Jennifer Parks
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Digital acceleration, innovation, Cloud One, artificial intelligence and a program overview were among the topics discussed during a recent digital roadshow held here.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Digital Enterprise Launch Team for Acquisition and the Air Force Materiel Command Digital Transformation Office hosted the event.
DELTA/DTO representatives met face-to-face with program teams at the Hanscom Conference Center, providing insights to inform the AFMC Digital Guide Best Practices and Lessons Learned repository.
A Nuclear Command, Control and Communications Integration Directorate overview was part of the sequence of events.
The Cloud One briefing outlined Operation Swift Shield, a modernization initiative designed to increase a mission system’s ability to deliver applications faster at a reduced risk through a secure set of tools. It is a special project to accelerate cloud adoption.
The time required to establish a digital ecosystem depends on whether the system is cloud-ready or if the system needs to be refactored, according to Cloud One Program Manager Joe Thorp.
For cloud-ready applications, Cloud One can complete migrations in several months, provided the systems are cloud-native.
“A memo from the Air Force’s chief information officer mandates that systems use Cloud One,” Thorp said. “It’s one of the largest cloud organizations in the federal government, with a proven track record of onboarding, migrating, and sustaining platforms for a wide range of mission systems.”
Thorp highlighted Cloud One’s benefits, including infrastructure that streamlines authority-to-operate processes.
“By providing the infrastructure, Cloud One allows users to inherit 30 to 40% of the authority to operate through built-in guardrails,” he said.
As the Air Force’s enterprise cloud infrastructure, Cloud One enables systems to collaborate by identifying common service requirements and coordinating efforts.
The Cloud One team collects the customer’s technical requirements, prices the requirements and receives funding to deploy the customer’s software into Cloud One,” Thorp said.
He added that collaboration and data sharing are customer-driven.
Nick Grudziecki, program manager, Digital Engineering Platform as a Service, spoke on how Cloud One connects to DPaaS.
He also specified the delineation between the DPaaS service offerings versus LaunchPad.
“DPaaS launchpad is an extension of DPaaS,” said Grudziecki. “We are a service of within Cloud One and also a customer of it because we leverage its resources. If you look at how launchpad is viewed on a chart within Cloud One, it is a build out of the DPaaS environment which is leveraged on Cloud One.”
Grudziecki encouraged customers to submit new requirements.
“We receive requirements from the customer base and the Digital Transformation Office,” he said.
Kenneth Thompson, Air Force Materiel Command Digital Transformation Office integration lead, speaks during a digital roadshow event at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. Nov. 11. As the first organization to lead a unified digital transformation across the Air Force and Space Force, the DTO is dedicated to addressing the digital needs of the entire acquisition and sustainment enterprise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Todd Maki) 
Nick Grudziecki, program manager, Digital Engineering Platform as a Service, answers a question during a digital roadshow at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., Nov. 7. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Digital Enterprise Launch Team for Acquisition and Air Force Materiel Command Digital Transformation Office held the event to meet face-to-face with program teams to discuss best practices and lessons learned. (U.S. Air Force photo by Mark Herlihy) 
Joseph Thorp, Cloud One lead program manager, provides remarks during a digital roadshow at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., Nov. 7. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Digital Enterprise Launch Team for Acquisition and Air Force Materiel Command Digital Transformation Office held the event to meet face-to-face with program teams to discuss best practices and lessons learned. (U.S. Air Force photo by Mark Herlihy)