Whitepaper

DATA IN MOTION

If the Mission Never Rests, Neither
Should Our Data
Meeting JADO and JADC2 Objectives with Data in Motion

Route

Fi
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Join

Information

Sustainment

EnrichFilterAI/ML

Enhanced
Situational
Awarenessat the Speedof the Mission

Fo

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eu

Detect

ion
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Real-timeContinuous
Mission Data

Targe
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In

Movem
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Increasingly, battles and wars are fought in multiple spaces simultaneously—land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Meeting these threats
requires a Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) strategy. Moving to this level of coordinated operations is hard—we must work around50+ years of siloed systems that hold the data needed for a JADO approach to peer and near-peer threats.
A JADO approach means giving our warfighters and peacekeepers real time data to make decisions in the field. The battlefield is
dynamic and is never at rest. Timely and accurate data is the most critical aspect to all of the warfare components. The quality of data
drives decisions that are critical for the success of the mission with the fewest amount of casualties. We’ve reached the limits of what we
can do with data at rest. Besides, the battlefield is never at rest, why should our data be?
Traditional database structure, even those modernized with data lakes and cloud scale data storage, cannot operate at the speed of themission. We need to put data in motion. Data mesh architectures help bridge the gap between the systems we have and the decisions weneed to support.
Data in Motion gives users access to an event stream that is continually evolving and disseminated to users in real time for use across thewarfighting functions. It also helps serve the diverse sets of data consumers and the geographic they work in across military operations
from HQ to the mission edge.
When applied to Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) warfare components, a Data in Motion approach is nothing short oftransformational.

© 2023 Confluent, Inc. | Confluent.io1Whitepaper | If the Mission Never Rests, Neither Should Our Data

Fires and Targeting
Whether it is a kinetic or cyber payload, the accuracy of the fire and the quick re-calculation for post fire adjustments is critical. Staff ateach echelon must be able to orient on new opportunities and quickly decide, target, and execute across all domains. With targeting andfires systems separate, there is a real challenge in integrating data in real-time for confidence in outcomes.
A Data in Motion approach allows the DoD to extend existing investments by continuing to use legacy solutions but with a data mesh toconnect them. Data is liberated from underlying systems and is available to users and machines in real time. Data streaming enhances
decision making because commanders can know the results of a delivery in real-time and adjust appropriately. This is about ensuring atighter feedback loop between targeting, fires, and battle damage assessment.
Targets never remain in the same place over time. The ability to detect any movement or action in real time is imperative particularly ina joint scenario. An event-driven sensor environment integrated with ISR assets will give commanders an accurate and current picture of
the battlefield which leads to effective decision making for mission success and safety.
Accurate and timely Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) is essential to track progress, ensuring that commanders are able to makeflexible decisions in dynamic environments. Data streaming will enhance that decision because the commander will know the results of adelivery in real time, letting commanders know of the left and right limits of their next decision.
The targeting process is an on-going circular process that is constantly changing in real-time. Data at rest reduces the effectivenessof the targeting process. Real-time data streaming ensures that the targeting process is running as concurrently as possible with thebattlefield making it a more lethal, safe and effective process.

Movement and Maneuver
To enable joint force movement and maneuver, DoD needs a structure capable of converging effects at a time and place to create
multiple adversary dilemmas and supporting friendly freedom of action.
With Data in Motion there is a clear view of where you are going, how you are going to get there and where all of the assets you needto carry out the mission are located. Users need data in geospatial and temporal context, shaped for the application that is going toconsume it. Data must also be filtered and enriched for the mission it is supporting.
Incorporating Data in Motion into JADC2, all of the elements of maneuver, tempo, focal point, combined arms, surprise, flexibility, anddecentralized command are better supported across all domains.

Force Protection
A key tenet of JADO is indications and warnings to understand the purpose of enemy actions. Knowing enemy intentions and yourvisibility to the enemy can together inform proactive efforts to avoid attack or conflict. A modern approach to Force protection will
incorporate information from autonomous sensors, ISR, and monitoring of publicly available information. Being able to aggregate thisinformation for presentation in maps, timelines, threat assessments, etc for real-time Force Protection situational awareness is critical.
Via a data mesh, this information is available in real-time as events unfold.

© 2023 Confluent, Inc. | Confluent.io2

Whitepaper | If the Mission Never Rests, Neither Should Our Data

Real-time Mission Insights with Confluent
Mission Data

Ingest & Process

Access mission data fromdisparate repositories
and stream using change
data capture with Connect
or connect directly to acustomer database

Capture changes with aconsistent data structureusing Schema Registry;develop real-time ETL pipelines
using ksqlDB and Streams;
and stream data to
downstream services andstorage using Connect

Prep, Train, & Deploy

Intelligence Data

Analytics and ML

Leverage modern ML toolkits
for model prep, training,and deployment; gain deeper
insights with real-timeinferenceStore

Mission Insights

Keep your events in astorage service using
Tiered Storage

Gain real-time insights into
streaming data; visualize
information and analytics
using intuitive dashboards
gererate customer
specific reports

Write to databases,
blob storage, or indexers
using Connect

Real-time Inference
Integrating with ML Toolkits

HumIN
SigINT

Real-Time Apps

MASINTImINT
PAI/OSINT

Sink

Forecasting

Optimization

Notifications

Reporting

Dashboards

Real-Time
AnalysisQuerying

Prediction

JADC2 DataIntelligence
Targeting & Fires
Force Protection
Movement & Maneuver
Sustainment
Sink

Inflrmation

DBscan

PAI & OSINT Data
Creative Radicals
Babel Street

KD Tree

Apps

SchemaRegistryk-NN
Streams

Bloomberg, Dataminr
Recorded Future
Maltego, Factiva

ksqlDB

Decision
Tree
RandomForestPrep & Train Leveraging
Historical Data

Amazon S3
Google Cloud Storage
Microsoft Azure
Blob Storage

Vertical Knowledge

Sustainment
Providing forces with the resources they need to complete their missions when they need it is a focus of JADO. JADO critically links
maneuver and sustainment functions to support the logistics involved in moving through contested environments. If one looks at a few of
the key principles of sustainment—Integration, Responsiveness, Economy, Survivability, Continuity, and Improvisation; a Data in Motion
architecture supports them all.
• Integration Via data streaming you can establish aggregated feeds providing users the ability to view and work with data pulled frommultiple siloed and legacy systems• Responsiveness An event-driven architecture supports notifications and alerts as soon as something changes.
• Economy Data Mesh’s reduce reliance on point to point integration and the considerable operations and maintenance costs associatedwith sustaining disparate systems.
• Survivability/Continuity Data in Motion architectures build in failover, replication, and high availability even in the face of Delayed,
Intermittent, or Latent communications.
• Improvisation Data in Motion architectures let you see the “whole board”. From a sustainment viewpoint, this means understanding
the dependencies, sequences, and risks. By establishing common sustainment data mesh, in the face of supply challenges, leadershiphas the best chance to improvise.

© 2023 Confluent, Inc. | Confluent.io3

Whitepaper | If the Mission Never Rests, Neither Should Our Data

Summary
Data in Motion allows for real time understanding and visibility of all of the warfare components. Joint All Domain Operations and theC2 capabilities to enable it requires a new data-centric path forward. Data in Motion and implementation patterns like Data Mesh will
greatly help in this crucial transformation for defense organizations.

The Principles of a Data Mesh

1

2

Data ownershipby domain

Data as a
product

3
Data available
everywhere, self serve

4
Data governed
wherever it is

Get Your Data Moving
A Data in Motion approach will allow DoD and intelligence organizations to:• Reduce data latency• Receive timely dates• Work with continually fresh data
• Place situations in temporal context
Getting your data in motion requires careful planning and the right partner. Confluent powers event streaming platform with the needed
flexibility, durability, and security required for complex, large scale mission operations. Confluent is a high-speed, cloud-native, andcomplete platform for data in motion and event streaming.
Within the DoD, Confluent is already in use at programs such as Space Systems Command, , IPPS-A, AFRL, various USAF and USSF
Software Factories, US Navy NOBLE/LOG-IT, NAVY SMIT, USCC ESIEM, DISA UCSA, and GSM. It has been deployed in production onclassified networks, across security guards, in DIL network environments, been through the STIGs process, and granted ATO on various
programs and customers. Confluent is also available as the only secure streaming solution deploying hardened containers (continuously
scanned) on Iron Bank under the DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative (DSOP).

Ready to get started? Contact a Confluent expert today
Email us at publicsector@confluent.io | Or visit www.confluent.io/government/ for more details© 2023 Confluent, Inc. | Confluent.io4