CBP Moving Rapidly With Cloud Migration Effort

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has exceeded its cloud migration target for fiscal year 2021 by 13 percent with more than 45 days still remaining.

Speaking at FCW’s Digital Transformation Workshop, CBP Chief Information Officer Sonny Bhagowalia said 45 percent of the agency’s 270 applications have been moved to the cloud so far. 

However, he anticipates that the remaining migrations will take a lot more time as they involve high-value assets, including non-commercial systems that are essential to CBP’s trade, travel and national security missions, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

The agency’s move to a cloud environment is part of an agency-wide digital transformation effort, which includes increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and robotic process automation.

According to Bhagowalia, he recently approved the establishment of an AI center of innovation that will focus on promoting data enrichment, creating data libraries and fostering a community of practice around AI.

An RPA Center of Excellence already exists within the CBP. Over the last 12 months, the CoE automated more than 45 workflows, allowing agency personnel to focus on knowledge-based activities instead of spending time on repeatable and mundane tasks.

Bhagowalia notes that CBP has 110 bots in production, with another 50 still in the development pipeline.

The use of emerging technologies is becoming increasingly prevalent, with the Marine Corps looking to use AI capabilities to solve potential logistical challenges in the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Department of State is seeking to improve its bot ecosystem as it moves toward centralizing its duplicative helpdesks.