The breadth to which Azure OpenAI technologies can be applied is increasing exponentially but must be applied responsibly and in accordance with responsible AI principles and policies.  

As a former defense leader, this blog considers the breadth of opportunities and will highlight three use cases covering the broad spectrum of defense and intelligence missions:

1. Personnel support.
2. Multi-source intelligence analysis.
3. Enterprise knowledge discovery.

These use cases focus on low-classification data, which can be securely optimized by harnessing the collective value and capabilities of Azure OpenAI and the Microsoft Azure Cloud Services. 

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Azure OpenAI use cases    

1. Personnel support. Personnel support spans the spectrum from recruitment to retention and includes numerous capabilities, such as career management, conditions of service, leave, and pay. Azure OpenAI aids this area by providing individuals with answers to their questions across a plethora of personnel-related topics through intuitive chatbots. It also equips decision makers with tools to analyze data, create reports, and make more informed decisions around human resource (HR) policy development. Currently, large quantities of data are stored in enterprise applications or in siloed systems, and substantial levels of resources and time are required to analyze that data and develop the appropriate HR policy proposals. Most notable is the ability to provide valued, timely insights from personnel data at the individual, collective, and enterprise levels as needed. For example, when service personnel are trying to gain policy advice on benefits, Azure OpenAI natural language query capability allows the investigation of policy, with follow-on questions and queries to support an informed decision.   

2. Multi-source intelligence analysis. Multi-source intelligence analysis is a method to gather, process, and interpret information from multiple sources. It involves the integration of data from various intelligence disciplines. Azure OpenAI has the potential to assist analysts as they triage, prioritize, search, analyze, and cross-reference intelligence, ultimately producing actionable information for decision makers at the time of need. Currently, analysts are challenged by an ever-increasing volume, variety, and veracity of data, much of which is unstructured and in different formats. In the future, we envisage Azure OpenAI, cloud-based services, and data being accessible from HQ to the edge. This will allow insights to be derived from both historical and real-time data and deliver actionable intelligence for mission success.  

3. Enterprise knowledge discovery. Defense and intelligence organizations store large quantities of data in enterprise systems that are siloed, and across multiple organizational boundaries. This data is often not clean or structured. Azure OpenAI can expose and correlate this data across different types and sources to find relevant information in response to a natural language query. Examples include querying large repositories of lessons learned from previous operations and exercises matched with current doctrine, and the insights gained from After Action Reviews to support mission planning, simulation, and training for future activities.   

Accessing Azure OpenAI for your organization 

Azure OpenAI has created new possibilities that were once seen as very hard and costly to implement in military systems.  

For ‘non-tactical’ scenarios, cloud-based computing provides the most secure and highest security offering available. The computing resources can be put to work continually enhancing and optimizing planning, analysis, and operational management using the best tools available. Advances in Azure OpenAI and multi-agent frameworks usher in a new era of the role of humans in the loop as a manager and orchestrator of agent computing resources rather than conducting technical analysis and planning. The result is a substantial increase in the speed and capacity of our valuable skilled resources to achieve the mission.  

When we consider ‘tactical’ scenarios, the limitation of bandwidth, weight, and power can influence the adoption of Azure OpenAI applications that can be deployed. Smaller models are less capable and must be finely tuned to their purpose to be highly effective. Additionally, carrying a large number of models not relevant to the mission takes up valuable computing and power resources. As such, when deciding on what Azure OpenAI to access in the field, nations must have robust deployment, collection, and ModelOps pipeline updates that can continually—at speed—update models for specificity and relevance to the tactical edge. The ability to access models in disrupted, disconnected, intermittent, and low-bandwidth (DDIL) environments is essential when operating as close to the edge as Size, Weight, Power, and Compute (SWaP-C) permits. 

Responsible use of AI 

Microsoft is committed to responsible use of AI. That is why Microsoft has long been a leader in ensuring the development of responsible AI, with principles designed to put people first. We believe AI exists to enhance human capabilities, not replace them, and we are committed to empowering responsible AI practices that benefit the world at large. The six key principles for responsible AI include: 

1. Accountability—ensuring transparency and responsibility in AI systems. 
2. Inclusiveness—building AI that considers diverse perspectives and avoids bias. 
3. Reliability and safety—prioritizing safety and robustness in AI deployment. 
4. Fairness—striving for equitable outcomes and avoiding discrimination. 
5. Transparency—providing clear explanations of AI decisions. 
6. Privacy and Security—safeguarding user data and privacy. 

The Microsoft Responsible AI Standard provides actionable guidance for their teams, going beyond high-level principles to create AI systems that uphold these values and earn society’s trust. We also have an Office of Responsible AI that sets governance policies, advises leadership, and ensures responsible practices across the company. 

Begin your AI transformation  

Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service offers unprecedented opportunities to augment human capabilities and enhance decision-making across the defense ecosystem. Harness the value of Azure OpenAI to achieve mission success across the spectrum of capability with greater speed, accuracy, and efficiency.  

To learn more:  

• Attend the AI in the Public Sector Microsoft Build session.
• Visit and bookmark the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence page to stay informed.
• Take the LinkedIn Learning Course, Generative AI for Leaders.
• Reach out to your Microsoft Account Team.

The post Informing defense missions with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Historically, a nation’s security and sovereignty depended on its ability to defend its interests in the land, air, sea, and space domains. However, with the growing reliance of nations on the digital ecosystem, the “cyber domain” has become as crucial to national security as the traditional domains. The number of cyber incidents targeting government agencies worldwide from December 2022 to August 2023 rose by an astonishing 150%—our adversaries are increasing their volume of attacks.

The Defense and Intelligence team at Microsoft understands defending a nation’s interests requires a comprehensive national strategy that covers both the physical and digital domains. Accordingly, a reliable and secure digital backbone is the foundation, and a prerequisite for a national cybersecurity system.

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The cybersecurity gap

Cyber offensive adversaries have a substantial advantage over national security agencies across four key areas:

1. Skills and innovation
2. Approach
3. Mindset
4. Technology

The image below illustrates the differences between the national security agencies and their cyber offensive adversaries in terms of cybersecurity capabilities.

The public sector is the most vulnerable, with 53% of attacks in the last 12 months focused on critical infrastructure and government organizations. Cybercrime will cost the global economy up to $10.5 trillion by 2025.¹

Reducing the impact on a nation’s economy requires the latest in cyber technology to protect national digital assets, critical infrastructure, and the wellbeing of its residents.

Countering the rise of AI-enabled attacks 

Microsoft collaborated with OpenAI to produce a cyber threat intelligence research study focusing on AI-based cyber activity and threat actors.

The focus of the collaboration is to ensure the safe and responsible use of AI technologies, upholding the highest standards of ethical application, and to protect the community from potential misuse. Additionally, in line with Microsoft’s leadership across AI and cybersecurity we also announced principles mitigating the risks associated with the use of AI tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) by nation-state advanced persistent threats (APTs), and advanced persistent manipulators (APMs), and cybercriminal syndicates. As the research illustrates, Microsoft and OpenAI took action to disrupt assets and accounts associated with threat actors, improve the protection of large language models technology and users, and shape the guardrails and safety mechanisms around the models.

Microsoft is further committed to using generative AI to disrupt threat actors and leverage the power of new tools, such as Microsoft Copilot for Security, to elevate defenders everywhere, including across the defense and national security ecosystem.

Using an AI-centric approach to shift the advantage to the cyber defenders  

Defense and national security organizations need to modernize their approach and rapidly adopt new technologies to counter the significant advantage of their agile cyber adversaries. Implementing a National AI-cyber shield system, which is powered by Microsoft Copilot for Security, will help to shift the advantage to the cyber defenders. 

A National AI Cyber Shield System aggregates key security information and event management (SIEM) and extended detection and response system (XDR) hosted on a hyperscale platform, achieving efficiencies of scale and centralized reporting. Government organizations have multiple generations of technology, spanning clouds, devices, and operating systems. The National AI Cyber Shield System monitors those systems, whether on premises, in a public cloud, or elsewhere. The National AI Cyber Shield System provides cyber threat intelligence, behavior analytics, security orchestration, and response, to deliver a unified, comprehensive view of a customer’s security posture. 

The national AI-cyber system needs a Hyperscale XDR and SIEM platform to provide rich high quality security signals and security posture across the digital estate. This is delivered by Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, and the Hyperscale native SIEM providing a solution that can correlate events from disparate data sources and aggregate the results.

Cyber professionals can then use natural language prompts in Copilot for Security to dramatically increase the speed of hunting for threats as well as the necessary focus to hone in on high-risk events. This AI-centric approach resulted in an improvement of up to 40% in speed when completing tasks like investigation and response, threat hunting, and threat intelligence assessments.  

Your strategy and application of AI tools is your cybersecurity shield against ever increasing threats from cyber offensive adversaries. 

Shift the advantage and seize the power of cloud and AI to thwart cyber offensive adversaries. Modern cloud-based AI-cyber defense systems deliver speed, scale, and sophistication to stay ahead of cyber offensive adversaries, and attain mission outcomes.

Get started on your AI cyber defense journey

A private and public partnership must be forged between Microsoft and defense and national security organizations to shift the advantage towards defense organizations, and counter the volume, innovation, and sophistication of threat actors and cyber criminals.

 “Artificial Intelligence will be a critical component of successful defense. In the coming years, innovation in AI-powered cyber defense will help reverse the current rising tide of cyberattacks.” 

—Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security and Trust, Microsoft 

Start your AI-centric cyber defense modernization journey now. Follow these steps: 

1. Prepare your AI-cyber defense transformation by implementing key foundational elements in the Hyperscale XDR and SIEM platform that would interact and feed your national AI-cyber defense system.
2. Get familiar with the generative AI cyber defense system: Copilot for Security.
3. Ensure your cyber defense and security operations teams understand how the generative AI cyber defense system works and start skilling them on how to implement and operate Copilot for Security.

Visit the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence to learn more about how we’re helping defense and national security organizations protect national interests and ensure security.

Next steps

To learn more: Listen and apply insights from defense, government, and industry leaders on how AI-cyber capabilities are shifting the competitive advantage: 

• Malta Gov National Cyber security Center Podcast
• Canadian Cybersecurity Centre Podcast
• Military Lessons on Cyberdefense
• Podcast with Tom Burt
• Read the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, 2023

¹Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025, Cybercrime Magazine.

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“Command and control is essential for decision-making. But in the end, that has to include some combination of AI, machine learning, and all the other adaptations technologically, alongside in parallel with an exquisite timing with a human ability, and the human value of making decisions in that cycle. So, I think that the digital world has changed command and control, but the objective of that is to make really good decisions.”

The current geopolitical environment is entering a heightened phase of competition with adversaries looking to exploit technological advancements to get ahead. Over recent decades, defense and intelligence organizations have seen unparalleled and constant change, as they respond to the emergence of a new and transforming world. The rapid and disruptive advance of technology may be at the forefront of change (particularly as accelerated by COVID-19), but the digital transformation of defense organizations should also be viewed through the lens of the changing geopolitical situation and evolution of warfare. This evolution is most impacted especially across the landscapes of global threats, regional instability, emergency response, hybrid warfare, cyberattacks, and grey zone activities designed to disrupt both military and industrial infrastructure. 

As we delve deeper into technological advancements, the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence team understands that AI stands at the forefront, driving innovation and transformation across various sectors. It, along with the growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, is driving maturity in sensors, data gathering, and analysis and visualization—all of which can be delivered at the tactical edge for deployed forces. Further, cloud computing capabilities and sophisticated simulation techniques are being fused with new and evolving communications technologies, such as 5G and space-based capabilities. Together, these technologies aren’t just a trend, but a significant stride towards a technologically advanced defense system that can revolutionize mission planning, rehearsal, and execution.  

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The technological advantage 

An increasing race for technological advantage means allied nations must consider how they can increase their tech intensity,¹ to provide “digital advantage” over their competition. For defense and intelligence, achieving “digital advantage” is key as it will cement the bedrock for the provision of information superiority on mission and provide the foundation for accelerating the design, build, and transition into service of new and innovative capabilities. This will speed the capability lifecycle and also provide simulation technologies for optimizing force generation activities.  

To achieve this, these organizations will need to compete continuously across all military domains—adopting better, smarter, and more flexible operations. The adoption, continuous innovation, and democratization of technology will be critical to enabling this response. It will also require a growing reliance on sharing data across a secure, singular, resilient, and adaptive digital continuum, and exploiting that data through contemporary developments that enhance human and machine teaming. 

Move to hyperscale with help from Microsoft

This need to continuously innovate and transform requires defense and intelligence organizations to move to hyperscale with urgency. The necessary transformation can’t be delivered from current siloed and technologically constrained Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environments. Therefore, the answer to this dilemma is through the five imperatives that will increase your digital advantage.  

1. Innovation and speed to value: Defense organizations need to stay at the forefront of technological advancements to enhance defense system capabilities and innovation and stay ahead of their adversaries, leveraging vast digital data for invaluable insights crucial to national security. Moving from on-premise to hyperscale cloud will be a pivotal catalyst in supporting innovation as it enables the rapid adoption of new and innovative developments from industry, facilitates the efficient processing and analysis of immense datasets, and also offers a scalable and agile platform that will adapt to the evolving technological landscape. The future of innovation is the cloud. 
2. Connectivity and interoperability: Military organizations demand seamless global collaboration, necessitating connectivity from headquarters to the tactical edge. Microsoft Azure’s worldwide network—distributed across multiple regions—forms the backbone of its cloud services. It enables low-latency access for global application deployment and management, ideal for achieving connectivity and interoperability across diverse defense forces.¹ 
3. Security: Air-gapped environments face growing vulnerabilities—particularly from insider threats and private clouds—even at an enterprise scale, typically lack the robust network security systems and monitoring capabilities found in hyperscale security operations centers (SOCs). In the past year, military organizations have faced a surge in targeted cyberattacks, emphasizing the need for AI-driven defenses with access to hyperscale data. Microsoft’s exceptional AI supercomputer processes an extraordinary 750 million security signals per second, enabling rapid real-time threat analysis and responses that surpass the capabilities of private networks. 
4. Computational power: Unconstrained access to computational power is crucial for real-time data collection, fusion, and analysis—addressing immense computational needs beyond what is realistically available on-premise and essential for informed decision-making in military simulations and strategic planning. To maintain a digital advantage, defense organizations must adopt hyperscale solutions like Microsoft Azure, which efficiently meet growing data demands and enhance computing resources without the constraints of on-premise requirements and costs. 
5. Reliability and resilience: Reliability and resilience considerations for defense must address both kinetic and cyber-attacks, with hyperscale cloud providing comprehensive cyber protection against diverse threats, setting a benchmark for collective defense that requires a unified approach involving allies, partners, and agencies. Microsoft Azure—as the first ISO-22301 certified hyperscale cloud provider—showcases its ability to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from incidents. It offers a secure haven for a nation’s critical data during conflicts, ensuring a level of resiliency unavailable with on-premise solutions and preventing potential disruptions to national operations. The impact of data loss or compromise in an on-premise system during a kinetic attack underscores the critical importance of secure cloud solutions for maintaining a nation’s smooth functioning. 

Increasingly, defense organizations are reliant on the global defense industrial base to maintain digital advantage and industry is well placed to respond, with access to the resource and innovative culture required to deliver. However, this cannot be done by industry alone, defense organizations also need to come to the table with a desire to unburden its procurement constraints, which will aid greater innovation, and to take on the task of vigorously reviewing its policy stances and their place (or not) in a modern digital world, which can often stifle progress.

Resources to help with your transition

To learn more about how the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence team can help in your transition to hyperscale cloud and hear from former defense leaders, we encourage you to visit the Public Sector Center of Expertise and listen to: 

• Digital Transformation in Modern Military Operations, insights from General Bob Brown.
• Technology Trends and Decision Advantage in Defense with retired Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau.
• Military Lessons on Cyberdefense with retired Major General Dr. Marcus Thompson.

Or you can get in touch with your Microsoft sales representative or technology partner. 

¹ CSIS, Seven Critical Technologies For Winning The Next War, April 2023.

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Defense contractors from across the globe showcased their solutions and capabilities at AUSA 2023. Solution providers making up the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) community are a vital component of national and economic security delivering the research, design, production, integration, sustainment, and service of everything from microelectronics to platforms, airfields, and command and control (C2) systems—all to serve mission needs. Microsoft is proud to partner with the DIB community; innovating with cutting-edge technologies and accelerating adoption within the United States Army.  

Microsoft as a trusted partner is helping our DIB community embrace digital transformation by providing secure, scalable, and innovative cloud-based solutions that enable mission assurance, operational efficiency, and interoperability. Microsoft also supports its ability to modernize product lifecycle methodologies, including the adoption of modern software methodologies and digital engineering best practices.  

We collaborate closely with our partners to help them adopt cloud capabilities for enterprise use like Microsoft 365 in the Azure Government, and Microsoft is now working even more closely with the DIB to enhance mission offerings. This includes the full range of cloud capabilities and services—from commercial Microsoft Azure to Azure Government is the mission-critical cloud built to exceed requirements for classified and unclassified US Government data.

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Microsoft unleashing innovation for the Defense Industrial Base

As a prelude to AUSA 2023, we brought the DIB together for the Aerospace and Defense Summit from September 12 to 14, 2023, at the Executive Conference Center in Redmond, Washington. This summit provided a unique opportunity to showcase Microsoft’s dedication to revolutionizing the defense industry through innovative, commercial, and classified technologies for the mission, and the benefits that Microsoft DIB partnerships can bring to the defense ecosystem. At the summit, we presented an overview of our cutting-edge capabilities encompassing a range of industry-leading solutions: from the fullness of the cloud continuum (including commercial hyperscale, edge capabilities, and secret and top secret-accredited offerings), to Quantum Computing, advanced AI, and DevSecOps adoption.

The summit hosted an impressive array of nearly 300 attendees—Chief Executive Officers, Information Technology Directors of DIB contractors, and leadership team members from “Best in Breed” Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partners. Major industry players participated such as Airbus, AM General, GE Aerospace, Ball Aerospace, Textron, Boeing, General Atomics, L3Harris, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Parsons, RTX, Saab, SAP, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

We also leveraged this summit to gather varying DIB perspectives and insights as we seek to further inform our own product roadmaps.

Featured topics

The comprehensive agenda featured sessions that piqued the interest of attendees, covering topics such as:

• Microsoft 365 for secret classified workloads
• Edge solutions for mission
• Microsoft Fabric
• Microsoft Azure Government
• Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service
• GitHub CoPilot
• Digital manufacturing and engineering
• Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services
• Process automation
• Modeling and simulation
• Microsoft Azure Space
• 5G

Our intent was to showcase technologies that could improve the DIB’s offerings to DoD end customers. A standout moment was the panel discussion with Lockheed Martin and Leidos, shedding light on the DD254 approval process and their classified cloud migration efforts. The discussion took center stage during the summit because of the multiple partners present and seeking to expedite their journey to classified cloud environments. Yet most notably, it was Azure OpenAI Service that left an indelible mark at the event—igniting internal dialogue and discussions about its potential for the DIB. Microsoft is leading the way with such innovative solutions. 

Independent software vendor partners in the spotlight

ISV partners played a pivotal role in the summit’s success, with prominent booths showcasing their cutting-edge capabilities tailored for the DIB, and available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

• archTIS: archTIS, with its booth, provided insights into secure information sharing and collaboration solutions tailored for the defense sector. 
• C3: C3, a key ISV partner, demonstrated its advanced cybersecurity solutions designed to fortify the DIB’s security posture. 
• Conquest Cyber: Conquest Cyber showcased its expertise in proactive threat hunting and cyber defense, offering valuable insights to summit attendees. 
• Crestron: Crestron’s booth highlighted its innovative technologies for mission-critical command and control environments. 
• NeoSystems: NeoSystems, specializing in managed IT services and financial management solutions, offered strategic insights to support DIB entities. 
• Planet Technologies: Planet Technologies’ booth provided a glimpse into its comprehensive digital transformation solutions for the DIB. 
• Protiviti: Protiviti shared expertise in risk management and compliance solutions, addressing the critical security and regulatory challenges faced by the DIB. 
• Quzara: Quzara highlighted its data analytics and visualization capabilities, demonstrating how data-driven insights can drive mission success. 
• Summit 7: Summit 7’s booth showcased its expertise in compliance and security solutions, aligning with the DIB’s stringent requirements. 
• Thinaer: Thinaer’s presence revolved around Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and real-time analytics, emphasizing the potential for data-driven decision-making in defense operations. 

These partners added significant value to the summit by providing attendees with a firsthand look at innovative solutions tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities within the DIB. The event served as a platform for collaborative discussions, idea exchange, and networking opportunities that will undoubtedly drive innovation and success for the defense industry ecosystem. 

Mission engineering: Showcasing Microsoft capabilities

The summit not only showcased Microsoft’s commitment to developing innovative, secure solutions for the DIB sector but also, emphasized the pivotal role of the Microsoft Mission Engineering team within our comprehensive portfolio of capabilities. The team fosters exceptional defense customer engagement and a deep understanding of architectural requirements, feature priorities, and technical and procurement challenges in the defense arena. Among their standout sessions was the Microsoft Azure Government Secret briefing, providing invaluable insights into classified platforms for heightened security and performance like the MS-Isolated Secret Region (MS-ISR); showcasing our commitment to end-to-end solutions for mission-critical workloads. Additionally, discussions around Azure OpenAI Service ignited excitement about the potential of AI in classified spaces. The event also delved into Microsoft 365 classified, demonstrating how Microsoft is transforming collaboration and productivity in secure environments. Moreover, attendees discussed how to accelerate the DD254 approval process for classified cloud access, partnership opportunities, tailored licensing models, simplified legal considerations, industrial security alignment, and efficient cloud adoption and workload migration strategies, all highlighting Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to empowering the DIB.

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Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence is committed to our partners in the DIB community and our United States Army customers in the mission of providing stability and security for residents, nations, and multinational alliances. The DIB summit went beyond technology discussions and addressed the people, culture, and process improvements that underpin successful partnerships within the DIB ecosystem. Microsoft’s aim is to enhance skills, simplify processes, improve security, and enable cloud adoption working in close collaboration with DIBs to drive innovation and growth for the defense ecosystem. Our sponsorship of AUSA 2023 demonstrated Microsoft is a trusted partner by sharing a vision of how technology can act as a force multiplier for DoD and the United States Army. 

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Isn’t the “metaverse” just a virtual reality gaming environment?

Contrary to popular belief, the metaverse is not merely a virtual reality gaming environment, akin to the virtual holodeck in science fiction. While virtual reality certainly has a place in the metaverse, the metaverse goes beyond the visualization layer, transcending into an interconnected, persistent virtual environment for immersive interaction with data and AI.  

Microsoft is seeing three distinct domains of the metaverse: 

1. The consumer metaverse: This is the one most of us are familiar with, underpinned by social technologies—like bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain, and gaming—the consumer metaverse is focused on enhancing the entertainment and well-being experiences of individuals. 
2. The commercial metaverse (or enterprise metaverse in public sector scenarios): Where employees communicate and collaborate as they work toward achieving organizational goals. Microsoft cloud-based modern work technologies, such as immersive spaces for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Mesh, are examples of the type of innovative technologies that are gaining rise because they can be accessed on PCs or virtual reality and mixed reality headsets and increase connection, build social capital in the workplace, and support collaboration for hybrid and remote workers all over the globe. 
3. The industrial metaverse: This is perhaps best positioned for defense industry use. This is where we see people and AI working together to design, develop, model, and optimize defense products, processes, and operations with real-time data in context. Furthermore, technological advances are modernizing the value chain with digital context to improve engineering and manufacturing processes, accelerate remote training, and automate tasks reducing the cognitive burden of humans.  

Through the application of these distinct domains, and the intersection points across the consumer, commercial, and industrial spheres, we are likely to unlock new opportunities that could inevitably play a significant role in extending individual metaverse capabilities. 

Unlocking the potential for defense 

The concept of the metaverse presents an exciting opportunity for the defense industry to revolutionize its operations, capabilities, and preparedness. To realize this opportunity, it is important for the defense industry to recognize that, at its core, the metaverse offers the ability to break down physical barriers and greatly enhance decision support through the confluence of technologies that connect and integrate, store, model, analyze, visualize, and interact with the vast data resources that defense accesses.  

At Microsoft, we are seeing two distinct lines of development for the defense metaverse emerge. The first extends from engineering and manufacturing, and is focused on capability development, where we envisage defense unlocking:  

• Modernized defense capability lifecycle methods and processes.
• Improved engineering and manufacturing processes, tools, and methodologies.
• Data-oriented approaches enable greater visibility and more timely insights into physical and digital assets and systems.  

Here, we see the industrial metaverse offering significant improvements over traditional engineering and manufacturing methods by facilitating a new way of engaging with designs, products, and systems through immersive and interactive experiences and digital models. This immersive experience can help people make sense of large quantities of information quickly, enhance design and engineering decision-making, reduce production and manufacturing costs, and provide direct feedback across the capability lifecycle from design and build through to whole-life sustainment. Modeling and simulation capabilities expand these insights by providing engineers, manufacturers, and capability managers with the ability to experience, experiment, and trial a near-infinite number of hypothetical scenarios and input conditions before ever going to physical production. 

For example, through virtual prototyping, engineers and designers can collaborate in real-time, rapidly iterating on designs and testing digital capabilities before any physical production. This can significantly reduce costs, minimize errors, and shrink time-to-market for cutting-edge defense capabilities—thereby, getting them in the hands of end users under much more rapid timescales, and incorporating their feedback throughout the entire capability lifecycle. 

Advancing defense missions 

The second line of emerging industrial metaverse development is focused on the defense mission itself. Here, we start with the premise that a common operating picture (COP) can be represented as a digital twin of the battlespace and that the technologies available can enhance interaction with the digitally twinned battlespace, provide an immersive experience, and enhance decision support. We see a clear alignment between this and the ‘sensor to effector’ process, with the Industrial Metaverse for Missions incorporating:  

• Internet of Military Things (IoMT) and other sensors (such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance devices) gather information from the physical world and physical platforms and assets.
• Digital network technologies like edge computing, 5G, mesh radios, and satellite connectivity, enable this data to be processed from edge-to-cloud and transmitted around the battlespace and to headquarters, at speed. 
• Cloud infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) can be used to process and synthesize the data at scale to build and leverage complex machine learning models and algorithms.
• AI, which is used to reason over complex simulations, perform analytical processing, and enable the automation of routine tasks.
• Delivery of results in a user-friendly and accessible format, such as through advanced visualization techniques and mixed reality, thereby supporting immersive visualization and enhanced situational awareness.

All of these can be subject to, or utilized within, a closed feedback loop that enables the measurement of the impact of the effect as part of simulation and analysis in future cycles.

There are, of course, many other scenarios and use cases being explored for the industrial metaverse in the defense and intelligence industry. These use cases will continue to gain momentum, particularly as AI techniques continue to improve and become more ubiquitous in their deployment, and as augmented, mixed, and virtual reality technologies continue to advance in both capability and usability, for example: 

• Advancing training platforms: The industrial metaverse can serve as an advanced training platform for defense and intelligence personnel and for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) workforce. Immersive simulations, such as the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer in development by the United States Army, can replicate realistic combat scenarios, allowing troops to enhance their skills, decision-making, and teamwork without the risks associated with live exercises and leading to a more agile and capable military force. We are also seeing the development of complex virtual environments imbued with computational modeling, which will see a myriad of applications across wargaming and strategic planning. 
• Securing supply chains: We are also witnessing an increasing move towards the adoption of the industrial metaverse in manufacturing, including by DIB partners. In defense organizations, managing and securing supply chains is a complex task, involving numerous stakeholders, nodes, and methods. By leveraging DIB metaverse capabilities for supply chain coordination and management, supply chain managers can monitor and optimize processes, ensuring timely deliveries of crucial resources and equipment, and identifying potential vulnerabilities or bottlenecks before they occur. 
• Bolstering cyber resilience: In an age where cyber threats are ever-evolving, the metaverse can also serve as a training ground for cybersecurity specialists, bolstering cyber resilience for defense. By modeling networks and simulating cyber-attack and response scenarios, cybersecurity professionals can hone their skills, strengthen network defenses, and develop robust countermeasures. We are seeing forward-thinking militaries and defense organizations increasingly deploying cyber ranges for purposes of immersive cyber skilling, and the inclusion of industrial metaverse capabilities has the power to further enhance cyber preparedness at scale.     

Furthermore, the industrial metaverse transcends geographical boundaries, enabling seamless collaboration among defense organizations worldwide—and across public and private partnerships. Experts, strategists, policymakers, and industry members from different countries and organizations can come together virtually to share insights, exchange intelligence, and coordinate efforts, thereby fostering international cooperation and joint missions—and joint success. 

Embrace the metaverse and its capabilities 

Forward-thinking defense forces are already taking the plunge into industrial metaverse capabilities and are recognizing that full benefits can only be realized through a collective adoption of the technologies available. They also see the need for HPC both at hyperscale and extended to the edge. This requires a re-thinking of where on-premises capability is and is not appropriate, and how hybrid environments can assist in exploiting the HPC and AI services available at hyperscale whilst maintaining operational security of the most sensitive data. Recent operational examples have also highlighted the need for greater survivability through dispersed nodal command and control at all echelons, lending toward a greater need for edge capabilities and less reliance on vulnerable on-premises infrastructure. As technology advances at an even more rapid pace, the dilemma for defense organizations wishing to embrace new technologies will grow—the need for digital transformation has never been more apparent and requires foundational action now.    

Furthermore, as the industrial metaverse continues to evolve and mature, it is essential to separate fact from fiction and seek to understand the profound opportunities and implications beyond the gaming and entertainment industries. The defense industry has the opportunity, now, to embrace the metaverse and leverage its capabilities to enhance innovation, collaboration, security, and preparedness. By embracing this concept and the underlying technologies early, the defense sector can step boldly into the future, safeguarding nations and fulfilling its critical mission of ensuring peace and security on a global scale. The journey has only just begun, and the metaverse holds an important key to unlocking a new era of defense modernization. 

Learn more

To learn more about how Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence, and its partners are unlocking the potential for defense across capability development, advancing defense missions, securing supply chains, and bolstering cyber resilience, contact your account representative today.

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Now more than ever software-centric technologies, like AI and machine learning, are enabling the processing of a vast array of data across the defense continuum. These technologies are elevating data to insights, and helping to inform decision-making to support mission operations and personnel across the defense landscape—from headquarters (HQ) to the tactical level.  

Let’s explore a few ways defense and intelligence organizations are using cloud technologies to help enhance command and control and gain advantages to make better decisions ahead of their adversaries.

Strategic perspective: HQ applications 

The modern operating environment is complex for commanders and staff at both the operational and strategic levels. The use of AI-enabled technology can significantly enhance strategic decision-making and coordination across all domains—land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. In doing so, both commanders and staff can gain valuable insights and enable decision advantage at speed and scale.   

AI-enhanced domain awareness 

AI models can help integrate data from various sources—including disparate sensors, open sources, and intelligence reports—to provide a comprehensive situational awareness picture. By rapidly processing, fusing, and analyzing this data, AI can identify relevant information, detect patterns and anomalies, and generate actionable insight for commanders and staff. AI can help staff identify trends, forecast potential outcomes, and assess potential risks. They can then leverage these predictive analytics to anticipate threats, optimize resource allocation, and plan effective courses of action across one or more domains for command consideration.  

Moreover, AI-powered decision support systems can assist in evaluating complex scenarios. They can help assess the impact of different options, recommend optimal courses of action, and consider factors like mission objectives, available assets, and potential risks—helping commanders make more effective and timely decisions.   

AI can also automate coordination and communication processes across jurisdictions and domains by analyzing operational parameters, resource availability, and mission requirements. This can then help optimize the allocation of forces, logistics, and intelligence assets, and facilitate streamlining and facilitating more effective decision-making.  

Finally, natural language processing enables HQ staff to interact with systems using natural, native language (English or otherwise) to access information more intuitively. Voice-activated interfaces and text-based chatbots can facilitate real-time information retrieval, status updates, and command inquiries, allowing for more efficient and seamless communication within the headquarters. 

Automated operations centers 

Operations centers in HQ environments can also be automated in new ways with AI to streamline processes, optimize resource management, and provide insights for decision-making. Using AI, a modern operations center can integrate various systems, sensors, communication networks, databases, and analytical tools into a unified platform. AI algorithms continuously collect, analyze, and process this data, providing real-time situational awareness to staff.  

Through data fusion and advanced analytics, the automated operations center can identify patterns, anomalies, and potential threats, and generate actionable intelligence, alerts, and reports. This empowers staff to provide better recommendations to commanders for their consideration. By employing machine learning algorithms, the operations center can better predict outcomes, assess risks, and optimize resource allocation and readiness.  

Finally, routine tasks—such as data collection, processing, and reporting—can be automated, freeing up personnel to focus on more advanced staff planning and other critical tasks. This transformative approach helps automate the operations center, providing a centralized platform for sharing information, collaborating on planning and operations, and monitoring ongoing activities—in sum, facilitating better command and staff engagement and decision-making. 

Tactical perspective: Frontline applications 

Given the growth in digital capabilities over the last two decades, the modern frontline soldier’s operational environment has changed significantly. This new data and technology-rich environment can bring its own set of challenges for soldiers. Modern military environments require soldiers to analyze disinformation campaigns, triage cyber warfare, and employ integrated tactics to thwart adversaries. Underpinning all of this is the ever-increasing quantity of data the soldier generates, consumes, and utilizes for decision-making.  

A soldier’s ability to achieve and maintain decision advantage comes down to how they can harness vast amounts of data, without negatively impacting their ability to operate. Cognitive assistance technologies like virtual agents have been used for some time for basic tasks, but their impact has been narrow and at times a nuisance. The question has been: how do we provide systems that can do hard computational tasks while providing a convenient, robust, and accessible interface on the battlefield?   

Soldier-centric AI opportunities

Recent advancements in natural language as an interface to systems and data have presented an opportunity to enhance the usability between soldiers and systems. Providing soldiers with a broad context and access to data via natural language prompts can dramatically change the way data is accessed on the battlefield. This enables frontline soldiers to utilize a broad range of assets available to create an operational advantage between themselves and their opposition. This can include interaction with data feeds from disparate assets, human-machine teaming, and automated safety and security in critical scenarios.  

Tactical comms transcription and analysis 

Most decision advantages for a soldier are based on the direct interface with systems and technologies. But the highest impact can be derived from modern technologies that can operate in the background, providing services that don’t require soldier interaction or cognitive load. Clear examples include technologies like passive translation, transcription, classification, and alerting of military radio chatter.  

Operating in the background, a soldier can playback, hear, and read multiple language translations when required. Alerting can provide cognitive focus when critical safety situations emerge, like casualty evacuations or contact reporting on radio chatter. Operating passively with the radio network, these capabilities ensure technology does not impact the soldier unless needed, freeing cognitive load for decision-making.   

Partnering to enhance command and control from HQ to the frontlines  

Modern computing—centered on cloud technologies—provides the ability to build, evolve, and maintain decision advantage. Microsoft enables militaries around the world to employ the vast capabilities of cloud-enabled technology and maximize the use of their data assets. In doing so, military agencies gain distinct advantages in operational environments, from the command center all the way to the front-line soldier. This provides commanders with the ability to not only achieve but maintain decision advantage. 

Optimize with Microsoft

To learn more about how defense organizations can optimize decision advantage using Microsoft tools and technology, check out our “Day in a life” video series, or listen to our recent conversation “Technology Trends and Decision Advantage in Defense” with retired Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau, President of the Naval Postgraduate School.  

Microsoft is committed to the advancement of AI driven by ethical principles that put people first. Learn more about our commitment to Responsible AI principles from Microsoft.

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While Patton was revered for his tank maneuvers through Northern Africa during WWII, he also set the groundwork for enabling militaries to decentralize the execution of missions which has continued to evolve in amazing ways to this day. In the modern era, defense organizations are constantly seeking ways to gain an edge over their adversaries across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. A crucial way to do this is to optimize decision advantage.   

The Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence team has a rich history of partnering with organizations worldwide to help them achieve their missions. This includes enabling defense and intelligence agencies with technology to make data-driven decisions at the speed of relevance during mission planning, rehearsal, and execution to enhance command and control. By digitizing their operations and leveraging the Microsoft Cloud, defense organizations can achieve these aims and stay up to date with the most secure, productive, and integrated set of solutions in the marketplace. 

Here are three key ways that defense and intelligence leaders can leverage cloud-enabled capabilities to make better data-driven decisions faster and more efficiently during every phase of the mission: 

1. Mission planning  

Most mission planning processes are done manually and take a lot of time. They often fail to gather and analyze all necessary information to inform the best decision. AI and automation can help alleviate these challenges. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and help military and intelligence leaders synthesize critical information and assess its veracity.   

The automation of manual processes such as the production of operation orders (OPORD) can be effectively facilitated by AI technology. This technology functions as a virtual assistant, ensuring that orders are produced quickly and with clear and concise language. This allows commanders to focus their time and attention on critical aspects of execution and planning, rather than being bogged down by manual document production. 

Furthermore, optimizing the processing, exploitation, and dissemination of intelligence data can be accomplished by utilizing data analytics tools to identify potential threats, predict their movements, and take appropriate mitigating action. This approach can enable military planners to anticipate and prepare for a wide range of possible scenarios, therefore keeping them one step ahead of their adversaries. 

2. Mission rehearsal 

Understanding the operating environment and allocating the right resources and people to the right mission at the right time is no small feat. One way to enhance command and control is through collaboration using mixed reality and augmented reality. Mixed reality and augmented reality technology blend the physical and digital worlds to enable users to interact with both the real world and additional information from a virtual environment. This can enable leaders to view real-time data in a three-dimensional environment to better visualize and understand the situation on the ground. It can also be used to facilitate communication between different units and branches of the military, as well as with allies, enabling more coordinated efforts.   

With mixed reality and augmented reality, commanders can better visualize planning for courses of action. During mission rehearsals, they can see the benefits and downfalls of different options, enhance their ability to command and control forces, and mitigate both risk to mission and risk to force across their whole area of operations.  

3. Mission execution  

Human-machine teaming and smart operations can act as a force multiplier during mission execution. Today’s machines marry sophistication in physical design with advanced, AI-powered analytical and decision-making skills. This duo improves human safety by reducing errors, identifying efficiencies, and reducing costs. By working together, humans and machines can achieve better results than either could achieve alone and optimize decision advantage. 

During a mission, AI analysis can help operators fuse data from multiple intelligence sources to identify potential threats and predict the movements of enemy forces. These capabilities accelerate diagnosing the challenge—giving leaders more time to focus on identifying solutions. Therefore, keeping humans in the loop for decisions while reducing human error. 

Moreover, edge-to-cloud computing is crucial to effectively collect, process, and act on data in real-time. This is particularly important in remote or disconnected environments where connectivity is limited. By leveraging space capabilities and satellite technology, defense organizations can establish a reliable and secure network infrastructure that enables units to access critical information and make more informed decisions on the ground.  

Furthermore, smart operations can involve the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, 5G communications, and mesh networking to gather and share data in real-time. During military operations, these sensors can be used to gather real-time data on the disposition of friendly and adversary forces, terrain features, weather, and other critical information that inform more effective strategies and improve tactics quickly.  

Partnering to turn data into decisions 

From mission planning through execution, Microsoft is committed to providing defense and intelligence organizations with a powerful set of solutions to optimize decision advantage. By leveraging technologies like mixed reality collaboration, AI-enabled planning processes, human-machine teaming, and smart operations, leaders can make better-informed decisions faster and more efficiently. 

These technologies not only enhance command and control but also promote more coordinated efforts across units and branches of the military. The Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector Defense and Intelligence team is comprised of military veterans, industry leaders, and pioneers who have served or supported the broader defense ecosystem and bring unique expertise to mission challenges. 

As technology continues to evolve, we remain committed to partnering with organizations worldwide to achieve their missions and stay up to date with the most secure, productive, and integrated set of solutions in the marketplace. 

Watch this video to hear from current members of our team as they discuss optimizing decision advantage through a retrospective view of their time in different branches of the United States military.

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Clausewitz understood the value of analyzing information—data related to the enemy, terrain, weather, and other factors which could help determine the outcome of conflict. He even argued that military leaders should seek to use false information to create deception plans to conceal their true intentions. However, he could not have foreseen the proliferation of data and the rapid evolution of information technologies, the internet, hyper-scale cloud, and now AI to contend with this data. But he certainly understood that technological advances would have a profound impact on a nation’s ability to provide security.

Clausewitz’s 200-year-old principles still hold today. Modern militaries need to be agile and adaptable to changing domains, tactics, and objectives inherent in modern conflict. Hyperscale and edge cloud capabilities are foundational to various mission-centered solutions that enable militaries to respond quickly and effectively to every military scenario. Whether it’s securing connectivity at the edge, supporting humanitarian response, or allowing military personnel to securely share intelligence, cloud technologies empower personnel to action varied scenarios.

Five challenges defense and intelligence organizations face today

As part of the Worldwide Public Sector, Defense and Intelligence team at Microsoft, I’m fortunate to work alongside military veterans, industry leaders, and change-makers who have served or supported the armed forces across the globe. I recently had the unique opportunity to sit down with three teammates—AT Ball, Jeff Pearson, and Tim Tieng—all from different military backgrounds as part of a “Day in a life” video series. Through this lens, we considered how technological innovation can spur the cultural innovation needed to improve defense and intelligence organizations that are always on the lookout for competitive advantages and efficiencies.

In our conversation, we shared personal anecdotes from our time in service and discussed how many of the challenges we contended with could be handled differently today. While the four of us had diverse experiences during our collective 60-plus years serving in the United States military, we encountered five common challenges. It was eye-opening to hear my colleagues’ real-world experiences and the creative ways they solved problems that today could be averted using modern technology.

1. Access to the right information at the right time. A common challenge faced across the group was ensuring service members had the right information at the right time across operational environments. Veterans often highlight their ability to make decisions under ambiguous circumstances as one of their most marketable skills. Nonetheless, nobody enjoys making consequential decisions with incomplete information. We all shared experiences in which arduous manual procedures were used to inform our decision-making processes, and we identified some of the creative technology solutions that could simplify or automate those critical moments today.

2. Remote collaboration. Remote collaboration is not cutting edge in 2023 like it would have been back when we served pre-COVID-19. Militaries have been slower to adopt many of the best practices that enable a productive hybrid workplace strategy. Improving how things are classified and audits are conducted—coupled with the implementation of zero-trust architectures—can improve security, efficiency, and convenience in unison.

3. Training and development. To this day, in many branches, members are required to complete more mandatory fire extinguisher trainings than tech tool trainings every year. But to empower personnel, defense organizations should apply equal discipline and rigor to skill development and technology training—both of which cloud-based solutions can support and streamline. By providing access to online training resources, service members can develop new skills and stay current with the latest developments in their fields. Additionally, tools like Microsoft Power Apps, Dynamics 365, and Power BI can help the military manage personnel data, benefits, and compliance in one place, empowering personnel and improving employee experience.

4. Breaking silos. Disparate information sources and systems often require that servicemembers traverse tech environments like an assault course. Data and application aggregation into a hyper-scale cloud environment can eliminate, or at least mitigate those silos. It can create the opportunity to transform information into actionable insights and provide better clarity for decision-makers at all points in the command structure. AT discusses one such legacy example in which 3D modeling and digital twins could have hastened the construction of a major installation infrastructure project.

5. Adopting new tech. Adoption of low-cost technology can solve high-cost problems. Whether it’s training using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), or implementing serious gaming for planning and exercise augmentation, we can take labor-intensive and logistical challenges and make them less time-consuming. That way personnel can focus more time and effort on addressing critical challenges. For example, getting communications and air traffic control back online after a national disaster, or helping a country like Ukraine keep its government systems, command, and control online.

Solving ongoing challenges with Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence

While these five themes represent ongoing challenges today, Microsoft seeks to make these problems of the past. With defense organizations, intelligence agencies, and the defense industrial base, Microsoft is committed to cutting across legacy boundaries to provide best-in-class expertise and technology.

While today the pace of innovation in many ways is outrunning the pace of adoption, Microsoft aims to partner with the industry to deliver modern technology tools where they create the most value for our defense customers. It is Microsoft’s ambition to empower militaries to improve operations and protect national security in a rapidly evolving threat environment.

On behalf of my team and colleagues, we hope our “Day in a life” retrospective sheds some very real light on the challenges that servicemembers still contend with today and spur a dialog on how the Microsoft commitment to serving defense organizations can empower personnel and modernize facilities to enhance global security.

Learn more

We invite you to watch the first of three “Day in a life” videos today and check out other defense and intelligence-focused content, like this insightful podcast with retired Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau, on the Microsoft Public Sector Center of Expertise.

Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence

Empowering militaries. Improving operations. Protecting national security.

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There’s now a greater understanding that in the face of aggressive and integrated cyber and kinetic actions, the physical dispersal of critical infrastructure, systems, and data is a critical defense strategy. Data security and resiliency are now being enhanced by the distribution of digital operations and data assets across borders and into other countries. It’s underscored the value of, and need for, the migration of defense and intelligence workloads to the cloud—so long as that cloud is built from a foundation of trust, privacy, and security, like Microsoft Azure.

“Before the invasion of Ukraine, governments thought that data needed to stay inside a country in order to be secure. After the invasion, migrating data to the cloud and moving outside territorial borders is now a part of resiliency planning and good governance.“—Cristin Flynn Goodwin, Associate General Counsel, Customer Security and Trust, Microsoft.¹

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Digital transformation in defense hinges on partnership and interoperability

Recent geopolitical events have highlighted advances in cyber threat intelligence and end-point protection. They’ve also demonstrated that a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to strengthen defenses against the full range of cyber destructive attacks, espionage, and influence operations is required.

The latter point recognizes the principle at the heart of interoperability—that allies and industry must collaborate and develop a collective response for the most effective defense. When responding to adversaries, allied support and coordination are critical. With today’s adversaries engaging in hybrid warfare methods, cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, and domestic terrorism, defense agencies are increasingly reliant on data-sharing and collaborating—across organizations, agencies, and national and international borders.  

Furthermore, it’s clear that digital transformation and technology acceleration in defense hinges on partnerships with the defense industrial base and non-traditional technology vendors—including commercial tech companies and the start-up ecosystem.

Nevertheless, the risk appetite for sharing resources remains low due to legacy policies that continue to guide the adoption of on-premises solutions that are vulnerable to modern attacks.

Instead, through the adoption of hyper-scale cloud and edge, with a cybersecurity approach built on a foundation of trust and security, defense and intelligence organizations can achieve their goals as it relates to both security and interoperability. When defense and intelligence organizations migrate workloads into the Microsoft Azure Cloud, they benefit from an unprecedented, ever-deepening, and unwavering commitment to securing data from the ever-increasing number of cyber threats.

The Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center (CDOC) is one example of the more than USD20 billion we’ve committed to investing over the next five years in security, data protection, and risk management. The CDOC brings together cybersecurity specialists and data scientists in an every day facility to combat threats in real-time. Microsoft is connected to more than 8,500 security professionals globally across our product development teams, information security groups, and legal teams to protect our cloud infrastructure and services, products and devices, and internal resources.²

So let’s take a look at the threat environment that is shaping the Microsoft cybersecurity approach.

The Current threat environment

National defense and intelligence organizations around the world are facing three types of cyber adversaries that threaten national security:

1. Cybercriminals

Cybercriminals look to monetize compromised data either through ransomware directly from victims or by selling it to Foreign Nation States.

2. Foreign Nation State actors

Foreign Nation State actors aim to engage in intellectual property theft, espionage, surveillance, credential theft, and disruptive and destructive attacks to further their national interests.

3. Hacktivists

Hacktivists conduct cyberattacks to cause disruption in order to further social or political goals.

Given the motivation, scale, organization, and sophistication of adversaries launching cyberattacks, defense and intelligence organizations must modernize their cybersecurity systems and approach. Otherwise, they risk being outmaneuvered by more sophisticated adversaries (or even less sophisticated actors with access to technology) leveraging AI, automation, and the scale of hyper-cloud systems to carry out their attacks.

Three steps to improving cybersecurity capabilities

Below are three key actions defense and intelligence organizations can take to modernize and improve their cybersecurity capabilities:

1. Enhance early-detection systems across the defense digital ecosystem continuum

Leveraging a hyper-scale cloud enables defense and intelligence organizations to detect, respond, and deter attacks early. For example, Microsoft Cloud spans over 200 data centers across 140 countries and analyzes 43 trillion security signals daily. Combined with the intelligence gained by tracking more than 250 unique nation-states, cybercriminals, and other threat actors, we provide defense and intelligence organizations with a unique global perspective. This global threat intelligence perspective enables early detection and response to emerging threats across multi-cloud, hybrid, on-premises, and heterogeneous platforms.

2. Adopt an organization-wide Zero Trust philosophy

Beyond the technical architecture and products necessary to implement a Zero Trust Framework, every individual at every level of the organization must live by, implement, and adhere to the three core principles of Zero Trust:

1. Explicitly verify: Always authenticate and authorize users based on all available data points before allowing access to resources. This includes user identity, location, device health, service or workload, data classification, and anomalies.
2. Use least privilege access: Limit user access with just-in-time (JIT) and just-enough-access (JEA), risk-based adaptive policies, and data protection to help secure both data and productivity.
3. Assume breach: Assume system defenses have been breached and systems might be compromised. Verify end-to-end encryption and use analytics to get visibility, drive threat detection, and improve defenses.

3. Use Automation as a force multiplier to mitigate threats at scale

According to the 2022 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study, there’s a global shortage of 3.4 million workers in cybersecurity. With this deficit, modern automated security platforms must be used by all organizations, including the defense and intelligence community, as a force multiplier to fill in the cyber talent gap.

Microsoft offers best-in-class capabilities across all security pillars of the digital estate. According to the Forrester Total Economic Impact Studies, Microsoft Security tools reduce the likelihood of a data breach by 45 percent,³ reduce the time to threat mitigation by 50 percent,⁴ and reduce the amount of labor associated with advanced investigations by 80 percent.⁵ 

A foundation that supports the mission

As mentioned, defense and intelligence organizations seek to simultaneously increase security, while also increasing interoperability. In the face of the threat environment highlighted above, Microsoft is committed to meeting the increasing need for defense and intelligence organizations to interoperate with allies and collaborate with trusted partners. Hyperscale cloud serves as the digital foundation for interoperability and collaboration while offering improved security postures over traditional legacy, on-premises approaches.

That’s not to say that the cloud is appropriate for every single scenario. Certainly, in our industry, we know that’s not the case. For instance, there are currently requirements for mission data to remain air-gapped. Nonetheless, we also recognize that the vast majority of workloads across all industries—defense and intelligence included—can and should be serviced in the public hyper-scale cloud because it is the gold standard for security, resilience, and economics.

So how can we deliver on the unique needs of our defense and intelligence customers who work across the entire classification spectrum, and for which classified mission workloads must be air-gapped? We take an end-to-end view of our customer’s needs—from the enterprise to tactical edge—and include coalition and industry requirements for interoperability and collaboration.

For classified mission workloads, hybrid and on-premises capabilities remain an important part of the overall landscape and Microsoft will deliver on that need. We also recognize the need to leverage contemporary capabilities, such as AI, digital twin, and simulation, and understand how information superiority, through the application of these capabilities, is a force multiplier.

That’s why we support your mission by first leveraging our hyper-scale capabilities, to meet as many customer requirements as we can, across the entire classification spectrum. Where this isn’t possible (like some classified and mission workloads) we leverage our Azure Stack portfolio for air-gapped and disconnected operations, whilst continuing to invest in hybrid infrastructure and provision of control plane technologies that bring all of these environments seamlessly together.

Achieving a secure digital backbone

The task to modernize and increase interoperability while navigating today’s threat environment is achievable with partnership across defense, intelligence, government, non-government organizations and industry, academia, and the science and technology (S&T) community. Cybersecurity threats are increasing and will continue to evolve as threat actors gain access to technology and evolve their techniques to conduct destructive cyber-attacks, espionage, and influence operations. Defense and intelligence organizations can have confidence knowing Microsoft Azure is designed to implement the steps discussed to improve cybersecurity and serve as the organization’s secure digital backbone to achieve the mission.

We recognize, though, that transformational progress can be often tempered by policies that seek to simply reinforce legacy approaches rather than inspire new ones. To move forward, we encourage open discussion between defense and industry and across government alliances, working together to express your interest in sharing a common digital backbone and data fabric. 

Learn more

To discuss how Microsoft can help you deliver a secure digital defense and intelligence backbone, we invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn or reach out to your account team representative.

• Alvaro Vitta | LinkedIn
• Jonathon (Jono) Beesley, DSM, GAICD | LinkedIn
• Lloyd Hewitt | LinkedIn

For more insights, you can also listen to a two-part cybersecurity miniseries on the Microsoft Public Sector Future Podcast, Episode 36: Cyber Resilience in Government and Episode 37: Military Lessons on Cyberdefense, where we discuss how public sector organizations can be better prepared for future attacks, best practices for protecting sensitive data, and why making risk-based decisions are so important.

¹Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2022 | Microsoft Security

² Microsoft Cybersecurity Defense Operations Center—Security | Microsoft Docs

³ The Total Economic Impact™ Of Securing Apps With Microsoft Azure Active Directory

⁴ The Total Economic Impact™ of Defender for Cloud from Forrester Consulting

⁵ The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Sentinel from Forrester Consulting.

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Using GEMS to enhance defense and intelligence capabilities

In 2021, the United States Defense Science Board released a report outlining the six key interdisciplinary areas that transcend the traditional Department of Defense (DoD) organizational silos:

• Wargaming
• Experimentation
• Campaign modeling and analysis
• Simulation technology enablers, like engines and data formats
• Immersive training
• Digital engineering platforms

These interdisciplinary areas resonate at the intersection of Gaming, Exercising, Modeling, and Simulation (GEMS); so much so, that Microsoft created new teams solely focused on GEMS, bringing the best of Microsoft to the forefront of this new wave of digitally enabled capabilities.

Microsoft for Startups supports and enables GEMS innovation

The Microsoft for Startups program, including the new Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, an innovative platform offering support for all startups at every stage of their journey, from ideation to exit, helps GEMS developers achieve more with our platform. We want to unleash an entire ecosystem of developers and start-ups, including those focused on how gaming technologies like hyperscale cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, machine learning, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and many others, constructively converge to build a GEMS foundation that will deliver enhanced capabilities for solving some of the most difficult problems for defense and intelligence organizations.

One such start-up, VRAI, will be co-exhibiting with Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence at the I/ITSEC conference, bringing their data driven VR simulation solutions to our customers. VRAI started working with Microsoft via the Microsoft for Startups program, giving them initial, critical access to the technology and support they needed to turn a product vision into a real and disruptive solution. Since then, VRAI has built their HEAT simulation data platform on Microsoft Azure. VRAI is now part of the Microsoft co-sell program and plans to develop an offering for the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

VRAI: 2022 Military Simulation & Training Award winner

On November 21, 2022, VRAI was announced the recipient of the prestigious Military Simulation & Training Award for Outstanding XR Application by a small company in 2022 in the MS&T Magazines I/ITSEC edition. The award is for VRAI’s ReACT VR Armour Crew Sim, which increases training opportunities for armor crews using immersive VR environments to replace the need for real world platforms. It leverages cutting edge data exploitation to provide personalized learning insights for trainees and instructors while decreasing the carbon footprint of training. The solution combines virtual reality technology with data capture, analysis, AI, and machine learning in order to measure, evaluate, and predict human performance to improve training outcomes.

VRAI co-founder and former Armored Unit Commander, Pat O’Connor, commented on the collaboration with Microsoft saying: “We built our ReACT VR Armour Crew Sim from the ground up, knowing it solves a critical training problem for military end users. We employed top tech talent and military veterans to work with front line military end users to design and build this product. Collaborating with Microsoft gives us the opportunity to get the solution into more of our customers hands, more quickly, solving our customers’ problems and helping to better prepare troops for service, which is a very fulfilling mission for us.”  

Additionally, Microsoft recently highlighted VRAI as one of various partner solutions at a technology showcase for the United States Army Program Executive Office—Ground Combat Systems (PEO GCS). We supported one of their major programs at our Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, WA, coordinating the activity within their annual “Light Armored Vehicle User Nations Group” Conference, which included uniformed and civilian personnel from across seven nations.

Meet the Microsoft and VRAI teams at I/ITSEC

The Microsoft Defense and Intelligence team is thrilled to be participating at I/ITSEC with our partners. We’re eager to meet with you to discuss our point of view on GEMS and demonstrate a few of the innovative technologies that can be a positive force for digital transformation. Stop by and visit with Microsoft and our partners booth, #1969, and meet with the team.

Microsoft for Defense and Intelligence

Empowering militaries. Improving operations. Protecting national security.

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