DoD unveils IT integration, interoperability strategy
NewsJune 26, 2024
WASHINGTON. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) released its plans to drive interoperability and integration in information technology (IT) across the department, with a new blueprint called "Fulcrum: DOD Information Technology Advancement Strategy" that emphasizes an IT approach that ensures future capabilities align with warfighter needs.
According to a DoD news release, DoD Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer Leslie A. Beavers introduced the strategy during this year's Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's TechNet Cyber symposium, saying that the department's vision for IT integrates the National Security Strategy with key DoD strategic management, software management, and cybersecurity plans.
In introducing the strategy, the department reported, Beavers emphasized the role of leaders across the department in achieving success: Fulcrum provides decision-makers throughout the enterprise with "tangible steps to take to turn that strategic vision into an operational reality," Beavers said, noting the department's need to prioritize interoperability and security when solving digital problems at all levels of the enterprise. The strategy will guide the department's approach to building an "interoperable, integrated, digital platform," Beavers added.
The DoD reports that the Fulcrum approach is organized around four lines of effort:
- Providing joint warfighting IT capabilities to expand strategic dominance of U.S. forces and mission partners
- Modernizing information networks to meet mission requirements
- Optimizing IT governance to gain efficiencies in capability delivery and enable cost savings
- Cultivating a premier digital workforce ready to deploy emerging technology to the warfighter
In her letter introducing the strategy, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said: "To achieve this objective, this strategy focuses on ensuring our IT systems are fully integrated, our capabilities are best in class, our infrastructure is resilient and secure, and our IT management processes are efficient and agile enough to move at the speed and scale needed to support and achieve our operational needs at any given moment."
