DoD to Hold Cloud Acquisition Industry Day

By Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ignacio D. Perez and Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2018 — The Defense Department will host an industry day for the ongoing cloud acquisition effort, March 7, in Arlington, Virginia, chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White announced today.

She said industry day reinforces the commitment to attaining the best value for the American people by emphasizing importance of fair trade and open competition.

“For years, Congress urged the department to streamline the way we buy, sustain, and invest in capabilities. Under this administration, we are making that reform a reality,” White said. “We achieve this by leveraging the innovation and ingenuity of the private industry.”

Benefits of Cloud Computing

During a symposium hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency in December, Army Lt. Gen. Alan R. Lynn, a former DISA director, listed the benefits to cloud-based computing.

“You build a lake of information that you can pull from, and that’s a big benefit that helps with warfighting,” he said. “If we need [a certain amount] of logistics to go here, and an amount of ammunition to go there, we’re now able to correlate all those different pieces at one time, which is very powerful for the warfighter.”

Other benefits include fiscal savings by using virtual equipment and hiring contractors to do the computing at a cheaper, at-scale rate, Lynn said, and information can be moved around the network, making it harder to be attacked.

Industry days are events held by DoD program management offices to present plans for current or future acquisition to industry representatives as an opportunity for the government to expresses its goals, schedule and solicit feedback.