Three Emerging Innovative Technologies Required for Cyber Operations to Execute Commander’s Intent at Machine Speed

Abstract

Decision advantage for the DoD and Combined Cyber Operations results from the secure, seamless, and rapid maneuver of data and information. In the DoD’s 2018 Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the DoD recognized that it must, “put in place key building blocks and platforms to scale and democratize access to AI. This includes creating a common foundation of shared data, reusable tools, frameworks and standards, and cloud and edge services.” More than ever, integrated, adaptive cyber operations provide the means of maneuver for data to enable DoD’s decision advantage-based goals. To support this vision, the integrated implementation three innovative cyber technologies must be rapidly realized across DoD Networks in order to execute cyber operations according to Commander’s Intent—at machine speed. Getting Information to the “edge” is what makes DoD competitive and provides advantage. The word “edge” in this context reflects the distributed individual platforms, sensors, and people who comprise the scale and scope of today’s globally networked DoD operations. That edge is creating the demand to access data and consume information as never before, and a greater need for more innovation to support DoD cyber operations on the DoD Information Network (DODIN). At the heart of the need for innovation is an increased demand for data and information, as well as the size and scale of networks and networking exploding without a proportionate growth in the IT resources to support today’s cyber operational demand. If the network continues to grow exponentially and must function as the medium of maneuver for the data that provides DoD decision advantage to the edge, then the DoD must deploy revolutionary innovations to reinvent the network as an integrated platform for cyber operations—across the enterprise and to the edge and implemented natively as hybrid multicloud-ready. Three innovative, next-generation networking technologies, integrated tightly together, offer the opportunity for DoD to provide revolutionary cyber operations capabilities across the DODIN and produce improved, data-enabled mission results. The scalable and seamless integration of: (1) advanced identity management, (2) software-defined networking, and (3) hybrid multicloud capabilities provides a Commander’s Intent-driven Cyber Platform implemented in a zero trust architecture that operates at machine speed and ensures decision advantage for the DoD.