REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 10, 2008 — Some 250 senior operational and IT military leaders from across the world gather in Lisbon, Portugal, today for the two-day Defence Leaders Forum, where they will discuss how information technology can bolster defense and security operations.
The summit is being convened by the NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA), Microsoft, and Portugal’s Ministry of National Defense. Officials from 22 nations are taking part.
Microsoft’s joint sponsorship role underscores the company’s stature in the defense arena, says Tim Bloechl, managing director, worldwide public safety and national security at Microsoft. “We’ve developed close strategic contacts with a number of national militaries, working in partnership with them to ensure they’re equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century and the rapidly changing technology environment,” says Bloechl.
For example, twice a year at its corporate campus near Seattle, Microsoft hosts senior leaders from the international military alliance for strategic briefings. During those meetings, it shares its technology roadmap and conducts needs assessments. NATO is also in the vanguard of military organizations rolling out Windows Vista.
Such relationships are very important to Microsoft. Military organizations rank as the company’s largest and third-largest customers – the US Army and US Air Force respectively – and its top 10 also includes the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence.
Access to the latest technological capabilities is critical for today’s military organizations, which have seen their national security and military roles expanded to include peacekeeping, counterterrorism, conflict resolution, disaster response, and humanitarian and public safety tasks.
To help with these new assignments, military and defense customers often are turning to commercial, off-the-shelf software from vendors such as Microsoft, replacing custom-built or legacy systems that can be costly to operate and less flexible.
Commercial software can support many defense organizations’ back-office operations, which are not unlike those of a regular business – spanning functions such as HR, payroll and accounting. There’s growing usage of Microsoft Dynamics business management products. And Microsoft Office Sharepoint is improving s collaboration among militaries internationally, says Bloechl.
But the military also has distinctive needs that set it apart from civilian organizations.
Military software must be highly reliable, stringently secure, and scalable across thousands to millions of users. It must be fully compliant with the latest standards and protocols, interoperable with disparate systems and ultra versatile across the needs of complex organizations. And in an era of budget-conscious governments, military software must be cost-effective to deploy.
Microsoft delivers these demanding requirements through platform products such as Office 2007 and Windows Vista that today provide the IT infrastructure for military customers. Many partner-developed, Microsoft-based solutions represent a lifeline to soldiers operating on the front lines in dynamic combat conditions, where access to accurate, timely information can make the difference between lives saved and lost.
Take email. Military and defense organizations must keep the lines of communication open to share the very latest intelligence and operational information. But they must also protect highly sensitive information to ensure it doesn’t fall into unauthorized hands.
It’s a tricky balance to strike and regular email won’t suffice. So Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Titus Labs has developed a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that significantly enhances email security. TMC 3.0, the latest version of Titus Lab’s flagship product, ensures all messages are classified according to their sensitivity level, limiting access to parties with appropriate clearance. This prevents security breaches and inadvertent disclosures.
The tool allows users to designate a security classification for outgoing messages by clicking an icon on their desktop toolbar. If they don’t select a classification, they’re prompted to apply one through a pop-up that appears on their screen like a spellchecker and walks them through a drop-down list of options, based on their organizations’ security policy, to determine the sensitivity of the material being sent. In the case of top-secret emails, it automatically applies encryption.
