June 10, 2025
Presented by Booz Allen
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Federal agencies are standing at the edge of a transformation—and cloud technology is the bridge to what’s next. Fazal Mohammed, Senior Manager for Solutions Architecture at AWS, paints a compelling picture of how government is not just catching up with the commercial sector—it’s starting to move in lockstep.
Fazal brings more than 20 years of experience across civilian, defense, and national security agencies, and he’s never been more optimistic about the government’s cloud journey. He sees agencies increasingly focused on delivering citizen-facing services that mirror the seamless digital experiences found in the private sector. The motivation, he explains, is simple: citizens are used to the ease of Netflix and TikTok. Government services should be just as intuitive.
The cloud, Fazal says, is now viewed less as a destination and more as an enabler. It’s not about moving everything into the cloud for the sake of it—it’s about using the flexibility, scale, and speed of cloud platforms to achieve mission outcomes faster and more effectively. Agencies are realizing they don’t need to invest in massive on-premise data centers anymore. Instead, they can quickly prototype, test, and scale solutions that support everything from public service delivery to critical national security operations.
What’s especially encouraging, Fazal notes, is that the tools available to agencies today are largely the same as those used in the private sector. There's no technological gap. Instead, the differentiator is mindset. The frontrunners in government are those who question old models, embrace change, and aren’t afraid to experiment. Some of these trailblazers come from Silicon Valley, others are new graduates—what they share is a belief that government can innovate just as fast as any company.
Fazal repeatedly emphasizes the idea of “reimagining mission needs.” For him, it’s not just about improving IT systems—it’s about thinking differently about what the mission demands and how best to fulfill it using today’s tools. He praises the rise of AI, robotic process automation, and other advanced services as natural extensions of a cloud-first strategy. These technologies, he says, are helping elevate human labor to focus on high-value tasks, freeing agencies from the “undifferentiated heavy lift” of the past.
Looking ahead, Fazal sees the potential for a true reinvention of government services—but only if three elements align: people, process, and technology. While the technology is ready, and processes are evolving through policy updates and executive orders, the people aspect remains crucial. Agencies must focus on upskilling their workforce and shifting the culture to embrace faster, more agile delivery models.
He’s clear: the future is wide open for government innovation. With the right mindset, federal agencies can use cloud platforms not just to modernize—but to fundamentally change how they serve the public. It’s not about replicating what worked in the past. It’s about building something new. And with the cloud as their foundation, agencies are finally positioned to do just that.
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