Government Computer News
DOD’s open challenge
Programs take advantage of open technologies, but department needs to develop policies on use
Defense Department officials have made clear their interest in moving toward open technologies — and some programs already make use of open source — but the department has yet to refine policies or procedures that would take DOD in that direction. And this lack of top-down guidance could keep the department from fully using the advantages of open-source software, experts said.
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A road map for the adoption of open technologies was released last year by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts (AS&C) office. That paper proposed adopting open-source infrastructure and technologies and applying open source to collaborative technologies being implemented by DOD.
Open technologies provide two related advantages over their proprietary alternatives, advocates say. They reduce the cost of software development and they reduce the time in which innovations in software can be incorporated in systems.
“If the project is of a sufficient scale, you cannot get there without an open-source approach,” said Dewey Houck, a senior engineer at Boeing, who spoke at a conference last month about DOD’s use of open source, sponsored by the Association for Enterprise Integration.
“On the battlefield, the enemy gets a vote,” said Brig. Gen. Nickolas Justice, Army program executive officer for command, control and communications tactical. “The software has to change if the business changes. We want young sergeants and captains to be able to change things in their battle command applications as conditions change.”
Success stories
Despite the lack of formal guidance, open source may have already proliferated in DOD.
Last year, AS&C surveyed DOD shops and found more open-source software use than expected. A more recent study conducted by the Federal Open Source Alliance confirmed these findings, with 55 percent of federal information technology leaders surveyed — including DOD agencies — saying they have been or are involved in open-source implementations.
Linux is being deployed as the operating system for Future Combat Systems, Houck said, and other open technologies are being incorporated in FCS’ System of Systems Common Operating Environment (SOSCOE).
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