Cloud computing is the next game-changer, 18th Airborne CTO says

Though military tech has advanced significantly in recent years, there is room to go further. Cloud technologies grant real-time data access to troops on the ground, helping to facilitate safer and more accurate decision-making. 


Cloud computing will fundamentally transform the Army’s ability to empower commanders to operate from anywhere in the world while improving soldiers’ lives, the chief technology officer for “America’s Contingency Corps” told Inside Defense.

Expanded cloud computing and edge computing will resolve longstanding challenges the service has faced over how to access data, which has shaped issues ranging from where to station commanders to how to carry around computer and network technologies, said Jared Summers, chief technology officer for the 18th Airborne Corps.

“The cloud is just the next, I would say, iteration in our ability to have the data, to derive insight and then to act faster than anyone else,” Summers said.

For the 18th Airborne, Summers said, the cloud will speed up decision making by improving access to real-time data and computing power at the tactical edge.

Traditionally, Summers said, commanders deploying to a conflict or responding to a natural disaster had to face a choice: stay at a well-resourced operations center where access to a robust flow of data is available or deploy forward to be closer to the crisis but leave behind the resources of a place like Ft. Bragg, NC, where the 18th Airborne is based.

But that’s changing, he said.

“With the cloud, with edge computing and with modern transport, the commander no longer has to decide between the two because it allows us to deliver the exact same capabilities at the tactical edge that we could do at our operation center, for example,” he said. “So that allows our current commander to be completely mobile and present wherever he needs to be, but not lose the situational awareness to be able to actually see the entire corps area of operations, for example.”

For a highly mobile unit like the 18th Airborne, cloud computing, importantly, also means carrying less gear, he said.

“To the greatest extent that we can minimize the equipment that we physically need to bring the better off that everyone is,” he said.

But Army leaders have long suggested that soldiers don’t always understand how data is making them better off. Though easy access to data should lead to better decisions and easier processes, the Army needs to make sure soldiers are bought-in to data transformation for the service to make the best use of new technology, the Army CIO has said.

Summers said he agreed with that sentiment: “A culture change is 100% required, and we have spent a ton of time and effort to drive that cultural change across all echelons.”

 

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