Aretum CEO Rohit Gupta recently joined host Jake Frazer on The Future of GovCon podcast for a conversation about the technologies driving real change in federal IT, beyond the headlines about artificial intelligence. Introduced by Jake as “a true technology leader,” Rohit shared his perspective on platform engineering, software supply chain security, cloud-native operations, observability, and post-quantum cryptography, along with how Aretum is adapting to a rapidly evolving procurement landscape.
Rohit traced his journey from growing up in Mumbai, India, to earning his master’s in computer science at the University of Connecticut and starting his career as a software developer. Along the way, he brought internet access into his first company, served as global architect for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ web platforms across 80 countries, and founded Artemis Consulting, which grew from a single subcontractor role at the Library of Congress into a prime contractor. After Artemis became part of Aretum, Rohit served as executive technologist before stepping into the role of CEO.
While AI dominates the conversation, Rohit highlighted several areas where consequential change is already happening across government:
- Platform engineering: Agencies are moving to standardized internal platforms with reusable deployment pipelines and built-in security guardrails, bringing DevSecOps to enterprise scale.
- Software supply chain security: With open-source tools, external libraries, and SaaS products in every system, each artifact must be signed and its provenance verified from pre-production through production.
- Cloud-native operations: Kubernetes, GitOps, service meshes, and infrastructure as code are transforming how systems are built and deployed.
- Observability: Moving beyond simple uptime monitoring to combine logs, metrics, and user experience data to understand the impact on mission operations.
- Post-quantum cryptography: The “harvest now, decrypt later” threat has made PQC a priority in nearly every government CIO’s office, protecting PII, defense, and health information.
Rohit emphasized that these technologies work best together. Platform engineering, cloud-native operations, and supply chain security combine to enable secure digital modernization, while post-quantum cryptography, supply chain security, and policy as code represent the next generation of cybersecurity.
As government procurement shifts toward OTAs, commercial solutions openings, and demonstrated capability, Rohit noted that agencies want to see real value, not just proposal responses. Aretum has been ahead of that curve. Aretum Labs, which began as an emerging technologies group at Artemis Consulting about five years ago, builds prototypes and accelerators that show customers how innovation can solve their mission challenges. Aretum continues to invest in its solutions team and Labs while sharpening price-to-win strategies to deliver the best value to the government.
Looking three years ahead, Rohit sees Aretum known for supporting the mission through innovation and technology. “Not doing technology for technology’s sake, but specifically meeting needs that our customers have,” he said, describing an approach centered on outcome-oriented modernization. Jake echoed that view, noting that “having a true technologist at the helm could be a huge differentiator for Aretum as we go into a new phase with the government.”
Listen to the full episode here, also available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Aretum thanks Jake Frazer and Precision Talent Solutions for hosting this conversation.
About Aretum
Aretum is a government services and technology solutions provider delivering mission-focused support to federal customers. Through expertise in technology modernization, data and analytics, cybersecurity, mission support, and management consulting, Aretum helps agencies improve performance, strengthen operations, and achieve lasting mission results.