The roots of the current Defense Department information technology culture can be traced to the Brooks Act of 1965. This legislation reflected a mainframe view of computing. Its purpose was to limit the growth of data centers to constrain costs. The Brooks Act was based on the assumption that if the General Services Administration would [...]

PIA-based hybrid networks differ from the client-server environment and even more from the mainframe data center environment. For example, in the client-server environment, there are multiple links from desktops to the servers. An estimated 15,000 networks are in place in the Defense Department providing such connectivity. In the hybrid cloud environment, there is only a [...]

The majority of the 2.5 million military, civilian or reserve personnel in the U.S. Defense Department do not care much about the technical details of computing. Users only wish to receive answers reliably and quickly. Requested information needs to be available regardless of the computing device they use. Responses must be secure. No restrictions should [...]

In May there was an AFCEA conference that addressed computing strategies in the cloud environment. Following comments were attributed to DoD senior speakers: * "If we're doing cloud purely to save money, we're going to fail.""You've got to look at it as a large investment in resources, and that will be the challenge.""IT leaders can [...]

As IT infrastructures become more complex close to 70% of a typical IT operating budget will be spent on maintenance. This will leave only limited money available for new development and for capital purchases. What is needed is a method how to extract systems from existing inefficiencies. A way must be found how to place [...]