SERVING UP DATA
Tey can be increased when needed because of high demand or reduced to economize. Perhaps in a recipe a blender is needed, and many orders are now waiting at this step in the process. In a platform, multiple blenders, up to as many as can be hosted on the platform, can be called up for use to efficiently complete the overall task. When they are no longer needed, they are put away and the countertop real estate can be freed up for other resources.
Collections of these functions that consistently operate in the same way can be packaged in containers. Containers allow smaller chunks of software to be “built once, run anywhere.” Tat is, if your hardware and foundational “middleware” can support them, containers can be hosted on extendible hardware platforms at vari- ous locations as well as being connected with a central source.
To keep with the analogy, perhaps your kitchen is keeping up with an additional customer load, but you need more dining space. Dining room containers complete with tables, chairs, cutlery, etc., can be brought to various locations, maybe even separated from the kitchen if meals can be transported fast enough, to meet demand. You may need additional dishwashing capabili- ties as well.
CHOOSE WISELY
Sgt. Galen Craig, 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion – Enhanced, checks his equipment. For the tactical Army, SAAS may not meet requirements to operate in denied, disrupted, intermittent and limited bandwidth environments. (Photo by Candy C. Knight, 2nd Theater Signal Brigade)
How do you re-equip your kitchen so you can deal with all these variables?
Platform as a service (PAAS) is an option. It is the equivalent of renting a kitchen and staff by the hour, so you only pay when you need their services. PAAS provides a tenant from a cloud service provider with a collection of agreed-upon tools. Tey can include delivery and storage of U.S. Army or DOD-owned raw data, and a collection of modular software that, when properly orches- trated in a sequence—just like a recipe—can produce something consumable in a task-tailorable way. Platforms provide flexibility.
90 Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2023
SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE CONSUMABLES Returning to the post-fire scenario, there is an additional option— software as a service (SAAS), which is the data equivalent of getting out of food preparation altogether and hiring someone else to do the job, potentially all the way to doorstep delivery of food. Tese services vary from the more traditional delivery of pizza, to other fast food, or meals from other types of restaurants. Tere are even custom services in which a driver brings pre-measured ingredients to your doorstep and you do the cooking.
With SAAS, a cloud services provider supplies data tools and information capabilities, and handles a variety of tasks such as dissemination and security. Additional services can usually be added at additional cost. Tese customizations or enhance- ments are generally provided from a palate of offerings from the cloud service provider, rapidly adapted en masse, but not soft- ware development specifically for an organization. To account for this, no- and low-code offerings are typically available with a graduating degree of customization for a tenant organization.
Te Army’s most widely known venture into SAAS was the adoption of A365—Microsoft’s suite of SAAS tools, which include Azure Active Directory (identity and credential access management), Teams, Office 365, SharePoint Online, etc. Tese programs have enabled the Army to collaborate more effectively,
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