HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announced today that it achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) DevOps Competency status. This is the third AWS Competency designation for the IT modernization firm serving federal civilian agencies. In addition to the AWS Government Competency and AWS Migration Competency it already achieved, Karsun is also a Public Sector Partner (PSP) and participates in AWS Partner Network (APN) Immersion Days.
The AWS DevOps Competency designation recognizes companies helping customers implement continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices or helping them automate infrastructure provisioning and management with configuration management tools on AWS. Achieving the AWS DevOps Competency differentiates Karsun as an AWS Partner that provides specialized demonstrated technical proficiency and proven customer success with a specific focus on CI/CD, Monitoring, Logging and Performance, Infrastructure as Code, and Consulting. To receive the designation, AWS Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS.
“The AWS DevOps Competency validates our commitment to implementing technology the right way to meet our customer’s mission,” said Terry Miller, President of Karsun Solutions.
AWS enables scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify AWS Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.
“Every solution from Karsun uses industry best practices applied to the latest advancements in technology,” said Badri Sriraman, Senior Vice President, Karsun Innovation Center. “We’re proud to be among the AWS Public Sector Partners that have achieved the AWS DevOps Competency.”
Karsun migrates, builds and optimizes in the cloud. Its expert DevOps teams introduce industry best practices using repeatable frameworks and playbooks which enable digital transformation at an accelerated pace. Its cloud architecture, platform and legacy application modernization solutions address agency needs today while preparing customers’ systems for the future.
An Advanced Consulting Partner, Karsun software development, cloud and data solutions teams all deliver on AWS. As an APN member with AWS Migration Competency status, its customers may utilize Karsun’s access to AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) resources. When applicable, Karsun implements these financial incentives as part of AWS MAP. Its government customers may also leverage Karsun’s extensive experience modernizing large, complex systems with Cloud Runways, a portfolio of purpose-built toolkits optimizing migration to the cloud.
Learn more about Karsun’s AWS DevOps Practice at https://karsun-llc.com/solutions/cloud-solutions/aws-devsecops/.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions modernizes enterprise systems enabling agencies to make the next technological advancement their next opportunity to elevate mission capability. IT solutions from Karsun are tailored to meet agencies’ unique needs and optimize operations. These solutions adapt and stay relevant with current trends while using secure, digital architecture built to last. It is a proven modernization partner whose expertise elevates agency capabilities and ensures every next opportunity is within reach.
Company Contact: marketing@karsun-llc.com
Leveraging improved efficiency and reduced costs while ensuring availability, cloud native development is a must for complex enterprise modernization projects. Modern cloud native architectures involve applications developed and deployed through cloud service providers such as AWS. These use services like AWS VPC, EC2, S3, Kinesis, DynamoDB, RDS, and others.
While utilizing cloud native architecture can provide impressive operational improvements, maintaining security and compliance standards using manual processes can quickly limit those outcomes. This is a common concern for our agency customers. Applications deployed in federal agencies obtain Authorization to Operate, an ATO.
Getting an ATO involves categorizing the information system, then selecting, implementing, and assessing the controls. Risks are identified based on this assessment, and final authorization is provided to operate the system. In most cases, this process relies on manual tasks, like copying security control documentation into a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) document, then manually updating this documentation on a regular basis. Continuous deployment of new workloads and features in an agile environment being a necessity, manual processes and massive documentation effort adds significant delays to the authorization process.
AWS DevOps and OSCAL Compliance for cATO and Zero Trust
One solution is the Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL). OSCAL is a set of formats expressed in XML, JSON, and YAML developed by NIST. These formats provide machine-readable representations of control catalogs, control baselines, system security plans, and assessment plans and results. Govready-q is an open source GRC platform for highly automated, user-friendly, self-service compliance assessments and documentation which supports OSCAL. AWS is the first cloud service provider to provide OSCAL formatted system security plan (SSP). Integrating a GRC tool like Goveread-q part of the DevSecOps toolchain and using OSCAL for documenting all the controls automates most aspects of the ATO process enables us to do continuous ATO (cATO) and alleviates the documentation burden and most manual processes associated with it.
Enabling DevOps with Karsun Solutions
At Karsun, we promote the adoption of OSCAL for the documentation of security controls and use automated GRC tools like GovReady-q. When applications deploy on AWS, we can leverage OSCAL documentation created by AWS. This enables faster, more accurate authorization packages, decreases customers’ security documentation burden and reduces service authorization timelines.
Working with an experienced cloud solutions partner such as Karsun ensures you do not need to trade security for efficiency. In particular, we are an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with both a Government Services Competency and a Migration Services Competency. Partner with our experts, modernize with cloud native architecture, and optimize both operations and security.
About the Author
Judewin Gabriel is a Subject Matter Expert and the DevSecOps Practice Lead at Karsun Solutions. An advocate for DevSecOps best practices, he drives Driving CI/CD, security engineering, SRE, pipelines, and observability excellence.
Karsun Solutions is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner. After more than a decade of delivering complex cloud solutions, we are experts in optimizing outcomes for our government agency customers. Not only do we deliver superior solutions, but our Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) in-house research and development team constantly experiments, prototypes and validates technology to ensure the implementation of best practices.
We previously shared one way our KIC brings the latest technologies to our teams, leveraging our AWS partnership to enhance Karsun’s proprietary GoLean platform. In the last five years, Karsun continued to expand our toolkit offerings. Through our technology partners, like AWS, our toolkits allow our teams to jumpstart new projects with readymade resources based on best practices.
GoLean Grows Up
As DevOps matured, so too did our approach. The GoLean platform grew and matured alongside it.
“DevSecOps is a natural evolution of DevOps,” explains Badri Sriraman, Senior Vice President of the Karsun Innovation Center. “In the same way continuous deployment ensures improved functionally for the user, DevSecOps ensures a hardened security infrastructure is implemented for the successful operation of software in production.”
Our GoLean platform not only includes a robust lean measurement toolkit but also incorporates metrics and automates processes to accelerate the adoption of DevSecOps best practices. Our continuous delivery framework enables DevSecOps teams to decouple a feature deployment from its release so that Developers can self-manage the feature, test it in production and incrementally roll it out to users after validation of its operational performance in a shadow data network. Utilizing a low-code open source data pipeline tool enables fine-tuned data synchronization between legacy and modernized components. Additionally, our Duke Test Automation Framework supports continuous testing at scale.
Karsun Adds Cloud Runways
In addition to GoLean, Cloud Runways built on AWS or other cloud services now provide enhancements to our DevSecOps solutions. The toolkits allow teams to not only migrate legacy applications to the cloud but fully optimize them for DevSecOps. The Replatform Runway introduces DevSecOps automation using Terraform, Ansible, and Packer for Windows containers while migrating Windows apps into AWS ECS or Redhat OpenShift.
In addition to the Replatform Runways, we created nine robust runway toolkits based on best practices. This includes extensive experience delivering on AWS. We achieved both an AWS Government Competency and an AWS Migration Competency, validating our ongoing commitment to delivery excellence. A public sector partner, we are committed to helping agencies modernize to meet their mission.
As modernization requirements evolve, so too has our modernization suite. Karsun’s GoLean platform continuously adapts to the latest security and development approaches. Simultaneously we strengthened and enhanced our migration offering via Cloud Runways to optimize for DevSecOps adoption. Ongoing research and development into automation, CI/CD and DevSecOps are one of many ways Karsun ensures our architecture is built to last.
In a recent FedScoop interview, Data Practice Director Shaunak Ashtaputre discussed accelerating innovation through data-led migration. Leveraging AWS, his team found they were no longer required to prioritize the quickest migration time. Instead, using a data-led approach, they focused on maximizing data value while minimizing the time to transform that data.
In the interview, he recalls a recent data platform modernization project. Addressing mismatched tooling and services, Karsun added capabilities as part of the data-led migration process. This included enhancing the centralized data lake, consolidating data through newly created pipelines and establishing quality baselines. Using automated data recipes, the new platform reduced the time to prepare data. This reduced the lead time from weeks to hours. While improving data latency, the team also transformed the process from a batch approach to a fully integrated analytics platform with transparent lineage, models and recipes. The solution was end to end, from ingest to dashboard.
Optimizing with Cloud Runways
Key to the team’s success was Cloud Runways, Karsun’s answer to complex data-led migration modernization projects. These toolkits accelerate cloud migration through fit-to-purpose transformation playbooks. These enable incremental migrations which adapt to unique customer requirements and constraints.
Karsun begins by building a holistic view by determining the agency’s intended approach to the cloud and data ecosystem. Using a Data-Led Migration Runway, the team assesses the existing integration landscape and identifies future needs. This includes understanding the needs of the analytics users of that data. Next, the team uses Karsun’s proprietary multi-criteria decision support framework to perform a robust assessment of available solution providers. These include vital characteristics such as interoperability, flexibility, SLAs and security to optimize provider selection.
As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with a Migration Competency, its customers may also utilize Karsun’s access to AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) resources. This program packages best practices, tools, expertise, financial incentives, and the AWS Partner Network (APN) to simplify cloud adoption. Supporting customers investigating migration solutions, these financial incentives subsidize the three key steps in the migration process (Assess, Mobilize, and Migrate and Modernize). When applicable, Karsun implements these financial incentives as part of its Cloud Runways toolkit.
For those new to complex data migration projects, the Karsun Innovation Center also offers Immersion Days. In these workshops, Karsun cloud experts introduce customers and colleagues to enhance their practice. Additional innovation initiatives are driven through employee-centric Solution, DevSecOps, Lean, Development and Data practice areas. To get started, visit Karsun’s AWS Data-Led Migration Solution.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions is a fast-growing, innovative enterprise modernization firm. Recently awarded Best Company Culture by Comparably.com, its teams deliver modern software development, cloud, and data solutions to customers at government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and General Services Administration. Leveraging GoLean, Karsun teams drive digital transformation and help its government customers Do Extraordinary. Learn more at Karsun-LLC.com.
HERNDON, VA– Karsun Solutions, the Enterprise Modernization Experts, announced today that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Migration Competency status. This designation recognizes that Karsun Solutions provides deep expertise to help customer’s move successfully to AWS, through all phases of complex migration projects, discovery, planning, migration and operations.
Achieving the AWS Migration Competency differentiates Karsun Solutions as an AWS Partner that provides specialized demonstrated technical proficiency and proven customer success with specific focus on Migration Delivery and Migration Consulting. To receive the designation, AWS Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS.
“Karsun Solutions is proud to achieve AWS Migration Competency status,” said Kartik Mecheri, Karsun Solutions Co-Founder. “It is a perfect reflection of our work as modernization experts and our team is dedicated to helping companies achieve their technology goals by leveraging the agility, breadth of services, and pace of innovation that AWS provides.”
AWS enables scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify Consulting and Technology AWS Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.
The Karsun Solutions Cloud Migration portfolio offers clients a full suite of services to develop and host cloud-based applications. Backed by the AWS Migration Competency, its customers may also utilize Karsun’s access to AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) resources.
AWS MAP is a comprehensive and proven cloud migration program based upon AWS’s experience of migrating a thousand enterprise customers to the cloud. The program packages best practices, tools, expertise, financial incentives, and the AWS Partner Network (APN) to make cloud adoption easier. Supporting customers investigating migration solutions, these financial incentives subsidize the three key steps in the migration process (Assess, Mobilize, and Migrate and Modernize). When applicable, Karsun implements these financial incentives as part of its Cloud Runways toolkit which accelerates cloud migration through fit-to-purpose transformation playbooks. These enable incremental migrations which adapt to unique customer requirements and constraints.
The data driven migration approach used by Karsun Solutions assesses the existing integration landscape, identifies future needs and develops future state integration architecture, with a specific focus on harmonizing information across applications. Using a proprietary multi-criteria decision support framework, the platform team performs a robust assessment of the solution identifying key characteristics such as interoperability, flexibility, SLAs and security to make an optimal selection for its customers. The framework also balances private, public and hybrid cloud options based on economics, functionality and security.
In addition to the AWS Migration Competency, Karsun Solutions also achieved the AWS Government Competency designation. It currently serves agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the General Services Administration (GSA). Karsun’s public sector AWS cloud migration case studies are available at https://karsun-llc.com/solutions/cloud-solutions/aws-cloud-migration/.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions is a fast-growing, innovative, enterprise modernization firm. Recently named a Technology Industry Top Workplace, its teams deliver modern software development, cloud, and data solutions to customers at government agencies including DHS, FAA and GSA. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Washington Business Journal, and Inc. all recognize Karsun Solutions among the fastest-growing companies in the Washington, D.C. region. An established firm with a DCAA Approved Accounting System and CMMI Level 5 – DEV appraisal, plus both the AWS Government Competency and AWS Migration Competency designations, it holds ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Media Contact
HERNDON, VA– Karsun Solutions, a public-sector IT modernization firm, announced today that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Government Competency status. This designation recognizes that Karsun Solutions has deep experience developing solutions for government customers delivering mission-critical workloads and applications on AWS.
Achieving the AWS Government Competency differentiates Karsun as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that possess deep domain expertise in Security and Compliance with innovative cloud solutions that leverage AWS services. To receive the designation, APN Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS.
“Karsun Solutions is proud to be an APN partner and to achieve AWS Government Competency status,” said Ben Marglin, Vice President Client Solutions. “Our team is dedicated to helping agencies achieve their goals by leveraging the agility, breadth of services, and pace of innovation that AWS provides.”
AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify Consulting and Technology APN Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.
Karsun’s Cloud Solutions portfolio offers clients a full suite of services to develop and host cloud-based applications that are scalable, cost less, secure and available. Cloud offerings go beyond to lift and shift including hybrid architecture, platform buildout and application migration. The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and General Services Administration are among Karsun’s current cloud solutions customers.
“Our innovate-prototype-validate-deliver cycle is a reflection of our capabilities-driven approach to cloud,” said Badri Sriraman, Vice President Karsun Innovation Center. “Using this framework we ensure our cloud solutions directly address the real-world customer problem.”
As an experienced an IT contractor with multiple $100 million-plus federal contracts, the organization’s approach to solutioning relies on the close relationship between research and development teams and delivery teams. Prior to delivery subject matter experts prototype new solutions in the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC). Seasoned practitioners from the KIC ensure cloud solutions teams adhere to industry best practices. Karsun further bolsters delivery quality through GoLean, a development methodology which institutes DevSecOps and CI-CD best practices. Karsun’s development practice, including GoLean, was recently appraised at CMMI Level 5 – DEV.
About Karsun Solutions
The federal IT modernization experts, Karsun Solutions enables enterprise transformation for its government customers including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and General Services Administration. An innovation-based and performance-driven culture, Karsun Solutions teams deliver extraordinary software development, cloud and advanced analytics solutions to their customers. Karsun Solutions’ commitment to quality includes a DCAA Approved Accounting System, a CMMI Level 5 – DEV appraisal plus ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Serverless computing, especially AWS Lambda, is a darling of Enterprise IT professionals. First entering the spotlight four years ago, Lambda allows the running of code without provisioning or managing servers. Thus it owes its rising popularity to ease of use, scalability and low costs tied solely to consumed compute time. In response to this increased demand for information on serverless computing, Karsun Solutions Data Analyst Sidharth Ramesh recently presented an Introduction to AWS Lambda at the Northern Virginia Linux Users Group. This Lambda 101 style talk served as an introduction to serverless.
Lambda 101
In his talk, Sidharth explains AWS Lambda is a function-as-a-service event-driven model. Sidharth uses the analogy of pushing code, rather than spinning up new instances. He outlines this departure from previous architectures and suggests use cases where Lambda may replace EC2 instances.
He provides an overview of implementation, including strategies for structuring event triggers. Drawing upon his past interactions with the Karsun Innovation Center, he shared lessons learned as well as suggested use cases. These include using Lambda in ETL or scenarios requiring an infrastructure as code approach.
View Sidharth’s complete talk on YouTube and his presentation on GitPitch.
Karsun Solutions – The Enterprise Modernization Experts
Established in 2009, Karsun Solutions LLC is in the business of solving problems. A premier IT consulting firm, we are an Amazon Web Services Advanced Consulting Partner, AWS Public Sector Partner, and AWS Authorized Reseller. From DevOps to Cloud Migration AWS is one of our many partners empowering Karsun Teams to Do Extraordinary! These teams deliver a portfolio of Enterprise Modernization services including Cloud Solutions, Modern Software Development, and Advanced Analytics. Our premier customers include the General Services Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, US Department of Homeland Security, Smithsonian and Government Accountability Office. Karsun Solutions’ quality, development, and information security practices include CMMI Level 3, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Karsun Solutions offers a portfolio of enterprise modernization solutions to federal and commercial clients. Key among these is Karsun’s cloud migration solution, Cloud Runway. Cloud Runway enables cloud first organizations migrating legacy systems to the cloud. Karsun recently paired their Innovation Center team with one of their federal customers for a large migration effort using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The Challenge
The customer approached Karsun to move an app to the cloud in order to reduce costs. Critically, the customer also wanted to limit the impact on business lines during the migration. In any of Karsun’s Cloud Solutions offerings the goal is to leverage the flexibility and agility offered by the cloud to reduce costs. The approach balances private, public, and hybrid cloud options based on economics, functionality, and security. Migration teams use strategic partnerships, like those with AWS, to build cost-effective high-quality solutions.
Beginning the Transformation Process
Karsun’s Cloud Runaway leverages change management best practices. Migration teams discourage customers from building their own platforms in favor of focusing on the assets and processes already available to them. They start by identifying the processes and tools already in use. First, the team implements Karsun’s GoLean methodology. Teams identify daily process performance and health measures prior to migration. These measures are assessed and tracked throughout migration to observe and mitigate the impact on development teams.
Once teams are actively measuring their performance metrics, tools are paired with similar cloud-native apps. The objective is to support and nurture the processes already in place. Karsun’s partnership with AWS supports the migration team’s efforts to use their own experience to select the most appropriate tools available. Cloud Runway takes a collaborative to this transition. The Karsun Innovation Center pairs one of their teams with the migration team. In bringing this in-house research and development team onboard, the migration effort utilizes the latest enterprise architecture solutions.
Combining Karsun’s change management approach with strategic cloud partnerships, the customer was able to quickly migrate to the cloud with limited interruptions to their business lines. Explore our Cloud Solutions page for more including customer case studies. Contact Us to start a conversation with our cloud migration team.
In July Karsun launched Karsun Academy, an on-site training and certification program for its employees. The two areas of focus initially were AngularJS and AWS certifications. At the conclusion of the most recent program several employees received their AWS Associate or Professional certifications. Karsun offers training for AWS Certified Developer – Associate, AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certifications.
Karsun Academy is one of several programs offered by Karsun Solutions designed to help employees achieve their personal and professional goals. All employees also have the opportunity to engage with the organization’s in-house research-and-development unit, the Karsun Innovation Center. If you’re ready to join a team that embraces growth visit our job postings and connect with our Talent Acquisition Team at hr@karsun-llc.com.