Dive into the DoD’s imperative evolution

About five decades back, the hot, new technology that set consumers abuzz was the in-home smoke detector and the pocket calculator.

Now imagine if we failed to further modernize. Imagine existing in a world with no personal computers, smartphone technology, or on-demand cinema.

It goes without saying we’ve become accustomed to the ways in which technology continues to make our lives easier. And while tech in our personal lives evolves at breakneck speed, the defense sector often grapples with aging systems that hinder efficiency, security, and innovation. In fact, The Department of Defense (DoD) still relies on legacy systems from the same era of the pocket calculator.

Letting go of legacy systems

Outdated technology could be considered the achilles’ heel of the United States defense sector. Legacy systems not only hamper efficiency, they pose serious security risks. These systems typically lack modern protocols and features, which naturally makes them far more susceptible to breaches and cyber attacks. Data integrity is a concern as well, given older technology has inadequate protection mechanisms. This enhances the risk of data leaks, unauthorized access, or corruption.

Case in point: The Justice Department, Treasury Department, IRS, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other Federal systems rely heavily on a programming language called COBOL, which was developed in the 1950s. The glaring issue here is that most COBOL programmers are about as old as the coding language itself.

These legacy systems are expensive to maintain, too. Recent data suggest the U.S. government spends more than $337 million annually just to sustain old, outdated tech.

Modernization is imperative to meet evolving threats and ensuring mission readiness. To add, the need for systems that can operate without uninterrupted connectivity is critical for defense operations in any environment.

The Monkton Way Forward

Warfighter demands are changing, especially as digital natives join the ranks. In today’s ever-changing environment, modernized, classified cloud platforms that are scalable, secure—and offer seamless, instantaneous collaboration—are increasingly critical.

Monkton offers a transformative approach to modernization through its suite of products and platforms. Our work can easily tailor to specific needs and service branches, but the end goal remains the same: Build inclusive solutions that allow people to do their jobs wherever they are.

Monkton Hypersonic

Rapid deployment of Serverless solutions

Our Hypersonic platform is a compliance-driven solution that rapidly streamlines development and allows the defense sector to solve problems faster than ever before… think three months rather than five years.

Hypersonic is a revolutionary Serverless platform that distills a decade's worth of research and development in building secure, Cloud, Edge, and mobile solutions into a single powerhouse. It’s a robust orchestration platform that streamlines the foundational aspects of Edge solutions, empowering you to craft your distinct solution effortlessly.

What’s more, Hypersonic is built with a compliant foundation as it is built for DoD SRG IL-5 and FedRAMP HIGH, and can be deployed into IL-6+ with little to no modifications. Hypersonic can also easily deploy into your AWS organization as a Serverless application, enabling developers, managers, information security professionals, and other stakeholders to build and deliver Serverless solutions that can be deployed into Edge Computing environments. Hypersonic leverages AWS provided CodeSuite tools, AWS Lambda, AWS DynamoDB, integrates with AWS IAM, and deployment into the Snow series of Edge Computing devices.

Monkton EdgeMX

Streamlining maintenance—from anywhere

Built using Hypersonic, EdgeMX is a mobile solution that revolutionizes entire maintenance processes by bringing it to Apple iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple Vision Pros, and Apple TVs, ensuring uninterrupted operations in any environment—even without a solid internet connection.

Anywhere connectivity is EdgeMX’s differentiator. EdgeMX helps maintenance supervisors, quality assurance personnel, supply shops, and maintainers save significant time—and headaches—by quickly documenting, communicating, and collaborating in real time by blending Edge Computing and Cloud Native technology on modern mobile devices. The EdgeMX mobile app is also underpinned by Zero Trust to authenticate every transaction, meaning it’s incredibly secure.

Monkton Anchorage

A security-first mindset for compliant solutions

Monkton prioritizes security and compliance, which are essential pillars in the defense sector. By leveraging Anchorage, our patented Zero Trust component that provides immutable proof that a device is what it claims to be at a hardware level, Monkton ensures data integrity and confidentiality. But there’s more…

Anchorage can also:

Verify that the device is the device it claims to be
Verify that data is coming from a trusted source
Pinpoint who, what, where, when a piece of data is collected

EdgeMX in action: Defense use cases from ground to orbit

The United States Air Force used EdgeMX’s mobile app predecessor BRICE—which was also developed by Monkton—to increase the integrity of maintenance data gathered by 60 percent. But the USAF isn’t the only use case. Anywhere and everywhere mobile or static assets must be tracked and maintained can benefit from the use of EdgeMX.

Consider this: The DoD is among the world's largest organizations, with nearly $4 trillion in assets. As such, every U.S. service branch, including the Navy and Coast Guard, manage extensive fleets—whether on the ground or in the water—that demand precise, timely, and accurate maintenance.

The DoD continues to realize that emerging global threats cannot be fought with Cold War-era technologies. Take contested logistics for example, meaning the management and movement of resources, supplies, and personnel in environments where there is conflict or interference. Given this challenge, various branches have shifted their focus to investing in capabilities that empower intra-theater transport across land, air, and sea. With EdgeMX we can confidently say “Yes! There is an app for that.”

Satellite maintenance is also increasingly critical for continued reliability and performance as these devices are essential for communication, navigation, and research. In fact, if all satellites suddenly stopped working tomorrow, global communication, weather forecasting, military operations, and various industries relying on satellite-based services would be crippled, leading to serious disruptions and widespread economic, logistical, and societal challenges.

But EdgeMX can help ensure that doesn’t happen by modernizing traditional maintenance procedures, empowering technicians to perform tasks seamlessly and securely on modern mobile devices. By integrating Edge Computing and Cloud Native technology with smart-driven workflows, EdgeMX facilitates real-time documentation, communication, and coordination.

But maintenance is only one facet of a larger problem solving approach. Today, all service branches have their own network, which makes communicating jointly a challenge. EdgeMX offers the ability to federate data between different organizations, meaning separate service branches would be able to communicate with one another in real time.

Chart the course for secure resiliency with future-focused solutions

In collaboration with top industry partners, academia, and government agencies, Monkton works tirelessly to help shape the future of the defense sector. Together we can build a more resilient, agile, and secure DoD infrastructure to safeguard our nation for generations to come.

For inquiries about Monkton's solutions and how they can help modernize your defense operations, reach out today via monkton.io/contact.

Modernizing the Defense Sector with Monkton: A Blueprint for the Future