3 2 ALLISON REARDON has traveled the globe informing clients on the Network of the Future. Reardon, Client Executive Vice President of Defense, with AT&T Public Sector, is one of the executives tasked with keeping hundreds of global clients connected to the rapid technological innovations that have transformed the AT&T network over the past decade. The network of the future is here today, but many don’t understand how dramatically it can accelerate mission enablement. “I’ve been trained to think like a CIO, understanding not just the technology but how it impacts the mission and improves standard operating procedures,” Reardon explained at a recent event hosted by Government Executive. “The military customers I work with understand the return on investment of leveraging commercial innovation on the networking front, so they can focus more resources on the warfighter front.” Reardon has seen a significant move away from the “not invented here” mentality that held sway until recently. Organizations like the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) are now more open to fixed-price contracts and realize that Lowest Price/Technological Acceptable (LPTA) contracts are not always the best way of ensuring continued IT supremacy for American forces. Earlier in her career she worked for large systems integrators and she shared how the days of taking five to seven years to develop and deploy new technology has passed. In the current geopolitical environment, it’s expected that the DoD may not know where the next communications need will be, whether conflict or disaster recovery. Building a hardware-centric network—in an instant—is impossible, but deploying a network is achievable with new technologies such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN allows for a network to be “spun up” rapidly and then taken down once the need is met, allowing for mission- specific networking. SDN also adds resiliency to defense networks, in the cases of communication failure, alternative paths can be identified. NATO countries have been talking to their industry partners and leading global communications companies, like AT&T, about gaining this type of flexibility for their networks. When these conversations began, Reardon shared that governments at first thought new technologies like SDN and NFV represented some kind of “Cadillac” option that would increase costs. In fact, by replacing legacy hardware with advanced software, these technologies lower costs while dramatically increasing network performance and agility. “The pace of network innovation over the past decade has been astounding,” said Reardon. “These technologies have become the norm and have upended the famous engineering expression about faster, better or cheaper—you can only get two of the three. Today, commercial networks can deliver all three benefits to government customers.” DISA recently experienced this first hand. The agency worked with AT&T to deploy software orchestration tools that greatly accelerate the provisioning of new services, supporting mission- specific networking. New server environments, firewalls and patch management can now be done by hitting a button, rather than rolling a truck to an installation. There have been great advances in communications-on-the-move technology, and the DoD needs to look at their high cost of connectivity model for mobility. Prioritization and pre-emption can be built into mobile networks, an example of which is FirstNet. LEADING THE FUTURE Reardon has seen a significant move away from the “not invented here” mentality that held sway until recently.