“ At the end of the day , this is not just a technology development race . It ’ s a technology adoption race .”
KATE MAXWELL CTO , WORLDWIDE DEFENCE & INTELLIGENCE
Maxwell goes on to explain that the defence ecosystem also needs to take a realistic assessment of where it is today , and then put the proper process and cultural underpinnings in place to enable the adoption of modern technologies .
“ When we ’ re talking about advanced capabilities like artificial intelligence , we want to inspire our customers to think big , and we also want to ground ourselves in reality . Organisations have to crawl and walk before they can run – and we can help them through that entire journey .”
So with that in mind , defence organisations endeavouring to leverage these commercial technologies should consider a few things : “ Do you have a good handle on your data estate ? Think about what data is available to you ; where that data lives ; how that data is classified , secured , and controlled ; and most importantly , what you want to do with it . What are your goals and objectives for elevating that data to insights ?”
A first step in that journey is the move to hyperscale cloud – which doesn ’ t need to happen all at once . Maxwell recommends starting with the small , “ easy button ” workloads and use cases to gain successes and momentum , to learn important lessons , and then to scale and grow .
Organisations also have to get the right culture in place to support the transformation they are trying to drive . “ I think the defence ecosystem at large is still very risk averse . That is for good reason , I understand – both in terms of safety , and for contracting rigour . But many times , the defence ecosystem is trading one risk for another without even realising it . This level of risk aversion has led to a very policy heavy , rigid environment in which it is challenging – if not impossible – to innovate , and it also makes it challenging to attract nontraditional vendors and new entrants who could bring real value to mission . This is a big challenge , and it is holding the allied defence
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