GENERAL DYNAMICS SELECTED AS CLOUD SERVICES BROKER FOR TEXAS
Airielle Mitchell, [email protected]
Airielle MitchellMISY 5103: Management Information Systems
Course Section: Z01
GENERAL DYNAMICS SELECTED AS CLOUD SERVICES BROKER FOR TEXAS
Airielle Mitchell, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
General Dynamics is a market leader in business aviationthat utilizes cloud technologies as another means to sell highquality products and services. With cloud computing becomingpopular in all aspects of business, information is becomingunmanageable and needs to be sustained. This case deals with theevolution of cloud computing and the importance for GeneralDynamics to transition from cloud service provider to thenational cloud broker. As a cloud broker, General Dynamics isfacing issues such as guaranteed privacy for users of their cloudservices as well as personalization of the products and servicesGeneral Dynamics offers. As a business solution, General DynamicsIT will outsource to Gravitant, a company that specializes in theservices and infrastructure needed to be a successful cloudbroker. Because of the success of utilizing Gravitant, startingin 2014, General Dynamics is being requested for new projects,increasing its client base.
KEYWORDS: General Dynamics IT, Defense, technology
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GENERAL DYNAMICS SELECTED AS CLOUD SERVICES BROKER FOR TEXAS
INTRODUCTION
Industry Background
The aerospace and defense industry is composed of four types
of businesses that sell products for government or business use.
The four businesses are Aerospace, Combat Systems, Marine
Systems, and Information Systems and Technology. Aerospace
businesses, such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, sell aircraft
parts at market prices. Combat Systems businesses, including
Raytheon and Bae, offer competitive priced weapons and adequate
amour with training that target military sectors and businesses.
Marine Systems, such as ThyssenKrupp, sell non-nuclear submarines
and naval vessels (General Dynamics).
Information Systems and Technology offer great expertise and
knowledge in the services they render such as IT enterprise
solutions, managing large scale, mission-critical IT programs.
They may also provide mission support (General Dynamics).
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Competitors of General Dynamics Information Technology
include the Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and
Textron Inc. Total sales in aerospace and defense recently has
reached $ 286.9 billion (according to the Yahoo! Finance). In
2015, Aerospace accounted for 22.58% of industry sales. The
current defense spending amounts to about 4% of Gross Domestic
Product.
In the meantime, the non-government and government sector
began changing. With more and more e-commerce becoming common,
cloud computing became more popular in order to keep up with the
demands for storage increased. Cloud computing is a great
cluster of computers to serve as the main host to run
applications, requiring high-level computing (Parallel Computing,
2011).
By 2014, 87 percent of organizations were using public cloud
(2014 State of the Cloud Survey). To help maintain the large
growth of cloud computing Cloud Brokers, companies that monitor
and manage the cloud, are in demand to lower the potential chaos
of the cloud, including security, purchase, and personalization
issues.
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In addition, General Dynamics employs a nationwide workforce
that’s available immediately to help agencies from all states,
counties and municipalities to leverage the Texas contract to
rapidly provision and manage their own cloud services. The cloud
deployment challenge involves dealing with different billing
relationships, consolidating demand across various pockets of an
organization and optimizing license management.
Description of the Company’s Business: General Dynamics
Founded in 1899 and headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia,
General Dynamics leads the market in business aviation. It
specializes in combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions,
shipbuilding, communication and information technology systems
and solutions. The company grew through acquisitions until early
1990s, selling nearly all divisions except Electric and Land
Systems. In the mid-1990s, General Dynamics expanded by
acquiring combat vehicle businesses, additional shipyards,
information technology product and service companies and
Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.
General Dynamics has acquired and integrated more than 65
businesses to positively add to its portfolio.
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With about 93,000 employees, General Dynamics is split into
four main markets: Aerospace, Combat Systems, Marine Systems, and
Information Systems and Technology (General Dynamics).
Aerospace group creates and manufactures aircrafts and
provides aircraft services. The company’s Combat Systems group
does system engineering, designing, development, and support in
tracked and wheeled military vehicles and weapons systems.
The Marine Systems group designs, builds, and supports their
own submarines and surface ships. It offers nuclear-powered
submarines, surface combatants and other combat-logistics ships,
as well as commercial ships. Marine Systems offers design and
engineering support services, overhaul, repair and lifecycle
support (General Dynamics).
Last but not least, the Information Systems and Technology
group delivers great technologies, products and services that
support many military, federal and civilian, and commercial
needs. This group offers secure mobile communication systems and
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IT solutions (cloud computing included) and mission support
services. IS and T includes intelligence and surveillance, naval
control systems, and cyber security solutions.
Motivating Factors
Charlie Plummer said it best. Texas is making a way for
state agencies to ‘benefit from the flexibility and cost savings
of cloud computing.’ (General Dynamics Selected as Cloud Services
Broker for Texas, 2014). Charlie Plummer is General Dynamics
Information Technology’s vice president and general manager for
the IT solutions segment. It is now well known and accepted that
information technology is a critical driver of business results
with digital strategies including websites, online ads, and
social, mobile applications, and other devices. Even
organizations in traditional industries are learning how to gain,
grow, and retain customers through software applications- online
banking, e-commerce, and online insurance exchanges. The ability
to accelerate application delivery can cause organizational
growth and profitability. In order to meet business needs and
delivering applications more quickly, new development practices,
such as agile development, continuous integration, and continuous
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delivery, have evolved to reduce cycle times and increase
quality. However, the ability to make infrastructure and
platform services has faded. Wait times for resources have
extended to weeks or even months in many enterprises, creating a
divide between the goals of developers and central IT.
For this reason, developers switched to public cloud
services providing mostly instant access to infrastructure and
platform services, leaving the technology partners at a difficult
task of trying to control this “shadow IT” (IT as a Cloud
Broker). IT leaders are positioning themselves to link the
IT/developer divide as well as support the business need for
agility by brokering cloud services for the enterprise. By
becoming a cloud services broker, General Dynamics Information
Technology can add a critical layer of visibility and governance
to cloud usage while delivering agility across cloud services.
In recent years, General Dynamics IT was facing and continues to
face intense competition from companies such as Lockheed Martin,
Dell Cloud for U.S. Government, and Google, in private, public,
and hybrid cloud computing sectors. General Dynamics IT has to
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find a way to combat these threats by taking advantage of being
selected in January of 2014 as a cloud services broker by the
state of Texas Department of Information Resources. Cloud
computing is as an important and growing network medium. In
particular, Cloud broking facilitates convenience, variety of
services, price savings, wireless storage as well as time
savings, privacy, and immediate access from any location in the
country. This generates a great opportunity for General Dynamics
IT. Cloud broking with the state of Texas and other states will
place General Dynamics IT better in product and service offerings
from its competitors. In the process, it would require additional
technology infrastructure for its products and services.
In facing challenges from competitors and the business
environment and in capitalizing on the opportunity of cloud
broking, General Dynamics IT is facing questionable issues. This
case should try to address the following questions regarding
General Dynamics IT:
What are General Dynamics cloud services and how can they
use these technologies to benefit the end-users (aka
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consumers)? How can General Dynamics IT better understand
the target market?
How can General Dynamics IT meet technology infrastructure
demands?
DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY
When clients use traditional desktop software individually
and in their companies, they can go through each database and
file thoroughly. This storage and cost efficiency is enhanced
through adding memory, buying other desktops and database systems
with a personal or company budget that may not be able to
accommodate the company’s needs. However, cloud computing has
fixed these problems, providing unlimited storage space and
decreasing the costs by eliminating the need for storage and
Traditional desktop software. However, with cloud computing
becoming more established and used nationally, cloud brokers are
very much needed to regulate cloud laws, contracts and services.
Although initially a good idea, cloud broking is a fairly new
platform and requires guidelines in order to be successful and in
order to be able to fulfill the needs of consumers. In order to
create such services, General Dynamics IT needs to research what
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services to offer and pay attention to the market and focus on
security.
SOLUTION
Strategy for Change
The business strategy and solution for General Dynamics IT
is to create and continue to use innovative and interactive
features to its cloud services, to understand and meet the needs
of its target market, and to utilize technology infrastructures.
Relevant Cloud Services
A company's cloud products and services play an important
role in furthering the cloud servicing success. A successful
product or service is a great indication of a successful
transition in this department. The types of services the company
provides are Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Cloud
Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS),
and Cloud Assessment as well as among other services. General
Dynamics was also selected to deliver cloud computing services
via IaaS and email-as-a-service blanket purchase agreements by
GSA. To set General Dynamics IT apart from other competitors, it
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should offer Cloud Assessments to consumers before any other
service is rendered. This better determines the needs of the
consumer directly without using an unnecessary solution to the
cloud service. Consumers will respect the care and effort that
was put into the cloud brokerage service.
Table 1. Types of Cloud Services General Dynamics IT provides
CloudServices
Description
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
-a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the Internet
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
-cloud computing model that delivers applications over the Internet. In a PaaS model, a cloudprovider delivers hardware and software tools -- usually those needed for application development-- to its users as a service
Software as a Service (SaaS)
-software delivery method that provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service
Cloud Assessment
-helps the partner and the customer have a structured conversation to build a comprehensive cloud strategy
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Target Consumer Profile
The cloud portal is now available to state and local
agencies and public education institutions, and U.S. Department
of Defense – in Texas and other states – that are seeking a
single point of contact to procure, manage and integrate public,
private and hybrid cloud services and resources. General Dynamics
IT target consumer is government. This type of consumer is
quality seeking and favors security services. The cloud service
consumers value privacy and unlimited storage space of data and
information. Since government consumers are not fond of breaches
of security, and are not more likely to use Cloud computing
services to ensure the reliable storage of highly encrypted data
and information, cloud broking is an excellent means of
controlling the exposure of sensitive information (Assessing
Innovations in Cloud Security, 2014). With General Dynamics being
new to the cloud brokerage business, it is too early to tell the
direct demographics of GDIT’s consumer.
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Technology and Infrastructures
Creating comprehensive features to its cloud services and
technology infrastructure needs require extensive expertise. As
a solution, General Dynamics IT outsources to Gravitant.
Gravitant is General Dynamics’ secret weapon. It provides
General Dynamics with a CloudBroker online portal for a cloud
brokerage and management platform (General Dynamics). Gravitant,
Inc. has an industry-leading platform called cloudMatrix.
Gravitant runs a cloud brokerage software which is delivered in a
SaaS model. Gravitant’s cloudMatrix makes it. This is
advantageous as it enables General Dynamics IT easily to plan,
buy, manage and broker cloud services and enables users to move
from a slow service-ticket model to an agile design-to-order
model. Gravitant’s security approach is holistic. Gravitant uses
access security such as IP addresses and firewalls associated
with cloud-based infrastructure deployment. Cloudmatrix also
manages authentication by utilizing centralized keys, SSH and
public keys. This marriage between General Dynamics and
Gravitant, Inc. integrates the expertise and resources of an
established industry with an innovative cloud servicing platform.
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Role of Technology
Gartner’s estimates say that roughly $100 billion would be
consumed yearly and universally, on combined Cloud Services
Brokerage (CSB) roles by 2014. In cloud computing, the need for
intermediaries to aggregate the services and graft them into
company infrastructure or customize cloud services grows as the
number of cloud services and the rate of consumer implementation
grows. Without someone acting as the middle man, cloud service
consumers are forced to manage all of the transactions (e.g.,
payments, governance, data movement, customization and
enrichment) between the providers and their services. This can be
a very difficult task, especially when they are using more than
three cloud services from each independent provider. The Cloud
is now being adopted by business and information technology users
as a way to push their organizations more effective and save
costs. Along with this opportunity comes a new set of pain points
and significant risks to enterprises that must be addressed.
With General Dynamics having to design, service, and manage
users of their cloud computing products, GDIT chose Gravitant
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cloudMatrix (General Dynamics Information Technology Taps
Gravitant's CloudMatrix Platform 2013).
Dramatically shorten the time and effort needed to respond to Cloud RFPs
With quite a few companies converting to cloud computing, a
large number of cloud service providers are under enormous
pressure to provide a broad range of services. To minimize time
consumption of knowing which cloud services are needed for each
company from scratch, Gravitant came up with an excellent
approach. Gravitant’s cloudMatrix broker and management software
allows IT to manage across the complete cloud lifecycle and,
through their Plan-Buy-Manage approach; users can begin in
the area that matters most to them (General Dynamics Information
Technology Taps Gravitant's CloudMatrix Platform). Plan: Users
must prepare to move to cloud by using an Intelligent Decision
Framework to decide which app for what cloud. People can easily
design complete cloud solutions. Buy: General Dynamics IT can
give their users a faster and complete buying experience with an
IT Approved Marketplace based on the concept of the service
store, which provides the user experience of an app store but
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also includes managed services and is powered by a dynamic
service catalog. Manage: GDIT can maintain cost visibility and
budget tracking through living order management and dashboards.
Gravitant provides vivid and precise graphs and charts to allow
users opportunity for better deals on cloud service provider
visibility. The market potential for such services is growing.
Make consumption of users own value-added services easier
All sectors of government can now use the General Dynamics’
Email-as-a-Service (EaaS) blanket purchase agreement service to
acquire cloud-based email, office automation, electronic records
management, and migration and integration services (General
Dynamics IT). Since 2012 when this article came out, more
companies have been requiring services from cloud service
providers. Other services were needed to continue effectively
servicing the networked businesses.
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Through the Gravitant feature, made-to-order services on
www.gdit.com/cloudbroker started January 2014 with the
introduction of email services for the DoD; to date, other
services were being offered.
This feature is especially important since more companies
are opting to use the cloud. Growing cloud trends for the public
and private sector are increasing approximately 10% each year.
General Dynamics IT is estimated to serve 45 million users by
2016. (Information systems and Technology) The Operating margin
is increasing each year. Now at 8% percent and increasing,
General Dynamics IT should consider honing and popularizing the
existing cloud products and services they already have instead of
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the expanding because of the lowering of their IT revenue (Profit
from the Cloud by Shortening Your Time To Revenue).
Improve your customers’ experience by delivering Just-in-Time IT
Just-in-Time is described as a production strategy that seeks
to improve a business' ROI by reducing inventory during the
process and the cost it takes to carry the product. A prime
example of a just-in-time strategy was Japan in the 50s (Profit
from the Cloud by Shortening Your Time To Revenue). As Japan
adopted it for its car company, Toyota, just-in-time strategy
began raising productivity (through the elimination of waste)
significantly by using signals which tell production when to make
the next part. By collecting customer information, the cloud is
enabling clients to not have to take time out to customize their
own products and services in order to meet their needs. They can
instead focus on the tasks they are using the cloud for. General
Dynamics will have Gravitant to retrieve necessary information to
make decisions on cloud services needed for the clients.
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Converting Traditional Desktops to the Cloud
Being in a cloud environment limits the sense of security of
a physical desktop since users are not physically using a desktop
to store and manage data for use of the company. As cloud
computing gains popularity with enterprises of corporations,
governments and end users, many orthodox applications that were
used for years are moving to the cloud. Three reasons are that
cloud applications are often less expensive, simple to manage,
and easy to update and use. Since a browser is the most often-
used tool for end users, many find it convenient to work with
cloud-based applications that are delivered through a browser.
Implementation
In order to create an interactive experiential web site and
cater better to its target market segment, General Dynamics IT
utilizes Gravitant technology with an easy to comprehend
interface, such as the Cloudmatrix:
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During the implementation process is GDIT was introducing
cloud service brokerage offerings optimized for government
entities for affordable and manageable hybrid cloud computing
solutions. Gravitant cloudMatrix reorganizes the assessment,
serving as both a corporate and IT administration center for
Just-in-Time IT.
For IaaS, GDIT will manage the set infrastructure while the
client has control over OS, storage, deployed applications and
select networking workings (hosting firewalls). PaaS deploys
client-involved applications onto the cloud infrastructure with
the use of programming languages and tools supported by the
provider (General Dynamics Information Technology Taps
Gravitant's CloudMatrix Platform). During SaaS, the customer
does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure
(network, os, servers, etc.). The provider will run this service
in the cloud.
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OUTCOMES
By providing specific features and understanding the target
consumer base, as well as being the first company chosen for the
brokerage of Texas and other states, General Dynamics IT is still
in the process of becoming successful in transitioning its
clients into the cloud through building a brokerage site that
provides high quality assessments. Between a two-year period
from 2012 to 2014, General Dynamics IT revenue sales decreased
from $4.7 billion to $4.5 billion (Information systems and
Technology). Cloud sales, represented as IT solutions, have
decreased. The amount of the IT solutions to the total amount of
revenue however is 49.67% from 46.10% of total revenue. See Table
for details on General Dynamics IT's revenue, including Cloud
(IT solutions) sales (Information systems and Technology). In
addition, General Dynamics IT acknowledged the cloud for its
implementation of innovation and technology in its 10-k.
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Table 2. General Dynamics IT Sales ($Millions) (www.sec.gov)
Sales Revenue 2014 2013 2012Mobile communication systems
$2771 3657 3425
IT solutions and mission support services
$4549 4734 4545
ISR solutions $1839 1877 2047Total Information Systems and Technology
$9159 10268 10017
Although there is a slight decline in the sales revenue,
there is a general rule of thumb that it takes time to
successfully transition into another methodology in technology.
For example, General Dynamics IT successfully implemented the DEE
program, the largest enterprise-wide e-mail infrastructure in the
DOD. The system, which joins e-mail infrastructure, centralizes
e-mail management and reduces technical and functional costs,
supports e-mail for 4.5 million users worldwide General Dynamics
IT. Today, there are over 1 million users who have migrated with
more than $75 million in savings. This makes DoD Enterprise
Email one of the largest independent email systems in the world
(General Dynamics IT). As an enterprise-wide service, DEE
continues to reduce cost of operations and maintenance by merging
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hardware into Defense Information Systems Agency’s Defense
Enterprise Computing Centers.
LESSONS LEARNED
Lessons can be learned from General Dynamics IT. Cloud
computing is replacing traditional desktops. Understand and meet
the needs of the target market. Increase competitive advantage
by providing effective products and services.
In 2012, research firm Gartner believed the personal cloud
would replace the PC. That very same year, Google planned
a cloud-centered future with Google Play and its market-leading
Android mobile OS. The following year, personal computers,
Microsoft and Apple also explored the cloud into the next
generation of their desktop operating systems, Windows 8, and OS
X Mountain Lion (About the Cloud 2011). Cloud service brokers
are in high demand for the simplifying of the cloud selection for
public and private sectors.
With the target market being mainly government agencies and
companies, privacy has become the hot button issue for General
Dynamics. To sustain privacy, holistic approaches such as access
and authentication are to be applied and maintained by the
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companies and the cloud broker providing service. Once word gets
out that General Dynamics has an excellent track record of cloud
sustainability and success in implementation, more business
ventures will start to occur. For example, Sandia National
Laboratories is requesting that GDIT provide strategic support
for the design and development of a cloud infrastructure for
research and development.
Lastly, to get the full benefit of the cloud, IT
organizations need to make a broader transition to an IT-as-a-
Service delivery model. Many companies take the initial step by
using IaaS in support of existing Java or .Net applications.
They also are using PaaS tools for new applications. These tools
streamline the interface between app dev and IT ops teams to
shorten the time for developing and deploying applications.
CONCLUSION
General Dynamics is a market leader in business aviation
that utilizes cloud technologies as another means to sell high
quality products and services. Through Gravitant cloudmatrix, it
continues to provide innovative features that replaces physical
desktop with the cloud. General Dynamics IT assess and customize
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their customers’ cloud services needed for their companies using
plan, buy and manage. General Dynamics IT implements extensive
security measures such as access and authentication to better
appeal to its main clients’ need for security and privacy. By
outsourcing its technology needs to Gravitant cloudmatrix,
Dynamics IT focuses on its core business and opened doors for
more personalized-oriented products and services for the
companies they are contracted to. Other companies should take a
lesson from General Dynamics as an innovative leader in cloud
brokerage.
REFERENCES
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Yang, Kong. April 30,2014. Gravitant cloudMatrix: Security for Multi-cloud. http://blog.gravitant.com/2014/04/30/gravitant-cloudmatrix-security-for-multi-cloud/
Gravitant, "Profit from the Cloud by Shortening Your Time To Revenue," Gravitant Inc., http://www.gravitant.com/roles/cloud-brokerage-for-solution-providers/
Stair, Ralph, Reynolds, George. 2011. Parallel Computing. Principles of Information Systems. P 96-97.
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Seeds, Catherine, Caitlin New. March 26, 2013. News Bank. Gravitant Supports General Dynamics Information Technology in Offering New Cloud Brokerage Services to Government Entities.
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Mehrotra, Rajat, Srivastava, Srichti, Banicescu, Ioana, Abdelwahed, Sherif. March 26, 2015. Future Generation Computer Systems. Towards an autonomic performance management approach for a cloud broker environment using a decomposition-coordination based methodology. P 1-10.
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