AFEI News & Updates

AFEI Members Recieve Discount for Executive Education

THE  ENTERPRISE  TECHNOLOGY  STRATEGIST:
ALIGNING IT & BUSINESS STRATEGIES
A development opportunity brought to you by
Penn State Executive Programs in association with the

Association for Open Group Enterprise Architects

November 17-21, 2008
University Park campus
State College, PA

AFEI members recieve thesame discount pricing as listed for the Association for Open Group Enterprise Architects (see web site).

Information technology executives and senior managers can explore strategies that optimize IT investments for enterprise-wide business needs at a unique executive education program from Penn State. The Enterprise Technology Strategist provides best practices and collaborative models that enable information professionals to better align their IT strategy and infrastructure with their organization’s objectives. This results-oriented program is specifically designed to help participants better understand, plan, and implement the alignment of their IT and business strategies and infrastructures.

The program delves into all aspects of IT and organizational alignment—from strategy and infrastructure issues to those surrounding external alliances and partnerships.  Other topics include: 

• Processes for the management and governance of IT in relation to business strategy
• Constructing an adaptive architecture
• Aligning IT strategy and infrastructure
• Defining and designing competitive organizational strategies and architectures
• Understanding the role of enterprise program management
• Exploring technological and business changes that are transforming inter-business relationships

The Enterprise Technology Strategist brings together the academic expertise of Penn State faculty members in the Smeal College of Business and the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) with the practical business experiences of Gartner, the world's leading provider of IT research and consulting.

This executive education program is being held in association with the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA). Association member pricing applies. Early Bird Discount: $5200 per person registration fee if you enroll by September 1, 2008.

Details on The Enterprise Technology Strategist are available on the Web at http://www.smeal.psu.edu/psep/ets.html

Registrations are currently being accepted for the November offering. Call 800-311-6364 or 1-814-865-3435 for more information or to make a reservation.

2008 National Defense Strategy

The 2008 National Defense Strategy calls out technology and equipment as necessary tools for the Total Force, and goes on to state “We must also continue to improve our acquisition and contracting regulations, procedures and oversight to ensure agile and timely procurement of critical equipment and materials for our forces.”

The AFEI Executive Forum report (see article and link on home page) on SOA Acquisition describes the kind of changes that DoD will need to come to grips with if it is to achieve the agile, flexible and net-centric attributes the strategy envisions. 

The reality of SOA in the Defense community is that it must exist alongside, and integrate with, the tightly-coupled and closed processes, architectures and systems engineering that underpins its weapon systems and command and control.  This is not a zero-sum situation.  Legacy, vertically integrated systems are necessary in the Defense world because of their life & death mission criticality.  But open, agile services-based capabilities are also necessary to make more efficient, effective use of military assets and to quickly configure capabilities to match mission requirements.

Regarding organization it says “The goal is to break-down barriers and transform industrial-era organization structures into an information and knowledge-based enterprise. These concepts are not a panacea, and will require investments in people as much as in technology to realize the full potential of these initiatives.”

As DoD goes forward with services-based capabilities it will need to think differently about organization, ask differently about how it asks for, and acquires, information capabilities, and it will need to figure out how to fund the horizontal capabilities necessary for it to function as a more cohesive enterprise.  To succeed in the years to come, DoD will need to act differently in some significant ways.  As we know, changing decades of entrenched behavior patterns, its many internal "tribal cultures", will be the more difficult challenge.

The NDS is available here.

DoD Enterprise Architecture Presentations
are now available on the AFEI conference page (here). View both the video and the presentations at KZO Webcasting (here).

Defense Enterprise Architecture Achievement Awards
The first ever DEAA Awards were made on April 17 at the DoD Enterprise Architecture Conference in Orlando, FL. The awards recognize significant contributions in enterprise architecture that enable net-enabled, interoperable GIG and Defense Information Environment. More

Mr. Shawn Spencer (r.) receives his DEAA award from Mr. Brian Wilczynski, OSD (l.) and Mr. Kshemendra Paul, Chief Architect, OMB (center).

Blog Post on Open Source
Jason Hull of OpenConnections blogs on AFEI Open Technology Conference and Open Source in DOD here.

Sun Web log On Open Source Conference
Jim Laurent, a Systems Engineer with Sun Microsystems, reported on the AFEI Open conference in a blog entry on Wednesday Dec 19, 2007. He says:

"It's clear from attending this conference again (this is my third time) that there is no avoiding the use of open source tools in the Federal Government.  Whether it is something as simple as glassfish and openssh or more advanced technologies like the UltraSPARC T1 and T2 processors, open source is everywhere in the DoD."

Read his blog here

AFEI Data Strategy and Shared Services (DS3) Working Group
The DS3 effort on SOA acquisition with DoD was mentioned in Government Computer News article and in Federal Computer week.  Read the articles:

GCN - DOD developing data sharing working group

FCW - DOD is extending net-centricity to RFPs

Cyber Deterrence Conference a Success!
At the November 1-2 AFEI conference an audience of very senior industry and government attendees listened to a day and a half of some of the world's leading thinkers on deterrence policy and cyber security. Early consensus was that stronger cyber defense has a deterrent effect, and that much more thought and discussion needs to be given to defining cyber space and the rules of behavior within it. Proceedings will be published shortly.

Cyber Rules of Engagement
Maj Gen William Lord (USAF), Air Force Cyber Command, comments on Cyber Space rules of engagement and weapons in a recent Federal Computer Week interview (read).

The White House Releases Security Strategy The White House releases the National Strategy for Homeland Security (NSHS). The purpose is to guide, organize, and unify homeland security efforts. Read an excerpt on deterrence from the NSHS here.
The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace and the NIPP’s Cross-Sector Cyber Security plan are guiding the Federal Government's efforts in cyber security.