UK Government Posts Record Budget Surplus in January

The U.K. government posted its largest budget surplus for a single month in January, putting it on course to cut its borrowing as planned this fiscal year despite weaker economic growth. The Office for National Statistics Thursday said the government brought in 14.9 billion pounds ($19.4 billion) more in tax and other revenues during the month than it spent, the largest surplus for a single month since records began in 1993.

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Emerging Technology

Aalyria and Second Front Partner to Expedite Availability of Spacetime for Government Use

Business Wire | October 17, 2023

Aalyria, a dynamic startup commercializing advanced networking and communications technologies acquired from Google, has formed a strategic alliance with Second Front Systems. This collaboration paves the way for accelerated deployment of Aalyria’s Spacetime network orchestration platform within government sectors. The integration with Second Front's trusted Game Warden platform makes Spacetime accessible at Department of Defense Impact Levels 4 and 5 (IL4 and IL5). Embracing this modern risk management approach means the ability to focus on maintaining security and risk management frameworks without significantly impacting development teams or timelines – a leap from traditional authorization processes. Aalyria is also on track to extend Spacetime's reach to IL6 and Top Secret environments in the near future. Spacetime is an advanced software platform designed for orchestrating and managing complex networks of satellites, ground stations, aircraft, ships, urban meshes, and more. The software is being adopted across the public and private sector, including in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit, Intelsat, Rivada Space Networks, Anduril, Leidos, the U.S. Navy, and others. “Working with Second Front enables us to quickly deploy to more secure environments and serve our growing customer base,” said Chris Taylor, CEO of Aalyria. “The demand for our Spacetime solution by an array of mission owners across the defense and intelligence spectrum made partnering with Second Front an easy choice – the team’s proficiency in this space and the speed at which they work is a great match for Aalyria.” “Aalyria is an absolute trailblazer in network orchestration and Second Front is thrilled to be collaborating,” said Tyler Sweatt, CEO at Second Front. “We share a passion for ensuring the most innovative solutions are made available to defense and national security end users, so this was a natural fit. Second Front is honored to play a role in enabling Aalyria to rapidly deploy their amazing solutions to the world’s most mission critical customer base.” The initial collaboration will bring Aalryia’s technologies to ILs 4 and 5 and is part of a broader plan to bring their solutions to a diverse combination of advanced networks in the near future. Aalyria and Second Front will focus on Aalryia’s TRL 9 Spacetime offering – a product validated with greater than 2 million hours of lights-out orchestration of aerospace nodes. It is designed to operate networks that include global scale dynamic physical link topologies and highly-directional steerable beams across land, sea, air, and space. About Second Front Systems Second Front Systems (2F) fast-tracks government access to disruptive, commercially-proven software as a service (SaaS) applications for national security missions. Leading software providers—ranging from publicly traded defense contractors to startups—and government agencies trust 2F’s Game Warden DevSecOps platform and secure cloud hosting environment to accelerate their delivery and harness the cloud revolution at scale. Founded by former U.S. Marines, this public benefit, venture-backed software company is driven by firsthand experience of the dangers outdated technology poses in combat. About Aalyria Aalyria is a global advanced networking and laser communications technologies company. It is revolutionizing connectivity on Earth and in Space. Its Tightbeam product – the world’s first atmospheric corrected coherent free space optics solution – and Spacetime – the only all-orbit, all-domain, software defined network orchestration platform – are helping commercial and government customers reimagine business and mission models to make their assets more effective, efficient, and profitable.

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Emerging Technology

Carahsoft Partners with Lucid Software to Bring FedRAMP® Authorized Visual Collaboration Software to the Public Sector

GlobeNewswire | October 03, 2023

Lucid Software, the leader in visual collaboration software, and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, today announced Carahsoft will serve as the distribution partner for Lucid GovSuite. The partnership makes the company’s industry-leading visual collaboration platform available to the Public Sector through Carahsoft’s reseller partners and contracts, including NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA), OMNIA Partners, E&I Cooperative Services Contract, and The Quilt contracts. “By using Lucid, Public Sector teams can drive efficiency, maintain project timelines and achieve stakeholder alignment with increased security to meet mission-critical objectives in an engaging, intuitive and collaborative way,” said Dave Grow, CEO of Lucid Software. “We’re thrilled to partner with Carahsoft to help facilitate digital transformation and improve collaboration across the Public Sector by providing secure solutions that allow Government agencies and contractors to see and build the future with confidence.” Lucid GovSuite, built on AWS GovCloud infrastructure, introduces an additional layer of security and governance for highly regulated organizations. It holds FedRAMP® Authorization at the Moderate security impact level, offering a secure, cloud-based environment for visual collaboration with Lucidchart and Lucidspark. Along with the Lucid GovSuite, Lucidscale for Gov is also accessible on AWS GovCloud, enabling agencies to better understand their cloud environments. Public Sector teams can leverage Lucid GovSuite as they ideate, plan and execute mission-critical projects in a FedRAMP-compliant environment. “We are pleased to partner with Lucid to provide the Public Sector with purpose-built, secure and compliant solutions that are now FedRAMP Authorized,” said Bethany Blackwell, Vice President of the Salesforce Business Unit at Carahsoft. “By continuing to work with Lucid and our reseller partners, we will empower our Public Sector customers to collaborate securely to drive efficiency, adhere to project timelines and achieve stakeholder alignment.” Lucid Software is available through Carahsoft's Salesforce AppExchange Public Sector Guided Tour site, offering Government agencies a valuable resource to enhance their operations. This platform is part of the Salesforce AppExchange, the largest enterprise cloud marketplace hosting over 7,000 ISV applications and consulting organizations. It has been developed in collaboration with Salesforce ISV Partners to cater specifically to Public Sector customers, enabling Government Cloud Platform users to discover and explore specialized solutions at their own pace. Carahsoft offers FedRAMP cloud service offerings (CSOs) for three stages of compliance: FedRAMP Authorized, FedRAMP In Process and FedRAMP Ready. FedRAMP is a Government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Salesforce and Carahsoft have partnered to empower the Public Sector with Salesforce Customer 360 solutions to digitally transform service delivery to better meet the needs of customers and citizens. AppExchange is the leading enterprise cloud marketplace with ready-to-install apps, pre-built solutions and consultants. Apps allow customers to quickly extend the power of Salesforce and solve business challenges with just a few clicks. Carahsoft has partnered with numerous top apps and consultants, including members of Salesforce’s ISV Partner Program, to provide quality apps that power Public Sector organizations. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for FedRAMP, MultiCloud, Mobility, Cybersecurity, DevSecOps, Open Source, Customer Experience and Engagement and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. About Lucid Software Lucid Software is the leader in visual collaboration, helping teams see and build the future from idea to reality. With its products—Lucidchart, Lucidspark and Lucidscale—teams can align around a shared vision, clarify complexity and collaborate visually, no matter where they're located. Top businesses use Lucid's products all around the world, including customers such as Google, GE and NBC Universal. Lucid's partners include industry leaders such as Google, Atlassian and Microsoft. Since the company's founding, it has received numerous awards for its products, business and workplace culture. Learn more about Lucid’s public sector solutions here.

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Government Finance

Hexagon US Federal Selects Deltek Costpoint GovCon Cloud Moderate to Deliver Compliant, Secure Accounting Solution

PR Newswire | September 28, 2023

Deltek, the leading global provider of software and solutions for project-based businesses, announced today that Hexagon US Federal, an independent subsidiary of Hexagon Corporation exclusively focused on bringing the broad range of Hexagon technologies to the US Federal government and its partners, has selected Deltek Costpoint GovCon Cloud Moderate (GCCM) as its cloud-based accounting solution, after an extensive review of other options on the market. With multiple offices and hundreds of employees across the US, it was critical that Hexagon US Federal had a best-in-class ERP to support its next phase of growth and digital transformation. Hexagon US Federal had already been trusting Deltek Costpoint for decades to provide a secure, compliant, all-in-one accounting solution. When it was time for Hexagon US Federal to move to the cloud to automate business processes, integrate business application systems and alleviate on-premise costs, the company reviewed multiple solutions on the market. Costpoint GovCon Cloud Moderate was the company's clear choice for a robust, cloud-based solution to facilitate an overall digital transformation. Costpoint offered a lower total cost of ownership, with the ability to improve scalability and security, while streamlining back-office processes with built-in functionality without requiring multiple third-party integrations for reporting. Deltek Costpoint is the government contracting industry's leading solution that delivers more innovation and greater intelligence at every stage of the project lifecycle. It centralizes the management of projects, people and finances, and scales seamlessly as needs grow, enabling small to enterprise size businesses to win new contracts, manage project profitability and improve customer satisfaction. Additionally, the integrated cloud offering enables the secure storage of contract data and is consistently enhanced through cybersecurity compliance controls equivalent to NIST SP 800-171 and NIST SP 800-53. Costpoint GovCon Cloud Moderate provides additional protections by supporting compliance with federal contract regulations including DFARS 252.204-7012 (protection of CUI and CDI data), ITAR data protection, and the anticipated CMMC requirements. "When I look at the possibilities with Costpoint, there is nothing else on the market that compares to it for government contractors. There just isn't," said Becky Harris, Chief Financial Officer at Hexagon US Federal. "Compliance was a significant factor in our decision. As a federal contractor, Hexagon is required to protect sensitive data and be prepared for audits of our data security practices. Deltek's GCCM cloud has implemented very stringent cybersecurity controls that will help us achieve our compliance requirements, including CMMC, while facilitating a cloud-based, cradle-to-grave lifecycle of core back-office business processes with all the data integrations." "We're proud to have built a product that, time and time again, is proven to be the gold standard for government contractors," said Todd Walker, Vice President of Product Management at Deltek. "We're thrilled that Hexagon US Federal has decided to continue leveraging Deltek Costpoint – after reviewing it against our competitors – to provide the company with the best of both innovation and compliance as they make the shift to the cloud." About Hexagon US Federal Hexagon US Federal is a independent subsidiary of Hexagon Corporation, home of over 24,000 employees in 50 countries, focused on bringing Hexagon technologies to the US Federal government and its partners. They provide innovative technologies and professional services to a broad range of US Government customers across the Federal Civilian, Defense, and Intelligence Communities. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia with offices in Huntsville, Alabama, St. Louis, Missouri, and Lexington Park, Maryland, Hexagon US Federal has over 480 employees dedicated to the success of national security priorities and ensuring the effectiveness for Civilian agencies. About Deltek Better software means better projects. Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for project-based businesses. More than 30,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek for superior levels of project intelligence, management and collaboration. Our industry-focused expertise powers project success by helping firms achieve performance that maximizes productivity and revenue. Learn more at www.deltek.com.

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