Introduction: Warfighting
Capability at Internet Speed by
Lt. Gen. Charles E. Croom Jr., Director, Defense Information Systems
Agency Commander, Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations and Rear
Admiral Elizabeth A. Hight, Vice Director, Defense Information Systems
Agency
Warfighting today
– and tomorrow – is about joint,
shared use of information without the boundaries of ownership or
location. Collaboration and the discovery and sharing of
information are more and more important both in our everyday lives and
in warfighting. They are fueled by the technologies and
concepts
known as Web 2.0. Everyone is connected. Our
challenge in
the Department of Defense is to enable our warfighters with speed and
agility that give them advantage.
Addressing this challenge is complicated because we often must react to
an unknown world. We must find ways to deal with unexpected,
non-traditional relationships and partners in coalition warfighting;
unconventional and unpredictable use of information; quick, agile
reaction to world events; and unpredictable locations, users, times, and durations. And, we
have to be continually aware that those who would do us harm often are
more agile than we in using these new technologies. Our drive
for
success in challenging times, then, creates the imperative for greater
speed and agility.
Our vision is stated in our DISA Strategy:
“We
will provide
Internet technology at speeds necessary to bring people together
efficiently, help them do their jobs in ways never anticipated, and
enable them to do things never envisioned.”
The series of articles that follows provides an overview of our
strategies for meeting our challenges and outlines the steps we are
taking to increase the speed and agility with which we deliver
capabilities and services to the warfighter.
A Note from the Co-Editor Warren
Suss President,
Suss Consulting, Inc.
DISA’s new IT vision will have an impact on all of
us. It
will provide our warfighters with a new generation of information
sharing services and capabilities. It will change established
processes for Department of Defense IT system development and
management. It will encourage industry providers to use new
business models for delivering IT solutions in new ways.
The idea for this series of articles began with a narrower focus
– to cover one element of DISA’s vision - the
Adopt, Buy,
Create (ABC) strategy. Discussions with the leadership at
DISA
made it clear that the ABC strategy is only one element of a new
paradigm for getting results to our warfighters faster and more
efficiently.
The new DISA vision is transformative for users, but it is also
disruptive for those who cling to an older, slower, more cautious
approach to designing, building, delivering, and managing Defense
Department information technology. I believe we
don’t have the option of turning back, because last
generation’s technologies and processes won’t work
in
delivering next generation results.
But the vision is still in its formative stages. We need to
get
users on board to make sure we’re really producing the tools
they
need. We need to get the gatekeepers on board to streamline
review and approval processes for greater speed and increased risk
tolerance. We need to get industry on board to help with the challenging task of adapting the latest
commercial technologies and practices to the high security,
mission-critical Department of Defense environment.
The articles describe a vision. We need to refine and expand
the
vision. The articles describe early successes. We
need to
build on these successes. The articles point out where we
need to
go, but we all need to build detailed roadmaps for how to get from
where we stand today to the next generation of Defense Department
Information Technology capabilities and services.
Acknowledgement:
We are grateful to the hard working DISA professionals –
engineers, program managers, Corporate Communications, and senior
executives – who gave generously of their time to contribute
to
this series of articles.
