SAP/HANA Does Big Data for National Security

May 13, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off on SAP/HANA Does Big Data for National Security

GovCloud Founder and Veteran’s 360 Showcased in US Veteran’s Magazine

By G C Network | June 13, 2014

Kevin L. Jackson, CEO and Founder of GovCloud Network, LLC, was showcased in US Veteran’s Magazine for his work with Veteran’s 360, a San Diego, California non-profit. With more than…

Cloud Environment Can Enable Fast, Secure Collaboration among Industries, Nations

By G C Network | June 4, 2014

NCOIC’s Kevin Jackson to present new process for creating interoperability via a cyber-secure multi-cloud environment at cloud computing conferences in the U.S. and China WASHINGTON—June 4, 2014—Cyber-secure cloud computing can…

The Federal Government Journey to Cloud Computing: Lessons Learned

By G C Network | June 3, 2014

[Republished from”On The FrontLines” magazine “Cloud Computing in Government: Lesson’s Learned” issue. Download the full 20 page issue online at https://digital.onthefrontlines.net/i/319551 ) In February 2011, Vivek Kundra announced the “Cloud…

Cloud Computing In Government Lesson’s Learned From On The FrontLines Magazine

By G C Network | May 29, 2014

Congratulations to my friends at “On The FrontLines Magazine” for an EXCELLENT presentation of important operational and managerial cloud computing transition lessons. This issues showcases cloud computing leaders from government…

From “Boots on the Ground” To “Heads in the Cloud,” Non-Profit aims to offer Cloud Training & business services to Corporate IT and HR teams.

By G C Network | May 28, 2014

From “military dedication” to “civilian success,”Veterans 360 Services is approaching the challenging transition of military service to civilian life with an innovative, focused and all-inclusive, 360 degree, process of education…

ICH Agile Cloud Consortium Completes Successful Event

By G C Network | May 22, 2014

Thank you to all that participated in yesterday’s ICH Agile Cloud Service Catalog event.    ICH Agile Cloud is an industry-wide effort targeted at developing an open and inclusive cloud service…

ICH Releases Agenda for Agile Cloud Service Catalog Session

By G C Network | May 20, 2014

The Agile Cloud consortium’s second event will occur on May 21, 2014 at TIA Headquarters in Arlington, VA. This event will focus on development of the Agile Cloud Environment Service…

PDNS Offers “Anchor” Cloud Services to Agile Cloud Consortium

By G C Network | May 14, 2014

Private Digital Network Services (PDNS) and partners will provide its national, Private Digital Network (PDN) core and a suite of highly sought after services to the Interoperability Clearinghouse Agile Cloud effort. Its…

ICH/ITAAC Announces Second Agile Cloud Environment Event

By G C Network | May 7, 2014

The 2nd Agile Cloud Environment event will be held on May 21, 2014 at TIA Headquarters. This event will focus on development of the Agile Cloud Environment Service Catalog. The…

Interoperability Clearinghouse Launches “Agile Cloud” Collaboration

By G C Network | April 28, 2014

Last Wednesday, Maj Gen, USAF (Ret) John T. Brennan, Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH) Executive Director, kicked off the Agile Cloud collaboration. This industry-wide effort is targeted at developing an open and…


Carmen Krueger, SAP NS2 SVP & GM

While SAP is globally renowned as a provider of enterprise management software, the name is hardly ever associated with the spooky world of intelligence. That is one reason why I jumped at the opportunity to talk with SAP executives responsible for the company’s work in that clandestine marketplace.

SAP National Security Services, Inc.™ (SAP NS2™) is an independent U.S. subsidiary of the company and offers a full suite of SAP enterprise applications, analytics, database, cyber security, cloud, and mobility software solutions. These offerings, however, are endowed with specialized levels of security and support needed to meet the unique mission requirements of US National Security Agencies and critical national infrastructure customers. SAP NS2 also provides secure consulting and support services from experts that hold current credentials in the national security space. Carmen Krueger, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Cloud Operations, focuses on the critical security requirements of national security clients that adopt and deploy SAP technologies.  Joining her in our discussion was Hunter Downey, NS2 Cloud Solutions Director.
Hunter Downey, NS2 Cloud Solution Director
Kevin: Carmen, Hunter, thank you both for spending the time to talk with me.  Just to set a level playing field for my readers, what is SAP?
Carmen: SAP is a global enterprise software company that offers a full suite of world-class enterprise applications, analytics, database, cyber security, cloud, and mobility software solutions. Corporately our goal is to make a material impact on making the world better.
Kevin: Why is cloud computing so important to public sector organizations?
Carmen: Cloud computing is critical because it combines convenience with speed and delivers the innovation needed for addressing the public sector’s current inability to leverage leading edge technologies. It enables resource pooling that drives efficiencies, cost savings and improved resource allocations. The various cloud computing service and deployment models also provide flexibility to organizations while allowing them to remain within their specific mission limits and requirements.
Hunter: With cloud computing organizations are able to extract physical resources and give them to agencies as needed.  These resources can grow and contract over time, adapting to the users. IT infrastructure is now morphing into a platform that give agencies an ability to focus dollars towards more strategic needs.
Kevin: How are public sector policies when it comes to cloud computing?
Carmen: The cloud computing adoption process has matured significantly. DoD’s new policy has set in motion a re-interpretation of current policies that actually favor cloud. There are, however, still some open questions on the policy, change management and organizational risk management processes. The new policy has put a “set of guardrails” around the cloud computing decision making process. Although procedural backlogs remain, things are moving forward and enablers are now in place.
Kevin: How should agencies approach the adoption of cloud computing?
Carmen: In adopting cloud, decision makers must clearly understand the goals of the organization and see cloud computing as an enabler and strategic underpinning of specific business outcomes. Cloud computing enables collaboration between functional owners, information technology leads and the information assurance organization. All too often functional owners run ahead of other organizational stakeholders.  This leads to organizational misalignment and adoption missteps. It is also vitally important to get the organizations “cloud jargon” in line. The mixing of marketing terms and technical descriptions often leads to serious misunderstandings during the cloud computing adoption process.
Kevin: SAP provides ERP software which is typically considered a difficult application to move to the cloud. Why is this? Has this changed?
Carmen: ERP applications are not more or less difficult to move to the cloud than other applications. ERP is, however, mission critical so organizations normally assign higher levels of risk to such a transition. These risks are not typically associated with technical barriers but are mostly organizational change management issues.
Hunter: The value in transitioning ERP to the cloud is often much more substantial because it gives the organization news ways of accessing and using information. It is also often easier to try out new capabilities.
Kevin: SAP’s cloud portfolio has really expanded over the past couple of years. Are you leading your customers to the cloud or following them there?
Hunter: We are side-by-side with our customers as they move to the cloud. We are not being presumptive in any way but work closely with hem in defining technical requirements and strategies.
Kevin: What are the nuances in the selection of an appropriate cloud deployment model?
Carmen: A community cloud, like IC ITE (Intelligence Community Information Technology Environment) is always a viable option for national security organizations. Private cloud environment are also a popular choice. Over the next two years SAP’s ability to offer NIST, FedRAMP and Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) compliant environments will expand. Today we currently have a secure HANA cloud offering in place as a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). It complies with all export and FedRAMP requirements. A Human Resource Management (HRM) SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) offering that meets all DoD requirements is also being built.
https://hana.sap.com/abouthana/what-is-hana.html
 
Kevin: What is HANA and how does it relate to cloud computing?
Hunter: HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system. Its architecture is designed to handle both high transaction rates and complex query processing on the same platform. This approach has completely transformed the database industry by combining database, data processing, and application platform capabilities in a single in-memory platform. The platform also provides libraries for predictive, planning, text processing, spatial, and business analytics.
HANA has been adopted to support many national security use cases. It is being used as a platform for data analytics, situational awareness, digital documents and geospatial analysis. Since the database is stored in RAM (Random Access Memory) it provides the easiest known method for accessing and using information. When you combine HANA and the cloud in a national security focused PaaS, there is no need for agencies to procure and incorporate any new hardware.
Kevin: What’s next for agencies after they’ve adopted a cloud infrastructure?
Carmen: Decision makers should make the adoption of cloud computing risk free. They should also look across all their different programs in order to identify where cloud can deliver strategic value to the enterprise. Also highlight your successes in cloud. Cloud computing shortens the timeline between understanding an information gap and addressing these gaps. It does this by eliminating programmatic silos that prevent the free flow of information. Embrace this new approach and don’t be so prescriptive when addressing information shortfalls. Learn how to listen to the data and how to learn from it.

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

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