Reflections on DoDIIS 2019: Resiliency, redundancy, and security

One of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s biggest events is the annual Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) Conference. In August, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) brought together over 3,700 experts and innovators from government and industry at DoDIIS to share their insights on this year’s conference theme – Resiliency, Redundancy and Security: Adapting to Asymmetric Threats.

DIA provides intelligence that delivers decision advantage in support of military missions globally. It recognizes that the Intelligence Community faces a data explosion and rapid technology changes that challenge its ability to quickly deliver insightful and actionable intelligence. The cloud has become central to the Intelligence Community’s IT strategy to remain agile, adaptive, and accessible at the mission edge.

For years, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has helped the federal government harness the power of the cloud to transform its mission and create a better world by enabling rapid sourcing, enrichment, and analysis of massive amounts of global data to reveal insight and actionable intelligence.

In his keynote address, DIA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley shared his vision for the agency. He challenged the Intelligence Community to solve problems at scale, connect to Internet of Things (IoT) to provide useful information, and apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to rapidly make sense of data. AWS enables these priorities for federal agencies through the provision of reliable, scalable, and cost-effective on-demand cloud computing services.

Here are three examples of capabilities we showcased at DoDIIS:

1. Problem solving at scale. AWS serverless technology enables you to build and run applications and services without thinking about servers. It eliminates server provisioning, patching and maintenance in the cloud dramatically increasing operational scalability. Amazon WorkSpaces scales your virtual desktop environment, enabling users to globally access a secure desktop environment from a multitude of client devices, all without leaving data unsecured and exposed at the edge.
2. Connecting to the IoT. A 3D-printed conveyor belt showcased how the AWS IoT framework, machine learning tools, infrastructure, and 3D development tools can be combined to deliver rich real-time visualizations of mechanical systems, interactive training, smart manuals, and augmented process monitoring, In this case, this demo showed firearm detection using computer vision. AWS IoT technologies can be combined to solve different use cases across the defense and intelligence communities such as industrial automation, fleet management, maintenance, and technician training.
3. Applying AI and ML. We applied computer vision models to satellite images taken before and after natural disasters to rapidly assess road and building damage. The model was developed and trained using Amazon SageMaker. Using techniques similar to ones used in the demo, the Intelligence Community can use Amazon SageMaker to easily develop and train machine learning models and put these models into production in a resilient, redundant, and secure way.

To learn more about the broad portfolio of on-demand cloud services AWS makes available to federal agencies, please join us at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Federal Pop-Up Loft. From September 4-18, the AWS Federal Pop-Up Loft will be open at the Convene meeting space at 1201 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn, Virginia. The temporary community space will unite federal customers and partners to learn and innovate together.