InCadence CEO Sandy Corbett on Developing Technologies to Unlock, Analyze the Value of Data

In an environment when the need for new technologies is in a constantly-evolving state, InCadence CEO Sandy Corbett is working to position her company to meet those challenges head-on. With the development of new mobile applications to address the needs of soldiers, emergency responders and tactical communications, Corbett says that it is greater mobility in using these products that has become “a game changer.”

WashingtonExec: Tell us a bit about InCadence.

Sandy Corbett: We are set up as a Women-Owned Small Business, headquartered in Manassas, Va. InCadence is an engineering services company focused on providing cutting edge technical solutions in the Biometrics and Identity Management, Information Management/Data Solutions and Tactical Radio business sectors. My business partners are, my father, Allan Danis (Co-Founder and CTO) and my good friend and prior colleague, Anthony Iasso (President).

I am surrounded by the most intelligent, passionate group of people I’ve ever worked with in my 20-year career within the government contracting industry. I’m loving being an entrepreneur and the opportunity to build a business that is supporting our soldiers, solving our customers’ hard problems and doing our part in contributing to our national security – what could be better?!

WashingtonExec: What security concerns are presented for the Intel and Defense industries, as it relates to mobile, and how are you working to address those concerns?

Sandy Corbett: The mobile arena is exciting because it is still a fairly new and evolving field. We are building capabilities that our users can take and use anywhere, enabling them to do things on the move that just few years ago, they could only do in an office or on a desktop computer. At InCadence, we’ve spent the last five years working to create mobile applications in the fields of biometrics, emergency response and tactical communications. Greater mobility in these areas are becoming a game changer for how these technologies are applied in the real world.

The main security concerns that we see and are addressing revolve around privacy, authentication and accreditation. For example, our Ares product is a secure application designed to collect and submit biometrics data for the IC and defense clients. In order to make it a feasible tool for our government customers, we are ensuring that it can be accredited and added to white lists at the agencies we support.

WashingtonExec: How is big data presenting opportunities for the Intelligence Community (IC)? What about challenges?

Sandy Corbett: We believe the opportunity of Big Data for the IC is unlocking the value from the data. This will require new techniques and technologies for aligning and analyzing data. A critical piece to this are flexible information management frameworks like our Coalesce product, which allows data to be stored and accessed in a common way, and organized and indexed to support multiple types of analytics. Several customers are now using this technology to solve hard data problems in their systems.

We also have to be on the leading edge of understanding and helping to shape national and international standards for Big Data. This is one reason that InCadence is contributing to and supporting both the NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) Big Data Interoperability Framework and ISO Big Data Terminology and Reference Architecture standards.

WashingtonExec: What are you most excited about in the coming years, as it relates to InCadence’s opportunities and industry trends?

Sandy Corbett: I am really looking forward to continuing to build our own technology products and IP. We have a very passionate group of engineers who have built a robust internal research and development program with the goal of graduating our technologies into solutions used by our customers. For example, we launched Ares, our first commercial mobile identity software product last year, from our IR&D pipeline. This is a shift from our previous services only model.

InCadence Labs is also in the works, where our engineers brainstorm, develop and incubate new IR&D ideas and technologies in anticipation of the future hard problems faced by customers.

I’m also very excited about some recent strategic hires in the areas of Information Management and Big Data Solutions. We now have a two corporate officers at the Vice President level, Michael Daconta and David Boyd, focusing on our technical solutions and business opportunities in these strategic areas. Together, they are driving engineering teams that are currently building advanced data solutions for our customers using technologies we developed for the IC, such as Coalesce, coupled with important community technologies such as Hadoop. Michael is a recognized expert, technical author of 11 books and was instrumental in the launch of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). David participates directly in national and international Big Data standards development efforts with NIST, ANSI and ISO, so we are deeply involved in these areas.

WashingtonExec: Do you have any advice for other Woman-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) in the government contracting industry?

Sandy Corbett: I can offer a few key strategies that helped us get off the ground:

1. Define your niche. Know what you do best and how your company is unique.
2. Know your customers and understand requirements.
3. Respond to RFI’s, so that we are in the best position to drive, influence and shape future work for Small Business Set Asides.

WashingtonExec: When you aren’t working, what do you like to do to relax and enjoy your free time?

Sandy Corbett: My husband and I have three kids, ages 13, 11 and 8. So, they keep me super busy as a classroom mom, soccer mom and part-time chauffeur. I’m a certified SCUBA diver and love vacationing at Hawks Cay in the Florida Keys and Sandbridge Beach, Va. My favorite football teams are the WVU Mountaineers and the Washington Redskins. One of my guilty pleasures is when I can sneak off to a quiet room at home and watch shows like The Black List and House of Cards on my iPad.