Apr 27, 2021
The Defense Department launched the Commercial Virtual Remote environment to accommodate telework during the COVID-19 pandemic. It quickly became the largest Microsoft Teams deployment in the world and brought department-wide collaboration tools to DOD after years of less successful attempts.
DOD employees have embraced the tools and the silo-spanning interactions they enable, but CVR was always intended to be a temporary fix. Therefore, the Defense Information Systems Agency is working hard to ensure that the collaboration doesn’t fade when CVR sunsets in July.
Les Benito, director of operations at DISA’s Cloud Computing Program Office, said Global Directory is the key. He told FCW that the initiative will provide “a cloud-wide identity” as the military services spin up their own Microsoft 365 environments under the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.
Apr 27, 2021
During the pandemic, the Defense Department’s Commercial Virtual Remote quickly became the largest Microsoft Teams deployment in the world, bringing departmentwide collaboration tools to DOD.
While employees embraced the platform, CVR was always intended to be a temporary fix. Now, the Defense Information Systems Agency is working hard to ensure that hard-won collaboration tools and practices don’t disappear when CVR sunsets in July.
According to Les Benito, director of operations at DISA’s Cloud Computing Program Office, Global Directory is the key, providing “a cloudwide identity” as the military services spin up their own Microsoft 365 environments under the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.
The first five agencies are expected to move to DODNet by the end of fiscal 2021. Along the way, IT personnel at those agencies will become DISA employees as part of efforts to make DISA the single service provider for DOD’s administrative support agencies.
Strengthening telework security
In its refreshed three-year strategy, DISA stresses cyber defense, cloud and enterprise services. Initiatives also include expanding the availability of secure telework options such as the Cloud-Based Internet Isolation (CBII) program, which creates an air gap between DOD’s networks and internet browser activity to keep website vulnerabilities at bay, and an upgrade to the technical infrastructure for the Non-classified IP Router Network and the Secret IP Router Network.
Les Benito, director of operations at DISA’s Cloud Computing Program Office, said Global Directory is the key. He told FCW that the initiative will provide “a cloud-wide identity” as the military services spin up their own Microsoft 365 environments under the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.
DISA began developing Global Directory last summer with the goal of augmenting, not replacing, existing identity and access management systems, Benito added. System owners “still control access within their individual tenancies,” he said, but having a shared identity framework will allow for “a CVR-like experience that users have grown to expect.”
A minimum viable product was tested in the fall, and DISA is now using Global Directory for its DOD365 implementation. In addition, the Army and Navy have adopted it for their DEOS implementations, with the Air Force and the U.S. Southern Command coming on board in April and “others to follow this summer,” Benito
How will the DoD’s next multibillion-dollar IT contract fare after messy JEDI deal? 1 hour ago The Pentagon is trying to acquire common IT services through the $11.2 billion Defense Enclave Services contract. (Peggy Frierson/Defense Media Activity) Consider these two quotes about two contracts the Department of Defense says are key to modernizing networks and advancing its computing power: “The war fighter is absolutely waiting for this.” “It is one of the crown jewels that we have as part of our IT reform.” The first quote is how former U.S. Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy described the department’s need for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract in August 2019. More than a year and a half later, the enterprise cloud that was supposed to house data across all classification levels hasn’t been built despite a contract award in late 2019.