Pat Host 
- Current IT models are segmented and require many work hours to resolve crises
- Shared services allows agencies to be more predictive and responsive to IT issues
- Learn more about shared services during a panel at the 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29!
Federal civilian agencies like the Department of Commerce and the Departments of Health and Human Services are embracing shared services IT models to streamline operations while providing additional functionality at reduced costs, according to an industry executive.
Justin Fessler, LogicMonitor vice president of public sector, told ExecutiveBiz in an exclusive interview ahead of his appearance at the Potomac Officers Club 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29 that the current model of segmented, or siloed, services requires a lot of work in a crisis. An application going down will require a “red team” scramble to assess the situation and spend a couple days fixing the problem.
This, he said, consumes a lot of work hours and costs with 10 to 15 different tools performing monitoring in various silos.
“We want to get away from that type of paradigm,” Fessler said. “A shared services backbone around observability and AI operations, in particular, allows us to be more predictive and proactive around things that may occur in a couple of days.”
Hear from Fessler how observability can deliver secure, efficient and resilient shared services when he moderates the Observability: The Foundation for Federal Shared Services panel discussion at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29. The panel will feature top federal officials like Adam Nemethy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acting director for N-Wave, discussing improved issue detection, accelerated incident response, and continuous availability of essential government services. Get your pressing questions answered during the informative Q&A session. Sign up today!
Why Is Observability Critical to Shared Services?
Observability is a key pillar of the shared services model because it provides a complete understanding of an agency’s network operations. Fessler said this includes on-premises networks and cloud computing operations, regardless of which environment it is sitting in, like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, for example.
Observability allows operators to check the performance of a hub and spoke network model with users spread around the world and quickly see if they’re experiencing degrading performance. He said it provides true visibility both inside and outside the network to make sure government agencies are best providing services to citizens.
Why Is Full-Stack Observability Critical to Shared Services?
Full-stack observability is also critical to shared services. Fessler said this means viewing every single component of an internal or external IT network, such as on-premises, routers and switches.
Fessler said shared services also eliminates shadow IT, which is any hardware, software or IT resource used on an enterprise network without the IT department’s approval, knowledge or oversight, according to IBM. This includes holding meetings through an unauthorized video conferencing platform.
The White House requested a record $76 billion for IT projects at federal civilian agencies in fiscal year 2027 to bolster technology projects. Learn how these agencies plan to spend this money by attending the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29. Gain early insight into shared services, cloud and AI adoption trends from our all-star lineup of keynote speakers, including:
- NEW–Bill Briggs, Small Business Administration deputy administrator
- Mangala Kuppa, Department of Labor chief information officer
- Pavan Pidugu (pending confirmation), outgoing Department of Transportation chief digital and information officer.
- And more to be announced!
Enhanced Cybersecurity and Zero Trust
Shared services, and better observability, provides for enhanced cybersecurity and zero trust applications because it provides cyber professionals with enhanced insight into networks, Fessler said. This is because rogue IT or servers creates cyber risks for agencies and creates attack vectors. In response, LogicMonitor has developed an agentless application that can crawl, scan and find rogue shadow IT and eliminate those attack vectors.
“If you ask a cybersecurity or zero trust leader in any organization ‘how does observability play into your zero trust strategy,’ They will 99% of the time respond to me: ‘If I don’t know what I have out in my environment, I can’t lock it down,’” Fessler remarked.
HHS, Fessler said, has already declared its intent to move toward shared services, both at the headquarters level and at subagencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The FDA, he said, has taken IT budgets away from operating divisions and centralized them at headquarters and are now looking at deploying different services that can be unified across different operating divisions. The Department of Veterans Affairs is also evaluating consolidating IT technologies.
Why Should I Attend the 2026 FedCiv Summit?
GovCons should attend the 2026 FedCiv Summit for its broad representation of top technology officials from throughout the federal government. Fessler said he’s looking forward to visibility across multiple service lines, including representation from the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of the Interior, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS.
