Traditionally, that meant collecting and sending data back to command facilities in Hawaii or the continental U.S. for analysis and response. But in fast-changing operational environments, that approach is quickly becoming outmoded and unreliable.

This scenario highlights both the challenge commanders face and the strategic shift underway across the military. The decisive advantage no longer rests solely on the movement of troops and materiel—but on the ability to move and process information faster, more securely, and with greater operational relevance than adversaries.

Achieving that kind of information advantage means being able to deliver real-time insights to warfighters in the field—especially in environments where communications are disconnected, disrupted, intermittent, or limited (DDIL). This isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic imperative.

Underlying this shift is the growing expectation that actionable intelligence will reach those on the front lines faster than it reaches our adversaries. That expectation is driven in no small part by the commercial experience most consumers have become accustomed to – e.g., the ability to track deliveries en route and notifications when they arrive.  

Conflict planning and logistics in contested DDIL environments are obviously more complicated, which is all the more reason why the advantage lies with those who have an information advantage. That requires assessing, processing, and disseminating vast amounts of data quickly at the edge.

Gaining the data edge

“In many regards, data is the five-five-six round of the next war,” said John Sahlin, vice president for defense cyber solutions at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), referring to the standardized rifle cartridge used by NATO forces. “It has become the lynchpin to enhance the decision-making process for advantage.”

That advantage depends on more than just collecting data. It requires turning it into usable intelligence faster than adversaries can react.

“The core problem is latency,” explained Matt Ashton, partner customer engineer at Google Public Sector. “Until recently, the immense volume of data from sensors, drones, and logistical trackers required the processing power and AI available primarily in distant cloud computing centers.”

“Our DOD customers struggle with the current status quo at the edge because they can’t run true AI,” said Ashton. “So data has to get sent back to the mother ship to crunch the data and get a resolution. The massive differentiator now is our ability to provide AI at the edge.”

According to both industry experts, the solution lies in a combination of powerful, ruggedized edge computing platforms and AI models specifically engineered for defense use that can operate independently, even when completely disconnected from high-capacity networks.

Google, for example, provides this capability through its Google Distributed Cloud (GDC), a platform designed to bring data center capabilities to the field.

“GDC was built to run so it never has to ‘call home.’ It can sit on the Moon or a ship. It doesn’t have to get updates,” Ashton said. “It’s a family of solutions that includes a global network, but also features an air-gapped GDC box that connects to the Wide Area Network and other on-prem servers not on the internet.”

This allows commanders on submarines, at remote bases, or in forward-deployed positions to run AI and analytics locally and process vast sensor data streams in-theater without waiting on external links.

Why mission-specific AI models matter

However, raw computing power is only part of the equation. Commercial AI models often lack a nuanced understanding of military operations. This is where operationally relevant AI models developed by GDIT that translate raw data into relevant, actionable intelligence are crucial.

Sahlin compared the role of mission-specific AI models to a speedometer in a car. “What it measures is the revolutions per minute of the axle. What it reports is how fast you’re going in miles per hour,” he explained. “That’s the kind of insight that only comes from real-world familiarity with military operations.”

“A clear grasp of operational objectives is key to developing models that are tuned to real-world demands of each mission,” said Sahlin. “So that may mean multiple mini-models to translate data into relevant insights.”

Sahlin also explained why applications built on an open data architecture model are crucial to adaptability at the edge.

“The real value of an open data architecture, particularly in the defense industry, is that it’s a very decentralized platform. Logistics is a classic example of commercial, local, last-mile delivery providers working with many sources. In the military, you won’t have a single source or model. This is where open architecture is critical.”

Security remains foundational to all of this. Sahlin noted that while the military can benefit from commercial innovation, it still needs to ensure higher levels of security than commercial operators. So it’s also essential that the military’s AI development partners have a deep understanding of the Defense Department’s zero trust security practices and requirements, which apply to the broader base of defense suppliers in the DOD’s supply chain.

“GDIT’s value lies in its longstanding experience supporting defense missions,” Sahlin said. “We work with clients to gather the right data, build tailored models, and deliver intelligence to the edge, even in DDIL conditions where units may be disconnected or intentionally silent.”

Looking ahead

By combining a platform like GDC with mission-specific AI models from GDIT, military logistics teams can move from reactive support to proactive planning, anticipating needs, reallocating resources, and outmaneuvering adversaries.

As operational demands grow more complex and communications become more contested, defense leaders say gaining an information advantage at the edge isn’t just important, it’s essential for mission success.

Learn more about how GDIT and Google Distributed Cloud can help your organization deliver at the edge more proactively.

This article was sponsored by GDIT and Google Cloud.

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The personnel move comes as the command is undertaking digital transformation with units like Task Force 59, Task Force 99, Task Force 39 and other high-tech initiatives which seek to leverage AI, unmanned systems, the cloud and big data.

Moore previously worked as general manager for AI and industry solutions at Google Cloud. Google is one of the four vendors awarded under the Pentagon’s $9 billion enterprise Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program. Google has also worked on other Defense Department efforts, including the Project Maven machine learning initiative. The company eventually withdrew from Maven following employee protests.

Prior to his most recent role at Google Cloud, Moore was dean of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science.

His academic work has also focused on the types of technologies he’ll be advising on for the U.S. military. He earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Cambridge, where his thesis topic was “machine learning for robot control”.

“Dr. Moore brings a level of expertise in Al, Cloud Compute, and Robotics that is unmatched,” Centcom Commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement. “He is the leading figure in all the areas in which we plan to expand CENTCOM. This hire is a tremendous win for the Culture of Innovation we’re building across CENTCOM. Dr. Moore will significantly accelerate our innovation initiatives.”

U.S. Central Command CTO Schuyler Moore — no relation to Andrew Moore – noted that Centcom is prioritizing digital transformation.

“We are focused on collecting, organizing, and leveraging our data in a more efficient and effective way to support our missions,” she said in a statement. “With Andrew’s exquisite experience in Al, network architecture, and data science, he will be able to provide critical guidance and advice to the command on these issues and drive further momentum behind our efforts to embrace data-centric warfighting.”

On his LinkedIn profile, the new Centcom tech adviser said he feels “responsible for playing a part in getting the most advanced technologies in the world out there in a way which unambiguously improves things.”

U.S. Central Command is a combatant command responsible for overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East region.

“I think that one of the things I’m most looking forward to [as an adviser for the military] is spending time at the whiteboard with the experts at all ranks and roles that work on these important issues,” Moore said in a statement.

Schuyler Moore, the command’s CTO, has noted that Centcom is integrating a variety of different types of cutting-edge technologies into its operations, not just drones.

“I think that maybe people traditionally think about hardware and unmanned systems, and it’s almost more interesting to talk about the software capabilities and algorithmic analytics that are evolving and increasingly getting integrated into our workflows,” she said Tuesday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

The tech includes capabilities such as computer vision and data analytics to aid intelligence analysts and decision-makers.

“It’s really exciting to see these algorithmic programs in particular running in our region. And … we are increasingly learning how important it is to run these types of technology adoption efforts in theater in a live environment with live data,” she said. “Increasingly pushing these efforts out to the edge can be so important.”

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The cybersecurity designation gives the technology giant approval to host some of the military’s most sensitive (but not top secret) data, including workloads associated with defined National Security Systems.  

The new designation is the result of “a rigorous assessment of physical, logical, and cryptographic isolation controls,” according to a statement shared with DefenseScoop. 

It comes as the major technology player vies with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Oracle for contracts via the DOD’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) plan for an advanced infrastructure enabled by multiple commercial vendors. 

“This authorization will provide the warfighter another safe, secure cloud hosting capability to store and process mission-critical information,” Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, DISA director and Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network commander, said Tuesday.

DOD relies on its “Impact Level” classification system to categorize data and securely authorize cloud-based hosting environments. IL5 encompasses the highest level of authorization granted to environments built to store and process controlled unclassified information (CUI), as well as what’s considered mission-critical and national security systems information. 

This new designation from DISA, according to the agency’s release, affirms the following Google services: BigQuery, Cloud Hardware Security Module, Cloud Key Management Service, Google Cloud Storage, Google Compute Engine, Persistent Disk, Identity and Access Management and Virtual Private Cloud.

In a draft blog post viewed by DefenseScoop ahead of its release, an executive from the company said it is “committed to rapidly expanding the number of Google Cloud services within the IL5 authorization boundary.” 

Different federal agencies abide by different security protocols. For DOD, beyond IL5 is IL6 — a rigid compliance standard that is required to process classified data for cloud-based defense workloads. Cloud service offerings from AWS, Microsoft and Palantir have been authorized to operate at IL6, so far.

“Google Cloud will pursue the IL6 certification for classified work,” a spokesperson told DefenseScoop on Tuesday.

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But as that marketplace has matured, federal agencies have increasingly turned to multicloud arrangements, looking to take advantage of offerings from multiple providers rather than locking themselves into the products of a single vendor.

Recognizing this appetite for more choice in the federal cloud marketplace, Google recently spun off its public sector-focused business line from Google Cloud to launch an independent division focused purely on federal, state and local governments and the education sector that can serve as an alternative, multicloud-friendly provider.

Karen Dahut, a federal technology industry veteran who spent a large part of her recent career leading Booz Allen Hamilton’s defense business, was named the first CEO of Google Public Sector in September.

Now, just more than two weeks into the job, Dahut spoke with FedScoop in an exclusive interview about her vision for delivering more of that choice into the federal marketplace and how Google hopes to inject the innovative DNA it’s known for in the commercial world into the federal government.

Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

FedScoop: You’ve been in the CEO role now for roughly two weeks. How are you settling in with Google?

Karen Dahut: I will tell you that Google is such an American, iconic brand that the privilege of being able to take the great work that they’ve done for consumers, for commercial entities, for citizens, and apply that at a global level for federal government, state and local governments, educational institutions, is just, honestly, the privilege of a lifetime. You know, the last 20 years, I’ve been with Booz Allen, and I held a lot of different roles there. And there were two things that became very apparent to me in my 30-plus years in this industry. The first is that the advancements in technology have really demanded a different approach in government. And what I mean by that is, most government leaders find that their data is held captive in these very large, vertically integrated, monolithic systems. And it has less utility to them because they can’t integrate it at a more substantial level. The second thing is that most of our leaders in government, either they do have the experience of working with the ease of use of Google products and solutions or their kids have. And they’re demanding that same ease of use. And so when I thought about this role at [Google Public Sector], I thought, wow, it’s the perfect opportunity to really bring the power and magic of Google engineering into the federal government, because they’re ready for that transformation, and to really help them drive those digital transformations.

FS: You’re very early into your tenure as CEO, but what is your vision for this new organization? What’s the biggest thing you want to achieve as this organization is essentially getting off the ground and up-and-running?

KD: Well, it’s a great question. And I’ve given that a lot of thought, obviously. I mean, yes, I just started, but I had been thinking about this for a while. First things first, Google Cloud, and all of the tools that they have available on Google Cloud … it’s just a brilliant platform, right? It is scaled at planet-level scale. It has remarkable tools that it can leverage: Google Earth, Google Maps, these tools that we have become very accustomed to using. So the first principle of strategy is how do you bring not just cloud, but all of those additional incredibly accessible tools to significant federal, state, local challenges. The state of West Virginia is a good example. They switched from a Microsoft product to Google Workspace … primarily to enhance collaboration, because Workspace is truly a collaborative tool born in the cloud, native to the cloud, and it’s less expensive. They saved $11.5 million by making that switch. Another great example is that the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] worked with Google to bring in Google Analytics and Google Cloud to help understand the potential impacts of climate change and predict those changes. So I share those examples with you because I think the opportunity for Google Public Sector is to listen to our clients, provide and enhance the choices they have available to them, and solution in partnership with them. Because all of these products that I’m talking about are already scaled tools accessible to the world. And our opportunity is to tailor them for specific use cases for our public sector clients.

FS: It’s no secret that the cloud market in the federal government is very competitive. How do you look to differentiate yourself from those companies that have come to dominate the federal cloud space?

KD: Yeah, it’s a reasonable question. And one, I suspect that I’m going to answer a lot. It’s certainly not a surprise to me or not unknown to me that we were a little bit late to the cloud game in government. And I think what we really want to focus on is, first of all, the government really wants choice. They don’t want to be emboldened to a single provider. So that’s important to understand. We also believe in the power of choice and the power of multicloud. Most government organizations are going to choose different clouds for different applications. We want to be one of those that they consider — we want to provide that choice. And in fact, our Anthos tool and solution really allows governments to switch workloads between different clouds, so you’re not wedded to a single cloud. And that is going to be our approach: to understand that government wants choice. We’re one of those providers, we believe we have some very unique capabilities, to provide them that choice, and then solution with them.

FS: You’ve spent much of your career focused on the defense space. How do you plan to use that experience as a guide in this new role, particularly as the Department of Defense has place great focus on moving to the cloud, namely though the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract and others?

KD: I am super proud to be a Navy veteran and having served. I follow in the footsteps of my father who served for 42 years, and my sister who served, so super proud of that service. I think that for defense specifically, there is so much opportunity to bring the power of data analytics and AI to bear on their big challenges like JADC2, Joint All Domain Command and Control. That is a data challenge. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many people across the department and in the services and they are looking for ways to integrate that data that gives them better perspective and insight into the world and the threats that they face. And I truly believe that using Google’s products and capabilities, whether it’s Cloud, Maps, Earth, or all of those great capabilities in combination to solve for some of the challenges — not just in defense, but in civil agencies and the like — is super exciting. And I really have a fervent belief that once we can unlock the power of the cloud and the power of data and AI from that cloud, the sky’s the limit in terms of what we can do to support government.

FS: Are there other public sector-specific mission sets or problem sets that come to mind that Google’s solutions could be a good fit for?

KD: I think it’s always instructive to go back to some of the work that we’re doing in commercial because there are direct applications In government. So for example, Ford Motor Co. hired us to use data and AI to predict maintenance. You have probably heard this is a significant issue across the military services — how do they maintain their fleet or their tanks or whatever it may be … We believe we have a solution that can help them easily do that. One of the things that [Google Cloud CEO] Thomas [Kurian] said to me as I was assuming this role is: ‘There is a world of opportunity. Our challenge is going to be to focus in on the top areas where we believe we can, with rapidity, really help government.’ And so I think that’s what I’m going to be focused in on: What are the best use cases that we can solution with clients to bring to bear on their challenges?

FS: With security such a major focus in the federal government right now, particularly with zero trust, how does Google Public Sector plan to make that a key element of its work with agencies?

KD: Google pioneered the idea of zero trust and built the first-ever zero-trust architecture. So we are a cloud provider that has security built in from the outset. And that’s really important. We know that our government clients, and the degree of sensitivity of the data that is housed in that cloud, absolutely has to have assurances around security. And so we fundamentally understand that and have always built that into our products. The second thing that’s really exciting is the acquisition of Mandiant. You know, Kevin Mandia, is a force for good. He built an amazing company that is really based upon understanding the threat landscape, providing true, no-kidding incident response capabilities, has built an incredible threat landscape library and is building a security-as-a-service platform within Google Cloud’s architecture. So the combination of all of those components of security will beautifully serve, I think, all aspects of government, but more importantly, ensure citizens that may be using that cloud or enterprises within government that are using that cloud, that their data, their information is secure.

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“When we look at our strategic plan…the first two lines of effort we are focused on is prioritizing command and control and driving force readiness through innovation,” said Greenwell, director of the Enterprise Integration and Innovation Center and CIO at the DefenseTalks conference in Washington, D.C. on September 19.  

Greenwell cited DISA’s recent reorganization to “formalize data as one of our key lines of effort” to leverage “data as the center of gravity” to enable speed of capability to the warfighter. He also highlighted moves to promote joint warfighting cloud capabilities and modernizing DevSecOps as additional areas where DISA is positioning itself to add cloud capabilities across the DOD.

Speaking alongside Greenwell, Josh Marcuse, head of strategy and innovation for Google Cloud, Public Sector advocated for an approach that first looks at mission outcomes and the warfighter’s needs when considering cloud capabilities. Once those outcomes are determined, Marcuse said it would be more valuable to work backwards and answer questions around how to integrate AI and ML capabilities to solve those challenges.

Marcuse noted that in his time working alongside DOD partners he has seen how a majority of their budget and work is improving their data hygiene. However, “not all problems can be solved with AI,” he said.

“AI [and ML] is not like salt and pepper that you sprinkle on any program. You have to be really good at understanding what problem lends itself to a machine learning approach,” he explained. “We look for where there is a data set and a mission outcome, where we can use mature techniques that are secure and proven, to use that data to achieve a result that the warfighter needs.”

Greenwell added how data is key to DISA’s and the DOD’s mission. He shared that last October, DISA reorganized its leadership structure to establish its first chief data officer as part of its modernized data strategy goals. One of the agency’s key roles in cyber-defense and cybersecurity requires them to understand the mountains of data they are gathering from their wide variety of capabilities.

“Data is central to what we are doing,” he said, “and we can’t do it without AI and machine learning. We have to evolve.”

Finally, Greenwell and Marcuse both stressed the importance of public-private partnerships to move forward some of these big ideas.

“From my perspective it is a lot about partnerships,” said Greenwell, “…and DISA is one entity within the department and can’t do it alone.”

Marcuse noted that there exist pockets of innovation everywhere in DOD and DISA, however they are not evenly distributed across the organizations because of cultural barriers that lead to isolation. Innovation in DOD becomes more about overcoming those cultural barriers.

“There is no organization on the planet that has both mission and [technology] capabilities at such scale. So, when the DOD finds these gems, and then is able to mass produce them, that is when you see historic contributions to the frontiers of technology,” explained Marcuse.

Watch the full discussion on the DefenseTalks On-Demand page.

You can also register for the upcoming Google Government Summit on November 15 in Washington D.C. to hear more from government leaders on how they are using cloud to achieve their mission outcomes.

This article was produced by Scoop News Group for DefenseScoop and underwritten by Google Cloud.

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