Dataline launches SOA-R: Cloud Computing for National Security Applications

Last week, Dataline (my company), in collaboration with IBM, Google, Northrop Grumman, Cisco and Great-Circle Technologies, launched an initiative aimed at integrating an end-to-end solution for secure cloud computing. Called Service Oriented Architecture – Real Time (SOA-R), the goal is to provide the benefits of cloud computing and secure ad-hoc mobility in a modular, standards-based implementation framework to public sector organizations. By exploiting the advantages of a service oriented approach, web services and interfaces specific to the national security business domain are being developed and enhanced for deployment from and interface with a cloud computing infrastructure. By doing this, Dataline, in concert with its partners, looks to provide leading edge solutions without the risk typically associated with early adoption of leading edge technologies.

Like cloud computing, SOA-R has dual meanings. Whereas cloud computing refers to both a platform and type of application, SOA-R refers to a solution framework and domain specific solutions. To help understand these twin dualities consider the following descriptions:

• A cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures, and de-provisions servers as needed. In a SOA-R framework, the provisioning, configuring, reconfiguring and de-provisioning of servers is driven by national security domain specific rules, metrics and mission guidelines


• Cloud applications are applications that are extended to be accessible through the Internet from large datacenters and powerful servers that host Web applications and Web services. SOA-R applications are extended to be accessible through highly secure virtual private networks (VPN) tunnels and secure private networks (e.g. NIPRnet and SIPRnet). SOA-R applications are typically composite applications, served from powerful servers, and provided through Web Services from multiple organizations and datacenters.

For more information on SOA-R, a white paper is available. A series of educational events in McLean, VA has also been scheduled.