In the face of continuously evolving threats, we must not only satisfy the requirements of the warfighter today, but predict and meet the needs of tomorrow. Some of the key future challenges DISA must conquer are associated with the Department’s use of mobile communications and the development of the enterprise infrastructure platform. We must engage in a continual dialogue with key partners and technology-development leaders to be in the forefront of emerging technology and to be in position to influence its environment. DISA must lead the technological migration to the information enterprise so that we enable a military force to connect and pull the information it needs for its mission anytime, anywhere, all in a contested battle space.
The enterprise infrastructure is founded on tenets of true joint net-enabled capabilities. The requisite infrastructure for an integrated information enterprise must support new serviceoriented implementations, including cloud computing and server virtualization. Cloud computing is widely recognized as a fundamental shift in the way IT is managed. The Agency will focus on the maturation and migration to cloud service models. Technological enhancements are necessary to implement a full cloud computing strategy, including enhanced information assurance capabilities, improved application monitoring, automated provisioning, and automated infrastructure orchestration. DISA must deploy innovative capabilities and influence research community investments in DoD’s technology priorities, including cross domain solutions, data replication and synchronization, and authentication and authorization.
Advances in mobile computing technologies offer significant and unprecedented opportunities for seamless information sharing to end users. DISA is working to drive the Department’s implementation of mobile computing devices by delivering composable mobile applications that include capabilities for visualizing mission information on mobile devices; by providing application storefronts for delivery of applications, updates, and device configurations; by providing the server infrastructure required to support rich mobile applications; by providing mobile device services as a virtual network provider, and by providing enterprise security configuration standards.
The Agency is expanding on the existing interactive and collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0 technologies, which facilitate a rich user experience in a participatory environment and focus on information sharing, collaboration, and interoperability. These tools come in a variety of packages including social media and networking sites, blogs, wikis, mashups, and other web-based hosted services. Current DISA initiatives will support the evolution of Web 3.0 capabilities and technologies that provide the foundation for the “the intelligent web,” including semantic web, micro formats, natural language search, data-mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies – all supporting the machine-facilitated understanding of information. Technological advances and calculated investments will ensure our joint forces have reliable access to the right information at the right time, from any device anywhere in the world.