Orchestrating the tip of the spear at the DefenceIT conference

04.15.2014

by

Categories:
Tags:

The annual DefenceIT conference concluded this week at the Defence Academy in the UK. More than 250 uniformed and civilian technology leaders gathered to talk about the intersection of business solutions and battlespace technology needs.

Defence spending reductions and the prospect of no active engagements beyond December 2014 are reshaping priorities in the UK Ministry of Defence. This is leading to rebrigading (reallocating brigades resources into fewer organizational units) which has the most immediate impact on the armed forces. However this has the potential to move the focus away from preparing for future mission profiles Her Majesty’s armed forces may be tasked to do.

The massive effort of repatriating war-fighters and their materiel from Afghanistan is well underway. However with billions of pounds worth of equipment and only a few months to complete the redeployment before winter comes, the logistical complexity is huge. Ensuring that vital, sensitive and strategic materials are shipped with priority and shipped securely is just as much of a challenge as shipping the more mundane. The added complexity of an uncertain outcome to the current Afghan elections brings a special frissance to the expression “mission critical.”

Serena’s presence once again underscored our commitment to supporting our military uniformed and civilian customers as well as our defence contractor partners. Just like our business customers, the pace of change and the imperative for compliance has reached the point where failure is not an option. Technology underpins both peacetime and wartime effectiveness. Our solutions are used today to manage fighter configurations, provide rapid deployment of helicopter spare parts in the theatre of operations, manage development and deployment of software applications by security services and more. Serena is proud to support the men and women serving around the world who keep the peace and establish global security.

If you have stories around how technology is helping make the world a safer, more secure place, please share in the comments.

Share this post:

Leave a Reply