Red Hat’s Paul Smith: Federal Digital Transformation Requires Cultural Modernization

Paul Smith, senior vice president and general manager of Red Hat's public sector business, said digital transformation calls for the federal government to advance cultural modernization to support the creation of environments that encourage employee empowerment and creative thinking.

Smith, a 2019 Wash100 winner, explained in a commentary piece published Monday on Federal News Network how Dev/Ops could help agencies transition away from waterfall software development in order to facilitate the development and deployment of platforms.

He stressed how a bottom-up approach supports a Dev/Ops environment.

“In a bottom-up organization, ideas start with the people working on development and operations and move toward the top,” he wrote.

He also discussed the concept of open organization for Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.

Open organization is “a cultural mindset that demonstrates an obvious commitment to transparency, open standards, and joint problem-solving,” Smith noted.