Defense IT investment to focus on big data, cloud.

• Author: Meloni, Stephanie
• Position: BUDGET ANALYSIS

As the Defense Department cuts spending on information technology, it is focusing on a "technological offset strategy" to counterbalance a shrinking fighting force. The key drivers behind the strategy will include big data, cloud technology, mobility and infrastructure enhancements.

Of the Defense Department's $496 billion budget for fiscal year 2015, approximately $30 billion is dedicated to IT.

The Navy's IT budget request of about $6.7 billion is down from the $7.2 billion requested last year, but it reflects the service's aggressiveness about finding cost savings. The Air Force's 2015 IT budget request came in at around $6.4 billion. This is the only branch of service that upped its IT budget request, with a 20 percent increase in capital expenditures. The Army's request of $7.5 billion is the largest IT budget of the services, though smaller than the request from 2014. Existing systems will need to be improved incrementally, and as such the Army will need help managing applications and IT portfolios.

The combination of a shrinking force size and technological advances are driving the importance of data and analytics. Advances in sensors, wireless networks, and unmanned aerial vehicles have resulted in a flood of new data. Despite the need to rely more heavily on data for situational awareness and predictive analytics to give them the edge over the enemy, defense leaders are concerned that they will not have the people or time to deal with all this new information. Technology will need to bridge the gap

Additionally, on the business side of the house, the military is looking at its data for new ways to increase efficiencies and make more informed decisions.

Just as with big data and analytics, the military will rely on information from its enterprise systems to help streamline operations and identify places where they can be more efficient and save money. The military is reducing overhead and personnel at headquarters, and needs to rely more heavily on technologies for outsourcing services and automating processes.

The Defense Department is looking to the fiscal year 2017 audit to give it more visibility into their finances and to drive better cost management. The department has spent billions upgrading its financial enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and will need better data management and interoperability solutions to improve the accuracy of financial reporting.

The Pentagon also is relying on technology to increase its use...