The military cloud: Balancing security and accessibility
June 26, 2013
Grazed from Defense Systems. Author: John Edwards.
The Defense Department’s long-term IT strategy calls for storing and distributing virtually all data, even its most sensitive information, in the cloud. In January, the agency reported that it is fully committed to shifting to a cloud computing environment, citing cost, efficiency and user accessibility benefits.
The CIA is already on the path to secure cloud services. After attempting to build a private cloud, the agency and other intelligence organizations opted to turn to commercial sources and awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services in late January. IBM protested the award to the Government Accountability Office, and GAO ruled in IBM’s favor. Negotiations to determine the final resolution are still under way, but observers expect the CIA to continue its migration to a cloud-based system…
Although cloud services are highly attractive to a DOD that’s facing both a tighter budget and soaring IT demands, some worry that the technology isn’t mature enough to ensure the safety of sensitive data shared between and within military organizations. Mark Cohn, chief technology officer at Unisys Federal Systems, based in Reston, Va., noted that it’s possible to argue that "cloud technology stacks are less mature in the sense that we don’t have as long a history of defending them against the most sophisticated attackers at the level of national security systems, so [they] are therefore simply less proven."…
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