Equipping the DoD with Vital IT Services Around the Globe
Background
In a time when both the operational demands placed upon our Armed Forces and threats to national security are increasing exponentially, having access to advanced IT solutions and highly skilled resources is more important than ever. Moreover, given the size and complexity of military operations, these IT solutions and resources must consistently deliver reliable, rapid, accountable, and flexible global response capabilities.
The Department of Defense (DoD) established the SANDBAR contract to support itself and its interagency partners across a broad range of technical engineering services to help enhance existing operations, networks, and infrastructure. It seeks to offer an agile path forward for sustaining and improving specialized IT and lifecycle system support, regardless of CONUS or OCONUS location, operational timelines, or complexities in logistical considerations.
Understanding the Need
Through SANDBAR, DoD sought the services of an industry partner that could:
- Maintain, sustain, and oversee systems and provide advanced technical expertise.
- Expand system and network architectures.
- Extend the architecture across service components.
- Create and expand new technologies and configurations for new mission requirements.
- Improve and harden system architectures and technologies.
- Update the command-and-control components.
- Provide specialized acquisition support for hardware and software from vendors.
- Integrate and test new technologies.
- Provide system and technology training.
Meet Our SANDBAR Leadership
Rodney Turner, GovCIO Vice President of SANDBAR Operations
Our Solution
GovCIO applies a responsive delivery approach that combines a collaborative leadership culture, sufficient scale, and easy access to leading technical professionals to execute SANDBAR tasks. Using this approach, over 150 TS/SCI– cleared GovCIO personnel successfully provide diverse and geographically dispersed systems engineering services for DoD and Intelligence Community (IC) customers at 32 CONUS and OCONUS locations.
GovCIO delivers the expertise DoD and IC customers need to enhance their current operations and position them to be future-ready organizations by using automation, improving user experience, ensuring anytime /anywhere connectivity, reducing cyber risk, and increasing cost-efficiency.
Systems Engineering
Our expert systems engineers and architects support the full software lifecycle using Agile, DevSecOps, and Kanban methods, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). This allows us to accelerate the rollout of new operational capabilities to meet the emergent requirements of warfighters. For example, using our approach, we modernized the Air Force’s mission-critical data integration systems in alignment with NIST and IC standards, delivering modern data analysis tools and feeds to the warfighter on the combat edge with the latest information about their battle space.
IT Network and Infrastructure
Our teams engineer, furnish, install, integrate, operate, and maintain IT solutions and facilities for over 10,000 users across 15 DoD networks. This includes integrating IT solutions into existing networks, engineering IT solutions, and furnishing, installing, and making new operational networks. We provide SCIF support for USAF and IC customers and develop, integrate, operate, and sustain classified cyber operations infrastructure capacity.
Our teams provide the connectivity customers need by delivering transport engineering for LAN/ MAN/WAN networks, wireless, SATCOM, and VPN infrastructures. To improve radio and SATCOM networks, we develop CISCO, DELL, Christie Digital, Cinemassive, Cellular 4G/5G solutions, L3, and Harris systems solutions. We provide continuous I/O plant cabling and integrate different technologies such as A/V, data, power, networks, and voice solutions to optimize systems and networks.
Service Desk and Field Support
GovCIO provides extensive user- and enterprise-level administrative and O&M support. Using tools such as ServiceNow, Remedy, and JIRA, our teams maintain multiple service desks for classified and unclassified IC/ITE networks, applications, and mission systems with globally dispersed users. Within ServiceNow, we developed custom automated modules for ticketing, asset management, PM workflow automation, and procurement tracking to significantly reduce response time. Our HW technicians field assets work with engineering teams when fielding new equipment and act as equipment custodians at primary operations centers. Following ITIL best practices, we support system and database operations and administration, disaster recovery (DR), and continuity of operations.
Cyber Security
GovCIO provides extensive IA/cyber security support for customer voice, data, video, and data center HW and SW environments across globally dispersed SAP/SCI networks. This support ranges from day-to-day cyber operations to RMF package management.
Our RMF services follow the NIST SP 800-37 for enterprise/high-impact systems and proprietary technologies, ensuring security is applied to existing systems and new technologies.
To incorporate cyber security best practices at every stage of development and implementation, for all products and services supported, our security frameworks leverage DevSecOps practices. Currently, our team is working on a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) project, building Elastic Stack and Kafka clusters for the Network Operations Center (NOC) effort.
Cyber security training support and enablement is also a large component of our cyber services. For one customer, we provided a live, virtual, constructed operational environment simulation to enhance offensive cyber operations training. For another customer, we developed a system to train cadets to defend our nation’s critical infrastructure, which reduced training costs for USAFA and allows them to introduce and train the latest in vulnerabilities and attacks. GovCIO also developed SolarWinds threat emulation tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) to successfully train cyber defenders.
In addition, our subject matter experts support communication security (COMSEC), including identifying and developing solutions and modernizing existing systems to cryptologic challenges at the AF Service Cryptologic Center. We manage COMSEC gear including 4,000 KG-135As (Module COMSEC) and 4,000 KG-225X’s (encryption/ decryption equipment).
System Testing
GovCIO follows DoDAF v2.03 and has established a quality technical framework that incorporates DevSecOps (automated testing and monitoring) to improve operations and increase quality. Working closely with operations, we schedule testing so it does not interfere with operations. To reduce risk, our testing support uses independent verification and validation (IV&V) techniques and pre-deployment certifications in a mirrored production environment. We also install and integrate on-site end user deployable systems and networks at CONUS locations to support testing/operations.
Hear From Our SANDBAR Experts
Results
Across SANDBAR, GovCIO SMEs and staff deliver on 33 concurrent cybersecurity technology and engineering projects for 39 DoD and interagency partners. We support 10,000+ users across multiple environments, including UNCLASS, SIPR, Top Secret (TS)/SCI, Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN), and Secure DREN (SDREN) CONUS and OCONUS, with tens of thousands of connected operational assets. Some of the most notable actions we’ve supported for SANDBAR customers include:
- Establishing a Cryptologic Innovation Team to identify requirements, develop solutions, and modernize existing systems to support cryptologic challenges at the AF Service Cryptologic Center.
- Reducing the data center footprint by 33% while providing the same level of services through our development and integration efforts.
- Developing SolarWinds threat emulation TTP to train cyber defenders to successfully defend networks. The effort, lauded by the Commander of US Cyber Command and Commander of Air Combat Command, transformed the DoD model for tactics development.
- Implementing automated ServiceNow service desk capabilities to significantly reduce response times as requests are automatically routed to the correct support team, limiting manual assignment.
- Designing, developing, and delivering Deployable Intelligence Combat Employment (DICE) kits to warfighters using the JWICS enterprise network.
- Providing intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (beyond line-of-sight and over the horizon) operational support to distributed global areas of operations.
Learn More About SANDBAR Opps.
GovCIO’s SANDBAR vehicle provides military customers with an easy-to-use and rapid acquisition path to gain access high quality IT and cyber services.
If your agency/office is interested in learning more about how it can use SANDBAR to meet mission needs, or your company thinks it may be a good partner for SANDBAR, please click to contact us or reach out directly to Michael Dombrowski, SVP of Growth and Technology for our National Security Sector at [email protected].