DISA looks to upgrade VPN offerings

The Defense Information Systems Agency is preparing a new capability that would change how it does virtual private network services.

Charles Osborn, DISA's acting director for the infrastructure executive directorate, told FCW following the Independent Telecommunications Pioneers Association event Dec. 6 that the agency has an initially operational capability that allows automated provisioning for VPN services through Storefront.

"Essentially the customer would be able to log in through Storefront and order VPN services and then it would go out to the controllers and actually provision it without any human touching it other than the customer," as long as the resources, such as a path, ports, bandwidth, are available on both sides, he said.

Syncing databases from two different bases on the non-classified internet protocol network (NIPRNET) via a VPN used to take upwards of 30 days after a request was submitted through the telecommunications service request and orders process via Storefront, which includes human validation. The new, real-time capability would allow authorization and provisioning within 90 seconds, Osborn said.

No word yet on when DISA customers will get access to the capability.

Note: This post was updated to correct the name of DISA's acting director for infrastructure.