The Defense Department's information technology move to the cloud will rapidly deliver advantages to the battlefield by enabling new machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, Dana W. White, chief Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters today.
White said the existing DoD IT infrastructure is a federated legacy environment based on earlier technology.
“Transitioning from legacy systems to the cloud will improve security, data accessibility, affordability and performance for both the warfighter and business operations across the department,” she explained.
The department is best served by a highly competitive and innovative technology industrial base, she said, adding that DoD is looking for a fully interoperable, user-friendly, affordable and secure cloud solution.
“Cloud” can mean many different things to different people. Cloud computing is the use of servers pooled together to provide virtual computing, storage, and additional services. With JEDI Cloud, DoD is pursuing infrastructure and platform as a service, which is the foundational layer necessary to enable advanced capabilities such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The Cloud Contract
“Acquiring software is not like acquiring ships or planes, but we must adhere to the same acquisition language and laws,” White said. “This contract is an example of how we are modernizing the department and reforming the way…
