In March, the chapter hosted the Winter Tech Expo, which brought in multiple vendors from around Europe and the United States. Considering the backdrop of the current crisis in Ukraine, the Expo highlighted the need that now, more than ever, technological modernization must be resilient, robust, survivable and interoperable with partners and allies to ensure mission success.
Col. Brent Skinner, USA, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Europe commander, kicked off the event as the breakfast keynote speaker. DISA Europe manages the European portion of the Department of Defense Information Network, provides information systems and services to operational components throughout NATO and supports U.S. interests in more than 100 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Col. Skinner spoke about the velocity of action required to win today's fight, being ahead of adversaries by being mobile on a whim. Capabilities to enable his thoughts included improved secure phones, adding additional transoceanic trunks and improving Internet access points by proactively improving the bandwidth within Europe. Col. Skinner stressed that DISA had undergone a thorough strategic program assessment to flatten the organization and bring about positive disruption and transformational change. Providing redundant, resilient infrastructure and preventing breaches, continual improvement at the speed of need to meet warfighter requirements is a team effort.
He emphasized the critical role industry partners play to find opportunities to improve interoperability not just within the United States but with all partners and allies. He stated that a partnership approach is needed with industry teammates working side by side to find innovative solutions for tough cyber questions.
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