Executive Mosaic has included Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft’s federal business, in its 2023 Wash100 Award list for helping lead company efforts focused on delivering cloud capabilities to the government in support of national security missions.
The recognition marks the sixth consecutive time that Wagner was presented with Executive Mosaic’s most prestigious award in all of government contracting industry. Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for him as one of your favorite leaders of consequence in the GovCon sector.
“As technology increases parabolically, this is a good time to be Microsoft and an even better time to be Rick Wagner. Rick’s ability to infuse his knowledge of government contracting into one of the most essential platform providers in the world promises a prodigious capability for Microsoft-based solutions for the U.S. government. Rick’s preparation and Microsoft’s opportunity mean we all win,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the esteemed Wash100 Award.
Wagner’s induction into the 2023 class further reflects his commitment to ensuring continued delivery of latest technology innovations meant to fit specific customer needs. In the previous award year, Executive Mosaic highlighted his mission cloud and security leadership as evidenced in his efforts to drive speedy integration of cloud platforms for public sector clients.
2022 saw Microsoft being named as one of the awardees of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract. The potential $9 billion program of the Department of Defense is aimed at delivering secure cloud services to mission owners. The company, along with three other contractors, will provide advanced data analytics, centralized management and distributed control, computing, storage and network infrastructure, tactical edge devices and other capabilities over a period of five and a half years.
Commenting on Microsoft’s selection to be among DOD’s cloud service providers, Wagner said, “Our work on JWCC will build on the success of our industry-leading cloud capabilities to support national security missions that we have developed and deployed across the department and service branches.”
He also sees the department’s multi-cloud approach for JWCC as “the right one” considering the defense enterprise infrastructure. “Multi-cloud is already an established best practice in the commercial industry because it enables organizations to maximize flexibility, enhance resiliency and access the best technologies across providers,” he added.
Aside from DOD, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also tapped Microsoft to provide the agency with cloud computing capabilities under a cooperative research and development agreement.
The company will support NOAA in advancing climate, weather and ocean prediction initiatives through cloud applications.
“Microsoft Azure Artificial Intelligence and high performance computing capabilities can help NOAA accelerate critical research and foster innovative approaches to mitigate the risk of climate change,” noted Wagner.
Microsoft is also in partnership with industry players working on cloud projects. In December 2022, it collaborated with Leidos to demonstrate the pairing of the latter’s Edge to Cloud platform with the Azure Cloud Infrastructure.
“By partnering with Leidos, we are demonstrating how commercial capabilities in a classified cloud can enable improved situational awareness and decision dominance for the DOD through global connectivity, data aggregation and advanced analytics that support decision making,” said Wagner.
The technological collaboration was during the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence 22 experimentation exercises and marked a milestone in the Joint All-Domain Command and Control program of the DOD.
As cloud continues to become relevant in advancing DOD’s missions, Wagner underscores Microsoft’s commitment as a key partner helping the department navigate the multi-cloud environment and ensuring seamless interoperability of systems and services.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Rick Wagner and Microsoft Federal for their selection to receive the 2023 Wash100 Award. Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for him as one of your favorite leaders of consequence in the GovCon sector.
