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Thomas Conrad

Open Architecture: A Small Business Perspective Defense Daily Open Architecture Summit November 2011. Thomas Conrad. Company Overview. Established January 3, 2000 Employee Centric; SDVOSB A Seasoned Workforce of 150+ Employees Provide Production Quality Products and High Value Services

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Thomas Conrad

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  1. Open Architecture: A Small Business PerspectiveDefense Daily Open Architecture SummitNovember 2011 Thomas Conrad

  2. Company Overview • Established January 3, 2000 • Employee Centric; SDVOSB • A Seasoned Workforce of 150+ Employees • Provide Production Quality Products and High Value Services • Maintain an Aggressive Cost Structure • Nationally Recognized as an Innovative Solution Provider

  3. Combat System of the Future Transformation to Total Ship Mission Execution Mission Based Decision Pull Total Ship Command & Control Center Command Decision Support System (CDSS) Command Decision Support Applications Feed back needed Improvements to Optimize Decision Support Technologies & Information Management Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Efficiently absorb Information & Improvements through Integration/OA Technologies Key Interdependencies Impact Mission Effectiveness System Data Push APB Improvements HM&E Improvements Other Improvements Net Centric Warfare Improvements . . . Non-Propulsion Electronics Systems HM&E Off-Board Assets Addressing the Challenges of the Warfighter

  4. The Deployable Systems Mandate • Vendor-independent, Scalable, Real-Time, Reliable, Interoperable, Flexible, Secure, Survivable, Portable, Redundant, Damage-Resistant, Low-Cost, Long-Life, Commercial, Plug-Together Elements • Easy to Test, Use, Train, Game, and Simulate • Minimum Defense Department Staff for Design, Deployment, Operation, and Maintenance • An Inter-Operable Information Architecture If you’re a small business, how do you enter that market?

  5. Small Business Challenges • Investment dollars are precious • Very limited ability to proceed at risk • Limited ability to pursue multiple ideas simultaneously • SBIR funds are important • Protecting intellectual property is very important • There are not broad product lines but a focused niche • The corporate crown jewels are on the line • Teaming is important to gain market access • Fielding products demands demonstrated quality • Typically need to integrate with/embed within larger systems • Many special requirements (IA, high reliability, HSI, fail-safe, etc.) • Organic test environments cost prohibitive

  6. Impact of OA • Small Businesses will not likely become the new LSI’s, but • Can become suppliers of piece parts given well-defined interfaces to an open architecture • Requires standard Integration and Compatibility Framework • SBIR provides an opportunity to gain access to the marketplace with a particular innovation • OA facilitates teaming • No need to give away the internal workings of a product to make it play with other products • Opens the door to teaming not just with other small businesses, but with major defense firms as well (SB must hedge bets here – High volatility in DoD market) • OA enables product validation without huge investment in test-beds and simulators • Small businesses can participate in integration testing through WANs that interface to big business test-beds or by delivery to such test-beds which are architected to open standards • This facilitates establishment of confidence in small business development capabilities and breeds future collaboration opportunities

  7. Openness System architecture supports, through modularity and standard interfaces, the replacement of hardware and/or software components by components that are equivalent or superior, albeit of different manufacture or production. System architecture exhibits a logical and physical topology that facilitates interconnection and interoperability with external systems. System implementation and structure provide straight-forward mechanisms for system extension and subsetting. Integrating framework incorporates no special purpose, application-specific, or proprietary components. Open Architecture is not a binary condition 7 TPC-10(R-S)042011.2

  8. Framework is the Key The Integration and Compatibility Framework is the enabler for open systems. It is the venue for other parties to supply new capability. • Collaboration works well where the customer owns an integration and compatibility framework that is open • The IC Framework defines and constrains the growth paths. • A third party can build it for you but must not own it.

  9. Worth Pondering • Brave New World? • Government to prescribe/acquire an open integration and compatibility framework • Contract with small/intermediate business to maintain and manage the framework • Includes architecture validation of products plugging in to the framework • Separate contracting for application development and integration efforts

  10. The Silver Bullet Is not High Order Languages Is not Software Environments Is notPerformance Based Specifications Is notBest Software Engineering Practices Is notCOTS Is notOpen Architecture Is notService Oriented Architecture Is not the Cloud Nor are any of these the Mission.

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