By Insight Editor / 21 Oct 2021 / Topics: Data and AI Cybersecurity Intelligent edge
“Education, innovation and outreach” is the mission of the Quantico Cyber Hub, created by the Cyber Bytes Foundation, Insight Public Sector and other partners. In this week’s TechTalk, Scott Friedlander, senior VP of Insight Public Sector, sits down with our partners from Cisco, Mike Youkers and Jeff Stiles, to discuss how we’re working together at the Quantico Cyber Hub to address the threats of cybercrime head-on and create a physical and virtual sandbox in which customers can experience the technical workings behind 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and more.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below, or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Insight TechTalk on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
Scott
Hi, I'm Scott Freelander and I lead Insight Public Sector, thrilled to be here today to talk to you about Insight Technologies and the solution and services areas. And specifically, our partner Cisco. Today, I have Mike Younkers, who's the federal director of systems engineering at Cisco. And then Jeff Stiles. Whose federal partner, account manager, also at Cisco supporting Insight. Good day, gentlemen, how are you guys doing?
Jeff
Good Scott, how are you?
Scott
Good, good. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate that.
Mike
Hey Scott, I'm going fantastic. And I love talking tech, so thanks for this opportunity.
Scott
Well, you know, I'm glad you brought that up Mike. We've, tech has changed you know, we've been in this, I don't want to even say how many decades, but the speed of change in these last few years, and certainly because of the pandemic, is gone at a level that, I think most of us haven't seen between: Internet of things, security, cloud migrations, Wi-Fi, see? You know, you can keep on naming, the list just goes on and on and still changing, portals, etcetera. So, with that said, one of the new initiatives we started at Insight, was standing up in Quantico's Cyber Hub, a solutions environment, allowing our customers to really see this lab type environment around different technology areas. And Jeff, I know you've spent a lot of time with us there. Ribbon cutting actually this week. So, I'd love for you to talk a little bit about Quantico's Cyber Hub, and the foundation, and what we're doing there.
Jeff
Yeah. So, look forward to the ribbon cutting tomorrow, and also want to congratulate you on your partnership with the Cyber Bytes Foundation, you know, and support the Quantico Cyber Hub. I really like the Cyber Bytes Foundation, and their mission in advancing the federal community with different technologies, and their mantra: "Education, innovation, and outreach". It's perfect for today's ever-changing environment. Also, you know, it's a great area for, for the federal community to come in, and sandbox different things, and actually demo products. I know you have a lot of vendors in there, so, you know, Cisco's very thankful to be part of that environment.
Scott
Well, we do have some awesome partners, and Cisco, Nvidia, Pure Storage, the list can go on and on, but most importantly, we're actually showcasing as one of two ways. We're showcasing at this cyber hype hub itself, in different environments, which we'll talk about. And we're also doing virtual demos to our state local, and our federal customers that, you know, is not easy access for everyone to get to, to Quantico. So that's the real intent there. Hey Mike, what I do want to talk about though, we talk about internet of things. We talk about devices endpoint. Why don't you elaborate on all the great things we are doing there with Cisco, and really the capabilities Cisco brings.
Mike
Yeah. Thank you, Scott. I love to talk technologies as I said, and I think what's interesting is the world is moving at such a rapid pace, as it relates to technology. And there's a lot of jargon out there, there's a lot of buzzwords, there's a lot of, you know, hype cycles that are going out. And to Jeff's point, one of the things we love about being able to partner with you at the cyber hubs, we can make these things real for our customers. So, it's not just a bunch of words, or a bunch of jargon. We can really build and instantiate, so customers can experience, either physically or virtually, the details underneath of what happens when you deal with 5G, either public or private 5G. When you try to secure the internet of things. When we talk about those types of things, what is artificial intelligence? What does it mean? We can make those things real for customers, and that's the power of what we're doing together.
Scott
Yeah. Why don't you, you know, we're working on a couple of real customer projects, right now as we speak. That is taking the Nvidia, and Pure Storage, and Cisco, and putting it together, and then you've got to project manage it, and then the app development work as well. Can you just explain how you see that role changing, with these core technologies coming together, and really streamlining that type of approach to our customers?
Mike
Yeah. For us at the world that I live in, this really gets us into the heart of a DevSecOps conversation. So, what does that really mean? Well, it means the bringing together of those various partner companies that you talked about, and the capabilities that our customers are trying to get after. They don't want artificial intelligence, for the sake of artificial intelligence. They want artificial intelligence because they're asking questions, they're trying to solve problems. They're trying to get to, you know, intelligence itself under, you know, in a haystack of all this data. So, what we are able to do using modern best practices, industry standard DevOps kinds of concepts, collectively we can work together, and automate a lot of those things to make it simpler. The infrastructure, the care and feeding of the infrastructure for our customers, let's simplify that. Remove all that complexity from them, so that they can get after what it is that they're trying to solve, using an enabling technology, like artificial intelligence.
Scott
You know, one of the things, and I'll let Jeff jump in here. One of the things that I do feel really proud about, with Insight Public Sector, is we are a technology solutions aggregator. Bringing different partners together, which normally we would consider themselves. I wouldn't say competition, but they wouldn't necessarily embrace each other. And I think we're bringing that together as well, for the good of the customer's mission, the customer's vision, and ultimately supporting our customers, being Department of Defense, civilian, and K through 12, Higher Ed, municipalities, State Government. So, Jeff, could you just explain how you're really seeing it come together, as we modeled out this cyber hub for the last six months?
Jeff
Yeah. I really see a lot of activity down there, with your team and with other teams, and with all the vendors really working together to come up with a multi-vendor solution, really focused on solving customer problems, with just a good group of partners, building the right solution.
Scott
That's great. You know, we have stood up artificial intelligence capability there, with not only how it lands and Microsoft, but also Nvidia. We've stood up at Cisco and Red Hat, and our 5G lab as well. Mike, any comments on that as we start closing out this conversation?
Mike
Yeah. I love the conversation that you and Jeff were having, because to your point, Scott. When you're a single provider, you think you have the solution to everything, but the reality is what our customers need, is a fully integrated solution. And the partnership with Insight Public Sector, being able to make that real, and in an environment like this. You, you mentioned IOT earlier. I mentioned IOT earlier. Let's just talk about that for a second, and the context of bringing 5G underneath of it. 5G is a connectivity capability, that lets us do things in a secure fashion, faster, bigger, better, blah, blah, blah, all that cool stuff. And it also allows us to think about different ways to solve customer problems collectively together. But it takes multiple people coming together. And I, you know, I just want to say that the opportunity that you're providing for us, to come together as an industry, to solve our customer problems is really, really cool.
Scott
Well, I appreciate that. But having partners like you, that are world-class, truly world-class, and been around for decades, and get decades continuing to improve technologies, make it really easy. So, I can't thank you enough. Any final comments as we close out? Jeff?
Jeff
No, just thank you for the partnership. We, you know, look forward to building more down there, and doing more around 5G, around IOT, around programmability, you know, that's where the customer wants to go. That's where the future is going to be. So, thank you very much for the opportunity.
Scott
And Mike?
Mike
Yeah. And what I would say is, please don't let the buzzwords, or the hype cycle, or the jargon get in your way. We are doing amazing things together. As it relates to 5G, we're doing amazing things together. As it relates to the internet of things, and the security underneath of that, this stuff doesn't have to be as complex, or as hard as people make it. So come work with us and see it, get your hands on it, either physically or virtually, to understand what the capabilities are.
Scott
Yeah. And the nice thing is, we we've implemented these solutions all over the country, in all different types of environments in the public sector. So, we really do have many, many use cases, many projects in operation today, and obviously, always evolving, right? Because the technology needs to continue to evolve, the methodologies need to improve, the security elements of it as well. So, thank you all, I really appreciate it. And I hope you go to our www.insight.com, and you can see right where the Quantico Cyber Hub is, we've talked about today. Or all our different solutions and services, working with Cisco and other core partners that we work with, as a bundle offering to our customer base for their mission. Thank you again and have a great day.
Jeff
OK, thanks Scott.
Sr. Vice President of Insight Public Sector
With more than 25 years of executive, operation and general management success, Scott leads the Insight Public Sector arm across Insight’s four solution areas: Supply Chain Optimization, Connected Workforce, Cloud + Data Center Transformation and Digital Innovation. He develops and oversees execution of Insight’s strategic, go-to-market and human capital plans.
Senior Director of Systems Engineering for Cisco’s US Federal team
With more than 25 years of IT experience, Younkers leads teams of system engineers that directly support the Federal Civilian, Defense and Intelligence verticals. He is an out-of-the-box leader who builds communities of interest to support customer solutions that increase employee engagement and development in a transformative digital environment.
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