The Defense Information Systems Agency is moving forward with implementation of the joint regional security stacks that comprise the highest-profile pieces of the Joint Information Environment.
JRSS, in its current "1.0" iteration, is up and running at Joint Base San Antonio, with Fort Bragg or Fort Hood up next for stateside implementation and ongoing progress at global locations, DISA officials said June 17 at the AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore.
According to DoD officials, while public-facing discussion of JIE may not be as frequent as a year ago, that doesn't mean there is any less momentum.
"Our progress on JIE is tied to the joint regional security stacks," Lt Gen Ronnie Hawkins, DISA director, told reporters in a press briefing. "We're moving ahead in implementing that capability across the [continental U.S.] as well as in Europe and in southwest Asia. When you're talking about security stacks, you're talking about JIE. When you're talking about the operational side, we have gone through a series of exercises as well as confirmation on how it is we will operate JRSS. Those things are taking place right now and we are doing that in concert with the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. So there's a lot going on with JIE, we just talk about it from the perspective of implementing these capabilities."
DISA is advancing a "1.5" version of JRSS by the end of the summer that will implement more capabilities and lessons learned along the way at current locations, and a 2.0 version is in the works in coordination with the Navy and Marine Corps, according to Jack Wilmer, DISA infrastructure development executive.
Right now, the focus is on critical software that will help govern services' command, control and visibility of their networks inside the broader shared IT environment. It's an area of concern for DoD CIO Terry Halvorsen.
"Software really is the key piece that starts driving the success of JRSS," said Halvorsen, who said the software is crucial to the ability to run data analytics and evaluate and predict cyber threats.
That software, known as the Joint Management System or JMS, would improve network visibility and operations while allowing the services to monitor and act on the networks without affecting each other, Wilmer said.
"The software is basically what's going to allow us to control that multi-tenant environment," Wilmer said. "It's a pretty big advance over what we currently operate."
