Northrop Grumman & Lockheed Martin Selected for CANES

   Last week the US Navy awarded initial CANES contracts to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Navy officials place the contract values at $775M for Northrop and $937M for Lockheed. As the key development program for afloat information technology infrastructures, this program represents the Navy's next-generation command and control, integrating servers, workstations, and networking systems to the Global Information Grid.


   As I wrote in "CANES and the CLOUD", CANES can be seen as the Navy’s transition to virtualization, SOA and cloud computing.The Navy's CIO, Robert Carey, Carey has suggested that cloud computing seems to be a logical step forward to make computing more effective and efficient, and that both NGEN and CANES programs would leverage cloud computing. He also has described a future of “grey clouds” on each ship. Carey has, in fact, consistently presented a view that the Navy must take advantage of this transformational opportunity to leverage its computing assets as part of NNE 2016. While recognizing that the Navy’s ships at sea and Marine war fighting units present challenges unique to the naval service, he views most garrison environments as prime candidates to test cloud computing. Citing CANES as a representational step towards his goals, he has outlined parallel paths of defining where the cloud computing model is applicable, and defining a business case to develop new applications within this new cloud model.

    Since the Navy's Space and Naval System's Command (SPAWAR) is actively evaluating where and how cloud computing can be best applied and  the Navy's CIO seems to be a strong proponent of moving in this direction, Northrop and Lockheed seem poised to be major players in the Defense Department's transition to the cloud.






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NCOIC Analyses Cloud Computing With SCOPE

Last week, the Network Centric Operations Consortium (NCOIC) Cloud Computing Working Group (CCWG) started it's work on cloud interoperability in earnest. The first step in their process is the completion of a Systems, Capabilities, Operations, Programs and Enterprises (SCOPE) model. As an analysis tool, SCOPE is used to characterize interoperability-relevant aspects of a system or capability in terms of a set of dimensions. Organized hierarchically, these dimensions (and possible sub-dimensions) represent specific aspects of a system or its surrounding environment. This process enables a quantitative and/or qualitative interoperability assessment of the target system or capability.  With the development of a cloud interoperability best practice as a goal, the NCOIC CCWG is working to identify all significant cloud computing dimensions.

The SCOPE model includes four top-level categories of dimensions:

• Net-Readiness: Ability to deliver capability in a network context. 
• Capability/Domain-Independent Scope: The range of scope or context supported. 
• Capability/Domain-Dependent Scope: The nature, quantity, quality, speed, etc., of capability provided to meet operational needs. 
• Technical/Economic Feasibility: The feasibility or risk associated with providing capability.

Candidate lower level dimensions specific to cloud computing thus far identified by the group include:

• Cloud resource visibility
• Cloud resource control
• Cloud resource responsiveness
• Cloud geographic footprint
• Data portability

SCOPE also allows for the explicit analysis of some important operational "couplings", such as:

• Cloud geographic footprint and data ownership laws
• Cloud resource responsiveness and cloud resource ownership
• Cloud resource control and resource control granularity

Companies participating in this process include Boeing, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Harris and Raytheon.
The NCOIC CCWG will continue it's SCOPE anaylsis durning the organizations next plenary session, March 1-5, 2010 in Falls Church, VA.





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TASER Awarded: The NGA ASP/ISP Transition Contract

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded the Total Application Services for Enterprise Requirements (TASER) contract to:

• Accenture National Security Services, LLC
• BAE Systems Information Technology, Inc.
• The Boeing Company-Autometric, Inc.
• Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.
• Computer Services Corporation Enforcement, Security & Intelligence Group
• Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.
• General Dynamics One Source
• Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services
• NJVC, LLC
• Northrop Grumman, Inc.
• OG Systems, Inc.
• QVine Corporation
• Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems; and
• Science Application International Corporation.

TASER will be used to obtain engineering services across multiple functional categories including: engineering and trade studies; pilots and prototypes; integration and deployment; and application sustainment. When the RFP was released, NGA stated that TASER was part of its transition to an Application Service Provider/Infrastructure Service Provider (ASP/ISP) model. The agency also said that it was seeking innovative industry approaches for realization of cost savings in the area of application services.

One year ago in an Information Week interview with John Foley, I talked about how GeoEye was using Appistry's cloud platform, in lieu of its own data center, to host NGA applications. Although that was a pilot effort, some see TASER as an ideal vehicle for NGA to realize it's vision of establishing a GEOINT distributed computing cloud.

Just last week, DigitalGlobe announced that it has signed a contract to modify its service level agreement with NGA. The original option, if exercised, provided for a single nine-month extension of the term from April 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. The modified option grants NGA the option to extend the SLA for three months on the same terms, from April 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010 with six additional options, each for a one-month period, with the last option term expiring on December 31, 2010. This web-services solution is clearly using cloud computing techniques.

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EuroCloud Expands Quickly

Last October I introduced EuroCloud as a pan-European business network with the goal of promoting European use of cloud computing.  In the intervening three months, the organization has grown to include representation from 16 countries with four additional ones in the pipeline! According to Bernd Becker, an Eurocloud executive, the organization has experienced strong enthusiastic support.

Officially founded in Paris on Jan 29th, 2010, EuroCloud promotes SaaS and Cloud services across Europe. Drivers for the creation of this group include:

• Europe has a fast growing SaaS and Cloud Computing industry, but each country is currently operating separately with few contacts in other European countries.
• National SaaS vendors are growing and are looking to build European and international relationships through business and technological partnerships.
• The European Authorities do not currently recognize the European Cloud Computing industry, which is an industry that can help stimulate the economic and technological environment to promote new Cloud Computing industries; and
• Cloud Computing implies application integration into an Application-Oriented Ecosystem. Developing new application partnerships, both European and worldwide represents the next crucial step.

As an organizing tenet, EuroCloud relies on a two-level framework including respect to local cultures along with the will to promote a real European spirit.

 

For more on EuroCloud visit there website.  National organization information is available for the following countries:

• Denmark
• Germany
• Finland
• France
• Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom

Partner program information is also available.

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Joining NJVC: A Professional Plateau

This week I begin a new and exciting phase of my professional career by joining the NJVC Enterprise Management Team!

For those unfamiliar, NJVC is one of the largest information technology (IT) solutions providers supporting the United States Department of Defense. The company provides quality IT solutions to the federal government and specializes in supporting intelligence, defense and geospatial organizations, including its largest customer, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). NJVC has more than 1,100 employees located in three offices, including its headquarters in Vienna, Va., and facilities in Arnold and St. Louis, Mo.

In joining the company as an Engineering Fellow, my initial and complementary duties will be to:

• Serve as an Enterprise Management Officer on a team of watch officers responsible for delivering high satisfaction to our customers through efficient management of day-to-day activities; and
• Support the company's newly announced cloud computing solution, specifically designed to address the unique security requirements of the intelligence and defense communities.

As my regular readers know, the use of cloud computing technologies to support DoD and intelligence community missions is a personal passion. NJVC is realizing this promise by implementing a secure, reliable and cost-effective private cloud solution powered by the Appistry CloudIQ Platform. I am proud to join NJVC in providing this solution offering to its customers, allowing them to concentrate resources on their core missions. The value of the cloud computing approach was clearly demonstrated during a secure cloud computing pilot study at the company's Center for Technology Integration facility, which accurately simulates the enterprise environment of a large intelligence community network. Pilot result analysis showed astounding performance gains.

I look forward to continuing this ongoing dialog with you, my readers, and welcome your comments and/or inquiries.

Our commitment is unwavering.
Day in and day out, our 1000+ dedicated and talented employees go to extraordinary lengths to provide the best IT services possible, so our customers are free to concentrate on their mission. NJVC provides a full lifecycle of secure, innovative ITIS solutions for some of the world's most demanding customers. With a passion for doing things faster, better and smarter - and technical expertise to deliver - NJVC is driven by your mission.

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