DISA’s new HaCC office reflects hybrid cloud reality for DOD
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has established a new office that acknowledges the benefits of hybrid cloud solutions for military defense IT systems. The agency merged its Cloud Computing Program Office with its Service Enterprise Doctorate and Ecosystem and other entities and formed the Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC). This merge was done to create a more connected and efficient system and move away from the binary choice of physical data centers or services hosted in the cloud and towards a more hybrid form of computing.
The HaCC oversees the services that, due to sensitivity, cannot be stored off-premises at a data center not managed by the DoD but is also in charge of the DoD’s upcoming commercial cloud purchase, known as the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC). It is the belief of the DoD that this hybrid cloud model can bring together the disparate command and control systems with cloud interconnectivity and data analytics to enhance decision-making capabilities. The cloud hosting and computing will address cloud hosting inside and outside the US, all classification levels, and the addresses where cloud connected warfighters operate to deliver a more efficient and interconnected system.
“On-prem isn’t just about my application being too old to ever go in the cloud. There are very legitimate reasons, whether it’s for resiliency or because of the sensitivity of the data, that the application, the workload needs to stay on-prem.”, stated Sharon Woods, the head of the newly formed HaCC, in an interview with FedScoop.
This hybrid form of cloud computing should allow the DoD to operate at scale using the power of cloud computing while leveraging on-premises facilities and operations for information that is too sensitive or critical to handle off-premises. The message is that organizations do not have to choose one or the other.
More information can be found at: https://www.fedscoop.com/disas-new-hacc-office-reflects-hybrid-cloud-reality-for-dod/