{"id":11871,"date":"2021-03-12T22:07:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T22:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/12\/disa-director-favors-outsourcing-it-services-to-contractors\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:31:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:31:42","slug":"disa-director-favors-outsourcing-it-services-to-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/battlefield-tech\/it-networks-battlefield-tech\/2021\/03\/12\/disa-director-favors-outsourcing-it-services-to-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"DISA director favors outsourcing IT services to contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The new director of the Defense Information Systems Agency said Friday in his first public appearance that he\u2019s a proponent of IT as a service<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement from Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner signals that the new leader<\/a> of the Pentagon\u2019s combat IT support agency plans to maintain the department\u2019s push to outsource IT services to vendors to increase efficiency and savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big proponent of commercial IT as a service,\u201d Skinner said at the AFCEA Rocky Mountain Cyberspace Symposium. \u201cWe have to be careful as we kind of move forward with this. … I think we really need to get after this in a more holistic look and a faster pace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force<\/a>, Army <\/a>and Navy each have ongoing enterprise IT as a service projects underway, with some IT officials looking to expand. Last year, a deputy program manager at the Army enterprise IT office said there\u2019s \u201cprobably nothing that we\u2019re not looking at as \u2018as a service<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skinner, who took over DISA at the beginning of the month, echoed the sentiment, saying that the military should be \u201creally getting after where we can leverage commercial technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy would the government develop something when there is something that\u2019s already out there from a commercial standpoint? Or why would we take something that\u2019s commercial and … bastardize it to the point of it is a one-off or it\u2019s very unique, just for the government?,\u201d Skinner said. \u201cVery few times do I think that we should be we should be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also critiqued the military IT community\u2019s lack of mobility, citing it as a major area where the industry can help. The work from home of the last year, he said, demonstrated that the department needed to ensure senior leaders and service members are \u201cable to effectively communicate, effectively command and control no matter where they are at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of the haves and the have nots right now in relation to the ability to do 100% of your mission, no matter where you\u2019re at,\u201d Skinner said. \u201cIf I think from industry\u2019s standpoint, you can continue to help on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three star is taking over as the department approaches the one-year anniversary of its Commercial Virtual Remote Environment, a cloud-based platform that gave DoD components the ability to collaborate on unclassified work throughout the pandemic. DISA, then under now-retired Vice Adm. Nancy Norton, played a crucial role in rolling out that platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\t