DISA Opens New Command and Control Modernization Facility

The Defense Information Systems Agency has opened the Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill, a facility designed to support the agency’s command and control modernization efforts.

The center will serve as a hub where Department of Defense IT network requests are load-balanced across active data centers. Since its conception, the center has helped DISA replace aging infrastructure with a passive optical network and has increased operational and support seating.

The center is located within the Ogden Data Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, DISA said.

Aside from command and control modernization, the DOD agency has also been focusing on zero trust enhancements.

In early June, DISA and ManTech International entered into a partnership to design the Pentagon’s Zero Trust Reference Architecture for the Zero Trust Government Laboratory. David Hathaway, defense sector general manager at ManTech, said the framework will help the DOD GovLab’s cybersecurity posture and enable secure cloud migration and digital transformation.

In May, DISA Director Robert Skinner, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said the agency had started full-production efforts for the Thunderdome zero trust program. Thunderdome is designed to protect the Pentagon’s data through a combination of methods, including secure access service edge and software-defined wide-area network.