HashiCorp Federal’s Melissa Palmer Earns 1st Wash100 Award for Leading Government Digital Transformation
Executive Mosaic is honored to announce the selection of Melissa Palmer, president of HashiCorp Federal, as a 2025 Wash100 Award recipient for her leadership in driving government digital transformation and security through the adoption of multicloud platforms and zero trust approach.
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“Melissa earns her first Wash100 win as the driving force behind HashiCorp Federal’s push to modernize government IT. With leadership experience at Puppet, Red Hat and VMware, she’s an expert in multicloud and zero trust security—both critical for the public sector’s cloud transformation,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award.
“With Melissa’s assured stewardship, HashiCorp Federal has helped agencies optimize infrastructure and automate workflows with cutting-edge solutions. Now, with IBM’s $6.4 billion acquisition backing the company, all eyes are on Melissa to see how she leverages this momentum to further revolutionize federal cloud adoption,” added Garrettson.
Advancing Public Sector Customers’ Mission Through Multicloud Solutions
As head of HashiCorp Federal, Palmer is leading initiatives to help federal agencies transform their infrastructure and operations, improve security and automate workflows by adopting multicloud solutions and zero trust security architectures.
In addition to expanding the company’s market presence, she oversees efforts to broaden relationships with industry partners and stakeholders to help accelerate agency priorities and missions.
Strong Proponent of Standardized Framework, Zero Trust Approach
In an Executive Spotlight interview with Executive Mosaic, Palmer cited complexity as the top challenge facing agencies as they migrate to the cloud. To help address this, the HashiCorp executive said agency leaders should implement a “standardized model or framework that bridges the gap between old and new, on-premises and cloud and legacy and modernized technologies.”
“At HashiCorp, we are seeing a growing interest in platform teams and internal developer platforms with our private sector customers, and these approaches can also help agency leaders with similar standardization projects,” she added.
She also believes in the role of zero trust in helping organizations transition to the cloud in a safe and secure manner.
“With cloud, cybersecurity must expand from network-only controls to identity-based protection. No user, device or application can be trusted. Every entity in the infrastructure, whether on-prem or in the cloud, must be identified, authenticated, and then authorized to act within the environment based on well-defined policies,” she added.
In an opinion piece, the Wash100 awardee talked about the importance of implementing zero trust capabilities as the Department of Defense moves toward a multicloud environment under the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract.
“Advancing zero trust capabilities, especially in the first pillar of identity management, can reduce the larger attack surface of the cloud by only allowing users with authorization to access. The Pentagon is still making progress in its zero trust journey, moving towards the goalpost of a FY2027,” she wrote.
When asked about new trends she is seeing at the intersection of cybersecurity and national security, she mentioned the role of edge systems in storing critical information.
“The edge offers great benefits to users with improved costs and speed while creating new attack vectors. Much like the cloud upended traditional security approaches due to its extended surface, the edge will do the same and will require the public sector to adapt as well,” Palmer stated.
Industry Partnership
Under Palmer’s leadership, HashiCorp Federal continues to advance efforts to forge partnerships to expand its market reach and bring its offerings to public sector customers.
In January 2024, HashiCorp’s software suite became part of Carahsoft’s Distributor Seller of Record program, which facilitates the availability of public sector software products in an Amazon Web Services digital catalog and government contract vehicles.
The company’s suite of software offerings helps organizations establish consistent workflows and develop a system of record for automating cloud-related processes, such as infrastructure provisioning, networking, security and application deployment.
“We are thrilled to work with Carahsoft to provide Public Sector customers convenient access to our infrastructure and security lifecycle management products,” Palmer said of the partnership. “Having HashiCorp listed on Carahsoft’s DSOR Program will optimize the procurement process for Government agencies seeking to evolve from legacy systems to the cloud.”
Palmer’s Career Highlights
Prior to joining HashiCorp Federal in 2022, Palmer was vice president of public sector at IT infrastructure automation firm Puppet.
She also served as VP of federal sales at Absolute Software and DOD sales leader at Red Hat.
Her industry career included holding sales leadership roles in the federal and military segment at VMware, Intel Security and LookingGlass Cyber Solutions.
As head of HashiCorp Federal, Palmer is demonstrating her commitment to excellence in cloud and IT automation and playing a key role in promoting a transformative impact on government operations by advancing the adoption of multicloud solutions and zero trust approach to improve the security and efficiency of their IT environments.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Melissa Palmer and the entire HashiCorp Federal team for this remarkable achievement.
Show your support to Melissa Palmer at Wash100.com!