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Speaking at the recent Billington Cybersecurity Summit, Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), encouraged greater collaboration between government and industry, referring to the act of collaboration as the agency’s ‘superpower’. While her statement related directly to the U.S. government’s cybersecurity strategy and defenses, we agree that collaboration is a ‘superpower’.

As outlined in our March launch and June update, the IBM Ecosystem strategy in the federal market is built on the same principles: collaboration around R&D, collective and cross-functional engagement in new business pursuits, and co-creation of technology solutions to the federal government’s most complex challenges.

Recent efforts continue to grow our more inclusive, more specialized, and more connected IBM Ecosystem. Here are a few examples:

• Strong business ecosystems can help mitigate the effects of structural obstacles to business building for small and minority-owned businesses. As part of our commitment to helping these businesses navigate the federal government process more effectively and enhancing their ability to thrive in an increasingly competitive federal government environment, we are expanding our collaboration with Four Inc. IBM’s ecosystem of small and minority-owned partners will have access to Four Inc.’s financial and contract management solutions allowing them to acquire IT assets without putting a financial strain on their business.
  
  ​In addition, we’ve strengthened our partnership with TD Synnex to include support of small and minority-owned businesses with their Diversity Alliance Program. Comprised of over 2,400 small and diverse IT resellers, the program aims to empower through a combination of technical training, business enablement and collaboration.
   
• For most organizations, a zero trust approach represents not just a fundamental shift in how they approach cybersecurity, but an array of acronyms, pitches, and slogans that can potentially confuse and distract from the objective: mitigating the risk of cyber attacks. It is with this in mind that we organized our first issue based working group to help accelerate federal agency’s progress against the administration’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Our initial project as a working group is to review and identify best practices and gaps in existing zero trust frameworks and assets, paying special attention to segments where the IBM Ecosystem collaborative approach can make the most impact – common lexicon, maturity model, skills, software code, application of the MITRE’s ATT&CK framework and implementation roadmap. Our first deliverable – included here – defines a zero trust lexicon. We invite all to review, improve and use.
   
• Our approach to fast-track value and systemically address the federal government’s most complex challenges is based on the development of technical proof of concepts. We bring together technical expertise, cross-company and cross-discipline, to deliver integrated outcomes. As an example, we are co-creating with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) to deliver cybersecurity and threat management solutions supporting joint anchor clients-programs in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, and civilian sectors, and with Leidos we are leveraging IBM AI and automation technologies in combination with Leidos capabilities to help clients deliver safer, healthier and more efficient outcomes. With IBM Ecosystem partners like Arrow Electronics, we continue to grow in the federal market with certified technology resellers.

Join us in accelerating impact. Learn more here. Contact us here.