Air Force | Government Sales Insider

A peek inside the government’s cyber strategy

June 13, 2017 by Nick Mirabile Leave a comment

By Nick Mirabile, director of cybersecurity

It seems like every month there’s a new high-profile cyberattack wreaking havoc on our networks. Which is why we recently gathered three federal IT leaders to talk about cybersecurity and how they’re safeguarding their agencies in an era of emerging threats.

This panel discussion last month was fascinating, with success stories on what they’re doing to protect networks, as well as the biggest challenges for how to stay ahead of the threats. I picked up on a few themes important for companies selling cybersecurity solutions to agencies:

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Filed under event Tagged with Air Force, attribute based access control, CDM, cybersecurity, Department of Homeland Security, Identity and access management, National Security Agency

One of the fastest growing IT trends at Air Force

June 8, 2017 by Stephanie Meloni Leave a comment

By Stephanie Meloni, consultant

The Air Force has begun piloting agile methodology in some of its key programs, and we can expect to see this as a growing trend throughout the service and the rest of the Department of Defense, as agile methodology adoption picks up based on acquisition guidance.

The main theme of the AFCEA Montgomery IT Summit (MITS) was using agile development to help the Air Force make data-driven decisions. The service views its data as a strategic asset and leaders point to using data to facilitate decisions that will outsmart adversaries as part of the Third Offset Strategy.

The Program Executive Officer of the Business and Enterprise Systems (PEO BES) office, Rich Aldridge, kicked off the conference by speaking about the challenges that his organization faces when it comes to systems development, which has led the Air Force down the path of using agile development to counter cost, schedule and risk as a way forward.

Here are just a few key priorities the Air Force will be examining as it works to make its software systems more agile:

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Filed under Market Intelligence, Sales Tagged with agile development, Air Force, cybersecurity, data analytics, Department of Defense, mobility

Air Force Fine Tunes Its Cyber Policy

September 28, 2016 by Stephanie Meloni Leave a comment

Stephanie Meloni_65x85 cybersecurity_092816 By Stephanie Meloni, Consultant

Two main themes emerged at the recent Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower Conference (AFITC) that will affect future Air Force cyber activities: increased automation and further integration of cyber across all warfighting domains.

Air Force senior leaders gathered at AFITC in Alabama to discuss their vision for the future of cyber operations across the organization as the service evolves its cyber practices and discovers vulnerabilities in networks and weapon systems.

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Filed under Market Intelligence, Sales Tagged with AFITC, Air Force, Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower Conference, Automation, cybersecurity

3 Air Force IT Opportunities to Pursue

May 17, 2016 by Stephanie Meloni 1 Comment

By Stephanie Meloni, Senior Analyst Stephanie Meloni_65x85

If you listened to my Selling IT to the Air Force Webinar last week, you probably heard a recurring theme: Air Force is driving toward multi-domain operations. This means syncing operations between air, land, space, and cyber.

The good news is the service has the budget for it. The Air Force is actually one place in the Defense Department that’s had an increase in its FY17 IT budget request—3 percent higher from the FY16 enacted budget. There’s a jump in requested funding for both buckets of money—steady state (also known as OPEX) and DME (also known as CAPEX)—for acquisition of new capabilities, with about a $120 million jump for FY17.

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Filed under Market Intelligence Tagged with Air Force, command and control applications, cybersecurity, data collection and analysis, Defense Department, infrastructure management, networking, Selling IT to the Air Force Webinar

Future Operating Concept Creating Opportunities for Tech Companies

May 5, 2016 by Stephanie Meloni Leave a comment

Air Force Graphic_240x138 By Stephanie Meloni, Senior Analyst

The Air Force is starting to shift IT priorities toward space, cyberspace, and C2ISR, which speaks to the service’s overall plan for future operations. The Air Force will want to achieve dominance across all domains in order to enable air superiority. This will be one of many topics covered during my one-hour Webinar on Air Force IT Sales Opportunities: Where to Aim High in FY17 on May 12.

The Air Force Future Operating Concept will depend on operating in a multi-domain environment. This means the Air Force wants to synchronize information coming from air, ground, intelligence, and especially cyberspace in order to get the full picture of what is happening across the warfighting domain.

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Filed under Market Intelligence Tagged with Air Force, Air Force Future Operating Concept, Air Force IT Sales Opportunities Webinar, applications integration, C2ISR, cybersecurity, Information Technology, infrastructure management, middleware, networking

3 Ways Industry Can Help Government Cloud Adoption

May 3, 2016 by Lloyd McCoy Jr. Leave a comment

By Lloyd McCoy Jr., DOD Manager

If you attended our recent Cloud Briefing & G Cloud Briefing 41216-3 overnment Panel, you likely heard a recurring message from the federal leaders who spoke: They need help from industry.

Moving to the cloud has been a bigger challenge than expected as summed up by Office of the DOD CIO cloud lead Robert Vietmeyer, who spoke on our government panel: “This stuff is hard. Leadership is bought into your marketing pitch,” he told attendees, largely representing cloud providers. “We all want better, faster, cheaper. We just found it’s more difficult to get from where we are today to where we all want to be.”

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Filed under Contracting, Market Intelligence Tagged with Air Force, Cloud, cloud security, data loss prevention, Department of Defense, Frank Konieczny, Janice Haith, NASA, Navy, procurement law, Roopangi Kadakia

Automation and Cybersecurity Take Center Stage in Air Force FY15 IT Modernization Priorities

December 9, 2014 by Stephanie Meloni 1 Comment

by Stephanie Meloni, Senior Analyst

Last week, key Air Force leaders engaged with industry at AFCEA NOVA’s Air Force IT Day to speak about opportunities and challenges their organizations are facing, and where they need industry support. The Air Force is the only one of the military services to request an increase in their IT budget for FY15; within their $5.9B request for FY15, about $2.3B is earmarked for capital expenditures for the Air Force to purchase new technologies and capabilities. This shows their commitment to focus on more innovative solutions that meet challenges they face every day. The Air Force wants to be able to incorporate more emerging technologies into their operations and leverage inputs from experts in industry, academia, and the rest of DOD.

Since Air Force’s main priority for FY15 is IT modernization, they’re going to want to spend theirs IT dollars on either technologies that will help them save money on operations —which allows them to divert funds to modernization efforts — or technologies that will help drive new and innovative capabilities.

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