Jane Edwards
Michael Shrader, intel community vertical executive at Carahsoft Technology, said information technology workforce development and retention, data management, interoperability and partnerships are some of the challenges the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community should address.
Shrader wrote in a blog post published Tuesday that DOD and IC have begun to address competition for IT talent by modernizing their human resources systems, automating HR processes, offering self-service capabilities and updating training platforms for existing employees to help improve their skillsets.
“Leadership is looking to academia and industry to source individuals with understanding of the current DoD and IC challenges and the global crises,” he noted.
“To successfully integrate industry workers into the government sphere, the DoD and IC must adapt to make commercial approaches work as well,” Shrader added.
Shrader stated that the Pentagon and IC recognize the need to modernize data management methods to harness the power of data, facilitate the decision-making process and keep ahead of threats.
He mentioned the four focus areas of the IC Data Strategy 2023-2025 released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the plan of defense and intelligence agencies to advance the implementation of data tagging.
According to Shrader, defense and intelligence agency leaders also intend to prioritize partnerships with other agencies and countries and interoperability of tech platforms.
“These partnerships can make a difference through data sharing, which offers new knowledge to commanders for more informed decision making,” he said.
“To make this information and technology sharing a reality, systems and processes must ensure cross-domain security and allow for interoperability throughout data sourcing countries and agencies,” Shrader added.
