Ensuring digital services remain accessible, reliable, and secure is a high priority for any organization operating at scale. For the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), this focus is central to its mission of providing quality care to veterans, their families, and caregivers.

Often described as “the largest IT shop in the United States,” the VA manages 2.7 million pieces of equipment across a vast network of interconnected systems.

As the nation’s largest integrated health care system and benefits provider, the VA operates at a scale that few organizations can match. Each month, more than 17 million people log into VA.gov, and 1.3 million veterans and their families access services through the VA’s Health and Benefits mobile app. Keeping these systems dependable requires continuous visibility into performance, which plays a critical role in maintaining the VA’s ranking as the top federal agency for customer satisfaction.

This Veterans Day, we recognize the VA’s mission to serve those who have served and its ongoing work to keep these essential digital services dependable nationwide.

Scaling to meet demand

In 2022, Congress passed the PACT Act, which expanded health care and benefits eligibility for millions of veterans exposed to toxins and other hazards during military service. The legislation created unprecedented demand on the VA’s digital systems. In fiscal year 2024 alone, the agency processed more than one million benefit claims, the fastest pace in its history.

To meet this surge, the VA needed to scale its aging infrastructure quickly while maintaining the quality and reliability of its services. The agency used Datadog’s observability platform to gain real-time insight into system performance and dependencies, helping teams identify issues as workloads increased and make informed decisions to sustain uptime.

Operating within a FedRAMP®-authorized Datadog environment, the VA team expanded capacity securely and maintained consistent access to critical services throughout this period of rapid growth.

Building resilience through continuous monitoring

The demand driven by the PACT Act underscored the need for long-term modernization of the VA’s digital infrastructure. The department’s network connects hospitals, clinics, and administrative offices across the country, linking millions of interdependent systems to support care and benefits administration. Maintaining performance across this environment requires ongoing monitoring to detect issues early and prevent service disruptions.

Using Datadog, the VA can track infrastructure, application, and network health in real time, surfacing irregularities and addressing issues before they disrupt operations. This approach helps reduce blind spots and alert fatigue often seen with traditional monitoring tools, allowing the agency to focus on prevention rather than reaction. Unlike siloed systems, Datadog correlates metrics, traces, logs, and security signals within a single platform, allowing teams to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive optimization.

To strengthen reliability, the VA identified 100 of its most critical bedrock systems and worked to elevate them to 99.9% uptime through its observability efforts. This initiative reflects the agency’s focus on resilience and operational excellence in maintaining continuity across essential services.

In a healthcare setting, any downtime has direct consequences. Even a brief disruption can delay appointments, impact access to medical records, or disrupt patient care. Observability helps the VA maintain operations across its hospitals and other facilities, ensuring that critical systems supporting care remain stable, secure, and available when needed.

Observability and compliance in practice

For a federal agency operating at this scale, observability must align with rigorous security and compliance standards. Datadog’s FedRAMP® authorization enables agencies like the VA to monitor and manage their systems within a framework designed for federal data protection and oversight.

This approach helps ensure that sensitive data remains secure while enabling the VA to consolidate disconnected monitoring tools, streamline processes, and reduce operational costs.

Datadog continues to expand its investment in FedRAMP® High authorization to support mission-critical workloads like those managed by the VA. These advancements will provide a path for agencies to modernize securely, with visibility and control across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

A note of gratitude

This Veterans Day, we thank the VA and the millions of veterans it serves for their dedication and sacrifice. Through the agency’s mission-driven and innovative use of modern technology, the VA ensures that each and every veteran has access to the care and benefits they have earned.

Learn more about Datadog for Government and our advancement toward FedRAMP® High status.

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