Data Fabric for Data-driven Decision Advantage in Defence
Learnings from SupportNet23
Data-driven Decision Advantage in Defence
‘You’ve got to be able to share your data to work in Defence.’ – Lt Gen. Richard Wardlaw, 18 May 2023
This remark closed a day of exploring how data is a catalyst for change at SupportNet23. The ability of adversaries to ‘learn and disable’ drives an imperative to stay ahead of the curve through constant iteration. An iterative loop of innovation creates an overall operational advantage through evolving available choices. This is achieved by understanding what exists within your knowledge boundaries, adding contextual understanding from situational awareness, operating conditions, supply chain, and knowing parameters for agile change.
How does this sit in an environment where we have always had to be so careful with our data? ‘Secure by design’ is just as an important mantra as ‘loose lips sink ships’. I appreciate that I’m mixing concepts here with product and process, but the Defence industry will always be a complex system of synergy between the two.
‘The pace of change today is slower than any time in our future,’ said Rear Admiral JJ Bailey at SupportNet23.
In Defence operations, agility matters. Adversaries will look to learn and disable. If fluidity and change are features of Defence products and services, then we gain an ability to iterate, which creates an advantage. Lt Gen. Richard Wardlaw went so far as to say that ‘software-defined hardware is an opportunity to be seized’.
By nature, the Defence industry designs products and, as stated at SupportNet23, increasingly services, by engaging with an extensive supply chain which must work under levels of secrecy more stringent than for any other sector. (I’m sure there’s an argument to say that other industries are just as secretive. However, I offer that Defence has repeatedly set the standard.)
The Defence industry is also a competitive environment of Primes and supply chain partners targeting specific customers against a backdrop of global demand. Working within the industry also means protecting your advantage. So, how appealing is sharing data when your data is your competitive edge at any level of this ecosystem?
IOTICS’ innovative technology enables trusted interoperability, empowering organisations to realise the value of the information and insights that already exist within their ecosystems of partners, competitors and suppliers, and that is currently too difficult, complex or challenging for humans or machines to find. Our core technology enables different systems to exchange information and cooperate seamlessly, while protecting against unauthorised access, data breaches, and other security risks.
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