Navy IT priorities stress security, efficiency.

• Author: McCoy, Lloyd
• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

* With the Navy projecting flat spending over the next few years, it will be looking to information technology to help meet its goals.

Recently, the Navy has more overtly aligned its IT requirements around the joint information environment (JIE), a vision centered on universal interoperability, standardizatio and visibility within the Defense Department. The service has four priorities related to the JIE: security, network normalization, infrastructure consolidation and enterprise services.

Its most visible component is the single security architecture. This is intended to allow defense cyber operators at every level to see the status of their networks for operations and security and enable commonality in how cyber threats are countered. The Navy recently decided to be involved in what is the likely the biggest JIE-related project: ongoing installations of joint regional security stacks.

These security nodes enable network security to be consolidated to approximately 23 locations with a standardized security network platform for improved situational awareness. The latest iteration of this approach will include web content filtering, wide-area network acceleration and enhanced intrusion detection and prevention.

The single security architecture is also reflected in the Navy's emphasis on shared situational awareness. One example is the Marine Corps network operations and security center. This organization is tasked with defending the Marine Corps network, addressing vulnerabilities and providing network support. The Marine Corps has designated the center as their version of the new JIE enterprise operations centers which perform the same function.

Overall funding in fiscal year 2015 for the center declined 6 percent from 2014 but saw a slight uptick in capital expenditures. Requirements for this activity include network security, perimeter security, data protection, continuity of operations, continuous monitoring, malware defense and mobile device security.

Network normalization is another key theme. This is reflective of the JIE view that the Defense Department's current system of disparate networks, processing and storage infrastructures are too diverse to protect and defend. Two of the Navy's largest investments address that very problem.

Consolidated afloat networks and enterprise services (CANES) is a program to replace the Navy's five afloat networks with one network and upgraded IT and sensor capabilities. The Navy wants to host or...