June 14, 2022

When the automobile was invented, nobody ever thought of a superhighway. After millions of cars had come off the assembly line, government leaders had to adjust and design highways that could accommodate six lanes and high-speed travel for everything from a motorcycle to an eighteen-wheeler.
The same is true with cloud computing. Years ago, Vivek Kundra started to talk about taking baby steps to the cloud. Well, today we have multi-million-dollar data centers and huge cloud providers that are handing increasingly federal large amounts of data. Federal leaders have reached a point where “going to the cloud” is like driving a Model T. We have much more serious matters to consider.
DataDog is a company that can help federal leaders manage the cloud as part of a digital transformation. They help improve application performance, ensure reliability, and streamline multi-account account management. The net result is a transition to a hybrid cloud that is flexible, fast, and safe.
"We want to be able to support our customers, whether they're still dealing with their traditional network device monitoring, or the newer age network performance monitoring"
Joe Bleich, DataDog Tweet
David Linthicum is a well-known technology writer. In a recent column, he coined the term “cloud hangover” to describe the feeling one gets after a transition to a hybrid system only to see the cost of that change. During the interview, Joe Bleich talks about ways to prevent this unfortunate situation.
Joe suggests visualization of the data sets that the cloud provides will enable a systems administrator to be able to make decisions about planned transitions. Many companies try to apply the term “orchestration” to the concept of managing cloud systems; much like a conductor can see all the instruments, there is no value to managing a cloud system without appropriate visualization of the choke points and security issues.
One interesting aspect of the interview was the observation that automation of cloud management can impact human resources. Everybody laments the challenge of hiring people with technical skills. One way of addressing that issue is to provide digital tools that can amplify one’s ability to observe multiple systems in a more automated manner.
Platforms that allow visibility are a key part of leveraging the technical talent that a federal leader has on the bench.
If you enjoyed this podcast, you may want to listen to episode #10 The Supply Chain and Federal Security

John Gilroy
Has been behind a microphone since 1991. He can help you structure, launch, and promote your company podcast. johngilroy@theoakmontgroupllc.com
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