We learned a lot in 2014 about where the military is going next year and beyond.
■We learned that you shouldn't become attached to your computer's CPU and the applications stored within because they're going away under the Pentagon's virtual desktop infrastructure initiative. The Army Information Technology Agency reports that its original goal to virtualize 2,000 Army users a year ago has grown 10 times to 20,000-plus users. The Joint Staff and Office of the Secretary of Defense also plan to virtualize their computing systems.
■We learned that Terry Halvorsen — the acting DoD CIO who pushed back against former DoD CIO Teri Takai on issues like using the same enterprise systems for all services when he was the Navy CIO — doesn't want too much control placed in the hands of the Defense Information Systems Agency. DISA had planned to be the cloud broker for DoD, which meant all the military services would have had to go through DISA to deploy a cloud for nonsensitive and unclassified data. Halvorsen nixed that plan, letting the services pick their own commercial cloud providers, and focusing DISA on setting security guidelines for cloud computing.
■We learned that the Joint Information Environment is not just the flavor of the month or year, but will underpin an entirely new security architecture for DoD networks. The Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS) are key to securing military networks and standardizing defense IT, and they are starting to stand up, with the first one now online at Joint Base San Antonio and three more initial operational capabilities planned by year's end. There will be 23 JRSS installations worldwide, with 11 in the continental U.S.
■We learned that the budget outlook for C4ISR systems remains bright through fiscal 2025, even though TechAmerica predicts a $235 billion decrease in defense spending planned by the Obama Administration through 2025. TechAmerica says that even with a relatively flat IT topline, cyber investment, for example, will grow by at least 1.5-percent yearly through fiscal 2025.
■We learned that procurement agencies love joint enterprise licensing agreements, like the $800 million JELA for buying Microsoft products, as well as lowest-price/technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts. "We have 10 enterprise service license contracts that we're developing right now, which will all probably be LPTA," Victor Gavin, the Navy's program executive officer for Enterprise Information Systems, told me recently. "If I can clearly define what my requirement is, for example, licenses," then LPTA contracts are appropriate, he said. We also learned that industry is hyperventilating over the use of LPTAs, with the fear being that they will be used to procure more complex systems.
