Defense Department Chief Information Officer Teri Takai emphasized the need for a measured, standardized approach to cloud computing adoption, while speaking May 24 at an AFCEA International event in Fairfax, Va.

"We don't want to see an ad hoc move to the cloud, we want to see a DoD-wide perspective," said Takai. "[We're] working on an overarching cloud computing strategy that can begin to drive our efforts to that."

The department is now moving systems to virtualized and standardized environments, in preparation for cloud migration. It's also consolidating email and tagging data in order to build an identity management structure that will translate to future cloud implementations, she said.

As a departmentwide cloud strategy takes shape, Takai said she's considering when DoD should buy, when to build, how many clouds the DoD should use, what they will look like, and the ability to interoperate and integrate cloud services.

"Now people get really nervous about [standardization]. They say, 'If you do things one way it can't be secure, because you're going to have single points of failure and single points of vulnerability,'" said Takai. "I've been at DoD long enough to know, we are never going to do everything one way. My challenge is to begin doing things in more standardized ways--not way."

According to Takai, DoD must stop creating new infrastructure every time it meets a challenge and scale back the infrastructure it currently runs. In theater and at military bases that accomodate multiple services, "we have to think about bringing that together," said Takai.

"I always get nervous when we talk about consolidation because it tends to be equated with saving money. And while that's important, what's as important from a foundation perspective is being able to standardize, being able to simplify and being able to operate in a much more uniform way, because that then is going to enable us to protect our networks."

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