The U.S. Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center is working to enhance the capacity of its Installation Health Assessment analytics tool using a data lake that accommodates collaborations across the I&MS enterprise.
The initiative is part of a long-term effort to automate processes for collecting, storing and analyzing massive amounts of data in the entire Department of the Air Force, AFIMSC Analytics Chief Daniel Clark said.
AHI was initially created to integrate authoritative I&MS databases through predictive analysis and data visualization. The cloud-based platform has significantly expanded, serving more than 3,690 users responsible for assessing performance in various areas. AHI currently covers data in areas ranging from combat and command support, to facility services and support for airmen and their families.
To refine AHI, AFIMSC used VAULT, a data lake and analytics platform that enables collaboration and regularly updates data to maintain their reliability and relevance.
“Using Air Force-wide civil engineering data, we were able to model the current and future state of Air Force infrastructure across the enterprise. This allowed us to demonstrate the different approaches to maintaining, replacing and divesting Air Force infrastructure,” said Matthew Dawson, a data scientist in the AFIMSC Analytics Team.
Another member of the team, James Kittleman, noted that the models ultimately “helped the Air Force secure an additional $2.1 billion in the planning, programming and budgeting process.”