Guy Cavallo, deputy chief information officer of the Small Business Administration, told Federal News Network in an interview published Thursday about SBA’s cloud migration experience as part of the implementation of the continuous diagnostics and mitigation program.

Cavallo discussed how he and Maria Roat, CIO of SBA and a 2020 Wash100 award winner, advanced efforts to self-fund the cloud transition by turning off contracts for on-premise architecture, including hardware maintenance support contracts for servers, in order to generate savings.

“And then once we were in the cloud, the cybersecurity capabilities just kept taking off every week” he said. “We saw enhancements and that just reinforced that we were headed on the right path.”

Cavallo also discussed the cloud’s advantage over on-premise architecture when it comes to handling large volumes of data.

“One problem with the on-premise architecture is the amount of data that every device generates,” Cavallo said. “It’s just a tremendous amount of data that would require an expensive hardware on-premise to deal with. And we’d constantly be buying more disk space, where, with the cloud, we’re able to just keep expanding our usage and pay a fraction of the cost of owning the hardware ourselves.”

Walter Copan, director of the National Institutes of Science and Technology, appeared Wednesday before a House subcommittee to discuss NIST’s work in quantum science and artificial intelligence, Nextgov reported Thursday.

He told members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s research and technology subpanel about NIST’s achievements in the quantum field, including work in quantum simulation and development of a quantum logic clock. He also offered updates on the establishment of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium.

“Looking forward, over the coming years NIST will focus a portion of its quantum research portfolio on the grand challenge of quantum networking,” Copan said in his written testimony. “Serving as the basis for secure and highly efficient quantum information transmission that links together multiple quantum devices and sensors, quantum networks will be a key element in the long-term evolution of quantum technologies.” 

Copan noted that NIST needs to ramp up efforts to advance the development of tools designed to provide insights into AI programs. He added that there is “important work to be done in standardization, so that the United States can lead the world in the application of [AI] in a trustworthy and ethical manner.”

Copan, who is also undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology, responded to lawmakers’ questions about 5G and the condition of NIST facilities.

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing Thursday to ask supply chain experts about potential options to prevent future shortages of drugs and other critical goods amid the coronavirus pandemic and reduce reliance on foreign countries like China for such products, FCW reported Thursday.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) mentioned the national security concern posed by vulnerabilities in the supply chain during the hearing

Wynne Briscoe, acting director of the Maryland Small Business Development Center, said the Small Business Administration could help come up a list of U.S.-based alternative suppliers and classify products and services related to such firms using the NAICS codes.

"The SBA would produce the list by contacting all the companies it now works with, or has worked with over the past decade or so, through SBDCs (small business development centers) and other SBA related organizations," Briscoe said. She added the SBDCs and small business groups could help collect and maintain the data.

The Space Development Agency is looking into the use of cloud computing for missile tracking activities, Space News reported Wednesday.

Joy Stein, tracking layer lead at the SDA, said relying on missile-tracking sensors alone would result in a bottleneck due to large amounts of data.

“Cloud computing is one of those architectures that gives you flexibility to continue to make refinements with the data you provide, how that gets processed and where it goes," she told an audience at the Satellite 2020 conference.

Stein added that the cloud computing approach will also present cybersecurity challenges.

SDA has already launched solicitations to deploy satellites that would detect missiles and generate information for sharing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released an initial batch of computer codes to support open and collaborative development of weather forecasting models for use in National Weather Service activities.

NOAA said Wednesday it encourages members of the academe and industry to help the agency simplify its forecasting models through the Unified Forecast System to better support medium-range weather prediction.

Louis Uccellini, director of NWS, said the goal of the program is to enable UFS to “provide the basis for all of our weather, water and climate forecasts.” 

“We invite researchers and modelers around the world to download and work with the code, so together we can advance numerical weather prediction to improve life-saving forecasts and warnings,” noted Neil Jacobs, acting administrator of NOAA.

The agency said that its Earth Prediction Innovation Center will oversee the UFS research and development initiative.

Boeing and government personnel have commenced the effort to modify 747-8 aircraft into VC-25B, also known as the next Air Force One presidential aircraft.

Modifications began in late February as the team cleared foreign object debris in the two 747-8 aircraft and the facility where work will take place, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center said Wednesday.

The industry-government team will install a mission communication system, update electric systems, build an internal medical facility and apply autonomous ground operations features under the effort.

The U.S. President may perform head of state, chief executive and commander in chief duties while onboard the VC-25B aircraft.

“Air Force One is a symbol of our nation that is instantly recognizable worldwide,” said Brig. Gen. Ryan Britton, USAF's program executive officer for presidential and executive airlift.

 The new VC-25B is scheduled to commence presidential flights in 2024. Boeing supports the program under a contract with the Air Force.

Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, who leads U.S. Northern Command, said the Arctic area has changed into an environment that requires modern technology to protect, DoD News reported Wednesday. He told the House Armed Services Committee that Northcom is working with North American Aerospace Defense Command to address this issue via force modernization.

The general also seeks a technologically armed defense approach through partnerships with industry. Northcom is pursuing an approach known as the Strategic Home and Integrated Ecosystem for Layered Defense or SHIELD for boosted multidomain awareness.

“Our layered defense needs to establish awareness in all domains; from below the oceans to the highest levels of space, including the unseen cyber domain, which are all at risk,” O’Shaughnessy noted.

Lt. Gen. David Thompson, the U.S. Space Force’s vice commander, said the new service branch needs to develop its own intelligence operations as it continues to separate from the U.S. Air Force, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday.

Thompson, who is also a former Wash100 Award recipient, told the publication that Space Force needs servicemembers who “understand deeply space intelligence” and that the intelligence community must expand its operations to include support for the Space Force and Space Command.

“What we really need most is elements of a war fighting domain and military service that have been lacking over the years,” he said. “We need our own core intelligence capability.”

Space Command’s intelligence-related activities fall under the scope of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center and National Space Defense Center.