BALTIMORE–The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is actively seeking partnerships with cyber industry providers to help in its efforts to update defense platforms and increase military software capability, while supporting the Joint Force Headquarters – Department of Defense Information Networks (JFHQ-DODIN) missions, according to Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, DISA’s director.
Lynn, who also serves as Commander of JFHQ-DODIN, delivered the opening keynote address at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) Defense Cyber Operations Symposium where he addressed his agency’s upcoming goals, such as creating virtualized networks and developing new identity authentication technology, as areas where they are looking for industry help.
“I don’t think we can do anything without industry. The more we can partner with industry it’s a win-win,” Lynn said. ”The future is mapped together with military and those in industry and not in uniform.”
A main point for DISA is working towards seeking industry help to speed up the process of creating GreyNet systems for military agencies. This would phase out legacy infrastructure which is device dependent, hardware heavy and requires classified data to remain on separate networks.
“A grey network allows us to essentially encrypt at the endpoint,” Lynn said, who emphasized the technology’s software-defined networking capabilities as a particular goal for DISA.
DISA is also interested in acquiring industry help with creating virtualized networks, to facilitate the process of moving on from corrupted networks without losing data, and exploring high bandwidth light capability, such as LiFi communication technology.
Lynn touted the roll-out of recently awarded contracts to aid with DISA operations and JFHQ-DODIN operations, including $48 million to Information technology (IT) company CSRA Inc. [CSRA] for MilCloud 2.0 to help continue the movement of Department of Defense data to the cloud and the $17.5 billion Encore III project to implement IT enterprise policies.
“If there’s data we can push out to the commercial cloud that’s good news for us. That should in theory reduce our costs,” Lynn said.
DISA hopes to further progress in the area of assured identity authentication technology. Lynn discussed building on “Gait” recognition technology, to help officials determine the identity of suspects based on how they walk, not just facial and voice recognition.
Other goals for DISA include increased graphics processing unit acceleration for DoD systems, building on mobile device security successes and exploring real-time computing technology.
“Our team is going to be checking out the AFCEA exhibits with an open mind. It’s a definite plus when we can see who in the industry can address our needs and help to build better partnerships.”