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Keeping IT Brief
Keeping IT Brief is FORUM’s fast, focused podcast delivering essential insights on government technology, federal modernization, and the evolving GovCon landscape. Each short episode features conversations with industry leaders, government executives, and innovators who are driving mission success through new strategies, emerging technologies, and forward-thinking approaches to public sector IT.
Designed for busy federal and industry professionals, Keeping IT Brief gets straight to what matters—key trends, practical takeaways, and expert perspectives on cybersecurity, digital transformation, AI adoption, cloud advancements, and the policies shaping federal technology priorities. Instead of long discussions, the podcast provides concise, high-value briefings that help listeners stay informed and ready for what’s next.
Whether you support federal programs, lead technology initiatives, work in business development, or simply want to keep pace with the rapid changes across government IT, Keeping IT Brief delivers the insights you need in a format that fits your schedule. Guests include senior government officials, CIOs, CTOs, acquisition experts, solution architects, and strategic voices from across the public and private sectors.
About the Host:
Mary Ann Brown hosts Keeping IT Brief and brings extensive experience in connecting government and industry across technology, policy, and mission-driven initiatives. As Senior Director of Operations at FORUM, she supports collaboration through strategic events, leadership programs, and platforms that elevate critical conversations in the federal space.
Stay informed in minutes. Subscribe to Keeping IT Brief for timely insights that help you understand federal IT trends and anticipate opportunities across the government technology community.
Keeping IT Brief
AI, DevSecOps, and Modernizing the Public Sector with GitLab’s Joel Krooswyk
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This week, we’re joined by Joel Krooswyk, Federal CTO at GitLab, to explore the critical issue of legacy IT systems in the public sector and how AI can be a game-changer in modernizing government IT infrastructures.
Key Topics We Cover:
- The Legacy IT Challenge
Many federal agencies still rely on outdated systems that are vulnerable to security risks, costly to maintain, and hinder the development of mission-critical applications. Joel discusses why these legacy systems are so challenging, particularly the issues with memory-unsafe languages and the high percentage of vulnerabilities they cause (70%). - AI as a Tool for IT Modernization
With the lengthy process of modernizing legacy code, AI presents an opportunity to accelerate this journey. We explore how AI can help decode and refactor outdated systems, transforming them into more secure, modern, and memory-safe applications. - AI in the Software Development Lifecycle
AI isn’t just for modernization—it's already making an impact. Joel highlights findings from GitLab’s report, showing that 35% of U.S. public sector organizations are already using AI in their software development lifecycle. We discuss how leveraging AI across the entire lifecycle can reduce silos, eliminate backlogs, and streamline development workflows.
This episode is packed with insights for anyone in the public sector or involved in IT modernization, from AI's potential to improve security to how it can transform development processes and accelerate mission-critical application delivery.
Connect with Joel.
Joel Krooswyk
As federal CTO at GitLab Inc., Joel Krooswyk has over 25 years of experience in the software industry. His end-to-end software development life cycle expertise benefits customers and employees alike. Joel’s leadership experience spans not only the U.S. Public Sector, but also small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses globally. He’s an experienced leader, team builder, communicator, thought leader and researcher.
Joel’s expertise spans development, QA, product management, portfolio planning, and technical sales, and he has written a half million lines of unique code throughout his career. On an average day, you'll find him discussing software modernization, cybersecurity, governance and compliance, AI, ongoing digital transformation, and automation.
GitLab
GitLab is the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps platform for software innovation that accelerates speed to mission. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 40 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100 trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.
Keeping IT Brief with Mary Ann Brown features quick, insightful conversations with government and industry leaders on federal IT, cybersecurity, AI, and emerging technologies shaping the future of government operations.
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