The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency released its new strategic plan today, aligning the agency’s priorities with the Department of Defense’s goals and objectives for global operations through fiscal years 2025-2029. Referred to as the DISA Next Strategy, the new strategic framework identifies a suite of capabilities and services the agency must deliver to transform the DOD’s information network and meet the challenges described in the National Defense Strategy. DISA remains focused on several department-wide, enterprise-level solutions, including simplifying the network with large-scale adoption of a common IT environment, developing a fully functional DOD enterprise cloud environment, and integrating its Identity, Credential and Access Management and Zero Trust capabilities within its common IT and cloud environment.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, DISA director and Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network commander, says in the strategy, “As a combat support agency and the premier IT service provider for the Department of Defense, we will continue to provide world-class services. At the same time, we are changing. We are re-organizing, optimizing and transforming to deliver resilient, survivable and secure capabilities to enable department success and warfighter lethality. We must continue to deliver while being challenged by great powers. From great power competition with the People’s Republic of China, to supporting operations in emerging geographic areas of national strategic importance, both home and abroad,” Skinner says in the strategy.”
The strategy includes four strategic imperatives, six operational imperatives, and eight goals –- all crucial to DISA’s core functions that guide the agency’s support to the warfighter and mission partners. The plan’s goals and objectives align with those the DOD has set for global operations over the next five years and coincide with the department’s process used to budget appropriated funds also known as the Program Objective Memorandum, or POM. In turn, the strategy will aid leadership, industry partners and the DOD’s ability to make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively to achieve organizational stability.
DISA is the combat support agency entrusted with the Defense Department’s information system network. It is our responsibility to transform and integrate capabilities and services to best support the DOD. The 2022 NDS describes four priorities: defend the homeland, deter strategic attack, deter aggression and if deterrence fails, win and ensure military advantage by building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem. DISA supports all four priorities. The fourth NDS priority, building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem, clearly describes the transformation the agency must take. It outlines the need to maintain information and decision advantage, preserving the joint warfighting system while operating in an all-domain denied, degraded, intermittent and low-bandwidth environment.
