US Navy Successfully Tests Cloud Based IaaS

November 24, 2009 by ADMIN

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By Kevin L. Jackson, Vice President at Dataline

Last month as part of the Navy’s annual Trident Warrior exercise, Dataline, LLC successfully demonstrated, that a standard shipboard communications infrastructure could be used to manage a commercial cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform.

Presented during the fall Trident Warrior ’10 (TW ’10) lab period, Dataline’s Secure Cloud Computing experiment used a simulated shipboard infrastructure to demonstrate secure access to selected collaboration and geospatial information service (GIS) applications.

The purpose was to validate the ability of a commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform to support Department of the Navy (DON) requirements for global connectivity, server failover and application access.

For this portion of the exercise, Dataline used the Amazon EC2 IaaS platform.

The experiment also used SecureParser® as part of the Unisys Stealth architecture to provide “data-in-motion” security.

Applications used included Oracle Beehive, ERDAS Apollo and the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) developed Transverse collaboration suite.

LCDR Caroline Lahman, Officer-in-Charge Navy FORCEnet San Diego, was pleased with the results noting a desire to continue these cloud computing experiments as part of the spring lab period.

During a recent interview Robert Carey, Navy Chief Information Officer also stated that cloud computing offered real value to the Navy.

Citing that both the Navy Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) and Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) programs will leverage cloud computing, he envisioned a future day when “Grey clouds” within a ship’s hull would eventually transition to clouds within the battle group.

The increased IT efficiency delivered through cloud computing would also enhance mission accomplishment by making more resources available for investment into naval mission platforms (ships and planes).

Mr. Carey sees ready access to authoritative data from the cloud as an important enabler to a real-time/near real-time decision making process, saying that the cloud delivers the ability to have a ubiquitous computing environment and interoperability.

After observing the experiment, SPAWAR representatives showed similar sentiments, saying that the Navy was actively considering the use of cloud computing technologies as part of its Naval Networks Enterprise-2016.

Trident Warrior ’10 is scheduled to continue with a second lab period in the spring 2010 and an at sea demonstration period after that.

For further information on the Trident Warrior lab based experiments, please contact LCDR Caroline Lahman (caroline.lahman@navy.mil).

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Kevin L. Jackson is currently a Vice President at Dataline, LLC. Prior to this position, he served in various senior management positions including VP, Federal Systems for Strategic Computer Solutions, Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM and VP IT Projects Office for JP Morgan Chase & Co. Kevin also retired from the US Navy earning specialties in Space Systems Engineering, Airborne Logistics and Airborne Command and Control. He also served as a Contracting Officer Technical Representative and Project Manager for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Mr. Jackson received his undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy in Aerospace Engineering, a MA in National Security & Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College, and a MS in Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering) from the Navy Postgraduate School.

Dataline is a leading transformational technology solutions provider to Department of Defense (DoD) and federal customers. Since 1990, our focus has been to integrate best-in-class technologies to provide robust, cost-effective Information Technology (IT) solutions for organizations of all sizes and missions of all criticalities.

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