Original Broadcast Date: 08/16/2026

Presented by Billington Cybersecurity

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is moving toward a major technology milestone as the agency works to become completely cloud-based by January 20, 2028. For CBP Chief Information Officer Sonny Bhagowalia, the transition is about much more than moving applications out of traditional data centers. It is part of a broader modernization strategy designed to make technology faster, more affordable, more secure and more useful to personnel carrying out CBP’s mission every day.

Bhagowalia says CBP aims to become one of the first large federal agencies of its size, scope and complexity to operate completely in the cloud. That is no small task considering the scale of CBP’s operations. The agency handles about 10 billion transactions and approximately 50 billion data exchanges each day while processing roughly 1.2 million people daily through ports of entry, airports and other locations.

The agency is already well into that transition. Bhagowalia says CBP is more than 88% complete at the application tier, while its database tier is a little more than halfway migrated. Databases and high-value assets are now important pieces of the remaining work.

But Bhagowalia stresses that CBP is not simply taking its existing technology and moving it somewhere else.

The cloud effort changes how CBP develops technology and how it moves away from its Tier 4 data center environment. The goal centers on four outcomes: performing the mission faster, better, more affordably and more securely. Bhagowalia says he regularly meets with his team and tracks progress through a dashboard rather than PowerPoint presentations, allowing leaders to see where individual programs and stakeholders stand.

Cloud is only one part of CBP’s broader IT strategy. Bhagowalia says the agency expands its strategy from six focus areas to eight, beginning with IT infrastructure and support services. CBP needs infrastructure that is reliable, secure and available while also being capable of supporting growing demands for data, video and other high-bandwidth services.

The scale extends far beyond traditional office environments. Bhagowalia says CBP has approximately 1,744 locations, including 328 ports of entry, 175 Border Patrol stations and 78 Air and Marine Operations locations. Many are in remote areas, making connectivity and mobility especially important. CBP is looking at technologies including satellite communications and is also preparing its infrastructure for quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography.

That distributed mission leads to another major priority: bringing information technology and operational technology closer together.

Bhagowalia elevates operational technology and information technology integration into its own area within CBP’s strategy. His technology responsibilities include more than 100,000 network-connected assets, but CBP also operates hundreds of thousands of other assets. Those include planes, boats, drones, vehicles, wearable computers and Internet of Things devices.

The challenge is getting information from those systems to the agents and officers who need it.

CBP is addressing that challenge through an edge strategy and a series of pilots. Bhagowalia says the agency completes three pilots, including work with Air and Marine Operations, which has assets operating in the air and at sea. CBP is also making progress on a common operational picture that connects cameras and other technologies across different areas and integrates autonomous surveillance capabilities.

The objective is to provide personnel in the field with better situational awareness and access to information at what Bhagowalia describes as the “speed of mission.”

Connectivity is central to making that possible. CBP already uses satellite and multicellular capabilities, but Bhagowalia says the agency is also testing direct satellite communications to phones. The idea is to determine whether agents can eventually receive critical information anywhere and anytime on an authorized device.

That capability becomes particularly important for personnel operating in remote areas where traditional connectivity may be limited. Bhagowalia describes data as a lifeline for agents and officers, making the ability to move information directly to the field a critical part of the agency’s modernization effort. Better connectivity can also help CBP personnel interoperate with other agencies.

For Bhagowalia, the journey carries a personal connection as well. He recalls being involved when the federal cloud initiative was envisioned in 2009 while he was CIO at the Interior Department. Nearly two decades later, he now sees CBP working toward becoming completely cloud-based.

The result is a modernization strategy that stretches from the cloud to the edge. CBP is not only changing where its technology operates; it is working to change how information reaches the people carrying out the mission.