The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) expects to roll out its Thunderdome program to 60 sites in fiscal year (FY) 2024 – thus far the agency has deployed the zero trust program to 23 sites, an agency spokesperson confirmed.
DISA’s deployment plan includes sites on the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Southern Command, and DISA’s network consolidation effort (DoDNet).
In January 2022, DISA awarded a $6.8 million contract to Booz Allen Hamilton for the execution of a Thunderdome Prototype – a zero trust security solution that aligns with President Biden’s 2021 cybersecurity executive order.
DISA’s Thunderdome effort took about 18 months, with the last nine months spent building a prototype composed of numerous technologies that are integrated into the zero trust architecture.
The project consists of four components — customer security stacks, software-defined wide area networking, secure access service edge capability, and application security stacks.
Booz Allen Hamilton, following the completion of a Thunderdome prototype, was awarded a follow-on production other transaction authority agreement as DISA transitioned Thunderdome from the prototyping to the production phase.
Under this follow-on agreement, which extends through August 2028, Booz Allen Hamilton has supported the rollout and implementation of the platform. The initial rollout of the prototype began earlier last year, with the agency deploying Thunderdome to 15 sites in 2023.
Moving forward, DISA plans to advance the rollout by focusing on organizations that are already part of DoDNet, which supports users from DISA and the Defense Technical Information Center, as well as others.
According to a DISA spokesperson, sequencing for the agency’s deployment schedule is driven by mission requirements and available resources.
