Larry Reagan, a vice president at Maximus’ federal arm, wrote in a commentary published Thursday on Federal News Network that there are a number of factors the IRS should consider as it implements the Taxpayer First Act and the first is taking a “pragmatic approach to modernization.”

IBM and Moderna have announced plans to collaborate to conduct a pilot of open technology-based approaches to improve visibility into the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain and monitor vaccine administration in real time.

Microsoft has found that a state-sponsored threat actor operating from China, called Hafnium, is targeting U.S. defense contractors, law firms, policy think tanks, infectious disease researchers and other entitles to steal data by compromising on-premises Exchange Server software.

Zachary Lemnios and Terry Halvorsen of IBM said the U.S. should invest in the domestic microelectronics supply chain, including research and development, to ensure the security of these microchips, maintain the country’s edge in innovation and reduce dependence on foreign-made semiconductors.

Vince Vlasho, a senior managing director and defense portfolio lead for Accenture Federal Services, wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday on C4ISRNET that there are eight principles the U.S. military should consider in managing technology convergence and maintaining tech advantage in a multidomain battlefield and one is identifying objectives and capabilities needed to achieve them.

Lockheed Martin and NEC have agreed to expand their partnership to further advance the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in spacecraft development programs, including NASA’s Orion vehicle for the Artemis mission. "The power of AI is leveraged across our entire enterprise, and with a trusted partner like NEC, we gain the resources to expand its abilities at scale across our internal operations," said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president at Lockheed’s space business and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner.

SAP National Security Services plans to offer SAP Ariba platforms to U.S. federal, local and state government agencies, defense and aerospace, utilities and other regulated industries through its portfolio to help modernize their supply chain and procurement operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. SAP Ariba platforms are designed to “help procurement leaders enhance visibility into spend, increase efficiency across the supply chain, reduce costs and risks, and gain data-driven insights to drive more strategic operations from sourcing and orders through invoice and payment,” Harish Luthra, president for the Secure Cloud at SAP NS2, and John Wookey, president of SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network, wrote in an article published Monday.

CGI has unveiled a new information technology delivery center in Knoxville, Tennessee, as part of efforts to create 300 jobs in the area by 2026. "We are proud to announce the establishment of a new IT delivery center in Knoxville that will create local jobs, engage regional educators, support area workforce development, and provide opportunities for the community's students, graduates and professionals," said Dave Henderson, president of U.S. commercial and state government operations at CGI.

Raj Parameswaran, president of U.S. federal information technology at Maximus, said robotic process automation could help government agencies facilitate the delivery of services to citizens while allowing employees to focus on more complex tasks. “RPA will continue to grow as a valuable tool for government IT leaders because it allows the immediate expansion and scaling of human labor without impacting existing systems,” Parameswaran wrote in a guest piece published Friday on GCN.

A new Nutanix study has found that 82 percent of information technology leaders in the global public sector and 87 percent of respondents in the U.S. federal government cited hybrid cloud as the ideal IT operating model. The third annual Enterprise Cloud Index Report showed that IT leaders from the U.S. federal government intend to increase that to about 74 percent penetration within five years.

Idaho National Laboratory developed a machine translation-based technology designed to detect malware that mines cryptocurrencies through compromised high-performance computing systems and is seeking to enter into a licensing agreement with a company that can bring the technology to market.

Ken Glueck, an executive vice president at Oracle, said the federal government looking to advance information technology modernization should focus on buying commercial cloud applications. “Focusing on applications also brings the additional benefit of modernizing government infrastructure. Investing in applications makes government data centers more efficient and secure as part of the package because modern cloud applications come with cloud infrastructure already included,” he wrote.

Defense technology company Shield AI has secured $90 million in a round of Series C equity and debt financing led by venture capital firm Point72 Ventures. The company will use the funds to further integrate into additional defense platforms its self-driving software, called Hivemind.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the U.S. needs to improve its cyber defenses and come up with a “robust menu” of responses to cyber attacks like the SolarWinds breach, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday. “We need to strengthen the nation’s digital infrastructure and digital defenses, and that touches every part of the public sector, and every part of the private sector as well,” Smith told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

Eric Brown, vice president of Azure global mission platform engineering at Microsoft, said the company works to help Department of Defense customers and partners meet evolving compliance requirements through its Azure Government cloud platform. One of the compliance requirements that defense contractors should meet is DOD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and Brown wrote in a blog post published Tuesday how Azure Government and Microsoft 365 Government (GCC High) could help contractors achieve CMMC Level 3 and above.