An agile enabler framework: Architecting services in the clouds

The new operational environment is exemplified by continuously shifting mission requirements that challenges our Information Systems to dynamically add functionality, increase throughput and overcome threats to deliver new capabilities, quicker, with less cost, and more accuracy. It is essential that we engineer a flexible design and follow an agile development process to keep up with these rapid changes. Security considerations should continue to be architected in the initial system capability and implemented in an agile environment to ensure security of the environment, protection of contents, control resources and authentication of users are accomplished in the new Information Technology systems. Today´s systems are being tasked to ingest process and analyze dramatically different, high volume data sets than they were originally designed to handle while they have to interact with multiple new systems that were unaccounted for at design time. Agile development of modular systems based on commercial standards has proven to be the best way to achieve these dynamic requirements and continuously meet the ever-changing security threats and providing the required service levels.