NATO has selected France-based Thales to provide the first certified defense cloud solution that can be deployed in the theatre of operations in less than 24 hours. Thales was selected after a worldwide competitive tendering process on the basis of its defense systems integration know-how, the company announced January 25. With this contract, the Group enters a new market sector and demonstrating its capacity to integrate the best civil and commercial technologies available and to adapt them to the needs of the armed forces.
As military operations become increasingly data-driven, access to critical data and applications is a crucial requirement for the armed forces. The defense cloud developed by Thales enables the forces to analyze and share data in real time from the command center to the theatre of operations, pursue their digital transformation in complete security, and accelerate the decision cycle to gain and maintain an operational advantage.
Until now, it could take several months and dozens of specialized engineers working at sites close to the combat zone to deploy the assets required. With Nexium Defence Cloud and its Service Design Studio and orchestration system, a small team of experts can deploy IT services and applications to locations thousands of miles away in just a few hours. This solution is based on a holistic approach encompassing applications management, IT, networks and security, with an overall system architecture designed to accommodate various different levels of confidentiality.
Nexium Defence Cloud incorporates the best civil and commercial technologies available to provide a complete, modular, sovereign solution that enables forces to operate fully autonomously in the theatre of operations. It offers a wide array of possible configurations, from very high-capacity and easily scalable infrastructure for command headquarters to all-in-one containerized systems that transform a forward base into a new cloud node in just a few hours, the company said.
“Thales is proud to be contributing to the digital transformation of the armed forces by providing this first deployable, certified, tactical defense cloud solution. We are grateful to NATO for renewing their trust in our expertise in secure, interoperable information and communication systems,” said Marc Darmon, executive vice president, Secure Communications and Information Systems, Thales.
Source: Thales
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