Aiming to enable mission-advancing digital transformation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its inaugural information technology roadmap directing the intelligence community on its next five years of decisions.
KC Wilberg, vice president of the intelligence community at Acuity, Inc., said the ODNI Information Technology Roadmap, devised by over 100 technical leaders across the IC, outlines an approach to inform investment, drive cultural change and achieve positive outcomes by pushing IT to the forefront of better mission capabilities.
“The IC has long struggled to balance keeping pace with rapid technology advancement with ensuring the security of technological assets,” he said. “However, it is no longer acceptable to be two versions behind the latest tech. The IC must adapt and accelerate our adoption approach until our IT posture moves past current to leading edge and represents a real strategic advantage over our rivals.”
The document, Vision for the IC Information Environment: An Information Technology Roadmap, outlines five areas targeted for investments over the next five years.
They are: to fortify the mission with a reliable and resilient digital foundation; assure the mission with robust cybersecurity; enable the mission with modern practices and partnerships; enhance the mission with data centricity; and accelerate the mission with advanced technologies and workforce readiness.
The roadmap also includes deadlines for specific advancements in artificial intelligence, edge capabilities, zero trust architecture and ability to scale.
According to the roadmap, “the IC needs to embrace new technologies that can reshape the intelligence process and rapidly deliver valuable intelligence to policymakers, operators, and warfighters to remain ahead of those seeking to undermine and threaten the United States and its allies and partners.”
Wilberg said advancing technologies and capabilities such as AI and machine learning have the potential to “significantly impact the IC and its mission” but can also be used by adversaries to compromise the safety and resilience of networks.
“Industry can no longer hope to be a valued mission partner by simply identifying and providing quality talent to the mission,” he said. “We must increase investment in defining, developing and advancing truly discriminating solutions in the areas of IT modernization, data enablement and hyper automation to address specific mission challenges.”