Distributed Mission Command and Cloud Applications at the Tactical Edge
Solicitation Number: W909MY-18-R-TEM2
The U.S. Army will hold a tactical network related Technical Exchange Meeting on 8 May 2018 in Seattle, Wa. The goal of the event is to assist traditional industry partners, non-traditional industry partners, and academia in identifying and aligning their research efforts with Army tactical network modernization priorities as it relates to distributed mission command at the tactical edge.
This events' focus is specific to enabling Army units to operate with elastic compute and storage in a disrupted, intermittent, and latent network environment. This event is meant for a technical audience to include software engineers, architecture experts, researchers, and integrators. The day will be spent discussing, in detail, the current challenge areas and potential utilization for dynamic allocation of mission command data and fostering discussion with industry and academia to assess these problems in the context of a modern network at the tactical edge. Representatives from Army program offices and the Network Cross Functional Team will be part of the technical exchange forum. Forum registration will close on 27 April 2018.
The event will have multiple sessions covering different topical areas of interest with sign-in beginning at 0800 and the event ending not later than 1630.
INDUSTRY TECHNICAL EXCHANGE MEETING BACKGROUND AND FOCUS
The Defense Innovation Board, Army Senior Leaders, and stakeholders all recognize the potential for cloud to enable AIrtificial Intelligence (AI), high data computing, and reduce Size Weight and Power (SWAP) considerations for tactical operations. The Network Cross Functional Team with Army partners will host a distributed mission command/cloud computing technical exchange meeting as a means of exploring the art of the possible to meet Army network needs.
The intent of the session is to enhance our Government-and-industry communication and enable industry to respond quicker to critical emerging requirements with innovative technology solutions and partnerships. This event will serve as a collaborative session for industry Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Government SMEs to delve into the challenges, future potential, and solutions to provide distributed computing at the tactical edge.
GOVERNMENT QUESTIONS
The Government hopes to use information and insights gathered in the event to answer and inform the following questions and conderations:
1. Given a DIL environment, how can we more efficiently employ elastic compute and storage at the tactical edge?
2. What are the current solutions to increase mobility and efficiently compute at the tactical edge, while reducing size, weight, and power?
3. How do we best use cloud capabilities to improve user experience?
4. What HCI strategies are available to best use cloud enabled analytics and multiple discrete data sources?
5. How do we set conditions, given DIL, to build an elastic cloud architecture to improve decision making as the battlefield becomes increasingly instrumented (IoT)?
6. How do we modernize our applications to exploit the advantages of cloud? Strategies for moving from discrete single platform applications move toward an elastic, scalable, resource sharing application environment.
7. Strategies for real time protecting and preserving data, code integrity, and assured data voracity to support tactical decision making.
8. How can cloud improve command post mobility and survivability?
9. How could the Army employ cloud strategies to reduce total cost of ownership, improve affordability, and improve security?
10. What cloud strategies could the Army insert in the present tactical architecture immediately?
INDUSTRY QUESTIONS
Industry questions will be permitted during the Technical Exchange Meeting; however, questions in regards to any portfolio system in current source selection will not be allowed. The Army will make every effort to answer all questions posed during the forum. Additionally, you may submit topical questions prior to the event as part of the registration RSVP form. There is an area on the form for you to submit questions.
REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS
In order to obtain maximum participation from industry, vendors are limited to 3 personnel per company or major subsidiary. It is not required to have participated in a previous Industry Day/Forum or be a current Army vendor in order to register for this event. Registration for the event must be submitted by not later than 1300 ET on 27 April 2018 via email to CPT Adam Grines at adam.c.grines.mil@mail.mil with a carbon copy to Ms. Shahaadah Nalls at shahaadah.c.nalls.civ@mail.mil. Instructions are contained in Attachment 0001.
A confirmation email with a complete final agenda for the Exchange Meeting, location and parking instructions will be provided after the registration process is completed, no later than Monday, 30 April 2018. Attendance at the event will be on a first come first serve basis, with a waiting list available in the event of cancellations.
This event is not a marketing or tradeshow, it is a unique opportunity for your engineers to interact with Government experts in a collaborative environment. This is a closed media event. Maximum emphasis will be placed on an open discussion and collaboration with attendees and Government.