Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) hosted the Advana Industry Day. During the one-day event, industry and government participated in side-by-side in sessions, learning more about DoD's next steps to mature Advana ― the Department's enterprise data and analytics environment. Advana provides DoD users with data from more than 400 DoD business systems, along with tools, services, and analytics to enable data-driven decision making across DoD.
Advana, which stands for "advancing analytics," is the DoD's largest enterprise data system and is moving from its current contracting vehicle to a new model via recompete. In line with CDAO's Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories (Open DAGIR) approach, the recompete will: drive interoperability; increase vendor competition; and infuse best-of-breed industry solutions into the Advana ecosystem.
This change will help the increasingly popular platform scale, meeting a broader and more varied population of users and needs. The Advana recompete signifies an opportunity for the largest possible cross-section of industry to access government data and contribute their solutions for solving DoD's toughest problems.
"The Advana Industry Day is an unprecedented opportunity for industry to get involved in the largest acquisition of digital and AI enabling capabilities in the history of the Department of Defense. This acquisition will support development and scaling of cutting-edge software and AI capabilities from the boardroom to the battlefield," stated Dr. Radha Plumb, CDAO.
The Advana Industry Day featured plenary/educational sessions, focused breakout meetings, and networking opportunities, creating a dynamic and interactive environment for government and industry leaders to discuss the Advana platform's continuous improvement. Industry Day speakers highlighted Advana's origin and its relationship to the Open DAGIR approach to scaling data, analytics, and AI capabilities; ways for traditional and nontraditional contractors to participate in ongoing Advana development activities; and the acquisition strategy for participating in Advana development.
CDAO "Industry Days" strengthen partnerships and enhance understanding of the DoD's technology needs. The Advana Industry Day followed the recent GIDE Industry Insights Forum (hosted this past July) and is the second of such Industry Days the CDAO has offered this year.
About the CDAO
The CDAO became operational in June 2022 and is dedicated to integrating and optimizing AI capabilities across the DoD. The office is responsible for accelerating the DoD's adoption of data, analytics, and AI, enabling the Department's digital infrastructure and policy adoption to deliver scalable AI-driven solutions for enterprise and joint use cases, safeguarding the nation against current and emerging threats.
