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Defense Research and Engineering Network

Virtualization and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In Data Center Two Military Men Work with Open Server Rack Cabinet. One Holds Military Edition Laptop.
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UTRS completed an infrastructure upgrade project to deliver increased efficiency and expandability while minimizing the physical footprint of the DEVCOM AC Army Shared Infrastructure (ASI) and its DREN and SDREN Enclave IaaS systems. UTRS personnel manage all aspects of the computing storage infrastructure to support DEVCOM AC’s mission objectives, including maintenance, updates, and security.

project details

Client

Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM AC) – Armaments Engineering Analysis & Manufacturing (AEA&M) Directorate

Location

Picatinny Arsenal, NJ

Industries

The DEVCOM AC Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) and the Secret Defense Research and Engineering Network (SDREN) Enclaves are Army-accredited network segments with the mission of supporting the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) requirements of the Armament Center’s engineering workforce. This includes support for high-performance computing, modeling and simulation, and a wide variety of unique computing environments (UCEs) that are unsupportable on the Army’s Common Services Network.

Virtualization, Infrastructure, and High Performance Computing

UTRS led an initiative to virtualize physical servers for DEVCOM AC, reducing the organization’s leased footprint in the datacenter and bringing new opportunities for disaster recovery and continuity of operations (COOP). We coordinated the migration of nearly 2000 users and systems from the Non-classified IP Router Network (NIPRnet) onto the DREN. This delivers highly redundant systems, allowing for the migration of virtual machines between datacenters to eliminate downtime during network maintenance windows.

UTRS manages these environments for DEVCOM AC, ensuring the application of all mandatory and applicable Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) controls. We support the core DREN and SDREN network infrastructures, delivering highly redundant systems and allowing for the migration of virtual machines between datacenters to eliminate downtime during network maintenance.

UTRS also supports the High Performance Computer Cluster (HPCC), which combines the computing power of multiple computing nodes into one larger cooperative machine for the purpose of advanced modeling and simulating of weapons, ballistics, and armaments testing. Simulating the testing in this manner saves engineers thousands of hours of field-testing actual equipment. In addition to maintaining and monitoring the HPCC, we also advise on provisioning adequate power and cooling for the future HPCC systems.

UTRS’s DREN support also involves:

VMWare Enterprise Support

UTRS holds multiple cloud and virtualization certifications and manages virtual environments for DEVCOM AC. We are experts in securing these environments and applying STIG controls.

Cybersecurity Management

UTRS manages cybersecurity, including Risk Management Framework (RMF) support, for DREN, SDREN, and assets residing on NIPRnet. We support the DEVCOM AC instance of Endpoint Security Solutions (ESS), the DISA-managed commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) suite of software applications used within the DoD to monitor, detect, and defend its endpoint systems. Our personnel respond to all mandatory requirements for deploying the ESS components required for maintaining Army compliance. These components include Endpoint Security (ENS), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Policy Auditor (PA).

System Management

UTRS has managed DREN and SDREN enclave records in DISA’s Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) since the system was brought online. eMASS is a comprehensive database tool used for managing datapoints associated with system compliance, such as hardware/software configuration data for cybersecurity assessment. eMASS supports Authority to Operate (ATO) decisions and vulnerability assessments, identifies common architecture across programs, and tracks STIG/patching efforts. UTRS maintains the security posture of the DREN enclave of DEVCOM AC by supporting change control management processes and by filling key roles such as Information System Security Manager.

UTRS effectively manages all the system artifacts and Plans of Actions and Milestones (POA&Ms) associated with each enclave we support.

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Most medium and even many large businesses are still running hardware backbones from the last century. They know they can save money with modern information architecture, virtualization, and IaaS, but getting from where they are to where they could be can look daunting.

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