The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 20, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 21.
Next is the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific’s zero trust cloud computing platform COSMOS, finalist in the Government Information Technology of the Year, category. Here, the team shares recent achievements, career advice and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2024?
Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific spearheaded an innovative solution in GovCloud, known as COSMOS, that accelerates the delivery of critical technologies to support the DoD mission. COSMOS is a state-of-the-art GovCloud solution that provides mission owners the ability to self-onboard, build, and secure Amazon Web Services (AWS) Impact Level (IL)-4/5 workloads in minutes.
Key Accomplishments: COSMOS provides the fastest onboarding compared to any GovCloud environment (seconds/minutes); a Cloud Native Access Point architecture with a Zero Trust security model that provides accessibility from anywhere, any device; high availability standards; continuous monitoring for cloud resources; and on-demand Risk Management Framework Authority to Operate artifact generation to promote a continuous state of cybersecurity awareness and readiness. Several customers have been able to develop, test, and deploy applications in COSMOS to demonstrate capabilities to sponsors and warfighters in under 48 hours. To-date, we have onboarded 1000+ users and 75+ product accounts across nine Navy commands and other DoD agencies. COSMOS successfully achieved a 3-year Authority to Operate. In early FY25, COSMOS will be designated as a DON Enterprise IT Service.
The NIWC PAC COSMOS team’s innovative strategies challenged the status quo, ultimately leading to the successful human-out-of-the-loop solution that mirrors a commercial cloud experience for the Research & Development community, while adhering to DoD/DoN requirements.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the mission?
Going forward, we would like to expand COSMOS capabilities to a production cloud environment, integrate with other cloud service providers, incorporate existing DevSecOps pipelines (known as software factories), and expand the catalog of shared service offerings. We plan to implement additional capabilities for data transfers from low-to-high environments, hybrid cloud solutions, and more. COSMOS was selected to participate in the DoD CIO’s continuous ATO pilot program. We are focused on ensuring that we can continue the expansion of our Regulatory Operations pipeline that allows all COSMOS cloud programs to be “cyber ready” at any time.
What is your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
The best career advice for anyone working in the government IT space would be to never be scared to challenge the status quo. To do this, you must ask a lot of “why” questions. You must understand the root causation of a problem in order to resolve the symptoms. Only by understanding root causation can you successfully identify a long term, scalable, cost effective, and secure solution. Asking the “why” forces a child-like curiosity that leads to true innovation. Don’t settle for the “because this is how it has always been done” excuse. As technology advances, we need to leverage automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and industry leading tools to provide capabilities to our warfighters quickly in order to stay ahead of our adversaries. Always remember that innovation is not easy, otherwise it would already be done!
COSMOS Portal: https://www.cosmos.navy.mil/