Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 AFCEA TechNet Europe The Only Certainty is Change “Data sunt, Inepte!” October 2006

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Cost of Computing Cost of Memory Cost of Hardware

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Cost of Computing Cost of Memory Cost of Hardware Systems Costs

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Technology & the Warfighter Telegraph Telephone Computer VTC Web Cognitive Tools Tools Tools Tools Time Line Soldiers to Cover 10 2 Km Data Transfer Rate Civil War WWI WWII Gulf War Kosovo EAF 38,8304, ? 20 BPS32 BPS71 BPS ? GPS/TPS256 KBPS MBPS 3 Tech- nology

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet there was a time when a 1 inch cable provided 50 voice calls… if you were lucky!..today, that same 1 inch cable holds Gb/s each! (173 Tb/s!!) That’s equivalent to: - 10 X the US population talking simultaneously - All of the data stored in the US per year, transmitted in a single day X the worldwide internet traffic - Download the Library of Congress in > 1 hour Gb/s: Gigabits (one billion bits) per second Tb/s: Terabits (one trillion bits) per second

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Historical Perspective In the beginning command was exercised personally. Better communications allowed for a wider span of command Globalisation and real-time facilities allow for “confusion of command”! Importance of not over-whelming commanders and subordinates with too much information. Must retain “clarity of mission”

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Technology ….not always the “be all and end all”! TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE PROCESS

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 “Tyranny of Choice” Happiness is limited information. People tend to see that which they wish to see. Heavy influence of media. More information is a turn-off. Only search for information where there is easy availability. Ignore data which might be inconvenient.

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 The Human Condition How do we reconcile the rich but messy world of human life with the process driven, procedural, rule based approach demanded by technology? Are we forced into complexity or might we use the principles of “Ockam’s Razor”

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 What about legacy systems? Legacy systems range from those that are old and unused any more to those which are still in active use. Traditional answer was to “migrate” systems to new standards. Legacy systems continue to be of utility. Need to build on them – not destroy them! Must have lower costs, faster delivery and improved confidence.

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 High Costs The problem is Legacy systems and the RDBMS: –Cost of scrubbing and cleaning data –Designed 30 years ago to minimise memory requirement. –Normalisation and renormalisation –New business process-led initiatives vs. IT driven projects

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 So, what do we do? Need to keep the technology, organizations and people issues in synchronisation so that we can develop: –Better decision making by commanders –Better and more adaptable organisations –New supporting technologies

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 Technical requirements Flexible system – mirroring human behaviour Allows information exchange with wide variety of databases Intuitive – and contextural Responsive Relatively cheap! International standards

Data Sunt, Inepte! Copyright 2006 AFCEA TechNet 2006 TyrrellSmith