The Defense Department (DoD) has broadened the scope of its request for information (RFI) as it looks to move its databases and entire operational system for biometric surveillance capabilities into a cloud environment.
Back in September, the DoD posted an RFI outlining how it would like to transition all DoD Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) environments to a cloud-based Disaster Recovery System. Currently, the ABIS 1.3 is split between an on-prem operational environment and a cloud-based environment.
Initially, the RFI stated a preference for the cloud provider who would host the data, but in the Nov. 20 update, DoD confirmed that there is no preference for the cloud provider. As part of the update, the DoD provided a questions and answers document that addresses the change in requirements, as well as additional information on migration requirements. DoD also noted that respondents can update any responses to the RFI that have already been submitted.
The migration to a cloud-based environment would include transitioning Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and Secure File Transfer Protocol-based interfaces to the cloud, all on-prem services that support DoD ABIS to cloud-based services, and operational environment and non-production environment to the cloud. It would also require developing a DoD ABIS operations web portal, end user web portal, and a consumer (intel) web portal to provide access to DoD ABIS to administrators, operators, users, and consumers worldwide.
“DoD ABIS enables actionable intelligence supporting force protection and offensive operations preventing espionage, sabotage, terrorist operations and other coercive actions against US forces, the homeland and partner nations,” the RFI said. “DoD ABIS delivers this capability by performing multimodal ingestion, processing, matching, storing, sharing, and managing for treat actor’s biometrics.”
