Army Seeks Industry Input on Unified Data Reference Architecture Development

The U.S. Army is soliciting industry feedback on the ongoing development of a new framework to simplify data gathering and dissemination. The Unified Data Reference Architecture is being created to move away from outdated data collection and transfer mechanisms. URDA would be a cloud-based architecture that adopts new data mesh and data fabric principles to provide soldiers with fast, streamlined access to information from anywhere.

According to the request for information, vendors are invited to submit white papers containing information, recommendations and the capabilities they can provide to support the framework implementation. Responses are due by Dec. 2, Federal News Network reported.

URDA will initially provide data products to the corps level and above. The RFI said lower echelon levels can receive domain data products by exception only “until UDRA implementation and adoption lessons learned can be applied to extend the mesh toward tactical level units.”

Speaking at the Army Network Technical Exchange Meeting event in October, David Markowitz, the Army’s chief data officer, highlighted the need to have data move freely across data platforms, including the Army’s Vantage program, the Department of Defense’s Advana platform and the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Gabriel Nimbus. 

“The data platforms are a place to integrate and curate data, do analysis, and those are often tightly coupled to a place where you want to integrate data and experiment with so you can see if that integrated data is meeting the warfighters’ function,” Markowitz added.

The Army’s data efforts are part of the service’s Digital Transformation Strategy, which aims to provide soldiers with advanced capabilities to prepare for future threats and missions.