The Path Forward: Realizing the DoD Joint Cloud

Evolving requirements and technology advances prompted the Department of Defense (DoD) to cancel the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud contract. The DoD’s enterprise cloud requirements will now be realized through the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC), a multi-vendor enterprise cloud spanning the entire department in all three security levels from headquarters to the tactical edge, at scale.  The enterprise cloud capability is critical to enabling the department’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept—which will securely pass data from sensors to war fighters—and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration (ADA) initiative.

Meanwhile, The United States faces persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns that threaten the nation’s security. U.S. officials are struggling to seize the offense against a surge in supply chain and ransomware attacks. To that end, DOD and its components must deploy secure cloud services that allow them to detect and quickly respond to cyberattacks on their cloud infrastructures. Momentum is building for agencies to implement the Zero Trust cybersecurity strategy and framework that embeds security throughout enterprise architectures to prevent malicious actors from accessing the most critical assets. The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) Zero Trust Reference Architecture that embeds security throughout the architecture, instead of only at the perimeter, bolsters this momentum.

At the same time, the DoD and the military services are embracing DevSecOps, which aims to incorporate security throughout the software development cycle. Defense agencies are taking a hard look at the tools, policies, procedures, and automation capabilities needed to deploy software and capabilities into different clouds.

Going forward military services still have a need for fit-for-purpose clouds and existing cloud options such as the Air Force’s Cloud One and DISA’s milCloud 2.0 will not collapse into JWCC. Mission owners must be in the position to decide what cloud environment works best for them, DoD officials say.  The move to a joint cloud strategy is still a daunting undertaking for such a vast enterprise as the DoD.  What are the challenges that could hamper the unfolding of the DoD enterprise cloud strategy? How will all the military service components be onboarded?

Join AFCEA DC’s event on December 14, 2021, to hear leading defense technologists and acquisition specialists discuss DoD’s enterprise cloud strategy and the best practices, processes, people, and technology needed to realize that vision.

New for this year!

The luncheon series will be held in person at the Army Navy Country Club, as well as live streamed through Vimeo. 

Registrations for the virtual component of this event will not be honored onsite.