Lots of Work, So Little Time

Five short years!

“People forget that DHS has been around for just five years. They ask ‘why haven’t they integrated everything yet?’” said Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group.

Flyzik pointed out that there are other agencies that have been around for hundreds of years and many of those agencies aren’t integrated.  “It is a monumental effort but it’s good to hear that progress is moving in the right direction,” added Flyzik.

DHS FY2009 Budget Priorities

DHS has been in existence for just five short years. Its watchwords of “One Team, One Mission Securing The Homeland” are taken very seriously by its workforce of 208,000. Their priorities are: border and cargo security; secure identification; infrastructure protection, emergency response; and department management. These priorities are reflected in DHS’s budget request for FYO9 of $50.5 billion – an increase of 6.8% over FY08.

“There comes a point that rhetoric and promises do not secure the homeland; results secure the homeland. I’m interested in results,” said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff in announcing his budget request on February 4, 2008.

Crucial to DHS success is the continued investment in the development and deployment of a wide range of advanced technologies.  For example DHS is investing $335 million for real-time information sharing and situational awareness detection tools. These include an Advanced Spectroscopic Portal to examine cargo containers for nuclear materials and a Human Portable Radiation Detection System.

But for these advanced technologies to perform as planned DHS has to have something basic -- a strong unified IT infrastructure. “Successful mission performance is driven by human capital development, executing efficient procurement operations, and possessing state-of-the-art information technology resources,” said Secretary Chertoff.

Providing that strong unified infrastructure is exactly what ICE CIO Luke McCormack is doing. The goal is to provide “not sort of what they need, not kind of what they need, not what we could have given them, should have given them, (but give them) exactly what they need -- when they need it,” says McCormack.

Making that happen is ICE’s Atlas Data Center program. “That’s really our infrastructure plumbing and we’ve made quite a bit of progress in that area,” reports McCormack.

Progress according to McCormack translates into migrating to one network, consolidating our email environment, freshening up our desk top hardware and working very closely with the Department in the consolidation of data centers by moving out of the DOJ data centers into the new DHS data centers.

“A year or two from now, I see an environment where things like Atlas data centers, desktops, emails are like the air we breathe, just a commodity we buy,” notes McCormack. “I see us really focusing on the business applications and more importantly, building specifically what the special components need and when they need it from an applications standpoint. “

For McCormack building includes partnering. “Delivering a solution as a full service provider might not be something that you build yourself, you might be partnering with several different communities, whether it be state and local, whether it be within DHS, other departments and certainly the private industry.”

Migrating Data Centers

“I certainly think continued integration is really key to our success,” says Kathy Kraninger, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Screening Coordination Office at DHS.

For some migrating data centers might seem mundane and maybe not that important, but not for Kraninger. “We have infrastructure all over the country in different places with different capabilities scattered,” explains Kraninger. Consolidating those data centers is the backbone of accomplishing information sharing, of getting a common operating picture (COP) for the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol and Air and Marine operations personnel.

“We already see pockets of this,” says Kraninger. “Going out to the field and seeing what’s happening in places like Miami where you have the Coast Guard, CBP, TSA and ICE working in the airport, (who) are sitting down on a regular basis and putting together joint operations.”

“These are field folks that need the tools so that they can be successful in those kinds of operations to really further our nation’s security,” says Kraninger. “That’s something that we are all here to do and that’s the mission and goal into the future that we are going to see real benefits from.”

Future VISIT

Bob Mocny, Director of the US-VISIT program says his program is poised to make great even greater strides over the next three to five years.

“You’ll have ten (finger) prints deployed to all the ports of entry. You will see the marriage of iris and face to help with a lot of the throughput,” says Mocny. “You are going to see full interoperability with the FBI’s next generation identification system, with state and local and other law enforcement agencies. You will see biometric exits at all of our air and seaports of entry. All foreign nationals will check out and check in using their biometrics in association with the airlines and the airports and working in conjunction with them.”

Mocny sees an expansion of mobile technology as well with a joint program with the Coast Guard for mobile pass biometrics at sea and doing the same to help CBP in its work in the mountains and in the deserts.

“We have to get serious about pushing our borders out as we have been doing, but moving that in a cooperative manner with all these other entities, sharing our data as appropriate, and getting their data as well,” says Mocny.

“If I have information about individuals I want to share that with the UK, I want to share that with Australia,” explains Mocny. “I want to share that with all these other countries that are building their systems so that we can truly keep these people off the planes, off the ships, and away from our borders.”

Project 28

No project has received more publicity – most of it negative – than Project 28, the Virtual Fence which is an integral part of CBP’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI).

Greg Giddens is the Executive Director of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) and its program to develop and deploy technology -- SBInet.

“From a CBP perspective in terms of border security, I think you’ll continue to see us using all types of technology,” says Giddens.  According to Giddens CBP has spent a lot of time focusing on a single slice of the SBInet, P28, which brings together the work of many different components and includes a variety of technologies that need to be developed and tested – and most importantly – demonstrated before they can be fully deployed, understanding that it’s not a one size fits all.

“Clearly we want to develop an in-field operational configuration this summer for SBInet and continue to build out the tactical infrastructure,” explains Giddens. “Then (we can) be in a position that we can really productionize that…and have the configuration control where we can apply that to where the operators need it.”

“What we want to do is be nimble in our planning,” says Giddens. “I don’t want to sit here in 2008 and lock ourselves in for a location for 2009; we want to have a nimble enough planning that we can look at our operators and put the technology and solutions where they think they need it most. And we want to do that with continued good oversight.”

“I know that a lot of people have written about Project 28 and how it was delayed,” says Giddens. “But you never read about the dedicated public servants from the government side that protected the government’s interests and looked at this and said ‘that it does not meet the contract’. We managed this in such a way that held Boeing accountable to deliver what they had on contract. You never hear about those dedicated public servants that worked to protect the interests of the tax payer, you never read about those. “

Giddens is adamant about the fact that Project 28 was a demonstration – not a final implementation and deployment. And he says Boeing has stepped up and taken responsibility for the projects shortcomings.

“You also don’t read about Boeing,” explains Giddens. “When we told them, as their customer, that this product’s not ready, they stood up and took responsibility and said ‘you are right, and we are going to fix it, and we’ll take responsibility for that’.”

For Giddens, that’s the type of strategic partner America needs to help secure the borders; people that will take responsibility and invest for this country’s future.