We have now the “DoD IT Enterprise Strategy and Roadmap” (ITESR_6SEP11). The DoD Deputy Secretary
and the Chief Information Officer signed it. This makes the document the
highest-level statement of IT objectives in over two decades. The new direction
calls for an overhaul of policies that guide DoD information systems. Implementation
becomes a challenge in an era as funding for new systems development declines.
The following illustrates some of the issues that require
the reorientation of how DoD manages information technologies:
1. Strategy: DoD
personnel will have seamless access to all information, enabling the creation
and sharing of information. Access will be through a variety of technologies,
including special purpose mobile devices.
Challenge: DoD
personnel uses computing services in 150 countries, 6,000 locations and in over
600,000 buildings. This diversity calls for standardization of formats for ten
thousands of programs, which requires a complete change in the way DoD systems
are configured.
2. Strategy: Commanders
will have access to information available from all DoD resources, enabling improved
command and control, increasing speed of action and enhancing the ability to
coordinate across organizational boundaries or with mission partners.
Challenge: Over
15,000 uncoordinated networks do not offers availability and latency that is
essential for real-time coordination of diverse sources of information. Integration of all networks under centrally
controlled network management centers becomes the key requirement for further
progress. Requires a complete reconfiguration of the GIG.
3. Strategy: Individual
service members and government civilians will be offered a standard IT user
experience, enabling them to do their jobs and providing them with the same
look, feel, and access to information on re-assignment, mobilization, or
deployment. Minimum re-training will be necessary since the output formats,
vocabulary and menu options must be identical regardless of the technology
used.
Challenge: DoD
systems depend on over seven million devices for input and for display of
information. Presently there are thousands of unique and incompatible formats
for the supporting user feedback to automated systems. The format
incompatibilities requires the replacement of the existing interfaces by means
of a standard virtual desktop, which recognizes the differences in training and
in literacy levels.
4. Strategy: Common
identity management, authorization, and authentication schemes grants access to
the networks based on a user’s credentials as well as on physical circumstances.
Challenge: This calls
for the adoption of universal network authorizations for granting access
privileges. This requires a revision of how access permissions that are issued
to over 70,000 servers. The workflow between the existing personnel systems and
the access authorization authorities in human resources systems will require
overhauling how access privileges are issued or revoked.
5. Strategy: Common
DoD-wide services, applications as well as programming tools will be usable
across the entire DoD thereby minimizing duplicate efforts, reducing the
fragmentation of programs and reducing the need for retraining when developers
are reassigned or redeployed.
Challenge: This policy
cannot be executed without revising the organizational and funding structures in
place. Standardization of applications and of software tools necessitates
discarding much of the code that is already in place, or temporarily storing it
as virtualized legacy codes. Reducing data fragmentation requires a full implementation
of the DoD data directory.
6. Strategy: Streamlined
IT acquisition processes to deliver rapid fielding of capabilities, inclusive
of enterprise-wide certification and accreditation of new services and
applications.
Challenge Presently
there are over 10,000 operational systems in place, controlled by hundreds of
acquisition personnel and involving thousands of contractors. There are 79
major projects (with current spending of $12.3 billion) that have been ongoing
for close to a decade. These projects have proprietary technologies deeply
ingrained through long-term contract commitments. Disentangling DoD from several billions worth
of non-interoperable software requires Congressional approval.
7. Strategy: Consolidated
operations centers provide pooled computing resources and bandwidth on demand.
Standardized data centers must offer access and resources by using service
level agreements, with prices that are comparable with commercial practices. Standard
applications should be easily relocated across a range of competitive offerings
without cost penalty.
Challenge: The
existing number of data centers, estimated at over 770, represents a major
challenge without major changes in the software currently occupies over 65,000
servers. Whether this can be accomplished by shifting the workload to
commercial firms, but under DoD control, would require making tradeoffs between
costs and security assurance.
In summary, the redesign of operational systems into a
standard environment is unlikely to be implemented on a 2011-2016 schedule
unless DoD considers radically new ways of how to achieve the stated objectives.
Over 50% of IT spending is in the infrastructure, not in
functional applications. The OSD CIO has a clear authority to start directing
the reshaping of the organizations of the infrastructure. Consequently, the
strategic objectives can be largely achieved, but only with major changes in
the authority for the execution of the proposed plan. It remains to be seen
whether the ambitious OSD strategies will meet the challenge of the new cyber
operations.
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