It Worked in GovCloud: DevSecOps on the DoD’s Terms
Moving 500 MB across NIPR can take an hour, and 5 GB of extra disk takes a stack of forms. Hunter Strategy’s Matthew D’vertola and Michael Christopherson join Matt to talk cloud lock-in, Terraform drift, and what the DoD should change.
Modern DevSecOps assumes things the DoD doesn’t always provide: cheap storage, fast networks, freedom to choose your platform, and ownership of your own environment. Host Matt Triner talks with Matthew D’vertola, CTO of CreatorCore, and Michael Christopherson, Sr. DevSecOps Architect of Hunter Strategy, about what it actually takes to work without them. They get into on-prem government cloud, why platforms are so hard to leave, and the configuration differences nobody documents once you reach the high side. They close with what they’d tell the Department to change.
In this episode
- Why moving 500 MB across NIPR and SIPR can take an hour, and why database backups are still collected by hand
- How “disk is cheap” stops being true in milCloud, where 5 GB of extra space for verbose logging means filling out forms
- Platform stickiness, and why leaving a government platform is harder than choosing one
- What Kubernetes and Platform One’s Party Bus do, and don’t do, for cloud lock-in
- Terraform configurations that work in commercial cloud, need documented changes in GovCloud, and need undocumented ones on the high side
- What happens when the team that owns your ATO makes manual changes in the portal, and the next Terraform run puts everything back
- Performance standards over labor categories, onboarding for engineers new to cleared work, and why a legacy system is the system that’s working today
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:55 The Impact of Outdated Computer Systems
- 06:32 Challenges of Migrating to Cloud
- 09:53 Bureaucratic Hurdles and Cultural Resistance
- 16:18 The Use of Kubernetes in DoD
- 22:31 The Role of DoD Hosting Providers
- 26:33 Recommendations for Improvement
- 26:50 Improving Acquisition and Workforce Training
- 31:21 Explaining Cloud Concepts and Compliance
- 35:01 Sharing Knowledge and Best Practices
- 36:28 Rethinking Legacy Systems
- 38:45 Closing Remarks
Mentioned in this episode
- NIPRNet and SIPRNet (DoD unclassified and secret networks)
- milCloud 2.0 and DISA’s on-prem successor, Stratus
- Platform One Party Bus (Air Force DevSecOps platform)
- Zarf by Defense Unicorns (air-gapped software delivery)
- Kubernetes and Amazon ECS
- Terraform (infrastructure as code)
- DISA STIGs (Security Technical Implementation Guides)
- DoD Cloud Access Point (CAP)
- DoD cloud impact levels (IL4 / IL5 / IL6)
- Azure Government Top Secret
Guests: Matthew D’vertola, Chief Technology Officer, CreatorCore; Michael Christopherson, Sr. DevSecOps Architect, Hunter Strategy
Host: Matt Triner, CEO, Hunter Strategy
Each episode brings in practitioners from across federal and commercial work to talk through what it actually takes to keep the lights on in security, technology, and government contracting.
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