MILCLOUD AND THE MAINTENANCE OF DOD APPLICATIONS

FROM:  DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY 
DISA now offers milCloud, a cloud-service portfolio, featuring an integrated suite of capabilities designed to drive agility into the development, deployment and maintenance of DoD applications.

milCloud leverages a combination of mature commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and government-developed technology to deliver cloud services tailored to needs of the DoD. The benefits of milCloud include cost savings, more flexibility and control for the mission partner to manage resources and control their computing environment, and greater security in the processing and storage of classified and controlled unclassified information.

milCloud is a component of the DoD Enterprise Cloud Environment, and is a foundational Joint Information Environment, Core Data Center offering.  milCloud’s infrastructure is maintained within DoD core data centers (CDCs) that incorporate strict security protocols.

The portfolio will aid the DoD to deliver the most innovative, efficient, and secure information and information technology (IT) services in support of the department’s mission; anywhere, anytime, on any authorized device.

All products in the milCloud portfolio feature the following cloud services characteristics:

On-Demand Self-Service: milCloud consumers can place orders on-demand through web-based self-service tools, configure infrastructure resources where appropriate, and manage their mission application lifecycle running on those resources without manual intervention from DISA support staff.
Broad Network Access: All milCloud products and services have network connectivity to the Department of Defense Information Networks (DoDIN) and are configured in accordance with relevant DoD security guidelines and approved protocols.
Resource Pooling: milCloud resources are pooled so that multiple mission partners consume units from pools provisioned by DISA, enabling efficient use of aggregate resources and greater consumption flexibility.
Rapid Elasticity: The milCloud portfolio has the ability to expand or contract resource use within virtual resource pools.

With milCloud, the mission partner maintains control and flexibility. milCloud features a shared, virtualized computing infrastructure environment known as a virtual data center (VDC). The VDC is “virtual floor space” and logically analogous to an enclave in a physical datacenter in which mission partners can manage compute, store, and network resources as required to support their systems. Consumption of computing resources within the VDC is enabled via a self-service, on-demand, web-based, management interface that enables mission partners to order, provision, and directly manage their VDC resources.

DISA requires that VDCs are under explicit responsibility and accountability of the mission partner’s Designated Approving Authority (DAA). Mission partner DAAs, or their designates, must endorse a Certificate of Risk Assessment (CORA) to formally accept information assurance accountability.

Resources can be configured within a VDC and managed by the mission partner with a high degree of flexibility and self-service control or resources can be configured automatically by milCloud’s Orchestrator.

milCloud’s Orchestrator can streamline and automate the management of functions related to building, testing, and migrating of configurations in a VDC. A mission partner can use available “recipes” or create a recipe of assets, such as virtual machines, software packages and configuration scripts. The milCloud Orchestrator executes the recipe on mission partner demand.

milCloud Orchestrator also automates numerous labor intensive and repetitive activities such as functional regression testing following changes to an application. Environment recipes can also be published as baselines and/or minimum system requirements. Mission partner administrators have control over how recipes are shared and made available to other users in milCloud.

milCloud includes Level II/Tier I thru III support 24/7 through a central service desk, ensuring mission partners receive support and information assurance when they need it.

DISA CONSOLIDATES DATA CENTER OPERATIONS

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) closed data center operations at Dayton, Ohio, and Chambersburg, Pa., and transferred the functions of these centers to other Defense Enterprise Computing Centers (DECCs) Oct. 1.

The reallocation of operations from Dayton and Chambersburg enables the agency to consolidate and converge existing information technology infrastructures to gain financial and operational efficiencies across the enterprise. It also supports the adoption of the Joint Information Environment (JIE), a major Department of Defense (DoD) initiative to provide a consolidated, collaborative, and secure JIE that enables end-to-end information sharing and interdependent enterprise services across the department. JIE will enable secure, seamless access to information regardless of computing device or location.

DISA and the military departments are aggressively consolidating their data centers and information technology infrastructure. This consolidation will establish a core computing infrastructure that provides assured and ubiquitous access to vital enterprise services and aggregates computing services and infrastructure requirements to gain economic efficiencies of scale.

About 30 civilian employees were affected by these closures. All were reassigned to other positions within DoD or elected to retire from federal service.

Through a diverse portfolio of information technology capabilities, DISA's DECCs provide a common platform that enhances operational effectiveness and facilitates increased collaboration for the DoD.

DISA remains focused on providing standardized, robustly interconnected data centers that are available to support the combatant commands, military services, and agency requirements as needed. DISA is also committed to providing cutting-edge, secure, and globally accessible technologies in support of mission partners, regardless of agency or military service affiliation.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONNECTIONS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

DISA Highlights Increase in Use of Collaboration Tool
By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2013 - Use of a Web-based application designed to offer an information exchange environment for Defense Department users has grown markedly as defense spending cuts loom, Defense Information Systems Agency officials said.

Since 2007, Defense Connect Online has been the "go-to" mechanism among several new enterprises within DOD's networks that entrust remote services with a user's data and software through cloud computing.

Defense Connect Online is the designated enterprise tool allowing DOD partners to collaborate on either classified or unclassified networks, said Alfred Rivera, DISA's director of enterprise services.

"It's been the department's way of providing collaborative solutions ... for online meetings, document sharing, white-boarding and voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) capabilities, to include chat," Rivera said.

John Hale, DISA's chief of enterprise applications, said DCO is the Web-based solution fielded within DOD's private cloud so information can be exchanged among mission partners. "It really has been a facilitator of collaboration, ... including the ability to chat live with each other while you're doing it," he said. DCO users should note common access card requirements, with the option for non-CAC holder guest participation, Hale said.

As DOD faces an austere budget climate, DISA officials said, DCO and similar enterprise ventures have shown growth by virtue of cost savings. "We're starting to see a large increase in the use of Defense Connect Online, and in the last 60 to 90 days, there's been unprecedented growth," Hale said.

DISA officials continue to address technology solutions to meet increasing customer demands, Hale said, adding that programmers took necessary steps to ensure data security both at rest and at use within the system.

"The solution was built ... with security in mind, [and] that's one reason it leverages our current DOD private cloud as its native platform, ... because a certain amount of security comes with that environment," Hale said. "As [information technology] increases in complexity and users demand more and more instant capabilities, security is ... at the forefront of everything we do to ensure our nation's defense information is kept safe."

A maximum capacity of 2,000 users in 2007 has since increased to 4,000 concurrent users, Hale noted, but recent demands have accelerated capacity expansion.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be a good model; however, DCO capacity requirements have significantly increased by 33 percent during the last 60 to 90 days," he said.
To address the increased demand, DISA officials expedited a previously planned expansion project, and will double current capacity within the week.

"We will make several system upgrades within six to eight weeks which will allow us to add additional capacity beyond 8,000 in a streamlined fashion, as dictated by mission partner usage," Hale said.

Rivera said Defense Connect Online was DISA's first large endeavor as part of the agency's emergence into enterprise services. Another is enterprise email service. The Army was the first adopter of DOD Enterprise Email (DEE), said Alan Lewis, DISA's program executive officer for enterprise services.

"We currently have over 800,000 users on that system and are growing rapidly," Lewis said. "In the next two months, we'll have 1.5 million users on that system." Users include members of the Army, the Joint Staff and various combatant commands, among other military agencies, Lewis added.

DISA is the main service provider of high-end applications to DOD, its senior leaders said.

"What you're seeing is large growth across the board in terms of the service offerings from DISA to the entire department," Lewis said, noting plans to integrate mobile capabilities into all platforms.

Rivera said collaboration with the Army to determine whether or not the ventures were fiscally sound were worthwhile. "The results indicated that the Army would save around $74 million annually when moving to DEE versus them doing it themselves," Rivera said.

With an expected 1.4 million Army users taking advantage of DEE, other enterprise services such as the DOD Enterprise Portal Service and DCO consolidate common usage applications into large-scale platforms to bring cost savings to taxpayers, Hale said.

"Every organization is trying to save as much as possible to meet their mission needs," Hale said. "By offsetting the cost for these common services that everybody expects [and] using enterprise services, it allows organizations to focus their dollars back into their mission."

Rivera expressed confidence that Defense Connect Online and similar enterprises will weather the fiscal storm.

"It is one of those efficiency applications that the department can recognize as we look at ... strong budget cuts going on," he said. "This is one of our key enterprise applications that will continue to be a critical element as we move forward in this budget-constrained environment."

Rivera said he expects mission partners to use the enterprise not only for meetings, but also for operational discussions, distance learning and other capabilities.