BlueHalo as the market knows it today is around four years old with a strategy centered around space, cyber, directed energy and other key tech priority areas for the U.S. military and allied forces.

Now the defense technology integrator is joining forces with another like it that has the same private equity owner in Arlington Capital Partners. In this episode, BlueHalo's chief executive Jonathan Moneymaker explains the decision to combine with Eqlipse Technologies and the overall demand landscape that is behind the move.

"Transforming the Future of Global Defense" is the tagline all over BlueHalo's website and other promotional materials, and one Moneymaker spoke to us about in 2021 early on in the journey. Moneymaker returns now to tell our Ross Wilkers about what that transformation looks like here in 2024 and shares some first-hand anecdotes of how he has seen it.

This is episode two in our 2024 series on mergers and acquisitions across the government market.

BlueHalo to combine with Eqlipse Technologies

PROJECT 38: BlueHalo's strategy for transforming modern warfare

Private equity drives high transaction volume in 2023

2024 M&A Round Up

WT 360: All about Guidehouse's vision to be a 'next-generation consultancy'

Guidehouse was owned by one of the government market's most active private equity firms in Veritas Capital until its December sale to one of the investment world's cornerstone names.

In this episode, Guidehouse's chief executive Scott McIntyre describes the blueprint laid out by the company and its new owners Bain Capital with respect to what's next and how they plan to get there.

A bulk of that can be seen in how Guidehouse has adopted this approach for itself – "Building our next-generation consultancy." McIntyre explains what that means to our Ross Wilkers, plus how consulting is now much more than just providing clients advice, and the ways Guidehouse works with customers that are regulators and among the regulated.

This is episode one in our 2024 series on mergers and acquisitions across the government market.

Private equity drives high transaction volume in 2023

2024 M&A Round Up

Guidehouse to get a more global private equity owner

Google's cloud environment now has license to host secret and top secret data, which is a must-have for the company in its pursuit of large opportunities at defense and intelligence agencies especially.

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for GovExec's publications including us, had a front-row seat to that announcement and at Google's flagship cloud conference April 9-11 in Las Vegas.

In this episode, Frank joins our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers to explain what Google's receipt of that key security authorization means for both the tech giant itself and the larger cloud computing landscape with respect to federal.

Google had much to share at its Cloud Next conference and Frank had much to talk about with key government and industry leaders there: conversations on all things cloud and artificial intelligence that he provides a glimpse into for Nick and Ross.

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Once passed and signed into law, the National Defense Authorization Act lays out the Pentagon's policy priorities and dictates how and where its appropriated funds are to be used.

The NDAA also functions as a roadmap for companies to shape their business strategies as explained in this episode featuring Luis Avila and Stephanie Smith, government contracting market analysts at RSM.

Avila and Smith take our Ross Wilkers through some key signposts of the legislation that they believe contractors should take particular note of. Procurement, the industry's pool of participants, supply chains, data rights and artificial intelligence are on the discussion agenda.

This fiscal year's NDAA comes out to around 3,100 pages, but as Avila and Smith explain: doing the homework on what is in the law helps contractors know their customer before it's time to pursue the contract.

The Defense Department has a new industrial cybersecurity strategy in place to help contractors improve their data and network security postures with a particular focus on small businesses.

DOD's emphasis on cyber through that strategy and beyond is an ongoing storyline that Lauren Williams stays on top of for Defense One, a sibling publication of Washington Technology.

For this episode, Lauren explains the vision and goals of that new strategy in conversation with our Ross Wilkers.

Lauren also provides a snapshot of what she found in the Army Applications Lab -- a technology incubator that the service branch stood up in 2019 to grow the network of startups it works with.

It definitely feels like the tide is turning against noncompete agreements across the country: five states ban them outright, while many others have restrictions on when they can be enforced and on whom.

The Federal Trade Commission's effort to make these pacts illegal in the U.S. has a long runway ahead of it before becoming official, but is still a move that the government contracting ecosystem should take note of as it unfolds.

In this episode, attorneys Marlena Ewald and Grace Williams of the national security-focused law firm Fluet explain the bigger economic-wide picture of the FTC's push to ban noncompetes and then take the conversation to GovCon.

Both attorneys told our Ross Wilkers that questions about what this already means and could mean for the employer-employee relationship are starting to come up, so they provide some answers to them here. They also provide some key signposts to watch as the FTC's effort progresses.

The Proposed Nationwide Ban on Non-Competition Agreements by the Federal Trade Commission

Will the FTC Finalize a Complete Ban on Noncompetes?

Noncompete agreements explained

The federal government has several large technology initiatives underway such as improving customer experience and leveraging artificial intelligence. Those issues are at the heart of what Natalie Alms writes about for NextGov/FCW, one of several sibling publications for Washington Technology.

She dives into those topics and more in this conversation with WT Editor Nick Wakeman.

From her perch, Natalie has a unique perspective on the challenges agencies face in trying to modernize how they provide services to citizens. She explains that while AI holds great promise to improve how the government operates, there are also many hurdles to clear.

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The final Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification rule is still months or maybe even a full year away, but the heart of rule will not change: standard 800-171 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In this episode, Fortinet's federal chief technology officer Felipe Fernandez tells Editor Nick Wakeman that companies should focus their efforts around the standard shaping the rule regardless of how CMMC evolves.

Companies have checklists and questionnaires available to them for use before they go through a third-party assessment. For those that prepare early, there may be an opportunity to separate themselves from competitors.

Fernandez shares insights on that preparation and more as he and Wakeman dive into CMMC as it moves through the rulemaking process.