Andy Reed
As most industry professionals are aware, one of the major issues the Army is currently facing is how to most efficiently accelerate to a modern, secure and globally-available network, especially in the armed services, and how to capitalize on cloud-based infrastructure and all relevant processes.
One man whose reputation preceeds himself in holding responsibilities for such military modernization is Gary C. Wang, Deputy CIO/G-6 for the U.S. Army, driving security and leveraging the cloud to improve IT services and support data consolidation.
Wang has made great strides in reducing the IT infrastructure, leading the charge into a cloud-based as-a-service enterprise computing environment against the constraints of what he calls “colors of money.”
He notes that these “colors” are on a spectrum of capital expenses or operation-based hues.
“You would use one color of money to buy the hardware, and then another color of money to actually pay for the labor,” he said. “That is no longer the case when we take an as-a-service approach and contract it out.”
Wang’s philosophy is sound, employing a ‘carrot-and-stick’ model to guide these motivating factors.
“For us, the stick is the Army’s [recent] directive mandating the consolidation of data centers and the move to cloud,” said Wang. “The carrot is the potential cost savings, among other benefits.”
He envisions the Army ultimately turning to commercial cloud services further down the road–but it will not happen overnight.
In a blog post, Wang wrote that the transition “to cloud-based solutions and services [will advance] the Army’s long-term objective to reduce ownership, operation and sustainment of hardware and other commoditized IT.”
The progress that Wang has made on IT modernization in military application is certainly noteworthy, as a highly-attentive and formidably-attuned leader with the understanding of where we are now and where we are going in the future.
As the Deputy CIO/G-6, Wang oversees a $10 billion investment portfolio for the implementation of an enterprise network infrastructure and strategy that delivers a responsive, effective, secure, collaborative and trusted environment of communication, information and technological superiority for the Army and its mission partners. He also manages Army information technology policy compliance and synchronizes delivery of operational command, control, communications, computers and IT capabilities to support warfighters and enable joint information dominance.
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