Variable Continuity of Operations/Service-Oriented Architecture (COOP/SOA) Services

Comprehensive COOP strategies have taken on increased emphasis due to evolving threats, including the increasing threat from cyber warfare and terrorism and the ever-present threat from natural disasters and other forms of disruption.  As DoD architectures become more net-centric and globally distributed, our dependence upon continuously available distributed services continues to grow, emphasizing the need for robust COOP and cyber defense solutions. Unfortunately, existing COOP/SOA solutions are complex, inflexible, costly, and lacking in capability, as currently demonstrated by long delays, ranging from hours to days, between failure and full restoration of critical operations.  In addition, a recent Air Force Capabilities-Based Planning brief identifies two relevant AFRL Technology Gaps:  Fighting through a Cyber Attack and Cross-Domain Cyber-Threat Reconnaissance.  Securborations Policy-based Recovery on Virtualized Enterprise Networks (PROVEN) addresses these gaps and overcomes these problems. PROVEN is a proactive solution that supports COOP and cyber defense in a SOA environment.  PROVENs key innovation is the use of semantic technologies to dynamically infer recovery procedures and policy, based on the semantic meaning of enterprise data.  This approach overcomes the limitations of current approaches, which rely on known static structures, procedures, and hardware redundancy to support recovery. BENEFIT: PROVENs key innovation is its flexible approach to continuity of operations that leverages a semantically consistent model of the operational environment to define and execute policies, including times of conflict and/or crisis, to maintain mission essential services at all times.  This semantic model defines and enforces policies across the entire SOA, and all services are automatically managed and executed in accordance with the defined policies.  The use of semantic technologies to dynamically infer recovery procedures and policy based on the semantic meaning of enterprise data overcomes the limitations of current data-centric approaches, which rely on known static structures and procedures and a greater degree of human intervention to support recovery. This innovation results in these primary benefits: 1. PROVEN reduces cost to deploy and support new or modified services. 2. PROVEN provides a greater capability than other COOP approaches. 3. PROVEN is a proactive approach the only way to ensure continuous operation is to act prior to failure. Collectively, these benefits illustrate that PROVEN provides both a strong COOP solution and a strong foundation for robust cyber defense.