Cloud migration is a critical Department of Defense priority. Yet new research shows that 96 percent of DoD IT decision makers are experiencing delays in their enterprise cloud migrations – and 68 percent say those delays are obstructing their department’s ability to meet its mission.

Clearly, finding ways to accelerate cloud adoption is of the utmost importance – both for these leaders and their departments as well as for national security. This is precisely why GDIT recently convened key stakeholders from the technology industry and from government for the third and final part of our annual Emerge event series.

The day-long event focused on the ways mission partners can rapidly and efficiently move to modern IT platforms and on the new technologies that are not just meeting the mission but advancing it on the battlefield and beyond. As one might imagine, there was ample discussion around critical enterprise clouds such as Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS), milCloud® 2.0 as well as the tools and technologies that are fueling the next generation of the cloud solutions – things like artificial intelligence, edge computing, advancements in cybersecurity and beyond.

It was a pleasure to hear from the leaders who are implementing emerging technologies on the ground and on the battlefield and to hear about their plans for the future.

Danielle Metz, the Department of Defense’s Deputy Chief Information Officer for Information Enterprise, talked about DEOS as part of one of the “most exciting and significant modernization efforts to date” at the DoD. She noted that the department is rethinking its business processes and working to better communicate and collaborate and looking at ways technology can enable teams to transform data into actionable information necessary to execute on the mission. She stressed that DoD “has the vision and blueprint needed to bridge the vast divide between the current environment and where we want to be.”

Caroline Bean, DISA Program Director of DEOS, talked about the cloud as an enterprise collaboration tool, noting that the pandemic forced DISA teams to work in new ways that would not traditionally have been supported in previous environments. The ability to work from anywhere “set the bar for how the DoD wanted to operate on a day-to-day basis going forward,” she said.

U.S. Representative Jim Langevin (RI-02) noted that in 2020 and the years leading up to the pandemic, investments in cloud technologies meant that DISA and agency CIO teams were able to keep thousands of military and civilian personnel safe and healthy by letting them conduct their work from home. “Their efforts also kept the Defense Enterprise up and running throughout the unsettling and disruptive nature of the pandemic. It’s not an exaggeration; and it underlies the transformative importance of cloud capabilities.” He also told attendees, of cloud adoption and acceleration, “We all understand the national security imperative. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.”

Indeed.

GDIT President Amy Gilliland noted that even with the recent advancements in cloud technology, “we've only just begun to realize the art of the possible with enterprise cloud.”, explaining that a future with seamless integration and speedy delivery of mission-critical data from secure clouds to a warfighter's handheld device is within reach. She highlighted that GDIT is already hard at work building the capability to drive enterprise cloud to the tactical edge.

Beyond the technology capability, Gilliland said that at GDIT, “We see no greater priority than our role in building and maintaining critical talent to carry out DOD's mission. We invest heavily in early career development and upskilling opportunities to enable us to bring the skills and technical certifications needed to support enterprise cloud deployment. And we recognize the importance of retaining the critical talent that has been an essential part of DOD programs by prioritizing internal mobility and professional development as core elements of our people strategy.”

When it comes to accelerating cloud adoption, there are challenges to collectively overcome but there is also immense opportunity in doing so. This is why GDIT works tirelessly to help customers solve and navigate these challenges so that they can capitalize on the opportunity in the cloud and advance their essential and uncompromising missions. Our focus is on accelerating technology to mission, collaborating with mission partners to do it, and delivering secure, successful solutions to customers.