The “Federal Executive Forum IT Modernization and Transformation Strategies in Government Progress and Best Practices 2025” brought together leaders from the Department of Treasury, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Army, and industry to discuss how modernization strategies in cloud adoption, AI, automation, and cyber resilience are helping change federal missions and strengthening national security.
The panel of speakers included:
- Sonny Bhagowalia, Assistant Commissioner & Chief Information Officer (CIO), CBP
- Benjamin Davis, Chief Information Officer, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Treasury
- Wil Caldero, Director of Architecture, Data and Standards, OCIO, Army
- Arvind Basra, Senior Director, Cyber Compliance Solutions, Verizon
- Anish Patel, Head of Federal, Cloudflare
CBP’s Mission-Driven Modernization at Scale
CBP’s CIO Sonny Bhagowalia described IT modernization as a vital facilitator of national, economic, and border security. CBP handles over a million travelers every day, secures trillions of dollars in trade, and manages one of the largest technology ecosystems in the federal government.
“We’re talking 10 to 20 billion data transactions a day, 50 billion data exchanges, about 50 petabytes of data storage… across 1,744 locations in about 90 countries. This is quite a massive scale,” he said, highlighting the scope of CBP’s cloud journey. Bhagowalia emphasized that cloud migration is essential to processing this volume securely and effectively while incorporating operational technology like drones and biometrics into unified IT systems.
Treasury Leverages Cloud for Enhanced Financial Intelligence
Cloud adoption has become indispensable for financial intelligence, according to Benjamin Davis, CIO for the Treasury Department in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA). “The ability to move some of our architecture and our infrastructure off prem into the cloud environment has already proved its weight in gold, from a stability, security and just an access perspective and really buying back some of the capacity for an already small team,” he said.
By making this transition, Treasury has been able to implement a new cloud-native search and discovery tool that allows analysts to access the information they need in real time and centralizes Treasury’s national security data. Davis framed these initiatives as crucial to protecting confidential information and supporting sanctions enforcement.
Army Streamlines IT Access with Automation
Reducing repetitive manual tasks was Will Caldero’s top priority when he looked at the Army’s burdensome processes. “Countless hours were saved once we streamlined that manual process, now you upload your information once, and system owners can instantly access your digital certifications to grant access,” he said.
The Army Validation System (AVS) led to the change by eliminating the need for soldiers to repeatedly file paperwork to access IT systems. Caldero noted that AVS is a part of a larger effort to leverage automation and low-code/no-code tools to improve the soldier experience and free up time for mission work.
Verizon’s Government Cloud: Secure Modernization for Federal Agencies
Verizon’s Arvind Basra highlighted how automation and AI are becoming central to modernizing federal IT environments. He discussed the company’s efforts to improve cyber resilience, simplify complex systems, and help agencies in responding to threats quickly.
Basra stressed that automation is the only way to keep pace with growing complexity: “When you think about incident response… there’s a lot of information that takes time to find because you have hundreds of thousands of assets. How do you shrink something that would take you six weeks down to a few hours? That is rapid automation—that is using AI.”
Cloudflare Supports Government Cybersecurity Modernization
At Cloudflare, Anish Patel described how the company is helping agencies deliver secure and trusted digital services for citizens. Cloudflare, which currently secures 20 percent of global internet traffic, plays a central role in programs like the Treasury’s fraud intelligence sharing and CISA’s protective DNS service. These initiatives improve the dependability and accessibility of agency services while also helping to raise the bar for cybersecurity across the government.
Patel underscored the need to see modernization as an ongoing responsibility rather than a one-time milestone: “IT modernization isn’t an event—it’s more of a commitment. A lot of large organizations treat modernization like a wedding, but it’s actually a marriage. The real work is the time, energy, and resources after that initial project goes live.”
Modernizing for Mission Success
Across the panel, the leaders stressed the importance of embedding AI-driven capabilities for threat detection and efficiency, advancing cloud migration and automation to enhance mission readiness, and strengthening Zero Trust security as the foundation for protecting vital systems and data. Priorities also included enhancing the user and soldier experience and leveraging public-private partnerships, highlighting that IT modernization is inseparable from mission success and plays a key role in determining the direction of public trust and national security in the future.