Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for data, engineering and software, said the service branch’s newly established Innovation Exchange Lab — dubbed IXL — will enable faster digital technology adoption by providing a cloud-based environment for facilitating industry collaboration.
The IXL enables industry and software developers to test and evaluate their software tools’ interoperability with the Army’s Unified Data Reference Architecture 1.0, a.k.a. UDRA 1.0, which was co-developed by the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software and the chief information officer, Swanson wrote in a blog post published Thursday.
UDRA 1.0 is the first tool made available to both Army and industry software developers through the IXL to encourage ongoing collaboration while developing new data-based warfighting technologies.
According to Swanson, UDRA utilizes the U.S. government’s modular open systems approach to prevent “vendor lock,” where large platforms become dependent on proprietary designs and systems.
“It is the Army’s first of a series of reference architectures, fully coordinated internally and with industry, to enable us to seamlessly integrate all of our products together regardless of which program manager or industry partner develops them,” Swanson said.
Swanson is set to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual CIO Summit on April 17. Register here to save your seat and hear about the latest modernization strategies from government and industry CIOs.