Maximising the through-life potential of information sharing
systems in the coalition context
With British troops playing a vital and active role in key
military operations abroad, as part of coalition forces, VEGA’s
Matt Rapier considers the specific information sharing challenges
of UK armed forces operating within a coalition context, and
outlines how informed Service Management can help ensure
operational benefits are realised.
Understanding the background
The UK’s core military Command and Information Systems (CIS)
comprise systems that have evolved over more than 40 years. These
systems were built against pre-ordained operational requirements
that would have been understood well in advance of the deployment
and based on long-established doctrine. In addition, these systems
were designed to provide a level of interoperability defined by
security risks associated with protecting our ‘eyes only’ data.
However, this capability is now being asked to operate in a more
complex environment, and is being challenged by rapidly evolving
requirements. Operations Telic and Herrick have seen Information
Technology (IT) systems built in short order to meet very specific
in-theatre requirements – OVERTASK and J1/J4 IOS are examples of a
new breed of IT which has to be quick, simple and provide
capability on demand.
As well as the increased tempo of CIS capability definition and
implementation, current operations also demand that the UK’s
national processes transform to work within the expansive security
boundaries of a coalition model. However, these new security
demands must ensure they do not add to an already complex
operational picture, and, consequently, limit the ability to use
and manage the in-theatre IT.
The Coalition Challenge
In terms of IT service delivery therefore, such a focus on
coalition presents a challenge. Coalition operations may not rely
on pre-ordained doctrine; as a result, processes and methods need
to evolve rapidly and, to enable the war-fighting process to
continue, so to does the supporting IT.
Coalition IT, particularly in the case of the UK in Afghanistan,
has so far evolved to implement a simple common (but not lowest)
denominator of functionality; to facilitate broad and flexible
interoperability with other coalition systems. The main driver for
this approach is the fact that current operations involve a complex
laydown of national and coalition IT with many interconnection
points and protocols.
The coalition security model takes account of this approach,
and, as such, demands a flexible approach to information sharing.
This brings with it unique security challenges that must be
understood and managed.
To ensure maximum operational benefit, Front Line forces need
the confidence that newly deployed CIS capability, and associated
applications, will perform as expected and are tightly controlled.
This capability is critical to support the warfighter as coalition
CIS develops rapidly and dynamically to match emerging threats and
doctrine.
In recognition of the challenges ahead, UK MOD is driving
forward:
- A strategy to create a service management model which allows
our systems to be both flexible and controlled
- Coalition IT solutions which position security boundaries
around those services to best effect
Industry now has the opportunity to come together and provide
the expertise required to significantly improve the effectiveness
of the CIS supporting Operation Herrick; enabling controlled yet
rapid change, working within the strategies and frameworks MOD
already has in place. This will assist in ensuring the warfighter
continues to have access to reliable and robust CIS which is able
to adapt rapidly to meet emerging needs, enabled by a flexible
security construct.
Providing a response
At VEGA, we believe that supporting three solution themes will
help address the challenge of secure information sharing in a
coalition context, namely:
- End-to-End service monitoring and measurement
- Application performance measurement
- Configuration management
End to End (E2E) service monitoring and
measurement
Industry best practice tells us that in order to control our
CIS, we must understand how they are operating. The MOD’s CIS
include a plethora of monitoring tools, event management systems,
and reporting systems. However, these systems are understandably
fragmented (in particular across security domains) and do not
address the E2E challenge.
Companies such as VEGA have the capability to deliver E2E
solutions for service management which collect, collate and report
on CIS performance, integrating this data into unified views
(‘single pane of glass’). From this, users can gain insight into
the live status and historical trends of service availability,
performance and incidents. An approach which is independent of
system providers, and is designed to be capable of integration with
any standards-based IT solution, can be applied across System of
Systems.
We believe that availability of this unified information is a
major step towards managing the environment as a System of Systems.
Our hope is that this approach will enable pro-active control of
the systems to avoid problems, speed up re-active responses, and
enhance the security posture by improving visibility.
As a result, the IT in Operation Herrick and future coalition
operations will be more reliable and robust.
Application performance measurement
Information superiority is impacted by modern CIS and is
fundamentally enabled by information flow between application
instances across a network. However, an incremental approach to
configuration and design can lead to many applications struggling
to work effectively on deployed networks.
By providing services which measure how applications perform,
and examining their behaviours across the network, VEGA has found
that it is possible to pro-actively identify applications which
will perform poorly on constrained networks, and, by extension,
provide a clear picture of and direct advice on the potential
issues.
Such approaches can enable critical applications to work
effectively in the live environment, even when deployed
rapidly.
Configuration management
In the coalition System of Systems context, with disparate
systems built to differing technology bases, it is particularly
challenging to understand the overall system configuration. This is
a problem for the Service Manager trying to fault find or predict
service issues which might hinder warfighters and commanders. Given
the complex inter-dependencies between systems it is vital
therefore those users understand the configuration so as to
diagnose E2E service issues.
By deploying management solutions it is possible to bring
together configuration data captured from across the System of
Systems. An initial capability can grow to provide the foundation
for an E2E service model.
Conclusion
To build optimal CIS for coalition warfighting UK industry needs
to deliver agile and adaptable solutions; to do this we must have a
service construct which is both flexible and secure by design.
A solution which is both secure and flexible is, perversely,
only achieved by having strong control over the CIS environment.
The solutions that industry should deliver for UK MOD must enable a
means of exercising stronger control over the System of Systems,
thus enhancing their front-line availability and ensuring their
security posture is maintained.
The ultimate success of such an approach is a robust and
reliable System of Systems which is flexible by design, and
provides a sustainable capability for the warfighter through the
evolving life of operations.
If you would like further details about information superiority
and the other subjects discussed in this article, please contact VEGA.