Improving data analysis at the tactical edge with distributed cloud infrastructure

Edge compute capabilities improve how service men and women in the field make decisions at the speed of the mission, according to Jason Byrd, product manager for Google, in a recent DefenseScoop podcast.

Due to the exponential increase in data available at the tactical edge over the years, service members face time constraints in making sense of this vast information to make critical decisions at three distinct levels: strategic, operational and tactical.

“Compute at the edge helps rapidly triage that data, aid decision making and then enable that data to be moved up to those higher echelons for further analysis,” said Byrd in the podcast, underwritten by Google for Government.

He says that by shifting the IT enterprise posture to include cloud capabilities both on-prem and at the edge, defense agencies will not only have the foundational architecture necessary to deploy modern technologies, but they can also consolidate their security posture.

Google Distributed Cloud Hosted is a solution that can offer defense leaders those additional layers of protection to data at the edge, which can be readily integrated into their existing infrastructure.

“Government should not only have secure data, but they should have the freedom to do with it what they want on whatever platform they decide,” said Byrd.

“It’s easy for the best data security strategies to really fall apart at the edge,” he explained. “And as security vulnerabilities start to open up, it’s easy to buy a new appliance when you need the capability and deploy to the field. But then each time you do that, you add new hardware, and then you increase the surface area that IT professionals need to manage and secure.”

“[Government agencies] don’t need to constantly add new kit in the field to get new capabilities. They need new capabilities from the kit they’ve already deployed.”

Listen to the full podcast conversation and learn more from defense leaders about capitalizing on a secure cloud environment to gain more insights from their data.

You can hear more of our latest coverage on IT developments in the defense space by subscribing to the Defense Scoop podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and Stitcher.

This podcast was produced by Scoop News Group, for DefenseScoop, and underwritten by Google for Government.