Perspecta’s Chris Painter on Steps DISA Should Take to Advance Fourth Estate Digital Modernization

Chris Painter, vice president and chief engineer for the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet at Perspecta, wrote in an article published Wednesday on Breaking Defense that there are several steps the Defense Information Systems Agency can take as it plans to modernize the information technology infrastructure of fourth estate agencies through the Defense Enclave Services program. 

Painter said the first step calls for DISA to assess the as-is environment to better understand the capabilities of the IT infrastructure and the population’s requirements.

“Through this discovery process, DISA will learn baseline details such as equipment age and network design, which will help shape the strategy,” he added. 

According to him, DISA should assess the “to-be environment” and carry out short-term activities such as mapping out platforms that improve services and creating categories for key performance indicators. 

Painter said the agency should take a phased approach when it comes to the larger segments of a program and continuously conduct the evaluation process and implement incremental steps to achieve “digital enablement, which means users have greater collaboration, mobility and agility through a more consumer-like work environment while ensuring continuous evolution of the cyber posture."