Why GitLab Self-Managed is the perfect partner for the public sector

State and local government leaders are navigating new fiscal realities while needing to adopt modern security practices that keep pace with the rapid speed of software development. The Department of Government Efficiency's push to reduce U.S. federal spending creates uncertainty around the $1.1 trillion in annual funding that flows to state and local governments and comprises 36% of state revenues on average. As the full impact remains unclear, government leaders are already preparing for potential budget pressures while citizens continue demanding better digital services and faster delivery.

Add to this financial pressure accelerating workforce retirements and ongoing modernization needs. And, as if that weren't enough, cybersecurity has reclaimed the top spot in NASCIO's 2025 State CIO priorities, reflecting escalating cyber threats that demand secure development practices. The bottom line: Agencies must do more with less without sacrificing on security.

GitLab Self-Managed with GitLab Duo Self-Hosted provides the comprehensive DevSecOps platform government organizations need to meet this moment and deliver efficient, secure services with AI-accelerated development.

Trusted across federal civilian agencies, all branches of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and state and local governments, GitLab delivers enterprise-grade security within an organization's own infrastructure.

"GitLab Self-Managed allows customers to run the full GitLab platform entirely in their own secure environment. Add in self-hosted large language models and highly customized models, and GitLab becomes the ultimate tool for disconnected DevSecOps teams," says Bruce Marco, GitLab Public Sector Senior Manager of Solutions Architecture.

This deployment flexibility ensures data sovereignty while providing the application security and compliance features that help public sector organizations secure their development processes and supply chains when delivering applications to constituents.

How GitLab Self-Managed delivers value for government

Here are some of the benefits of GitLab's intelligent DevSecOps platform for state and local government.

Complete control with AI-powered efficiency

GitLab Self-Managed with GitLab Duo Self-Hosted provides total control over your infrastructure while delivering AI capabilities in secure, air-gapped environments. You install and maintain your own GitLab instance with administrative controls to customize and secure it as needed.

Key advantages include:

Data sovereignty: All data stays within your infrastructure boundaries with no external dependencies for core functionality. The platform works on-premises, in private clouds, or hybrid environments, including air-gapped configurations.

Secure AI: GitLab Duo Self-Hosted enables advanced AI capabilities within air-gapped environments, maintaining complete data sovereignty while meeting mission-critical security standards like NIST FIPS and ICD 503. All data and code remain within your environment and are never transmitted to external model providers.

Learn more about GitLab Duo Self-Hosted.

From fragmentation to efficiency: GitLab Self-Managed replaces expensive, fragmented toolchains with a single platform. GitLab's 2024 Global DevSecOps Survey found that 62% of developers are using six or more tools for software development. According to the Forrester Total Economic Impact Study (TEI), organizations that replaced point solutions and consolidated their toolchains with GitLab improved developer productivity and happiness, lowered their IT costs, and enhanced security while delivering better software faster and maintaining the highest security and quality standards.

Built-in compliance that scales with your operations

GitLab Self-Managed addresses the compliance burden that consumes government resources while enabling agencies to balance security requirements with the speed needed for innovation. According to the President's Management Agenda, federal managers spend 40% of their time using antiquated processes to monitor compliance instead of analyzing data to improve results.

GitLab offers 50+ ready-to-use compliance frameworks covering ISO, SOC, NIST, and more, with the ability to map multiple overlapping controls into a single unified framework. GitLab's comprehensive security scanner suite, including SAST, DAST, container scanning, and software composition analysis, provides strong defense against emerging threats while providing continuous visibility into compliance posture rather than point-in-time assessments. Built-in support for NIST's Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF), dynamic SBOM generation, automated logging, provenance attestation, and comprehensive compliance dashboards ensures government agencies can report on and meet regulatory requirements while maintaining operational efficiency. Forrester's TEI Study found that cybersecurity and software development teams using GitLab maintain issue-free software with 81% less effort by integrating security protocols throughout all stages of the SDLC.

Find out how Lockheed Martin used GitLab's compliance framework to enforce software quality and automation to make releases and dependency management more efficient.

Measuring impact

With the administration's focus on accelerating efficiencies, agencies must move beyond anecdotal evidence to concrete data-driven proof of their investments. GitLab’s comprehensive analytics dashboards ensure that agencies can not only meet efficiency mandates but demonstrate exactly how they're achieving them.

GitLab's unified platform provides the visibility agencies need to demonstrate efficiency gains through comprehensive analytics capabilities:

• End-to-end insight and visibility analytics: Gain complete insights into your software development lifecycle, including DevSecOps maturity, DORA metrics , usage trends, and customizable dashboards for real-time monitoring.

• Developer productivity: Get insights into developer productivity, code coverage, and team performance on issues and merge requests. Customizable visualizations show which capabilities drive the most significant improvements.

• AI impact metrics: GitLab's AI Impact Dashboard offers clear visibility into performance improvements, letting leaders compare metrics between teams using AI and those who aren't. GitLab automatically tracks AI feature adoption to help optimize implementation strategies.

This measurement-driven approach doesn't just help justify current investments — it builds the evidence base for continued modernization that delivers measurable value to citizens while meeting efficiency mandates.

Your path forward: Start secure, scale smart

The journey to modern DevSecOps doesn't require a wholesale transformation. Agencies can:

• Start with core platform capabilities to consolidate tools and reduce costs.

• Add security automation to strengthen compliance while reducing manual effort.

• Introduce AI capabilities when ready, starting with low-risk projects.

• Scale across the organization as teams see success.

Experienced professionals at the ready

GitLab's Professional Services team has extensive experience in the public sector and understands your particular requirements. If you have multiple services, servers, and programs you need to migrate, we will help you plan that out.

Ready to migrate to GitLab? Contact our sales team to start a conversation today.