For defense organizations, IT infrastructure modernization is more than a mere technological upgrade; it is a strategic imperative, inextricably linked to mission readiness. As new capabilities are layered onto already complex digital environments, the attack surface expands, cybersecurity teams face mounting strain, and operational success can hinge on whether users can securely access what they need without friction. The modernization challenge spans everything from cybersecurity to IT service management, application improvement, and, of course, the full potential of artificial intelligence.
Experts at Leidos, a leading technology and engineering company, emphasize that success in this endeavor depends on integrating human-centered design, organizational change management, and user adoption planning from the outset, alongside robust cybersecurity. Tim Gilday, Vice President, Enterprise Digital Experience, Digital Modernization at Leidos, and Bethany Leickly King, Chief Experience Officer, Defense Enterprise IT Modernization, connect modernization directly to mission and affordability, ensuring that transitions are smooth, adoption is strong, and capabilities are sustained over time.
The Digital Battlefield: An Evolving Threat Landscape
The pace of technological change is accelerating rapidly, with innovations emerging at a stunning speed. Defense organizations, while receptive to adopting cutting-edge technologies, are contending with a „jungle” of IT tools, some underutilized, others redundant, and some introducing unknown security risks.
„When you try to inject new technology in a bolt-on fashion into an already complex environment, you’re creating new threat vectors and compounding the existing challenges,” explains Tim Gilday. This rapid pace of change leaves little room to adequately address security concerns, pushing cybersecurity defense teams to their limit as they struggle to keep up with routine vulnerabilities in an increasingly fragmented and dynamic cyber landscape. Innovating methods for tracking and mitigating vulnerabilities thus becomes a necessity.
Beyond Code: The Human Factor and Resistance to Change
In such a volatile environment, the challenges of modernization are not solely technical. Bethany Leickly King highlights that resistance to change, a common phenomenon, especially in government and military settings, represents a major friction point. This resistance is often fueled by fears of high costs or a potential loss of resources.
„To help address this resistance, we work with our stakeholders at the beginning of any modernization effort to provide clarity on what they can expect,” King states. This clarity means setting expectations from the start: what they will gain, what they will lose, what the concrete benefits are for them, and what their new roles and responsibilities will be after modernization. By following a structured organizational change management approach, uncertainty is reduced, resistance is minimized, and smooth transition, strong adoption, and long-term sustainment are ensured.
Mission and Affordability: A Strategic Equation
While budgetary constraints are often a challenge, the mission remains paramount. It is essential that each agency or program effectively executes its tasks, especially within the context of modernization. Even in the face of budget cuts, agencies must find innovative ways to deliver on their mandated outcomes.
„Sometimes that creates short-term fire drills, which are unavoidable,” Gilday acknowledges. However, when there is an opportunity for strategic thinking, a paradigm shift towards considering the total cost of ownership, rather than just short-term budgets, becomes imperative. Integrating transformative technologies like AI and automation may require a higher upfront investment but yield substantial long-term benefits, avoiding counterproductive actions such as cutting licenses or removing valuable modules.
Human-Centered Design: Security Through Simplicity
Human-centered design is crucial not only for ease of use but also for security. „When we design systems with the user’s day-to-day experience in mind, we aim to minimize accidental vulnerabilities that can arise from human interactions with technology,” Gilday affirms. Solutions like single sign-on (SSO), biometrics, or passwordless authentication not only simplify the experience but also reduce human error, a major contributor to cyber threats. Security must be intrinsic to the design.
As agentic AI and other emerging technologies explode, „you can’t just pour some AI on it and hope that it’s going to work.” Maximum transparency and observability are required for AI agent interactions, with activity logs ready for rapid analysis and effective response.
Zero Trust: A Mindset, Not Just a Product
The concept of Zero Trust, often mistakenly reduced to a mere product purchase, is far more complex. „Zero Trust is people, processes, and technology working in constant synchronization, double-checking each other in a system of checks and balances,” Gilday explains. This is a philosophy that requires cultural understanding and human practices to support the technology, the only path to truly comprehensive and successful Zero Trust.
Bethany Leickly King adds, cautioning that without people’s commitment and without adapting their behaviors to new systems and processes, an implementation can fail, even if the solution is perfectly designed from a technical or security perspective. Ignoring the human factor can lead to costly redesigns or even project abandonment.
„Delight by Design”: User Experience as a Key to Mission Success
Tim Gilday speaks of „delight by design” – a fundamental principle of the Leidos approach. „We believe it’s a right for employees and constituents of the government to have a successful, if not delightful, experience getting the outcomes that they’re trying to achieve.” This approach recognizes that as long as humans remain at the core of any system, the focus must be on planning, building, and executing government technology solutions with the user at the foundation.
King adds that when designing with intent and discipline to „delight” the user, customer experience transforms from a mere differentiator into a valuable component of mission success. Intentionally shaping interactions inspires confidence, loyalty, and long-term impact with government customers, ultimately strengthening the nation’s defense capability.
