The Internet has unquestionably become the foundational platform and point of engagement for public interactions with the government. That’s also increasingly true for most federal employees and contractors who rely on the Internet to accomplish much of their missions every day.
As the government continues to transform the core of its operations to deliver digital services and prepares for the next wave of AI-enhanced digital experiences, agencies must devote greater attention to delivering a reliable and high-performing experience for Internet-connected services.
Those who lived through the evolution of the government’s Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) programs — launched during the Bush administration to reduce malicious traffic — know how cumbersome it once was to reliably download or upload information through a limited number of government-authorized Internet access gateways. The proliferation of cloud and mobile computing made the TIC 1.0 approach untenable, leading the Office of Management and Budget, GSA and CISA to modernize the government’s approach to Internet access for federal agencies.
Equal priority for cyber and user experience
While consumers rightfully expect the government’s security protections to be unwavering, they also expect government services to match or exceed the availability and performance standards of commercial online services they use every day. The performance aspect is a significant and often underappreciated step in rebuilding trust in government.
Today, TIC 3.0 allows agencies to position security capabilities closer to the source of government data. However, agencies still find themselves rerouting through limited inspection locations from traditional FedRAMP-authorized security vendors, impacting the overall performance of government services.
The stakes for maintaining a consistently high level of performance for internet traffic connections are only growing as agencies become more reliant on the interplay of cloud- and AI-supported services to manage their mission operations.
User experiences build trust in government services
Improving the public’s digital interaction with the government, as outlined in M-23-22, warrants offering security architecture and microservices across enough global locations to inspect, process and serve data in the blink of an eye.
That’s why it has become more critical to re-examine the Internet by focusing on distributed capacity and capability. The conventional model of centralized data centers and Internet gateways, often concentrated in a limited number of geographic locations, faces increasing risks in addressing the realities of today’s globally distributed workforce and citizenry.
Why locality matters
For a citizen trying to file taxes, or a veteran trying to claim benefits, or a federal employee working halfway across the world, having to route back to a single data center in Ashburn, Virginia, to access data has a negative impact on the performance of services.
Agencies must ensure services perform seamlessly and securely, regardless of users’ locations. This requires a paradigm shift towards a more decentralized and localized approach to global digital infrastructure.
Our global reach is one reason why 24 million commercial websites —and federal agencies, including the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, State, and Treasury — rely on Cloudflare to support their worldwide network and security needs. Roughly 20% of the web is protected by Cloudflare’s network and cybersecurity services.
Preparing for the decentralized infrastructure needs of government
Every new wave of technology — most recently, AI— ramps faster than the last. Helping governments respond with the same agility as their private-sector peers without compromising federal security compliance is a difficult balance for nearly all SaaS vendors. However, it’s a balance that security companies should strive for.
Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet for everyone. By making all Cloudflare for Government services available across all FedRAMP data centers, Cloudflare’s approach to FedRAMP overcomes the common Industry practice of offering federal customers a watered-down version of the commercial offering.
As a result, agencies can extend their TIC 3.0 boundaries from the three to five locations they typically leverage from other FedRAMP vendors to 46 physical Point of Presence (POP) locations across the globe.
And that means if, for any reason, something goes wrong at one location, any one of the other 45 FedRAMP POPs can take over without any service interruption or degradation. We are also able to ensure the most efficient path across the Internet because our private backbone is connected to more Internet exchanges than any other provider worldwide.
As government agencies continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, building resilient digital infrastructure is no longer optional; it’s imperative. By embracing solutions that ensure trust, locality, performance, and security over the Internet, agencies can enhance public engagement, improve service delivery, and fortify their defenses against evolving cyber threats.
Anish Patel is the federal director of sales at Cloudflare. He has devoted 20 years to helping government agencies with enterprise IT challenges, including in senior operational and business development positions at VMware, Cloudera and Cisco Systems.
Learn more about how Cloudflare supports security and performance for public sector agencies.