https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/ Federal IT, cybersecurity, AI and acquisition modernization from Pyramid Systems, an employee-owned federal IT firm in Fairfax, Virginia. en-us Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0700 https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/what-is-palt-procurement-administrative-lead-time https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/what-is-palt-procurement-administrative-lead-time Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0700 Acquisition PALT, or procurement administrative lead time, is the time between the date an agency issues the initial solicitation for a contract or order and the date it awards that contract or order. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) adopted that definition in a January 2021 memo, and agencies measure it with the solicitation date field in the Federal Procurement Data System for actions above the simplified acquisition threshold. It does not count the requirements and planning work that happens before the solicitation goes out. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/gsa-ai-clause-552-239-7001-what-it-requires https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/gsa-ai-clause-552-239-7001-what-it-requires Mon, 19 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0700 Acquisition GSA's AI clause, GSAR 552.239-7001 ("Basic Safeguarding of Data within Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence Systems"), takes effect October 19, 2026 as a class deviation. It covers systems bought under a GSA contract, order or BPA where a large language model is a material feature and government data goes into or comes out of the model. It bars training models on that data or selling it, and requires encryption, audit logging, incident reporting, notice of model changes and deletion of government data at closeout. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/air-quire-hud-amss-acquisition-modernization https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/air-quire-hud-amss-acquisition-modernization Tue, 03 Mar 2026 06:00:00 -0700 Federal AI Pyramid Systems wins HUD's Acquisition Modernization Support Services contract, deploying AIR-Quire AI to accelerate federal procurement. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-unbiased-ai-executive-order https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-unbiased-ai-executive-order Fri, 08 Aug 2025 06:00:00 -0700 AI Policy How federal agencies can meet the July 2025 Executive Order for unbiased AI, truth-seeking, ideologically neutral generative AI. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-aws-environment-terraform-devsecops https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-aws-environment-terraform-devsecops Tue, 01 Jul 2025 06:00:00 -0700 Cloud How Pyramid built a secure, compliant multi-account federal AWS environment with Terraform IaC and DevSecOps pipelines. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-ai-workforce-executive-order https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-ai-workforce-executive-order Mon, 12 May 2025 06:00:00 -0700 AI Policy The April 2025 Executive Order on AI education and workforce development, and how Pyramid invests in the federal AI talent pipeline. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-permitting-technology-modernization https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-permitting-technology-modernization Thu, 24 Apr 2025 06:00:00 -0700 Modernization The April 2025 federal Permitting Technology Action Plan, data standards, interagency systems, case management modernization. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/ai-prompt-engineering-guide-federal https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/ai-prompt-engineering-guide-federal Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:00:00 -0700 AI Tools Six practical prompt-engineering techniques for federal workers using ChatGPT, Grok, and other AI tools. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-fedsforward-partnership-public-service-talent https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-fedsforward-partnership-public-service-talent Tue, 11 Mar 2025 06:00:00 -0700 Culture Pyramid Systems partners with FedsForward to invest in the next generation of public service talent through paid externships and mentorship. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-nexus-innovation-connections-program https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-nexus-innovation-connections-program Tue, 04 Mar 2025 06:00:00 -0700 Culture Inside Pyramid Nexus, our internal program connecting employees across teams and projects to drive innovation and career growth at scale. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-student-debt-relief-program https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-student-debt-relief-program Tue, 10 Dec 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Culture Pyramid Systems launches a student debt relief program, a direct investment in the financial wellbeing of the next generation of federal IT talent. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-smiles-for-miles-wellness-challenge https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-smiles-for-miles-wellness-challenge Tue, 24 Sep 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Culture Inside Pyramid's Smiles for Miles summer wellness challenge, how a fitness program builds team connections and supports the work we deliver. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/breaking-barriers-federal-ai-adoption https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/breaking-barriers-federal-ai-adoption Tue, 14 May 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Federal AI How federal agencies can clear the four real barriers to AI adoption, procurement, data, skills, and governance, in parallel, not in sequence. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-grant-mission-effectiveness-analytics https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/federal-grant-mission-effectiveness-analytics Tue, 02 Apr 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Analytics How federal grant programs use analytics across intake, portfolio risk, and outcomes to lift mission effectiveness, and where most initiatives stall. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-aws-advanced-tier-partner-2024 https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-aws-advanced-tier-partner-2024 Wed, 20 Mar 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Cloud Pyramid Systems recertifies as an AWS Advanced Tier Partner for 2024, recognition of our federal AWS delivery and certified workforce. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/gcp-data-pipeline-ml-ai-models https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/gcp-data-pipeline-ml-ai-models Mon, 11 Mar 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Federal AI How Pyramid built an end-to-end ML/AI data pipeline on Google Cloud, ingestion, orchestration, feature store, training, serving, and monitoring. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-employee-centric-client-excellence https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-employee-centric-client-excellence Thu, 08 Feb 2024 06:00:00 -0700 Culture Why employee-centric culture is the engine behind Pyramid Systems' federal client service excellence, and what that means for delivery quality. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/synthetic-test-data-federal-ai https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/synthetic-test-data-federal-ai Mon, 15 Jan 2024 06:00:00 -0700 DevSecOps Why traditional federal test data fails, and how AI-powered synthetic data delivers faster delivery, better coverage, and PII-safe environments at scale. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-tech-powered-philanthropy-hackathon https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-tech-powered-philanthropy-hackathon Mon, 04 Dec 2023 06:00:00 -0700 Culture How Pyramid's annual hackathon channels technical talent into philanthropy, building tools for local non-profits and community partners. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-identity-week-usa-2023 https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-identity-week-usa-2023 Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0700 Identity Pyramid showcased federal identity management at Identity Week USA 2023, including BITT, our biometric interoperability federation system. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-systems-25-year-story-american-dream https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-systems-25-year-story-american-dream Thu, 15 Oct 2020 06:00:00 -0700 Culture How Pyramid Systems founders Sherry and Jeff Hwang built a federal IT contractor from the ground up, the 25-year story behind the firm. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/accelerating-federal-ato-devsecops https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/accelerating-federal-ato-devsecops Tue, 08 Sep 2020 06:00:00 -0700 DevSecOps How federal teams cut Authority-to-Operate timelines with DevSecOps, control inheritance, evidence-as-code, and continuous monitoring. https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-labs-lean-startup-government https://pyramidsystems.com/insights/blog/pyramid-labs-lean-startup-government Tue, 17 Mar 2020 06:00:00 -0700 Innovation Inside Pyramid Labs, our lean-startup innovation function that takes federal mission challenges from idea to production-ready solution.