Greetings!
The COVID-19 medical emergency continues to turn life upside down, and for many of us, it has been a pivotal change in how we work, parent and spend our leisure time. As the nation continues to recover from the fallout of the pandemic, the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer and IT Teams across the DON press ahead with innovating, modernizing and delivering IT capabilities.
As DON CIO Aaron Weis explains in his column, while he had to ensure infrastructure upgrades and collaboration tools were in place to support maximum telework, DON IT leadership recognized this watershed event as a turning pointing in pressing forward with the objectives of the DON Information Superiority Vision (ISV) published in February. The timing of the ISV release was fortunate because now DON IT Teams were energized and poised to innovate solutions to respond to immediate needs as well as to formulate capabilities to achieve the long-term vision of a cloud-based infrastructure mission-ready for technologies, like 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other technologies that may be just on the horizon.
To accomplish this, the DON CIO and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN(RDA)) are fostering a cultural transformation in how the development and acquisition communities deliver IT capabilities. Instead of delivering one-of-a kind systems, the goal is to build and deliver a single overarching IT infrastructure, and software code and applications that can be reused to deliver many IT solutions — from business systems, manpower and personnel systems — to tactical networks and combat systems.
Changes in delivering IT solutions will be incremental and hard, yet transformational in approach, scope and outcomes. There is nothing more important than ensuring Sailors, Marines, and civilians have every advantage in the information environment in any fight. Starting with the current issue of CHIPS Magazine, the DON CIO and IT Teams are providing updates in each vision area to keep you informed of progress.
Yes, the times are trying, but in reading about the work performed throughout the department, you see a Navy-Marine Corps Team that is resilient, focused, agile, inspired and inspiring!
On the home front, we are grateful to healthcare professionals and other frontline workers who make our daily lives safer.
I’ll close with a request from Mr. Weis, “If you have an initiative that is advancing the ISV — that is helping to Modernize the infrastructure, deploying Innovative technologies, or Defending our information and systems; an example of how we are using Data for decision-making, or a story focused on the achievements and contributions of our valued DON cybersecurity/IT workforce, we would love to share your story in CHIPS magazine.”
Be strong! Stay well!
Sharon Anderson
Sharon Anderson is the CHIPS senior editor. She can be reached at chips@navy.mil .