Now more than ever, national security depends on data. The intelligence community (IC) must harness vast amounts of data—all different kinds, from countless sources—to stay ahead of the pacing challenge from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the acute threat from Russia, and other persistent threats. To bring the IC Data Strategy to life and achieve operational and decision advantage, the chief data officers who support intelligence agencies need to modernize mission data environments.
Building these environments is essential for achieving the four strategic focus areas provided in the IC Data Strategy: end-to-end data management, delivering data interoperability and analytics at speed and scale, advancing partnerships for innovation, and enabling a data-driven workforce. By design, these environments can empower teams across the IC who oversee key capabilities—like intelligence collection and analysis—to create secure, scalable, and integrated systems that meet operational needs and resist cyber threats. In addition, the environments can make it easier for IC chief technology officers to integrate key capabilities.Â