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Public Sector Cloud Computing Case Study: DISA
Department of Defense (Defense Information Systems Agency) – Rapid Access Computing Environment
Using cloud computing technology to provide on-demand virtual server space for development teams
Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) provides Information Technology support to the Department of Defense (DoD). DISA began leveraging cloud computing in 2008 by creating its own secure private cloud, the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE). RACE, which uses virtual server technology to provide on-demand server space for development teams, aims to be more secure and stable than a traditional public cloud.
RACE consists of many virtual servers inside a single physical server. By using virtualization technologies, DISA has divided the costs of provisioning and operating a single physical server among the users of the various virtual servers. This system passes cost savings on to individual teams. Within this virtual environment, users can use a self-service portal to provision computing resources in 50 GB increments with the guarantee that the environment will be secure to DoD standards. At DoD, a dedicated server environment used to take three to six weeks to provision due to lengthy procurement processes. However, RACE is able to provision functional server space to users in 24 hours. The cost for a user to obtain an environment on RACE is reasonable and can be set up with an approved Government credit card.
According to DISA, personnel can expect the same level of service and availability when using RACE over a traditional environment. Additionally, for security purposes RACE has built-in application separation controls so that all applications, databases and Web servers are separate from each other. DISA also has a strict data cleansing process for when an application needs to be removed completely from the RACE platform. Since the inception of this cloud-based solution, hundreds of military applications including command and control systems, convoy control systems, and satellite programs have been developed and tested on RACE.1
1 Defense Information Systems Agency, May 2010.
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