DOD enterprise service structure in the works, official says

Guidelines for the Defense Department’s move toward enterprisewide services are being drafted that will define and coordinate governance and creation of capabilities for a secure, collaborative working environment across DOD, according to an official from the Pentagon's Office of the Chief Informatio Office.

"We’re developing an overarching DOD strategy for enterprise services," said John Shea, director of Enterprise Services and Integration for DOD's CIO Office. "The [strategy] will establish and define governance and three categories for services: mandatory, shared and functional capabilities. It [also] assigns management and governance responsibilities for mandatory and shared enterprise services to [the] assistant secretary of defense [for networks and information integration].”

“Right now, we’re awaiting [that official's] signature to enter into the DOD SD-106 coordination processes,” which collects comments from the military services, combatant commands and principal staff activities, Shea said.

Shea said his office is working to implement strong processes to screen candidates for enterprise services. “We have 12 candidates as of January 2010,” Shea said, including soon-to-be core services such as Forge.mil and machine-to-machine messaging.

The “800-pound gorilla in the room” is cloud computing, according to Shea. “We definitely want to get there, but how? That’s something we’re working on. In early 2011 we will begin planning how to migrate [DOD] to the cloud,” Shea said.

Progress in enterprise service implementation is already affecting operations throughout DOD, including at the tactical level that serves as the bull’s-eye for DOD’s efforts, according to Rebecca Harris, program director of Program Executive Office, Global Information Grid Enterprise Services at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

“We are fundamentally shaking up how we operate. At the end of the day it’s simply about delivering capabilities to the warfighter,” Harris said.