Army DCIO conference brings cyber leadership together

by 2nd Lt. Meredith Hein
24th Air Force Public Affairs

4/7/2014 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- The Army Deputy Chief Information Officer Conference, a collaborative effort among the Army, Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), wrapped up March 28 at Kelly Field Annex.

The conference, aimed at improving information technology efficiencies, multi-service operability and effective support to Combatant Commanders, lasted four days and brought together more than 140 participants from across the Army, Air Force, Navy and DISA.

Fourteen senior leaders participated in the conference, including Lt. Gen. Robert S. Farrell, Army Chief Information Officer; Mr. Michael Krieger, Army Deputy Chief Information Officer; Lt. Gen. Edward C. Cardon, commanding general, Army Cyber; and Mr. Mark Orndorff, Chief Information Assurance Executive for DISA.

"One of the purposes of this conference is to bring the Air Force, Army, and DISA partnership together in developing the Joint Regional Security Stack [JRSS] and Multi-Protocol Label Switching [MPLS] for the Joint Information Environment [JIE] under the single security architecture," said Lt. Col. Bernard Cruz, Chief of Cyber Innovation and Strategy and JIE lead planner for 24th Air Force.

The conference is held quarterly at various locations to focus and approve the details for the following three months of joint network activities, but this is the first time 24th AF has hosted the event.

Unique to this iteration was the opportunity to discuss how the Air Force conducts command and control for cyber operations. Maj. Gen. J. Kevin McLaughlin, 24th Air Force commander, briefed the conference attendees on the Air Force's role in the development and standing up of the cyber mission force and cyber protection teams.

During this discussion, Army and Air Force counterparts were able to discuss the different command and control constructs between the two branches and explain how Department of Defense Information Network operations interact with 24th AF.

"The Air Force is committed to assisting the Army to meet the desired JRSS implementation schedule. The Air Force is equally committed to maintaining its security posture throughout its own transition," said Col. Eric Oliver, Director of Cyber Systems for 24th AF.

The conference participants were divided into four working groups with objectives to be briefed at the conclusion of the conference. The working groups involved: JRSS and MPLS, command and control roles and responsibilities, enterprise service management systems and extending enterprise identity and enterprise services.

"Getting the services together and moving the cyber architecture forward is a historic event," said Cruz. "Having this collaboration is critical to the future of cyber operations for the DoD."

The conference enabled inter-service cooperation for the cyber domain. In addition, this was the first step for the Navy in participating in the conference.

"We're already collaborating in these areas," said Cruz. "These partnerships will facilitate necessary innovation to move the cyber operations mission forward for the future."