DISA: Restructuring to Move at the Velocity of Action

The increasing pace of change across all battlefield domains requires the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to move at the "velocity of action” for the defense components and the military services the agency supports to win, according to agency leaders. To that end, DISA has undergone a major reorganization to create greater efficiencies across the force and enable greater interaction and collaboration with industry. The agency increased its number of centers that oversee a range of directorates from two to four. Each center has its own focus areas and offices working to achieve those mission sets, including the Digital Capabilities and Security Center, the Hosting and Compute Center, the Operation and Infrastructure Center, and the Enterprise Integration and Innovation Center. DISA leaders also released a strategic plan to share the agencies mission across five lines of effort through fiscal year 2024. The first one focuses on prioritizing command and control. DISA will prioritize C2 systems and capabilities to gain a “high ground” advantage over near-peer competitors and outside threats, according to DISA director Lt Gen. Robert Skinner. Other lines of efforts include, driving force readiness through innovation; leveraging data as a center of gravity; harmonizing cybersecurity and user experience and empowering the workforce.

Data is a vital strategic asset C2 leaders need to drive mission effectiveness through proper dissemination and utilization. Cloud infrastructure is the foundational component for the defense agencies to analyze and share data quickly, and critical to enabling the DoD’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept—which will securely pass data from sensors to war fighters. The bottom line is DISA is at the center of helping the DoD establish collaborative, integrated, digital environments that enable everyone across their enterprise to access the data, functions and elements needed to do their job in a purely digital manner.

Join AFCEA DC on January 20, 2022, to hear DISA leaders and decision makers discuss current progress and plans for achieving force readiness through innovation and other strategic goals by 2024.