Strategic Plan to Advance 

Cloud Computing in the 

Intelligence Community

June 26, 2019
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-iTable of Contents

From the IC CIO ........................................................................................................................1

What We Need – Future State..................................................................................................2

Purpose .....................................................................................................................................2

The Way Ahead.........................................................................................................................3

Objectives

Cloud Reach....................................................................................................................4

Cloud Application.............................................................................................................5

Cloud Functions...............................................................................................................6

Cloud Operations.............................................................................................................7

Cloud Capabilities............................................................................................................8

Cloud Acquisition .............................................................................................................9

Cloud Culture.................................................................................................................10

Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11

Appendices

Appendix A - Alignment to National-level Documents........................................................12

Appendix B - Evolution of the IC Cloud Enterprise.............................................................15

Appendix C - Terminology.....................................................................................................17
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From the IC CIO

The IC faces global technology changes, now creating information at a scope and scale that challenge 

our ability to quickly deliver insightful and actionable intelligence. Our adversaries are moving out 

quickly in many areas such as cyber, artificial intelligence and machine learning, information and 

asymmetric warfare, not to mention other capabilities such as conventional arms and space. We must 

respond with equal urgency. We can and must win in an arena increasingly defined by technology, data, 

and cybersecurity. This requires even greater innovation and partnership between the government, 

industry, allies, and academia.

In this context, a group of IC element Deputies and CIOs met in November 2018 to discuss and 

outline strategic priorities for IC ITE. We identified a clear need for a strategic plan to address growing 

requirements for diversified cloud computing capabilities across the IC to help the IC remain agile and 

adaptive – all the way to the mission edge. The IC requires computing infrastructures that allow our 

collectors and analysts to tackle tough problems, using artificial intelligence and machine learning to 

make sense of our vast datasets. These capabilities must not only be secure; but, being federated in 

their composition, must interoperate seamlessly across security fabrics. Lastly, the IC needs to leverage 

industry’s innovation and speed to stay ahead of evolving world threats.

Recognizing the above, Community CIOs asked key cloud and other experts from the IC to identify 

what we must do to establish a cloud environment that can adequately address our future needs. 

The enclosed strategic plan performs three key functions: 1) presents a Community perspective on 

needed capabilities; 2) charts a course with objectives and initiatives to achieve them and; 3) lays the 

foundation for subsequent implementation plans. This strategic plan aligns with IC-wide strategies and 

current acquisition plans. Success will come with follow through, so I will ask the IC CIO Council to 

prioritize these initiatives, assign owners to implementation, and then oversee progress.

I want to thank my fellow CIOs for their investment in the collaborative model that this strategic plan 

represents. This is not an IC CIO strategic plan, it is a Community plan. We must – and we

will – get this right. And, I look forward to seeing this IC ITE future for the IC.
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INTRODUCTION

What We Need – Future State

The Intelligence Community (IC) requires an integrated, interoperable cloud ecosystem that promotes 

mission success through reliable, survivable, dynamic, and innovative information technology (IT) 

services with secure access to functions, capabilities, and data anywhere, anytime, and under 

all conditions. The IC will use Government and multiple commercial cloud capabilities that are 

interoperable and support workflows within and across multiple security fabrics. To maximize rapid 

reuse of these capabilities, IC elements will emphasize security trust through shared knowledge and 

transparency of security assessments and authorizations.

The IC’s cloud capabilities will support a diverse set of users to include disconnected or edge 

operations. These capabilities will provide innovative and contemporary technologies such as artificial 

intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high-performance computing to meet current and 

future needs. These capabilities will require unified security processes and acceptance that enable 

quick adoption and portability of applications, data, and code. The IC will leverage these capabilities 

in an approach that favors vendor flexibility, simplifies use and adoption of new and cloud-native 

technologies, and promotes necessary culture changes.

Purpose

The Strategic Plan to Advance Cloud Computing in the Intelligence Community lays out seven 

interrelated objectives and 38 initiatives the IC must achieve to realize the future state described 

above. More detailed than a strategy yet not as specific as an implementation plan, this strategic 

plan is designed to be used by executives and engineers alike to align IC elements’ efforts; guide IT 

development and acquisition; modify or establish IC policy, guidance, and specifications; and provide a 

consensus-driven approach to advancing cloud computing in the IC.

This strategic plan aligns with and complements Federal Government, IC, and Department of Defense 

(DoD) guidance (detail provided in Appendix A). As articulated in the National Security Strategy, 

the National Intelligence Strategy, and supplementary guidance, we face diverse threats such as 

foreign state and non-state actors and domestic sources challenging us on land, air, sea, space, 

and cyberspace. This means technology, data, and cybersecurity demand continued innovation and 

investment to outpace our adversaries and protect our national security. To succeed, the IC must 

continue to transform and protect its information environment, pushing for better, more modern

IT capabilities.

The IC faces daunting challenges from the scope of its missions, the pace of world and technological 

change, and the scale of available data and information. To meet these challenges, the IC needs 

greater mission and analytical agility and sophisticated sense-making abilities like AI, ML, and big data 

analytics. The Community also requires secure, flexible, and rapidly deployable IT capabilities with 

global reach that also protect privacy and civil liberties. 
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By achieving the goals and initiatives depicted in this 

plan, the IC will be able to: 

• Extend cloud capabilities to locations in which 

mission leaders and Chief Information Officers 

(CIOs) need them 

• Build interoperability across the ecosystem to 

access data and cloud capabilities

• Promote innovation and competition using the 

best capabilities available from multiple cloud 

vendors and from across the U.S. Government

• Provide cloud services across multiple fabrics 

and access to data where it resides

• Enable speed and flexibility through smart 

implementation of security decisions and 

procedures 

• Broadly share information about cloud 

computing technologies across the Community

• Initiate a process to collect Community cloud 

requirements; guide cloud-related acquisition 

shaped by these requirements; and provide 

for IC element coordination on acquisition 

decisions having IC-wide impact

• Make lasting change to mission with cloud 

computing by fostering needed culture and knowledge

The Way Ahead

The IC is investing extensively to expand and deepen its cloud and high-performance compute 

capabilities. The Strategic Plan to Advance Cloud Computing in the Intelligence Community will 

influence the Community’s shared investments over the next two to six years. Building upon lessons 

learned and successes of Epoch 1 of the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC 

ITE) (described in Appendix B), Epoch 2 focuses on establishing interoperability, security, and mobility 

for IC ITE services and cloud technologies in a federated environment.

Accordingly, IC element CIOs identified seven interrelated objectives addressed below to guide the 

design, development, and implementation of an IC cloud ecosystem. When implemented, this strategic 

plan will allow the IC to employ the latest technologies, methodologies, and policies, and evolve along 

with technological advances to promote our national security interests and the safety of Americans and 

our allies.

1. Strong governance is key to the success of this 

strategic plan.

2. This document does not address specifics of data 

content or data management (e.g., data tagging). 

Data in IC Information Environment (IC IE) clouds 

is addressed in the Intelligence Community 

Information Environment Data Strategy.

3. Success of evolving to a cloud ecosystem 

depends heavily on the Identity, Credential, and 

Access Management Reference Architecture and 

the Data Reference Architecture.

4. Initiatives cited in this document are unconstrained 

by resources and timelines. More work remains to 

prioritize, fund, and implement the initiatives of 

this strategic plan.

5. Collaboration with FVEY partners is integral to 

accomplishing IC missions. While not specifically 

cited in this strategic plan, the IC will evolve cloud 

capabilities to support FVEY collaborations as 

our allied IT infrastructure matures.

Assumptions
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CLOUD REACH

From Core to Edge

Objective A:

Develop and implement a set of resilient, global cloud capabilities across multiple fabrics to 

enable core and edge users’ critical missions across the IC.

Intent:

The IC must deliver actionable, timely, and agile intelligence that provides decision advantage and 

operational resiliency to partners ranging from national-level policy makers to those at remote or 

denied locations at the edge. Regardless of mission or location, each user must be able to access, 

process, and analyze needed information. This includes “forward deploying” cloud capabilities, 

functions, and data to users operating at the edge.

Initiatives: 

A01: Mature data policies and governance to allow for secure, multiple location options at the edge, 

including commercial properties. 

A02: Assess and modify, as needed, logistics and procurement processes to provide OPSEC 

mechanisms to deliver to edge locations. 

A03: Define and engineer IT functions and capabilities needed to operate at the edge. 

A04: Prioritize the delivery and availability of services on all fabrics to expeditiously deliver those

most needed. 

A05: Regularly collect and report on cloud requirements (e.g., CONUS and OCONUS on/offpremises) for services with secure access to functions, capabilities, and data anywhere at anytime to 

meet current and future needs.

A06: Collect performance metrics to determine performance issues throughout the IC cloud 

environment and engineer improvements.

A07: Create rapidly deployable cloud services to better respond to worldwide national security events.
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CLOUD APPLICATION

Innovative and Agile

Objective B:

Adopt best practices and modular design methods that reduce barriers to entry and 

accelerate collaboration to allow users the flexibility to rapidly leverage commercial 

innovation across the cloud ecosystem.

Intent:

IC collectors, analysts, and developers must keep pace with evolving threat landscapes and respond 

rapidly and flexibly to mission requirements. To meet this challenge, the IC must incorporate, 

leverage, and operationalize the latest developments in cloud, AI, and ML technologies by partnering 

with DoD and other Federal Government agencies, industry, academia, and allies.

Initiatives: 

B01: Conduct business process re-engineering to streamline and automate IT governance and enable 

use of new capabilities. 

B02: Leverage industry, academia, and other areas to foster collaborative innovation and solve 

Community problems through cloud capabilities. 

B03: Develop secure, no cost/low cost training, guidance, approved templates, tools, and test 

environments that enable users to learn cloud capabilities through self-service experimentation.

B04: Create suggestion and reward programs to elicit innovative solutions.
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CLOUD FUNCTIONS

Interoperable and Seamless

Objective C:

Implement compatible architectures, standards, and common frameworks within the cloud 

ecosystem to enable seamless system functionality, capabilities, mission success, and 

promotion of interoperability regardless of technology platform.

Intent:

The IC must collaborate and share information internally and with our external partners. This requires 

cloud capabilities, system interoperability, and seamless IT interfaces. The need is acute given the 

explosion in volume and velocity of data and the projected threat landscapes.

Initiatives:

C01: Identify services, policies, standards, and application programming interfaces across the cloud 

ecosystem to establish seamless operations between systems, agencies, departments, and allies.

C02: Collaborate with technical SMEs, DoD, industry, academia, and vendors and provide workforce 

incentives to establish, implement, and improve architectures, standards, and frameworks that

support interoperability.

C03: Establish integrated testing policies and processes to assess interoperability for IC capabilities

in development.

C04: Deprecate closed systems and migrate data/capabilities onto compatible platforms to

foster interoperability. 

C05: Capture and publish proven design patterns to reduce cost of delivering services and increase 

speed to delivery.
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CLOUD OPERATIONS

Secure and Trusted 

Objective D:

Identify, automate, and implement common (inheritable) security controls to enable rapid 

re-use of best solutions, accelerate available capabilities for mission, and foster shared 

insights across the IC.

Intent:

The IC must secure and protect its systems and data. The IC’s dynamic IT environment provides 

unique cybersecurity challenges and opportunities in managing its risk posture.

Initiatives:

D01: Mature cybersecurity guidance and processes that incentivize the use of good security practices 

and automation to streamline assessment and authorization (A&A) across the IC. 

D02: Elevate security and risk management concerns, coordinate future work plans, and share 

information security knowledge and best practices to promote trust and transparency across the IC.

D03: Implement software assurance mechanisms into the development environment and employ joint 

penetration testing when executing security compliance testing activities in the test environment to 

reduce the threat landscape and risks earlier in the software development delivery process.

D04: Facilitate A&A by reducing unique security implementations, sharing essential elements of 

information from Bodies of Evidence, and emphasizing the use of tools and automation to overcome 

barriers to applications and code portability among IC elements.

D05: Maintain separate security stacks for the elements’ enterprise computing environment and the 

IC cloud environment to prevent introducing an element’s risks into the commonly shared cloud.
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CLOUD CAPABILITIES

Portable, Mobile, Multi-fabric

Objective: E

Develop common technical standards and enable usage of data regardless of location, 

service, or technology platform to promote workload portability within and across multiple 

fabrics, and achieve delivery of the right data to the right people at the right time in the 

right form.

Intent:

The IC must discover, access, process, and analyze information and foster enterprise-wide 

information sharing and collaboration. Central to this is a fully featured cloud environment that enables 

portability of services, analytics, applications, and data across multiple IC IE fabrics, platforms, and 

geographic locations.

Initiatives:

E01: Mature IC guidance and processes for establishing a secure method for moving data and code 

across domains and fabrics to ensure portability. 

E02: Apply common security and privacy protections to data to enable rapid access by authorized 

users while preventing unauthorized disclosures. 

E03: Leverage cloud capabilities to automate and augment data lifecycle activities across 

environments based on common standards to enable timely use by authorized people and machines.

E04: Move processing and analytic capabilities in alignment with data repositories to assure data 

availability anytime, anywhere.
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CLOUD ACQUISITION

Fast and Flexible

Objective F:

Streamline the IC procurement processes, develop procurement mechanisms, and 

implement consumption-based funding and acquisition models to keep pace with the 

rapidly changing technologies, leverage cloud flexibility, and ensure delivery of new 

capabilities at the speed of mission.

Intent:

The IC’s cloud capabilities must evolve along with rapidly developing commercial IT innovations. 

To achieve this, the IC must develop and implement an acquisition and procurement environment, 

consistent with law that can obtain cost-effective, enterprise-level cloud solutions and services with a 

speed and flexibility that matches the agility offered by industry. This will require training acquisition 

and procurement staffs and the user workforce. It will also necessitate modifying or developing 

procurement policies, procedures, and mechanisms.

Initiatives:

F01: Identify common services that can be shared/consolidated to improve cost efficiency. 

F02: For acquiring cloud computing services, publish or revise guidance on the use of specific 

appropriation types (e.g., O&M, RDT&E, PROC) with information that helps minimize impacts from 

spending limits, availability periods, and narrow definitions of use to enhance IC-wide operational 

flexibility and consistency. 

F03: Develop new or improved policies, processes, and practices to rapidly acquire cloud capabilities 

and provision cloud services (e.g., IC-wide service catalog). 

F04: Establish policies and processes to frequently perform price reasonableness checks of cloud 

service providers’ costs for a given capability. 

F05: Train acquisition and user workforce to understand pricing models. 

F06: Leverage the IC Procurement Policy Council (ICPPC) to publish license and contracts guidance 

for more IC-wide consistency for IC clouds. 

F07: Have cloud service providers, whenever possible, assume O&M costs with the understanding 

that these expenses could be recouped through service pricing to streamline budgeting.
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CLOUD CULTURE

Changing and Needed 

Objective G:

Invest in Community training, development opportunities, and marketing strategies to 

provide the necessary knowledge and shared understanding that fosters a culture shift 

toward cloud technologies.

Intent:

The IC must develop new skill sets, enhance personnel understanding and acceptance, and 

accelerate adoption to fully realize the benefits offered by cloud computing capabilities. To support 

these shifts, the IC must promote cloud literacy and cultural change in how the IC workforce collects, 

finds, accesses, uses, protects, and stores data in a cloud-enabled environment. This change will 

require robust support from senior IC leadership.

Initiatives:

G01: Develop a marketing plan to educate users and provide cloud-pertinent information. 

G02: Develop a tailored cloud adoption plan to provide mission with options for cloud development 

and migration. 

G03: Provide cloud training/material to teach technical and non-technical personnel on building cloud 

instantiations and deploying basic capabilities through self-service.

G04: Implement directives with senior leadership buy-in and senior leadership champions as well as 

incentivize influential developers to drive both top-down and bottom-up culture change throughout

the IC.

G05: Routinely collect and disseminate examples of successfully executed missions in the cloud and 

lessons learned to build mission, partner, and user confidence in this environment. 

G06: Promote culture change that emphasizes market-based cloud solutions and minimizes custombuilt approaches to accelerate adoption and lower development times.
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CONCLUSION

Information is exploding in volume and velocity and challenging our ability to expeditiously collect, 

analyze, and draw conclusions from disparate data sets. Additional manpower will not close the 

resulting gap; we must leverage leading edge technology. The future IC cloud environment

presented herein will effectively function as a force multiplier to enhance our effectiveness and

address mission challenges.

Modernizing our cloud computing will provide innovative capabilities to missions and users where 

and when needed. These capabilities will also expand flexibility and improve our ability to leverage 

data. Moreover, using multiple commercial cloud vendors can promote greater innovation and rapid 

deployment of new capabilities. 

The Strategic Plan to Advance Cloud Computing in the Intelligence Community will allow the IC to 

operate effectively, leveraging technology as well as commercial innovation to better meet evolving 

mission needs. After implementing this plan, each IC element and the Community as a whole will 

be closer to unlocking the power of data by managing it as a Community asset and thus providing 

advantage to the Nation’s decision makers.
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APPENDIX A

Alignment to National-Level Documents

The Strategic Plan to Advance Cloud Computing in the Intelligence Community supports the following: 

EO 13800, Strengthening Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure; the National 

Security Strategy; the National Intelligence Strategy; the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, from 

Cloud First to Cloud Smart; the Consolidated Intelligence Guidance FY 2021 – 2025; IC 2025 Strategic 

Priorities; IC Directive (ICD) 121, Managing the IC Information Environment; the AIM Initiative, A 

Strategy for Augmenting Intelligence Using Machines; the IC IE Data Strategy; the IC Cybersecurity 

Implementation Plan; the National Defense Strategy; and the DoD Cloud Strategy. 

Executive Order 13800, Strengthening Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical 

Infrastructure: 

• Effective risk management entails more than protecting IT and data currently in place. This 

EO also requires planning so that maintenance, improvements, and modernization occur in a 

coordinated way and with appropriate regularity

• Agency heads shall show preference in their procurement for shared IT services, to the extent 

permitted by law, to include email, cloud, and cybersecurity services

• The United States seeks to support the growth and sustainment of a workforce skilled in 

cybersecurity and related fields as the foundation for achieving our objectives in cyberspace 

• The Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary 

of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall assess the scope and 

sufficiency of U.S. efforts to ensure the U.S. maintains or increases its advantage in national 

security-related cyber capabilities

National Security Strategy states that the Federal Government will:

• Use the latest commercial capabilities, shared services, and best practices to modernize our IT

• Improve collaboration with and leverage technical expertise of industry, academia, and

R&D sectors

• Establish strategic partnerships with U.S. companies to help align resources in the 

aforementioned sectors to priority applications supporting national security

• Recruit technical talent by finding ways to create career paths to facilitate the flow of scientists, 

engineers, and technologists into and out of public service 

National Defense Strategy states that:

• The reemergence of long-term strategic competition, rapid dispersion of technologies, and new 

concepts of warfare and competition that span the entire spectrum of conflict require a Joint 

Force structured to match this reality

• The security environment is also affected by rapid technological advancements and the changing 

character of war... New technologies include advanced computing, “big data” analytics, artificial 
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intelligence, autonomy, robotics, directed energy, hypersonics, and biotechnology – the very 

technologies that ensure we will be able to fight and win the wars of the future

• The DoD will reform for greater performance and affordability:

○ Deliver performance at the speed of relevance

○ Organize for innovation

○ Drive budget discipline and affordability to achieve solvency

○ Streamline rapid, iterative approaches from development to fielding

○ Harness and protect the National Security Innovation Base

Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, From Cloud First to Cloud Smart. The Cloud Smart strategy 

helps agencies adopt solutions that streamline transformation and embrace modern capabilities. The 

document states that: 

• Three areas require serious consideration and investment: security, procurement, and workforce. 

Deeply linked, they require an integrated, interdisciplinary approach for a cohesive cloud strategy 

• Agencies should transition to security at the data layer instead of the network and physical 

infrastructure layers, and continuously monitor data to detect malicious activity

• A two-track approach is needed to increase standardization across Government of cloud usage 

and mitigate risks associated with siloed efforts at executive agencies: 1) determine contractual 

terms and conditions and; 2) clarify roles and responsibilities, establish clear performance 

metrics, and implement remediation plans for non-compliance

• Cloud strategies should enable leaders to develop and empower the IT and cybersecurity 

workforce with skills to achieve cloud migration goals and support the latest technology that will 

improve critical services. Agencies should also review IT portfolios to determine modernization 

plans for existing tools

• Federal agencies must ensure current and future workforces are prepared to support Federal 

cloud environments by consulting with Chief Human Capital Officers to: 

○ Analyze skill gaps and remove barriers to expeditiously hire talent

○ Develop and deploy training and education programs

○ Communicate with the workforce about adopting cloud solutions 

National Intelligence Strategy states that:

• NIS Mission Objective 1: Strategic Intelligence – The IC must master strategic intelligence 

issues through research, knowledge development, collaboration with experts within the IC and 

those in academia and industry, and the use of advanced analytics and tradecraft

• NIS Mission Objective 2: Anticipatory Intelligence – The IC will improve its ability to 

foresee, forecast, and alert regarding potential issues of concern and provide the best possible 

opportunities for action to our national security customers
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• NIS Mission Objective 3: Current Operations Intelligence – The IC will prioritize its efforts 

and mitigate risk, operate in denied areas, balance forward presence with robust reach-back, 

and provide operational resiliency to more fully integrate intelligence with operations 

• NIS Mission Objective 4: Cyber Threat Intelligence – The IC must continue to grow its 

intelligence capabilities to meet these evolving cyber threats as part of a comprehensive cyber 

posture, positioning the Nation for strategic and tactical response

• NIS Enterprise Objective 1: Integrated Mission Management – The IC must strike a balance 

between unity of effort and specialization, using the best of each to meet mission objectives

• NIS Enterprise Objective 2: Integrated Business Management – The IC will promote and 

identify best business practices and functions to optimize solutions and increase collaboration to 

create a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and partnerships across the Community

• NIS Enterprise Objective 3: People — The IC will make long-term strategic investments in the 

workforce to promote agility and mobility throughout employees’ careers

• NIS Enterprise Objective 4: Innovation – The IC must drive new levels of innovation by 

proactively developing and rapidly incorporating breakthrough and incremental technologies, 

ideas, and constructs 

• NIS Enterprise Objective 5: Information Sharing and Safeguarding – The IC will take a 

cutting-edge approach to appropriately access information regardless of where it resides. The 

IC must continue to adopt modern data management practices to make IC data discoverable, 

accessible, and usable through secure, modernized systems and standards 

• NIS Enterprise Objective 6: Partnerships – The IC will optimize existing partnerships and 

forge new relationships to enhance intelligence and inform decisions
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APPENDIX B

Evolution of the IC Cloud Enterprise

Today’s IC cloud environment is building on the concepts of the IC Information Technology Enterprise 

(IC ITE) starting in 2012 when the IC began to evaluate more efficient, consistent, and reliable 

means to provide compute, storage, and network infrastructure. The Director of National Intelligence 

designated CIA and NSA as IC Cloud Service Providers, with CIA managing Commercial Cloud 

Services (C2S) and NSA managing the IC-GovCloud. 

C2S was made available in July 2014 as a Community environment that provides cloud functionality on 

the Top Secret fabric. Over the past five years, the IC worked diligently to develop ways to secure even 

the most sensitive data in these environments. As C2S matured, the IC provided instances of C2S on 

the Secret and Unclassified fabrics beginning in 2017. C2S has consistently demonstrated an ability to 

stay current with technologies while staying ahead of the Government’s usage demand.

IC-GovCloud, a government-designed and built cloud to handle large volumes of data, constitutes the 

IC’s big data analytic environment. IC-GovCloud has transformed the IC’s ability to analyze massive 

amounts of data and provide services at a critically needed scale at the speed of mission and is one of 

the Community’s most powerful data analytic and high-performance analytic platforms.

During the past five years, the IC enjoyed many successes with cloud-based technologies, especially 

with these services. Both efforts initially offered comparable service models but with different 

approaches based on the needs of the implementing IC elements and their respective risk concerns. 

Using both cloud platforms enables the IC to keep pace with the latest cloud technology offerings. 

Collectively, they laid an important foundation for the Community’s ongoing IT modernization.

IC CIO has collaboratively matured IC ITE from its early successes and is postured for Epoch 2 to 

ensure the Community maintains momentum gained since 2012 to deliver even greater mission impact 

for the next decade. Epoch 2 is characterized by the following:

1) Emphasize cybersecurity as a Community priority. Employ a more holistic and active approach 

to reducing enterprise IT security risks. Lead both IT transformation and protection of the IC IE 

to enable enhanced mission success. 

2) Develop reference architecture (RA) frameworks to provide standards for common services 

such as Desktop (Collaboration RA providing capabilities such as universal email and chat), 

Data RA, and security (Identity, Credential and Access Management RA). In this fashion, IC 

elements can deploy solutions that fit their unique mission needs provided they comply with the 

appropriate RA. A main driver for the shift to Epoch 2 was to maintain single-source solutions 

where applicable, but allow for federated approaches to ensure mission needs are met while 

maximizing interoperability.

3) Mature the services on the Top Secret fabric and build to multiple fabrics. The IC’s partners in 

the DoD, U.S. law enforcement, and international governments rely heavily on the Secret fabric. 
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To maximize collaboration and mission effectiveness, the IC is committed to moving capabilities 

and information to the Secret and Unclassified fabrics, as appropriate.

4) Continue to expand and improve the partnership with DoD and the defense intelligence 

enterprise, and enhance collaboration and partnerships in coalition environments.
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APPENDIX C

Terminology

Capability: The ability to achieve a desired effect under specified performance standards and 

conditions through combinations of ways and means activities and resources to perform a set

of activities.1

Cloud: The practice of pooling physical servers and using them to provide services that can be rapidly 

provisioned with minimal effort and time, often over the Internet. The term is applied to a variety of 

different technologies (often without clarifying modifiers); for the purpose of this document, cloud refers 

to physical computing and storage resources pooled to provide virtual computing, storage, or higherlevel services.

Cloud Computing: A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a 

shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and 

services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service 

provider interaction.2

Cloud Interoperability: Allows seamless exchange and use of data and services among various cloud 

infrastructure offerings so they may operate effectively together.

Commercial Cloud: Computing, storage, and network resources and services that a commercial 

provider maintains, operates, and manages and that are made available to multiple customers (as 

opposed to cloud resources and services owned and operated by an organization for its own benefit, 

for example). Depending on the contract, the commercial cloud service provider may be performing in 

commercial facilities or on-premises in Government facilities. 

Edge computing: Real-time cloud services and data processing at the tactical edge of the network 

near the source of data ingestion. Brings compute capabilities to where the mission occurs in the field; 

data does not have to be transmitted to a data center for processing. Serves as the decentralized 

extension of the enterprise networks, cellular networks, data center networks or the cloud.

Fabric: An information environment that supports data at a particular classification/security level, 

comprised of multiple agencies supporting a variety of authorities with multiple operational capabilities 

that can include infrastructure and systems (e.g., Secret fabric represents and spans the entirety of 

USG interconnected and isolated activities to include State, Local, Tribal (SLT), USG partners [U.S. and 

Non-U.S. based]).3

1

DoDAF 2.0, Department of Defense Architecture Framework, Version 2.02, DoD Chief Information Officer, http://dodcio.defense.gov/dodaf20.

aspx

2

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-145, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing,

September 2011

3

Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Intelligence Community Enterprise Architecture (IC EA): Multi-Fabric Reference Architecture, 

v1.0, 18 Oct 2016
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Intelligence Community Information Environment (IC IE): The individuals, organizations, and 

information technology capabilities that collect, process, or share Sensitive Compartmented Information 

or that, regardless of classification, are operated by the IC and are wholly or majority funded by the 

National Intelligence Program. The IC IE is an interconnected, shared risk environment where risk 

accepted by one IC element is effectively accepted by all.4 

Interoperability: Ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special 

effort on the part of the customer. Interoperability is made possible by the implementation of standards.5

Migration: The act of moving an application and data from one infrastructure or platform to another 

infrastructure or platform. Typically, this will require intermediate work to refactor the code to suit the 

new platform.

Modernization: The act of rebuilding existing software or hardware using modern methodologies and 

technologies. As an example, an outdated COBOL-based financial billing system might be modernized 

and developed as a modular, containerized micro-service backend architecture and single page 

application front end. Alternatively, this could mean replacing a physical server limited in processor 

speed, memory, and storage space with a more modern machine that uses modern processor 

architectures and networking protocols.

Security Stack: A stack of equipment or software that performs firewall functions, intrusion detection 

and prevention, enterprise management, virtual routing and forwarding, and provides a host of network 

security capabilities to defend and operate the network and respond to threats.

Workforce 

• Acquisition and User Workforce: Encompasses those individuals who acquire, procure, order, 

develop, implement, or manage the IC-wide enterprise cloud capabilities. 

• IC Workforce: The above plus all end users to include analysts, targeteers, collection

managers, etc.

4

Intelligence Community Directive 121, Managing the Intelligence Community Information Environment, 18 January 2017

5

International Committee for Information Technology Standards, Standards Information: Glossary, http://www.incits.org/standards-information/

glossary, accessed 30 April 2019
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