Tag Archives: open source

Cyberdefense and Information Assurance, Defense Department, DISA, tech, Web 2.0 and Social Media

FORGE.mil set for secret code

Update [7/22] I spoke with DISA’s Rob Vietmeyer yesterday. FORGE.mil currently consists of a collaborative software development site; it’s open to use by all of DOD and contractors with NIPRNet (and now SIPRNet) access to create applications that can be openly shared within DOD. The impetus for creating a classified net version of FORGE.mil came from STRATCOM and the Army–STRATCOM has already moved a project onto FORGE on SIPRNet.

Currently, the Navy is hosting the FORGE platform. By October, Vietmeyer said DISA will release a version running on RACE, DISA’s cloud computing platform, hosted out of DISA’s Defense Enterprise Computing Centers (DECCs). That will turn FORGE into a cloud application, distributed across multiple sites.

FORGE could potentially provide a platform for the services to create software repositories for government-owned and open-source code. The Navy currently is creating its own repository, called SHARE; SHARE is on SIPRNet because it contains code for C4ISR systems and other combat systems. THe move of FORGE onto SIPR means that it could conceivably become the platform to support SHARE. Vietmeyer says he’s been having regular conversations with the SHARE team, which is trying to create a taxonomy for all of the code in the Navy inventory–something that could be extremely useful for the other services if it gets ported over to a common platform.

The development projects on the SIPR side of FORGE either use classified algorithms that are restricted to government use but are shareable within DOD, or are continuations of unclassified open and community source projects that need access to classified data. A large percentage of them, Vietmeyer says, are C4ISR related. Based on STRATCOM’s recent elevation of cyberwarfare as a mission, it’s possible that development of cyber command and control applications is one of the projects that made STRATCOM eager to have a SIPR version of FORGE.mil.

While FORGE.mil is free right now, and for shared projects only, the upcoming ProjectForge capability will allow DISA customers to pay for a private portal for collaborative software development within the Global Information Grid, advancing DISA’s goal to become a cloud service provider for DOD and related agencies and organizations.

From DISA, release on 7/20:

FORGE.MIL NOW READY FOR CLASSIFIED PROJECTS

Arlington, Va. – The Defense Department’s newest collaborative software development tool is now available for use in a classified development environment. The Defense Information Systems Agency granted Forge.mil Interim Authority to Operate on SIPRNet, the DoD’s classified version of the civilian Internet.

“This was a remaining crucial capability to offer our DoD development community,” said Rob Vietmeyer, Forge.mil Project Director. “With 2200 users, 500 contributors with engaged development and 93 projects on Forge.mil, we’ll now be able to offer even more with this IATO for classified use up to SECRET,” he added.

Forge.mil enables collaborative software development and cross-program sharing of software, system components, and services in support of net-centric operations and warfare. Already in Initial Operational Capability for unclassified use, Forge.mil is a collaborative environment for shared development of open source and DoD community source software. DISA expects four more components of Forge.mil to be launched in future releases: CertificationForge, which will support agile certification; ProjectForge, which will provide private project portals; StandardsForge, which will drive collaborative standards development; and TestForge, which will provide on-demand software testing tools.

Forge.mil is available to the U.S. military, DoD government civilians, and DoD contractors for new and existing projects, enabling the organizations to save money, to improve software development efficiency, and to drive collaborative dynamics that help deliver better software faster to the warfighter. To register or host a project on Forge.mil, visit http://www.disa.mil/forge for more information.
DISA, a Combat Support Agency, engineers and provides command and control capabilities and enterprise infrastructure to continuously operate and assure a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint warfighters, National level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations.

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Defense Department, Other Federal Agencies, Policy, tech

Attention (to the) Deficit

At the state level, there’s been at least a partial sigh of relief over the stimulus package (no…not THAT stimulus package). But now comes the knife–President Obama says he’s going to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term with a combination of tax increases (well, non-renewed tax cuts to wealthier Americans) and budget cuts. The biggest piece of the reduction is predicted to be the savings from the draw-down of troops in Iraq and the resulting reduction in GWOT (that’s Global War On Terror) outlays.

But there’s sure to be some serious slashes elsewhere. Considering the ongoing (and expanding) cost of Afghanistan, and that the Defense budget itself is going to be fairly static for at least the next 2 fiscal years aside from GWOT dollars, there’s going to have to be cutting elsewhere.

Arguably, that could be *good* for government IT spending, because improvements in efficiency through new technology will be key to getting the deficit down in a down economy. But the question is, where to start?

There’s a quick and dirty answer to that: procurement reform. The current approach to developing and purchasing just about anything, but particularly technology, is slow, odious and inefficient.

It’s not that the regulations prevent the government from buying things intelligently– as Charlie Croom said last year in an interview I did with him, “There’s nothing in the FAR that says you have to be stupid.” But there has to be a fundamental change in the culture of development and acquisition–there has to be incentive for reducing scope, investing in real technology standards (de facto, not arbitrary), and increasing flexibility for vendors in solving problems.

A study published by Steve O’Keefe’s Meritalk, Red Hat and DLT suggests that there are billions to be saved in a shift to the latest crop of de-facto standard technologies:

Over three years, the potential savings would be US$3.7 billion for using open-source software; $13.3 billion for using virtualization technologies; and $6.6 billion from cloud computing or software-as-a-service, the study said.

While it’s a vendor study–and a study sponsored by vendors who stand to make money over a shift to open standards and the like–there’s still plenty to chew on there. Sure, there are regulatory hurdles to leap to use some of these technologies, but the main barrier to adopting these approaches is cultural.

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