A recent MeriTalk research report found that 86 percent of Department of Defense (DoD) mission partners believe migrating to milCloud® 2.0 will have a positive impact on DoD missions, but resource constraints and lack of clarity are holding agencies back from making the transition. On a recent webinar discussion, Jeffrey Phelan, cloud services portfolio lead for milCloud® 2.0 at GDIT, said that DISA and DoD OCIO are stepping in to mitigate.
“DISA has really listened to the market and its customers … DISA’s done a really good job of streamlining this as much as possible and allowing you to get up and running as quick as you can,” he said.
The new cloud initiative relies on public-private partnership to provide the DoD with the commercially owned and operated cloud. While DISA provides two data center locations and the physical security for milCloud® 2.0, GDIT is able to optimize the infrastructure and maintain remote management circuits, among other features.
“As the commercial provider, we’re able to effectively build out and innovate with the latest technologies and house those inside the DoD facilities,” Phelan explained. “You’re getting a lot of the benefits of the security of on-premise within the DoD network and infrastructure combined with some of the latest technologies.”
Phelan described milCloud® 2.0 as a “one stop shop” because the various contract partners provide all services necessary to complete the cloud transition. For example, Lauren Farese, senior director of Oracle Public Sector, explained that Oracle’s innovative approach in milCloud® 2.0 was built to address mission partners’ most pressing needs.
“Mission partners are looking for improved infrastructure and cost reduction. They’re also looking to make mission impact with analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, all of which need vast amounts of data that can be retrieved and operated on quickly,” she said.
Plus, as Intel’s Chief Enterprise Solution Architect Darren Pulsipher added, the benefits of milCloud® 2.0 outweigh any initial hurdles. MeriTalk’s research discovered that improved infrastructure management is one of the biggest benefits of milCloud® 2.0 adoption. Pulsipher emphasized the cloud’s ability to adjust to changing conditions.
“One of the great things about the milCloud® 2.0 offering is the ability to pin up new infrastructure pretty quick,” he said. “Instead of days or weeks, we’re talking hours now.”
In the meantime, Phelan said that educating DoD decision makers on milCloud® 2.0 and securing internal buy-in on the cloud transition are two tangible steps agencies can take toward adoption.
To access the recorded webinar, “milCloud® 2.0 Quick Start,” visit this page.
