Dan Visone, Acting Director of the Army Geospatial Center (AGC), gave remarks on advancing the Army geospatial enterprise in support of multi-domain operations, the Geo-Data fabric, and the IC Cloud in the GEOINT 2024 Government Hub Tuesday afternoon.  

Visone discussed the Army Geospatial Data Fabric (AGDF), describing it as an enterprise capability on NIPR, SIPR, and JWICS through which the AGC can provide one authoritative geospatial foundation connected to what engineers are doing in the field.  

In a panel discussion following Visone’s remarks, David Cray, Directorate Chief of the Systems Acquisition and Support Directorate at AGC, also addressed AGDF.  

“It’s all about partnerships, Cray said. It takes a village to raise a child and we are raising a child with the Army Geo-Data Fabric.”   

He addded that there are teams doing the training, architecture, configuration management, and more that meet at least once a week to ensure all actions are algined.  

Visone also touched upon tactical edge nodes, emphasizing Command & Control (C2) as the way of the future. “Everything is about C2 next,” he said. 

Panel: IC Cloud Strategies in the Government Hub

In a reprise of a popular panel discussion from GEOINT 2023, a group of CIO leaders from U.S. intelligence agencies gathered to address how the community’s multi-cloud construct presents unique challenges and opportunities for CIOs and mission owners alike in the Government Hub.

Moderator Nick Buck, CEO of The Buck Group and Co-Chair of USGIF’s NRO Industry Advisory Working Group asked panelists their view on the most exciting development in cloud computing in the past year. 

Jennifer Kron, Deputy CIO for the National Security Agency, answered: “Our top focus is moving core mission services and programs off-prem and into the cloud. [When we do this,] we’re getting NSA out of the business of running data centers and are able to leverage the best of what industry has to offer.” 

Buck also said one trend the group can’t ignore is the move toward Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). 

Kron said SaaS has a lot to offer: “The less that government has to think about technology, the more we can focus on mission.” 

CIA CIO La’Naia Jones recalled former PDDNI Sue Gordon’s proclamation in 2015 that NGA was moving to the cloud: “Bold statements like that lead to change.”