The Pentagon is expected to release its new cloud computing strategy within the next two months detailing how officials plan to integrate its multiple ongoing major cloud computing efforts, including the imminent $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, a top department technology official said Thursday.
John Hale, chief of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s cloud portfolio, told attendees at a Defense News event that the Pentagon’s chief information office is readying the new document to detail where critical department applications will fall within the larger multi-vendor cloud approach and address cost concerns with increasingly complex migration efforts.
“It’s going try bring together all those disparate efforts back together into a cohesive strategy from a departmental perspective. JEDI is one part of that picture, but the overall cloud strategy is about bringing together all of the disparate efforts across the department into a single strategy,” Hale said.
DISA’s MilCloud program, operated by General Dynamics [GD] Information Technology’s CSRA, works to offer commercial cloud computing services to the agency’s mission partners across the services.
The $10 billion JEDI program, which has faced schedule setbacks and criticism for its single-award contract structure, would overhaul DoD’s networks and set a cloud computing path for the military as the services look to take greater advantage of artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies.
Hale said DISA is working with DoD CIO Dana Deasy to ensure the new strategy clearly outlines where applications and new programs will fall between MilCloud and JEDI, while also maximizing return on investment as the services continue to migrate major systems over to the cloud.
“The question is now how do we bring all that data back together into a cohesive strategy, so that we can do the data analytics and the artificial intelligence work,” Hale said.
The new strategy will also work on guiding service technology officials toward making greater use of commercial cloud capacity and away from only “lifting and shifting” current applications over to the new computing environment, according to Hale.
“If you’re not taking advantage of what the cloud has to offer, then all you’re really doing is moving your compute and storage to another location but then you’re adding the transportation cost to the network in there. And the net result is going to be a less than favorable return on investment,” Hale said.
Hale also said he is working to reduce concerns of “vendor lock-in” as service officials look at a massive cloud computing contract such as JEDI and consider the potential challenges of having to eventually transition critical applications from one vendor to another in the future.
“My argument to mission partners is always don’t worry about that. Leverage everything that cloud vendor has to offer, because I guarantee you three, four or five years from now when you want to move from one vendor to another there’s going to be a hundred small companies that will help you make that transition.” Hale said. “Don’t worry about vendor lock-in. Do it, take advantage of everything the cloud has to offer because that’s the only way you’re going to get the true advantages from the cloud.”