Manufacturing Paradigm Shift Towards Better Cloud Computing in the Military Environment: A New Model for Collaboration in the Operational Information Exchange Networks

Abstract

Today’s budgets are tighter than those at any time in recent history. However, despite severe budget constraints, military demands for highly dynamic federated mission are still increasing especially toward Information Technology (IT). This introduces new challenges for organizations. They are moving from a device-centric view of IT toward a view that is application, people, and information centric. Military organizations are not excluded from this new process which is the fundament of a new theory called Network Enabled Capability (NEC). In addition, the requirements of timeliness, accuracy, ubiquity, assurance and security, rapid exchange of information in the battlefield across all pieces and organizations are the leverage to accomplish the military mission and fundamental for the command and control process also defined with the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act cycle (OODA). Cloud Computing aligns, on one hand, with this new world view and challenges, as the existing infrastructures can be used more efficiently and expanded quicker and leverage the implementation of NEC in the military operations where concepts like information assurance, information sharing, flexibility and scalability are getting more and more important. On the other hand it raises new threats and issues such as the erosion of trust boundaries, ubiquitous connectivity, the amorphous nature of information interchange, the ineffectiveness of traditional static security controls, and the dynamic nature of Cloud services. All this requires new thinking and a new knowledge management approach. However, the new service models, operational models and new technology employed to enable the implementation of Cloud Computing may present different risks and additional requirements to the organization. Especially military specific requirements and priorities need to be considered when moving towards tactical Collaborative Cloud. The information exchange requirements in the military operation/mission are growing and getting more complex. In addition security mechanisms and processes often hamper the mission to keep pace with the environmental conditions. Methods such as Reach Back or Home Base clarify that also the military perimeter has changed and modern Command, Control and Information System (CCIS) are best practice for Cloud Computing. This chapter will describe the landscape of Cloud Computing and will focus the view on the possibility of implementing this new concept in the military world. The strengths and the weakness that the implementation of Cloud Computing can introduce in the military operations will be highlighted. In addition, an analysis on what Cloud Computing introduces in the NEC is presented as a starting point for future and more specific studies.