Welcome to Fedscoops Podcast Series on IT Modernization in Government, underwritten this week by Hughes. I'm your host Wyatt Cash, and in today's episode, we're talking about how agencies enhance the citizen experience with modern network infrastructure. Our guest today is James Clevenger. He has been in the telecommunications industry for over 20 years, the past 15 of which he has supported both federal and state agencies and their mission.
James, thank you so much for joining us, and welcome to the program. Pleasure to be here, Wyatt. Well, for many government agencies, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the necessity of digitizing citizen-facing services. And with demand overwhelming many agency networks, leaders had to dramatically shift their IT strategies to focus on fast, reliable, and secure network infrastructure in order to integrate more modern web applications.
So James, let me start by asking, can you set the stage for us a little and share some of that networking challenges that agencies are looking to overcome now? Absolutely. One of the things is that legacy networks are just that, their legacy. Some equipment might have become end of support or even end of life.
Bandwidth requirements have certainly grown. And we've seen this over the years, private line networks gave way to ATM and Frame Relay networks, which in turn ruined the MPLS or IP-based network. And now we're seeing the progression to manage broadband and SD-WAN networks as applications, you know, that the agencies are utilizing have morphed into voice over IP, unified communications, and security applications. These applications have become much smarter, and the networks that, you know, they depend on need to be more dynamic, redundant, and secure.
So this has led to managed network utilizing such transports as satellite and broadband connections that offer scalable and secure and cost effective options. Well, as agencies look for ways to modernize their networks and take advantage of some of these new alternative platforms, what key solutions should they be exploring? Well, agencies certainly should be aware of the different types of access that are available to each of their locations needing connections to their wide-area network or just the internet. As you're probably aware, fiber, ethernet, and even MPLS networks might not be available, especially in some of the more rural locations in the domestic United States.
So in these situations, alternatives such as satellite, broadband, and even cellular offer connections to those networks that are needed. These connections allow managed broadband or software-defined networks across the state no matter where their locations are. So certainly being aware of what you have at your disposal in terms of network access is something that every agency should be aware of. Can you explain why SD-WAN in particular is such a compelling solution?
Oh, absolutely. So software-defined networks allow for multiple types of connections that we just kind of mentioned a few of. They can improve performance through the ability to route traffic based on the application. Examples are voice over IP, your email, unified communications, or whatever home-grown applications you might be running.
It allows you to prioritize which get the appropriate amount of bandwidth. They increase your security because now they've introduced the addition of cloud-based security policies in addition to some of your prem-based security. That lowers the complexity of a lot of networks and enables cloud access and cloud-based applications. And in a lot of situations, it can reduce your overall cost.
What is your advice to organizations looking to invest in SD-WAN and also SASE? So one of the biggest things that we recommend is don't just accept a like-for-life type of transition. Don't just accept the same network that you're doing today over the past even two, three years. Networks have changed greatly and more and more things are at your disposal.
So really take a look at the capabilities and look for managed service providers that allow you to utilize these technologies that are best for you, not for them. So don't just accept a like-for-life transition. Can you share some examples of the benefits that you're seeing among your customers who are prioritizing network modernization strategies in SD-WAN? Oh, absolutely.
So we work with numerous state and federal agencies. And what we're seeing is they're able to deploy networks, such as software defined networks or even just manage broadband networks faster. They've increased their security, they've increased their network management capabilities through portals that allow you no matter who is providing the backbone or the network connection. You can see it all on one pane of glass and it lowers your overall cost, as I mentioned before.
And most importantly, you have better network performance, which allows the services that the states are offering to their constituents to be always available and work that much better. An example might be we work with a federal agency that serves every citizen in the United States and has a great deal. I'd even say a ton of rural locations. And what they've been able to utilize is use of satellites to connect these rural offices that had no other ways of communicating back to either headquarters or their data center or even just their wide-area network.
So use of satellite capabilities really were a game changer in this agency situation. They were able to take these offices that were traditionally not connected by anything other than maybe a traditional old telephone line and give them access to their wide-area network and the applications that ride that network. Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there for today. James Clefinger, thanks so much for joining us to talk about enhancing citizen experience with modern network infrastructure.
Absolutely. Thank you. It was our pleasure. And thanks to Hughes for underwriting today's episode.
Look for more of our IT modernization in government series on fedscoop.com and our Fedscoop radio channels on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn. This is why I cash. Thanks for tuning in.