Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is important in every industry and every geography, but it is paramount to national defense and intelligence efforts.
Data “is a strategic asset that must be operationalized in order to provide a lethal and effective Joint Force that, combined with our network of allies and partners, sustains American influence and advances shared security and prosperity,” then-Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist wrote in the DoD Data Strategy in 2020.
Legacy systems that create data silos remain a central challenge to DoD and intelligence community efforts to use data strategically, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) experts noted in a recent discussion.
“Because the geographic combatant commands have built solutions that meet their information-sharing requirements regionally, sharing globally has become difficult,” said Eric Tapp, Mission Partner Environment (MPE) lead at GDIT. A 21-year Army veteran, Tapp led a U.S. Central Command team that developed the first operational data-centric MPE. An MPE enables the military and its trusted partners to communicate and share sensitive, classified information securely and in real time.
Another information-sharing challenge looms, noted Nick Townsend, GDIT’s senior director for growth and innovation. Increasingly, defense and intelligence organizations want to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems, which require massive amounts of data.
“What is an annoyance or a delay in an analyst receiving imagery is catastrophic for the ability to train large datasets,” Townsend said. To enable AI and ML, system-to-system connections are essential. “We need data solutions that can transcend individual systems,” he said.
That means moving to data platforms built on modern architectures that allow agencies to use cloud computing, commercial and custom government toolsets, automation, and modern software development practices, Townsend said.
One example is global mesh networks that enable data sharing within organizations and with mission partners. GDIT recently developed a data mesh, built on cloud services, that provides the essential functions needed to share distributed data products – data catalog and self-service discovery, data product publication and consumption, data access and governance, and data transport.
“We’re helping our customers develop data microservices,” Townsend said. “They’re cloud-native and compatible. In DDIL (denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited connectivity) environments, we can run these services on commodity hardware. When we have more connectivity, we can take advantage of all that the cloud has to offer. We’re bringing these hybrid data solutions to our customers so that they can run workloads, including AI/ML workloads, to really increase the speed of data sharing.”
DDIL connectivity is a critical consideration for DoD and intelligence information-sharing, Tapp noted. “These systems have to function from the strategic layer all the way down to the tactical warfighting management, so we’re implementing … interoperable, zero trust-based, data-centric environments.”
Core capabilities for enabling these information-sharing environments include data tagging, attribute-based access control, and identity, credential, and access management, Tapp said.
Deep understanding of information-sharing policy goes hand in hand with technology capability, he noted. “[Policy is] going to shape the way we develop solutions. It’s going to shape the way we engage with our customers. … As we’re looking at technology, it’s critical that we don’t get glamorized by the capability. We have to put it into context [of policy].”
Ultimately, “with these systems, we’re able to provide some pretty distinct benefits to the warfighter,” Tapp observed. “We’re able to provide information to the right people at the right place at the right time. We’re able to enhance their ability to make decisions at the speed of relevance.”
For more insights on information sharing at the speed of relevance, view the entire discussion with Tapp and Townsend.