The Cloud Executive Steering Group, tasked with shaping the Defense Department’s cloud strategy, has been reshuffled.
Previous Chairwoman and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Ellen Lord has been replaced with Jay Gibson, the DoD’s deputy CMO. Two new members will also be joining the panel: Bob Daigle and Essye Miller. Daigle is currently director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at DoD, and Miller is the deputy CIO for cybersecurity.
The CESG was set up last September to accelerate DoD’s shift towards the cloud, and in a statement Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said the committee had made “great progress towards making commercial cloud services available to the department.” This was backed up when CRSA, the firm that is building the new $500 million cloud infrastructure for DoD, announced that it is three months ahead of schedule.
Shanahan stressed that CESG will continue to report to DoD, and despite Lord’s replacement as chairwoman the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics will support all of the steering group’s efforts. The cloud adoption initiative will continue to be a two-phase process, and during the second phase Captain David McAllister of SCO will be leading the effort to transition systems and operationalize the mission.
