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"You want to take compliance from an event that you don't look forward to ... turn it into a process," says Ben Newton.

The United States government must process and protect vast amounts of data essential to our country’s welfare. The challenge for government IT organizations is to make this information available when and where it is needed, without risking the security of that data or the government’s networks.

Whether you are dealing with compliance and security in a Federal environment, as a Federal contractor, or simply need to meet stringent internal security requirements, be sure to listen in as we talk with Chris Olson, Technical Director and CTO for Public Sector Sales at BMC Software andBenjamin Newton Software Consulting Manager for Public Sector; Department of Defense and Intelligence Community at BMC Software.

Bios

Chris Olson is Technical Director and CTO for Public Sector Sales at BMC Software. Chris manages the day-to-day technical sales engineering activities for all federal, state and local, and education accounts.

Ben Newton is the technical director for Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Sales at BMC Software. He manages the technical side of the sales cycle for all of BMC’s defense and intelligence community customers.

Questions

1. So, Chris and Ben, you’ve been at this awhile. Have you seen some changes, concerns, or trends that are noteworthy?
2. It sounds like on the government side, besides the sheer numbers of devices concerned being huge—and widely distributed—the compliance process involves a lot of process and detail. It sounds like a massive undertaking, am I right?
3. What’s changed in the last 3 to 5 years that make it more complex to demonstrate readiness and compliance with regulations
4. What is it about automation that they really need to know in order to move forward?
5. What are some of the key steps for creating a culture that integrates security and configuration management to get to the place of compliance? 6. How do you talk about BSM with regards to the challenges relating to continued compliance, to support compliance effectively, and so on?
6. Normally, we’d be asking about what the business benefits are to this of approach ad architecture and thinking about BSM. But, how are the business benefits different when we’re talking about the Federal Government?