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Media ContactMaryann Karinch
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Federal IT Architects Describe Plans, Priorities at The Open Group ConferenceAir Force, Navy, Army, and DHS Senior IT Execs Shed Light on IT Strategies; All Roads Point to Boundaryless Information Flow™Washington, DC – October 22, 2003 – “Integration is the key issue,” said John Gilligan, Air Force Chief Information Officer as he set the theme for a series of complementary presentations from Senior Government IT Executives at Boundaryless Information Flow & Enterprise Architecture, The Open Group’s Fall 2003 Conference. The event opened Monday and runs through Friday at the Sheraton Premiere at Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. The opening plenary session at the conference also featured Brigadier General (P) Dennis C. Moran, Director of Information Operations, Networks and Space, Headquarters Department of The Army; Fred Riedl, Open Architecture, Program Executive Office, Integrated Warfare Systems, United States Navy; and Amy Wheelock, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security. The speakers agreed on two fundamental points: Their agencies shared a common approach to architecture, and they believe that approach will substantially advance their systems and applications toward interoperability. “Our members heard that integrating information and providing
access to that integrated information in a secure, reliable and timely
manner are becoming increasingly critical,” said Allen Brown, President & CEO
of The Open Group. “It supports our members’ vision of Boundaryless
Information Flow. They also heard that enterprise architecture best practices
are now more important to achieving these goals.” In his address, “Interconnecting the Edges,” General Moran summarized the Army approach with two phrases: “Factory to Foxhole” and “Space to Mud.” The first captures the seamless integration of systems that the Army requires, and the second, the intent to take advantage of all opportunities from the heavens to the earth. The goal is to give the soldier, “Smart pull of data rather than a dumb push of data,” that is, information entered anywhere in the Global Information Grid (GIG) should be available anywhere in the GIG. Moving into next steps, General Moran also stated that the Army is approaching Future Combat System Architecture in a “revolutionary way.” The key is a “network centric force” that can operate on a dynamic battlefield. Fred Reidl expressed the Navy’s business and technical rationale for open architecture in his presentation, “Introducing Open Architecture into Naval Systems.” He also reiterated the assertion made by previous speakers that, in terms of enterprise architecture, the branches of the military were working from “the same sheet of music.” In explaining the underpinning of the Navy enterprise approach, Reidl hit hard on the value of international standards. While acknowledging that not all functional areas are covered by standards, he said the Navy was nevertheless “always looking to move into the standards domain.” He also noted that one of the Navy’s unique contributions to Federal architecture programs was recently published research on real-time performance needs. Amy Wheelock presented details of the Department of Homeland Defense Enterprise Architecture, which took shape just four months after the new agency opened its doors. She covered both the business and data architecture, noting that the former addresses roughly 80 business activities of DHS. In emphasizing why architecture is so important to DHS in achieving its mission, she noted, “The Department of Homeland Security was established to share information.” Presentations of the opening speakers are currently available at www.opengroup.org/conference-live. About The Open GroupThe Open Group, a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, has a vision of Boundaryless Information Flow achieved through global interoperability in a secure, reliable and timely manner. The Open Group’s mission is to drive the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow by working with customers to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies, and share best practices; working with suppliers, consortia and standards bodies to develop consensus and facilitate interoperability, to evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; offering a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and developing and operating the industry's premier certification service and encouraging procurement of certified products. |
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