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DISA’s New Chief Data Officer Takes Charge

The agency aims to reposition its data environment for a complex warfighting future.

The Defense Information Systems Agency’s new office to handle data is striving to advance the agency’s and warfighters’ data-driven capabilities, says Acting Chief Data Officer Caroline Kuharske. Credit: DISA photo with Chris D’Elia graphics

With the creation of its first Chief Data Office, the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency is stepping into a more data-centric vision. The need for enhanced data management, technologies and policies is necessary to support greater ventures of agency operations and improved decision making and operability for warfighters, explained Caroline Kuharske, acting chief data officer, Defense Information Systems Agency.

“Much like many organizations, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has a heavy reliance on data to enable us to perform our mission for the Department of Defense and our warfighters,” Kuharske said. “The data that DISA consumes and that traverses on our backbone enhances our C2 [command and control] elements for the mission partners. We also have a lot of cyber data that enables DISA to provide a vast array of services for the Department of Defense for them to support their mission.

“DEOS, JADC2, zero trust, all of those things start with data,” the chief data officer (CDO) noted, speaking of the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS), Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and zero-trust cybersecurity, data-centric efforts that support communications and warfighting in a complex near-peer environment.

Since the agency has not had a chief data officer before, Kuharske has a tall agenda: to first unite their data environment. “Prior to the establishment of the DISA Chief Data Office, data was viewed as owned by various silos throughout the agency, which created quite a bit of disparity,” she noted. “It was either cyber data or business data, and it was pretty much kept separate. Instead of a holistic approach to the management of data and deriving value from those data assets, it was done in pockets. The Chief Data Office helps to merge those silos and create the guidelines and parameters for desired DISA data utilization.”

The new Chief Data Office falls under the agency’s Enterprise Integration and Innovation Center. The Center is led by Roger Greenwell—who also serves as DISA’s chief information officer (CIO)—and includes other offices designed to improve digital operations and bring in advanced technologies.

“Mr. Greenwell has postured us to be successful by pushing a lot of the elements that are within that center to support each other,” Kuharske shared. “The Enterprise Integration Innovation Center is comprised of the chief technology officer, Stephen Wallace, who is also the director of the Emerging Technology Directorate; the CIO; the DISA Risk Management Directorate; and the DISA Enterprise Engineering and Governance Directorate. When you break down those focus areas and the elements of these offices, we’ve created a robust cell of innovation, automation, standards and enforcement of those [standards].”

The Center is working to harness emerging technologies and advanced solutions for use across DISA and within its own organizations, through pilot programs and initiatives of its Emerging Technology Directorate, Chief Information Office and other organizations. And all of the efforts have some range of data considerations, the CDO explained.

“Every one of those directorates are driving toward enhancements for the agency,” Kuharske stated. “And really what’s being crafted in the center and how they’re supporting the CDO is by bringing more knowledge together and showing how impactful data can be at all levels within the agency.”

The Chief Data Office also is looking to those organizations for technologies that will aid data collection and use. “When it comes to data you’re always wanting to see how can we leverage the data, how can we automate the data, how can we utilize robotic process automation, or RPA, how can we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in our present very manual, bogged-down processes,” Kuharske suggested.

Those kinds of technologies will help the Chief Data Office meet its goals set by the greater Defense Department CIO, and in particular its new Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office, or CDAO, along with Director Gen. Robert Skinner’s (USAF) vision for DISA.

“Where we are looking are those solutions that enable DISA to meet the direction from the DoD CDAO [led by acting Chief Data Artificial Intelligence Officer John Sherman, DoD’s CIO] and the DISA director’s [Gen. Skinner’s] strategic plans,” she stated. “These plans are the path for DISA to have a major data evolution and posture us to be those data fanatics.”

For example, the CDO wants to be able to harness cyber-related capabilities for cyber analysts. “A lot of that comes from just visualization and dashboard tools, and some orchestration and automation of the data into an agent for those cyber analytics teams to be able to make some actionable decisions,” Kuharske offered.

DISA’s first CDO also is looking at data-tagging capabilities. “Some of that does come from that AI and ML,” she noted. “Once you tag that data and appropriately use it, that’s when that RPA can come into play.

“Overall, our goals are to propel DISA’s data value for our command and control elements and also be a beacon for how other DoD entities can support their command and control elements,” Kuharske suggested. “We very much want to put a clear definition to DISA’s data governance and policies and create a robust framework to drive or develop a more developed data maturity level. We also want to influence the cleanup of bad data practices. For us to get better, we've got to be able to identify where maybe we’re falling short and find those inefficiencies and gaps.”