Always On - Preparing for the Next
Engagement
A Note from the Editor
By
Warren Suss, President, Suss Consulting, Inc.
This year’s articles describe how DISA has refined its IT
vision. They show concrete progress on the road from vision
to reality. The articles also make clear that DISA needs help
from their industry and government partners to achieve a seamless next
generation enterprise infrastructure; agile and efficient command and
control; and secure, “always on” capabilities and
services. Here are some highlights:
*Enterprise Support
to Warfighting” lays out objectives that will guide us in
fielding solutions to specific challenges such as information
sharing and collaboration on demand and real time self provisioning of
services that recognize the user’s capabilities and
limitations.
* Command and
Control – Sharing Information in the Next
Engagement” describes an important shift towards agile
planning and development based on “user stories”
and small increments, called “sprints” that deliver
C2 capabilities faster and more efficiently.
* Operate and Assure
– In a Contested Battlespace” describes how DISA
dramatically increased the capacity and diversity of its global network
and improved protections against cyberattack and other
threats to provide assured service to “edge” users
engaged in conventional warfare, nation building, counterterrorism,
special operations, humanitarian operations, and disaster relief .
These articles represent DISA’s commitment to an open dialog
with its user community and with industry. We, in turn, need
to respond by helping DISA translate its vision for the future into
near-term improvements in enterprise infrastructure, command and
control, operations, and information assurance to support our
warfighters, our National Leadership and our international coalition
and mission partners.