Air Force to set data warehouse policy

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper will issue a policy soon that gives officials at the Air Force's commands and agencies guidelines and a deadline to start distributing information into the service's data warehouse.

The new policy aims to provide Air Force employees with the most current warfighting and business information to aid decision-making in combat. Managing data represents the most difficult problem facing Air Force officials during the next five years and presents numerous business opportunities for industry officials, said John Gilligan, the service's chief information officer.

"Data: this is what it's all about," Gilligan said. He spoke this morning during a breakfast meeting sponsored by the National Business Promotions and Conferences Inc., a company that holds meetings and seminars for government and industry officials.

The new policy builds on the memorandum issued last March by Air Force officials, "Air Force Information and Data Management Strategy Policy," which identified officials at the service's commands and agencies responsible for certain information. The memo defined data owners and stewards, data producers, communities of interest, and shared information spaces.

Air Force officials renamed their enterprise data warehouse the Air Force Knowledge Service last May. It will serve as the repository for Air Force employees to access the service's business and warfighting information. Air Force officials also will devise nine IT services to ease use of the data warehouse.