JIE Concept Creates Industry Opportunities

by Stephanie Meloni, Senior Analyst

In mid-May, AFCEA brought together industry and DOD leadership at the well-attended Joint Information Environment Symposium in Baltimore, MD. Government leaders from all of the service branches, along with a large presence from DISA, spoke about their future priorities and plans for JIE implementation, as well as the challenges and accomplishments they have encountered along the way thus far. The speakers were unified in their commitment to the JIE concept as they drive forward with execution.

Though JIE is not a program of record with funded dollars (but this could change with the 2015 NDAA), its implementation is the DOD’s top priority in the current fiscally constrained environment. JIE looks to eliminate inefficiencies in delivery of enterprise services and improve cyber defense through consolidation to a single security architecture. There are many ways that industry can assist with the DOD’s execution of JIE – here are two big JIE topics that present opportunity for industry:

Mobility

A huge near term goal of DISA is building out their “mobile ecosystem” – which includes their mobile device management program, communications infrastructure, mobile applications store, and device security and configuration.

DISA wants these elements to come together in a seamless mobile platform that is able to keep up with the rapid pace of mobile technology. The government would like security/identity management to be built directly into mobile devices – so that no CAC (Common Access Card) would be needed for users to access their devices. DISA also mentioned that they need a middleware product to manage identity credentials across the wide range of DOD-approved commercial mobile devices. They are also considering using GOTS/COTS mobile applications as a service or platform, and are looking at procuring COTS via an enterprise approach to maximize cost savings.

Data Center Consolidation

DOD services (mostly Army and Air Force so far) are moving forward with plans to migrate applications and data to DISA Core Data Centers (CDC), as well as optimize data center use. The end goal is to centralize data center infrastructure to improve security, recognize enterprise level efficiencies, and reduce operational costs.

Applications rationalization is the primary way that an agency can save money or identify cost savings as they migrate data to a CDC. DISA will be looking for industry partners to assist with building and patching applications that are in need of re-engineering as they are integrated into the new standard architecture. Once applications have been tested and migrated to CDCs, they will also require continuous monitoring to ensure security. The other main way DOD can get data center cost savings is through virtualization of CDC capabilities. Virtualization will require services and products for data archival, failover, backup, and disaster recovery to allow for continuity of operations (COOP).

 Understanding the JIE concept will be key for vendors looking to sell their solutions to the government. Remember that your solutions need to be tailored to demonstrate understanding of DOD’s priorities and fiscal constraints. The JIE concept offers plenty of opportunity to vendors as it is implemented in a more tactical way, but it is imperative to recognize the overall goals of JIE in order to give DOD customers the solutions they need in the most cost effective way. The JIE contractual opportunities mentioned above are still in the planning phases, so now is the best time to meet with customers to help shape their requirements.