DISA plan calls for cloud-centric GIG

Future management of the Global Information Grid will shift from a net-centric model toward cloud-based convergence, the Defense Information Systems Agency says in a newly released GIG strategic plan.

The plan (.pdf), dated Aug. 2, calls for creation in the short term of private cloud environments with government-owned or -leased equipment on the GIG unclassified and secret-level networks, to be dubbed "DoD Platforms." DISA should automate account provisioning and system configuration, the plan says--and in doing so, drive down labor costs, "which are a significant portion of the rates that DISA must charge for IT services."

In the long term (the strategy doesn't define what constitutes short nor long terms), the DoD Platform for the unclassified environment could be hosted on a commercial-government hybrid cloud with the government still in charge of identity authentication. Security classification environments should be reduced to two, the plan says--one unclassified and one classified.

DISA also calls for the short-term migration of end-user applications to the cloud and increased adoption of virtual desktops on end-user devices.

Virtual environments permit access from multiple devices, the strategy notes, and are cheaper from a software-management and security perspective.

In the mid term, DISA says it will adopt container technology to permit mobile devices to access the unclassified environment and so enable bring-your-own-device.

In the long term, applications should be able to dynamically adjust to the device they're being utilized on, and to the device's connection bandwidth and run in thin- or thick-client modes depending on the operating environment. Application servers should be stateful, and storing and forwarding "will be considered an extension of routine stateful information exchange in adverse environments." The plan also calls for a standardized development environment.

It also describes a three-main layered target technical architecture--see below.

For more:
- download the GIG Convergence Master Plan 2012 (.pdf)

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