DOD Eyes Single Ecosystem for All Military Software Factories

The Department of Defense wants to create a single ecosystem that would connect all its 29 software factories and deliver software at a rapid pace.

The plan is one of three main objectives cited in the Pentagon’s new software modernization strategy, which was approved by Deputy Defense Secretary and 2022 Wash100 winner Kathleen Hicks. According to DOD officials, the software factory ecosystem would take advantage of investments made by each military service.

Jason Weiss, chief software officer of the Defense Department, said there are some elements in software factories that can be scaled down to reduce costs and improve efficiency. He noted that identifying what can be improved will ensure that the ecosystem will grow and operate with greater scale and precision, Breaking Defense reported.

The DOD’s Software Modernization Senior Steering Group will develop an implementation plan within the next six months. Weiss added that a task force under the steering group will recommend best practices and policy changes related to commercial technology insertion.

The new modernization strategy warned that the organization’s current technology acquisition and implementation process cannot keep up with the pace of modernization. It also calls on the Pentagon to ensure that adopted software standards would benefit the global community.

Other objectives in the modernization plan are to improve the workforce and accelerate the department’s enterprise cloud environments.

On the cloud front, the DOD is still looking at a multi-cloud, multi-vendor approach for its Joint Warfighting Cloud Computing program. The approach would ensure that both the Pentagon and commercial cloud service providers would work together to deploy secure services and ensure transparency of cybersecurity activities.