The Department of Defense released its Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan on Tuesday that will allow the department to use the latest in commercial mobile technology inside a department-wide solution.
The plan updates the DOD’s mobile strategy, released in June 2012, with specific goals and objectives aimed at capitalizing on the full potential of mobile devices.
“The Department of Defense is taking a leadership role in leveraging mobile device technology by ensuring its workforce is empowered with mobile devices,” said DOD Chief Information Officer Teri Takai.
The plan will establish a framework to equip the DOD’s 600,000 mobile-device users with secure classified and protected unclassified mobile solutions that leverage commercial off-the-shelf products. The framework will also promote the development and use of mobile applications to improve functionality, decrease costs and enable increased personal productivity.
According to the department, the plan orchestrates a series of operational pilots from across DOD components that will incorporate lessons learned, ensure interoperability, refine technical requirements, influence commercial standards and create operational efficiencies for DOD mobile users.
“The DoD Mobile Device Strategy and Implementation Plan aim to align the various mobile devices, pilots and initiatives across DoD under common objectives to ensure the warfighter benefits from these activities and aligns with efforts in the Joint Information Environment,” Takai said. “This is not simply about embracing the newest technology – it is about keeping the Department’s workforce relevant in an era when information accessibility and cybersecurity play a critical role in mission success.”
The Pentagon released a fact sheet about the plan:
- The scope of the Implementation Plan includes unclassified and classified devices and considers cost management and technical objectives. The plan was developed in conjunction with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Additionally, it incorporates many of the Services’ technology development efforts in a spiral approach.
- The Implementation Plan deploys a new NSA security architecture for classified devices. This new architecture permits the use of commercial products for classified communications for the first time.
- DISA recently released the Mobile Device Management (MDM)/Mobile Application Store (MAS) Request for Proposal (RFP), which will establish the infrastructure called for in the implementation plan.
- The DoD Mobility Strategy and Implementation Plan are designed to ensure that the wireless infrastructure, mobile devices, and mobile application are reliable, secure and flexible enough to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies.
- A specific goal of the CMD Implementation Plan is the development of an enterprise mobile device management capability and application store to support approximately 100, 000 multivendor devices by February 2014.
- DoD currently has more than 600,000 Commercial Mobile Devices in operational and pilot use, including 470,000 Blackberries, 41,000 Apple Operating Systems and 8,700 Android Systems.
Department of Defense Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan by
