Portfolio management: a new approach for managing IT assets

The emergence of new technology and global DoD commitments are transforming what was recently a relatively centralized IT and decision-making infrastructure. The new challenges facing DoD missions and IT applications require DOD's traditional needs for the IT enterprise to be transformed into a powerful infrastructure of new-generation technology. The new technology must provide capabilities to collect, process and disseminate an uninterrupted flow of secure information, logistics and knowledge that will support dispersed and mobile services to users anywhere, and at any time. The goal is to provide such an improved infrastructure. GIG will allow unfettered collaboration among DoD services and users with high levels of agility. To successfully realize the GIG infrastructure, a comprehensive plan is needed to achieve strategic business objectives through the effective exploitation of the DoD IT portfolio management and cost-effective acquisition of new technology. Fulfilling the stated mission requires achieving the following principal objectives, and addressing their challenges: (a) management and control of assets, (b) quantitative and qualitative evaluation of assets and their investment, and (c) distributed infrastructure analysis. These are the orthogonal dimensions that capture the challenges faced.