Army launches challenge to find holistic micro-cloud solutions

The Army is initiating the Cyber Innovation Challenge, with the hope of finding and then delivering a holistic prototype micro-cloud management solution for the Army.

The Army has also scheduled an industry day at the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental facilities in Mountain View, Calif.

From the challenge, the Army is looking for innovative technology solutions that can support the holistic management for the Defensive Cyberspace Operations-Infrastructure (DCO-I). The department is interested in various approaches for the lifecycle management, resource allocation, and asset control.

The solutions from the challenge will support the Army’s core distributed cloud infrastructure for DCO, and in particular the DCO-I. DOC-I is commonly abstracted and controlled hardware suites installed at various echelons across garrison networks and Army units.

Among the requirements, the solutions should be capable of managing disparate cloud environments no matter the vendor or cloud operating system, match basic military command structure and the tiers of responsibilities, and be able to inform future deployments while making decisions related to DCO.

The solution also should have the ability to maximize the Army's return on investment and inform future deployment and fielding decisions of the DCO-MB. Any management solution must have the ability to account for Army operations in disconnected, intermittent, and limited bandwidth tactical environments.

The Army announced the challenge Feb. 10. Responses are due by March 31.