Cloud technologies have become widely adopted across the federal government. The Department of Defense made a significant investment in cloud at the end of 2022 with its $9 billion multi-vendor JWCC contract. But now, two years later, what’s on the horizon for cloud in the public sector?
According to Steve Derr, vice president of Oracle’s JWCC program management office and Cloud Operations and Engineering, multi-cloud is the next big thing.
“The DOD and Intelligence Community have moved from largely a single cloud provider to four cloud service providers, greatly expanding the capabilities available to the mission owners across the government,” said Derr in a video interview with Executive Mosaic. “While moving from a single cloud to multiple clouds is certainly the initial phase of the journey, the next phase is multi-cloud.”
“In a multi-cloud environment, workloads can be divided between cloud service providers to enhance resiliency, they can provide access to new capabilities and provide options to mission owners that didn’t previously exist,” added Derr.
The Benefits of Multi-Cloud
Cloud environments are proving to be essential in the modern defense landscape, especially outside of the continental United States. And cloud technologies are increasingly critical in realizing the DOD’s CJADC2 initiative, as they help to connect disparate operations through a centralized environment.
“One of the additional capabilities from a multi-cloud aspect is driving the service offerings OCONUS. So there’s a lot of focus around the joint operational edge, the mission partner environment, enabling Five Eyes and coalition partners,” Derr explained.
“The more cloud service providers can extend their capabilities to the edge, like with our roving edge devices, our roving edge station, our ultras, to really push the capabilities that largely exist in the CONUS and the government clouds closer to the edge, closer to where the warfighters are — that’s an extensive benefit for the government,” shared Derr.
Enabling Multi-Cloud Partnerships
As the government shifts toward multi-cloud environments over singular cloud service providers, partnerships will be critical. Oracle has established partnerships with its fellow JWCC vendors Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services, bolstering the capabilities the company can deliver to its DOD and IC customers.
“We look forward to the opportunity to leverage these technology partnerships to benefit the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, the rest of the government. To make this a reality though, we’ll need a partnership with the government between themselves and the cloud service providers to establish the appropriate security governance for these offerings and drive the accreditation process to achieve that authority to operate,” said Derr.
Advancing Cloud Missions With 4×24
One key venue for establishing public-private partnerships and collaborating on cloud initiatives, Derr highlighted, is Executive Mosaic’s 4×24 Executive Leadership program. Derr is the chair of the program’s Cloud Group, leading a series of insightful and productive networking dinners with senior industry executives and government officials.
“These events offer a great venue for in-depth discussions that lead to valuable outcomes for the government, as well as an avenue for business and industry partners to ask open questions about the needs, the requirements and the upcoming strategies of these government leaders,” said Derr.
Be a part of Derr’s group! Learn more about 4×24 and see if you qualify for the program.
