Page 8 - FCW, August 15, 2016

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DOD’s JIE needs focus
The Defense Department’s push toward a common IT infrastructure lacks workforce planning and other management details, including a more precise scope, according to a Govern- ment Accountability Office report.
GAO said DOD has not fully defined the cost or scope of the Joint Infor- mation Environment or the cost of its primary element, the Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS). JIE will ulti- mately incorporate the many separate DOD networks into a common, shared global network — or at least that’s the plan.
“As a result of the program’s man- agement and planning weaknesses, DOD decision-makers and congres- sional stakeholders lack reliable information needed to make informed decisions about progress and needed changes,” the report states.
Furthermore, less-than-ideal proj- ect preparation and budgeting, weak workforce planning, and a lack of scope and objectives have blunted the effort significantly.
GAO said DOD provided various estimates of JRSS costs and in March approved a budget for fiscal 2017 through 2021. DOD officials described the budget as the JRSS cost baseline. It does not reflect the full estimated cost of JRSS, according to GAO.
Specifically, it does not include about $900 million already spent on JRSS in fiscal 2013 through 2016. According to the September 2015 esti- mate, which GAO said was the most recent available, JRSS was projected to cost about $1.7 billion from fiscal 2017 through 2021.
DOD officials partially concurred with nine recommendations in the report and said much of the informa- tion sought by GAO auditors was still in development.
— Mark Rockwell
132-56 is the new Schedule 70 SIN for health IT services, a segment with an annual
growth rate of 7.4 percent
Insider: People on the move
Vice Adm. Jan Tighe has moved into the post of deputy chief of naval oper- ations for information warfare and director of naval intelligence. She has served as commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and as U.S. Cyber Command deputy.
Tighe was a lead architect of Fleet Cyber Command’s five-year strat- egy developed in part in response to Iranian hacker intrusions into the Navy’s vast and widely distributed network. Her
work included a push to detect and differenti- ate between rou- tine and critical threats to that network.
Tighe’s
appointment
brings to a close
an embarrassing chapter in the history of naval intelligence. Her predeces- sor, Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, served in the post for more than two years with a suspended security clear- ance. His name came up in a corrup- tion investigation, and although he was never charged, his clearance was not restored. During his tenure, he was unable to view classified mate- rials and receive classified briefings, which severely curtailed his ability to do his job.
Vice Adm. Michael Gilday is tak- ing over for Tighe as commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command.
Senior NASA IT manager Roopangi Kadakia has taken on the top IT secu- rity job at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Kadakia, who was program execu- tive for security operations, web ser- vices and information management at NASA, became the VA’s chief informa- tion security officer in July. Previous CISO Brian Burns left the VA in June.
Kadakia’s solid information manage- ment, governance and security opera- tions experience in both the federal government and industry.
In her work at NASA, Kadakia man- aged the transfer of more than 160 systems to the cloud in one of the federal government’s largest cloud deployments.
The VA wants to move some of its diverse portfolio of applications to the cloud, and officials recent-
6 August 15, 2016 FCW.COM
Vice Adm. Jan Tighe
Vice Adm. Michael Gilday
ly announced that they would be tapping the National Insti- tutes of Health IT Acquisition and Assessment Center for help.
Before joining NASA, Kadakia served as CISO
VA CIO LaVerne Council touted
— FCW staff
at the International Finance Corp. and the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.
Council said Kadakia will apply that experience to the VA’s IT trans- formation.
“As we prepare for our next sprint toward our transformation goals, Ms. Kadakia’s unique experience will help us eliminate IT as a material weakness for VA, safeguard our employees’ and veterans’ data, move some of our own systems to the cloud, and strength- en security and oversight of our IT assets, systems and applications, all while ensuring all employees have the privileges and resources they need to perform their jobs,” Council wrote in an internal memo.
The VA’s Office of Inspector General has listed information security as a material weakness at the department for many years. Council has made it a priority to address the IG’s IT-related recommendations.
NAVY.MIL