5 4 LEADING THE FUTURE Just like data centers, “No one thinks about the network until it’s not available.” Singer says. “The network is actually your most critical tool, driving innovation and efficiency. There’s nothing more important. It’s what makes e-commerce and media streaming companies possible, because all that innovation is built on top of the network—not the other way around.” Core Mission Historically, the IC has engineered, managed and deployed its internal networks, while tapping commercial resources to interconnect distant locations. Singer advocates leveraging more of those private sector resources and capabilities. “For the IC, the core mission is gathering and analyzing intelligence— it’s not being the best network provider,” Singer says. “The network should be an enabler. By moving to a managed service model, the government leverages our scale, the best of all we do globally, and augments what they already have.” With a managed service, agencies can look to its service provider to ensure its network is on the bleeding edge of technology and operating at the peak of efficiency. This allows agencies to focus expertise and resources on skills unique to the mission set. “Technologies in play today could be obsolete in three years—that’s how fast we’re moving right now,” Singer says. “As a network services provider, we bring those technologies to the table, as soon as they exist. We’re not just discovering the next technology on a shelf—we’re inventing it.” Case in point: software-defined wide area networks. Data traffic on the “The network should be an enabler. By moving to a managed service model, the government leverages our scale, the best of all we do globally, and augments what they already have.”