Three Issues Driving Mobile Device Adoption at DoD and DHS
DoD and DHS are experiencing growing internal demand, rapid technological change, and increasing budgetary pressure. These three factors are the primary trends driving the adoption of mobile computing solutions.
After years of being characterized as a technological backwater, the pace of emerging technology adoption across the federal market is showing signs of picking up. Don’t get me wrong. I am not claiming the federal government is a technology innovator. What I am arguing is that there has been a discernable shift in recent years toward seeking ways to introduce new technologies more rapidly. Take for example the mobile device/computing market. It is impossible to go a day without reading a report or news article detailing how federal agencies are gearing up to implement enterprise mobile device policies and plans.
The accelerating pace at which the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security are moving toward mobile device adoption was on full display at this year’s AFCEA DC Mobile Technologies Symposium, held at the Capitol Hilton last Friday. Symposium sessions covered topics ranging from the use of mobile devices in tactical combat environments to Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies and programs. Three major issues cut across all of the presentations: growing internal demand, rapid technological change, and budgetary pressure. Examined together, they provide a snapshot of the current state of mobile device adoption in the federal market.
Growing Internal Demand
Internal demand for mobile computing solutions is the primary force driving mobile device adoption across the federal government. In his opening keynote speech, Lt. General Ronnie Hawkins, Director of DISA, noted that 70% of current DoD personnel were in high school or middle school on September 11, 2001. These “digital natives,” as he called them, are now “begging for mobile technology they can use on the job.” More importantly, the issue is quickly getting out of hand as DoD personnel are increasingly using their own devices to conduct government business. This practice poses a glaring security threat that the DoD and all other federal agencies must address immediately.
The challenge here is finding the most cost efficient, secure way forward. The DoD is slowly moving toward BYOD, but it is also moving toward an enterprise approach, with DISA as its mobile provider. Once the Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) for mobile devices is in place (this is anticipated in 2-3 months), DISA then needs assistance from industry understanding the best enterprise cost model to use. Concerning BYOD, the department is struggling with understanding how it can secure the data that employees access and what it can do about the device if a data breach has been detected. Presumably, DoD personnel will be required to sign waivers allowing the DoD to wipe the device clean in the event of a data breach. How such a policy will be implemented remains to be seen.
Rapid Technological Change
Federal technology leaders feel a pressing need to keep pace with advances in technology and this perception is an even more powerful motivator than budget driving them in the direction of mobile computing. As Bruce Bennett, Program Executive Officer, Communications Systems (PEO COMM) and Program Executive Officer and Director, Satellite Communications, Teleport and Services (PEO-STS) at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) explained, the lifecycle obsolescence of mobile devices is now 10-12 months and accelerating. For some mobile applications this lifecycle timeframe drops to a mere 30 days. Agencies saddled with antiquated policies, multiple review steps, and stovepiped IT infrastructures simply cannot adapt to this rate of change.
Therefore, in an effort to keep pace, the DoD and DHS are taking enterprise approaches that will enable them to readily incorporate technological advances as they happen. The adoption of mobile computing is thus occurring within a larger context of enterprise services, particularly the increasing use of cloud computing. Taking an enterprise approach is forcing agencies to focus primarily on the management and securing of data as opposed to the securing of devices. These data management approaches are in turn smoothing the path toward BYOD policies across the federal market.
BYOD, however, brings with it multiple challenges, particularly in the area of security. Both the DoD and DHS are investigating the use of different kinds of SLEDs for Common Access Cards (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards. Participants on the “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to Work: Security, Policy, Legal, Human Capital, & Operational Implications” panel were split between those at DoD, who seemed to struggle with how to secure mobile device access to networks, and those at DHS like Greg Capella, the Deputy Executive Director of the Enterprise System Development Office (ESDO), who explained that for $25 he can buy a PIV reader for a mobile device online, thus solving the problem easily and cheaply. The last word on BYOD for DoD went to Bruce Bennett, who said that he anticipates DISA will get to the point where personnel can do unclassified work on personal devices by late FY13-early FY14.
Budgetary Pressure
In one way or another every speaker expressed a desire to reduce the overall cost of the technology being employed by federal employees and military personnel. Mobile technologies are seen across the board as a way of increasing the productivity of personnel while at the same time decreasing the cost of investing in that technology. In effect, shrinking budgets are acting as a boot in the rear of agencies to get their fiscal houses in order and mobile technology is one way they are seeking to accomplish this.
The challenge agencies are facing is validating the claim that mobile computing actually reduces costs. Consider for example the infrastructure investment required to enable mobile computing. Increased use of wireless networks demands greater data throughput capability, which in turn necessitates upgrading the network. As more and more applications using more computing power become available, this demand is projected to grow, thereby minimizing the cost savings that agencies might derive from mobile computing.
Lastly, there is the cost reduction that agencies hope they can derive from implementing BYOD policies. As Robert "Rocky" Young, moderator of the BYOD panel and Director of the Cyber Security, Information Assurance, Outreach (CIAO) & Mobile Security Division in the Office of the DoD CIO noted, "a lot of organizations doing BYOD are finding that it is not as cost effective as they had hoped."
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