A new Information Services Group report has found that government agencies are moving their information technology operations to private or hybrid clouds in response to major technology and work changes.

The ISG Provider Lens report showed that changes such as aging server systems, increasing need for edge computing, rise in cybersecurity threats, staff shortages and the shift to remote work during the pandemic are driving agencies to transition their IT functions to the cloud, the company said Thursday.

“Public sector agencies have maintained legacy IT estates well beyond their end of life. This is an unsustainable strategy that is no longer keeping pace with stakeholder demands,” said Nathan Frey, partner, ISG Public Sector.

“Private and hybrid clouds offer a way to modernize IT within the government’s budget and staffing limits,” Frey added.

The report also assessed the capabilities of 24 providers across the managed services and managed hosting quadrants and classified Rackspace Technology and Unisys as leaders in these two quadrants.

Other providers evaluated in the report are Accenture, Lumen, Ensono, NTT, Infosys, Wipro and TCS.

Gen. David Berger, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, signed on Wednesday the service’s new doctrine focused on the information warfighting function.

The document Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 8, Information seeks to launch a conceptual framework to understand and use information as a warfighting function and provide Marines with more flexibility when it comes to operational approaches in all combat domains, the service said Wednesday.

“Information is key to gaining advantage in all domains, whether during kinetic actions on the battlefield or during day-to-day operations in competition,” said Berger. “It’s especially critical when our Marines need to sense and make sense of the operating environment in support of the joint force or to exploit opportunities and take action against our adversaries.”

Deputy Commandant for Information worked with Doctrine Branch, Policy and Standards Division, Training and Education Command to develop MCDP 8, Information.

“MCDP 8, Information is written within context of Force Design 2030: threat-informed, concept-based and accountable to a campaign of learning,” said Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, deputy commandant for information. 

“To maximize the information warfighting function we must make it a component of 21st Century Combined Arms—such that we generate, preserve, deny, and project information in full integration with fire and maneuver,” Glavy added.

The publication is composed of four chapters: Nature of Information; Theory of Information; Effective Use of Information; and Institutionalizing Information.

The Defense Logistics Agency is working on recycling optical-grade germanium to help boost the domestic availability of what is considered a critical material and lessen U.S. reliance on international market for its supply.

The Department of Defense reported Wednesday a DLA program introduced the germanium recycling capability in the U.S. defense industrial base.

The U.S. source more than half of its germanium needs from international providers, mainly China.

The material is from night-vision and thermal-sensing devices used by the military, and Pennsylvania’s Tobyhanna Army Depot provided most of the germanium scrap being processed by the program.

“Until now, there was no entity in the country that could do this complete process, from demilitarization and disassembly to ingot production. Everything that’s being done to recycle the material through this program is being done 100 percent stateside,” said Nancy Albertson, a chemist and program manager for DLA Strategic Materials.

With nationwide consumption reaching 30,000 kilograms in 2020, the DLA program looks to cover 2,200 to 3,000 kilograms of the annual germanium need through the recycling capability.

Military platforms such as Abrams main battle tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Apache helicopters and naval systems use night-vision and thermal-sensing equipment with germanium.

NASA is soliciting partnership proposals from the private sector to develop flight technologies that can help reduce emissions from narrow-body airplanes.

The agency said Thursday it is looking to award at least one contract early next year for the design, production and test of a single-aisle aircraft model under the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project.

For the SFD effort, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California will enter into a funded Space Act Agreement with a selected industry partner to build the demonstration platform.

Under an SPA, the agency is not obligated to buy an aircraft or mission hardware for missions and will only collect data from the project for use in airframe configuration assessments.

“Now, with this ambitious new project, we’re again joining with U.S. industry to usher in a new era of cutting-edge improvements that will make the global aviation industry cleaner, quieter, and more sustainable,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

The project is part of NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program, which centers on research and development work aimed at incorporating aeronautic systems into future commercial transportation vehicles.

Proposals are due Sept. 1, according to a solicitation notice posted on SAM.gov.