Federal agencies struggle with tension between innovation and compliance as cyber threats evolve and AI becomes mission-critical. NIST's Risk Management Framework (RMF) faces scrutiny for complexity that slows transformative technology adoption.

The Authority to Operate (ATO) has become a bottleneck, frustrating agencies with delays and manual processes misaligned with modern development practices.

Peter O'Donoghue (Tyto Athene CTO) and Gaurav Pal (stackArmor CEO) join Keeping IT Brief to discuss modernizing implementation without discarding the framework.

Peter O’Donoghue (Chief Technology Officer at Tyto Athene)

Peter O’Donoghue has over two decades of experience in the technology industry, a history of executive leadership positions at several Fortune 500 companies, and a track record of success in cloud computing, cybersecurity, application dev, and IT modernization.

Peter’s eye for building solutions that align to where the technology puck is moving, and his ability to drive the development of new products and services to drive growth, ensures that Tyto Athene remains at the forefront of driving meaningful innovation that achieves mission advantage. To learn more, please visit Peter on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-o-962154/.

About Gaurav Pal (CEO at stackArmor, a Tyto Athene company)

Gaurav “GP” Pal is the CEO and founder of stackArmor (a Tyto Athene company). He has over 20 years of digital transformation experience with large U.S. government, defense, healthcare and commercial organizations providing mission acceleration and assurance using commercial cloud services and automating the ATO process.

He is a subject matter expert in helping organizations rapidly meet FedRAMP, FISMA RMF, DOD RMF and CMMC compliance. GP received the GCN Rising Star, Fed100 and Meritalk Cyber Defender awards for his role in successful cloud and security program implementations at U.S. federal agencies. He is currently a Board Member at the Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) and Industry Project Leader for the ACT-IAC ATO-as-code initiative.

GP is passionate and highly-skilled with a personal commitment to excellence and integrity – consistently building positive and mutually beneficial relationships with partners and government agencies. Connect with GP on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gppal/.

About Tyto Athene (https://gotyto.com/)

Tyto Athene delivers secure, mission-critical technology solutions that empower defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies to modernize infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, and stay ahead of evolving threats. As a mission-driven integrator, the company combines deep technical expertise with a hands-on, collaborative approach to ensure government agencies and OCONUS teams have the tools needed for operational success.

From network modernization to cyber defense, Tyto Athene helps organizations turn data into actionable insights, enabling information dominance and greater mission effectiveness. The company’s commitment to innovation and customer success drives the team to deliver solutions that enhance security, resilience, and communications across the government landscape. Learn more about Tyto Athene at https://gotyto.com/.

Federal agencies are under growing pressure to modernize digital identity systems as cyber threats escalate and citizens expect seamless digital services. Yet legacy infrastructure, siloed systems, and inconsistent standards create barriers to trust and efficiency. Biometrics and next-generation identity technologies offer a path forward—but adoption requires careful balance between security, usability, and privacy. Today Jesus Aragón, CEO and Co-Founder of Identy.io discusses how investing in interoperable, privacy-first digital identity solutions, agencies can strengthen security, build public trust, and unlock more accessible government services.

Jesús Aragón, CEO and Co-Founder of Identy.io

Jesús Aragón is the CEO and Co-Founder of Identy.io. He has over 20 years of experience as an executive in the technology and consulting sectors. He has successfully built mobile roadmaps and business for a leading voice ID vendor and managed corporate development and marketing. He began his career at Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments.

Identy.io is a mobile-first biometric authentication company offering secure, password-less identity verification solutions tailored to both government and enterprise clients. Their suite includes facial, fingerprint, and palm biometrics, all processed fully on-device to maximize privacy, reduce infrastructure costs, and prevent data mishandling.

Headquartered in the U.S. with operations in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and India, Identy.io was co-founded in 2017 and leverages its founding team’s involvement with the FIDO Alliance to build solutions compliant with NIST, ISO, FIDO, and GDPR standards .

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office from April identified cybersecurity concerns and lack of data privacy as some of the top risks associated with Generative AI. As the federal government ramps up AI investments, with the DOD prioritizing AI in its Software Fast Track (SWFT) Initiative and recent legislation allotting hundreds of millions for AI-related efforts, industry findings point to emerging risks that government agencies need to start addressing during initial AI adoption.

GitLab’s Bob Stevens joins the Keeping IT Brief Podcast to discuss the government's AI adoption journey as well as GitLab’s C-suite survey from July, which highlights as organizations rapidly adopt AI, cybersecurity threats, data privacy, and governance stand as top concerns.

Bob Stevens (Vice President at GitLab)

With 25+ years of experience in the Public Sector industry, Bob Stevens helps government agencies fundamentally change the way their development, security and operations teams collaborate. Prior to GitLab he led the Americas team at Lookout where he focused on providing mobile threat visibility and protection to enterprise and government entities. Before his time at Lookout, he led the Juniper Network federal team and has held leadership positions at Network Equipment Technologies, Bivio Networks and Brocade Communications. Bob also served in the U.S. Air Force as a computer specialist at the White House Communications Agency.

GitLab

GitLab is the most comprehensive, intelligent DevSecOps platform for software innovation. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100 trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.