In 2013, the Defense Informations Systems Agency (DISA) developed an on-premise cloud solution for the DoD – milCloud 1.0. DISA continues to operate and manage this solution, but since its inception, cloud based services have grown in complexity and functionality. The DoD is now looking for a change. According to a report released by DISA, they are now realigning capabilities to leverage the cloud in order to:
- Reduce operational costs
- Release available resources
- Enhance standardization
- Increase agility and responsiveness to the changing needs of mission partners
In order to keep up with this new direction, the DoD is planning to launch milCloud 2.0, for exclusive use by DoD users and their data; built, operated, and maintained on DoD property.
John Hale, Chief of the DISA Cloud Portfolio, emphasized the importance of the migration from milCloud 1.0 to 2.0, and noted that ownership and responsibility of recovery costs in traditional hosting environments typically fall upon mission partners, whereas milCloud 2.0 infrastructure costs would be shared, creating a financially sound alternative to the traditional model.
“By leveraging cloud capability — both commercial on-premise and off-premise capability — we can bring significant savings to the department and we can also provide a new, agile functionality to our mission partners going forward,” said Hale.
In the near future, DISA plans to:
- Deliver and enhance milCloud 1.0 capabilities to ease mission partner migration to the platform while increasing automation.
- Develop and deliver cloud access points (CAPs), which provide secure access to commercial cloud provider’s services allowing DOD to safely and securely leverage those services off premise.
- Revise and evolve the DOD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG). The latest version was released in March 2016.
- Guide commercial cloud service providers through the provisional authorizations process.