operation, and even if they don't refer to it as a value stream, their operation.
Connect all specifically is how we help the customers lean into their existing digital ecosystem solutions, things that they already have in use, and more importantly, that they have already paid for. So by connecting them across those silos, these customers can leverage that investment they've already made in those existing solutions, rather than trying to rip and replace, which is very disruptive, or potentially incurring the forbidden CapEx spend. So that level of cross-product visibility, it inherently simplifies complex processes.
Lots of different ways it does that. So faster identification of bottlenecks, automating repetitive tasks, ensuring that all activities, including things like security and compliance gates, are integrated seamlessly into that flow. All of these improvements lead to more efficient scaling and data-driven confidence in meeting their mission objectives.
Indira Donegan
Yeah, I love that. There's literally three things that were a consistent pain in my entire team's behind when I was on Joint Staff J6. We were managing the very beginning of what is now known as the JADC2 concept.
It wasn't even a thing really yet. It was JADC2, and it was framework, and it was like, how do we make all of this stuff work? Not just for one service, but for the entire Department of Defense and its allies.
So mission creep, tool sprawl, and then disconnected systems are probably the hugest pain points across the government today. They were the biggest pain point for me five years ago. They'll continue to be the biggest pain point, because we're never going to have less mission.
We're never going to have really, in my opinion, fewer tools. We'll have different tools. And we're going to have to continue to figure out how to work with disconnected systems in new and innovative ways in order to accomplish the mission.
So my focus, both when I was in uniform and now that I'm supporting the warfighter from the industry side of the table, has been on platform consolidation. Bringing data, process, and oversight together under one roof. And that's, I think, where agencies unify on a platform like ours.
They cut through the noise. They're no longer juggling half a dozen tools that don't talk to each other. Instead, they're getting interoperability, they're getting automation, and they're getting visibility all in one place.
And just for the record, because Deon brought this point up too, it's important to note, value ops is not new. Clarity, which is the portfolio management portion of AOD's offering under value ops, that has been ranked number one in its class as an enterprise-level portfolio management solution for over two decades by industry standards. So it's used by the largest banks and Fortune 500 companies in the world over AI, LLM, or AI foundation-only based solutions for a reason.
Because nothing can really beat it when it comes to delivering alignment and visibility and giving you insights to the second, to the penny, to the person, the individual actually executing the mission. And that's something that's very, very important as we're managing multi-million, multi-billion dollar programs for the United States. Like, this is something I think that most folks take extremely seriously.
But without understanding what tools are available to help get that level of enterprise granularity, you know, a lot of times we're kind of stuck just to our own devices. Excel spreadsheets with a million pivot tables and a lot of duct tape and a lot of coffee. And that is a real scenario.
Does not have to be that way anymore. I think what that does, aside from saving time and money, is it gives leaders confidence. Confidence.
And that's really what we need. We need confidence that our systems are secure, that they're in compliance, and that they can scale up. Scale up for the delivery without creating more risk, without creating unnecessary friction.
And I really think that is the foundation for a truly modernized federal IT.
Bella
Thank you so much, everyone, for all your thoughtful insights. It's clear that AI and unified platforms are playing a pivotal role in helping federal agencies navigate complex compliance landscapes, unlock data value, and drive mission success confidently.
Anthony Jimenez
Thanks for listening. And thank you to our guests, Deon, Indira, Jennifer, and Gaurav. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to Carahcast and be sure to listen to our other discussions.
If you'd like more information on how Broadcom can assist your organization, please visit www.Carahsoft.com or email us at broadcom@Carahsoft.com. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.