DVIDS Hub works best with JavaScript enabled

Unified Platform unveils innovative new facility

Photo By Stefanie Antosh | U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Athony Genatempo, center, Program Executive Officer for...... read more read more

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, UNITED STATES

07.18.2023

Courtesy Story

502nd Air Base Wing

A grand opening ceremony for a new Unified Platform facility was held at the Light Building in Downtown San Antonio July 21, 2023.
The newly renovated, state-of-the-art facility was designed to intentionally create spaces that will enable to flow of creative thought and collaborative development.
“This is the culmination of a lot of work on building an innovative environment where we can develop and employ software capabilities rapidly to the war fighter,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Dooley, senior materiel leader, Cyber Systems Group.
The cohort using the facility is comprised of UP and Platform One, units belonging to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center that develop military software that is both efficient and secure.
“Delivering software for cyberspace users is something that requires a lot of innovation and requires us to keep up with the rapid pace of a changing environment,” Dooley continued. “This facility is a key enabler for that, allowing us to partner with industry and academia to bring the best resources that we have together. It provides an environment for us to innovate.”
A key component of UP’s mission is to rapidly deploy their software. With an ever-changing technology environment, the cohort has made it their mission to ensure the Defense Department’s software needs are met while still ensuring national security.
“All of our cyber mission force partners, in the past, have had disparate architecture. We are creating a common environment for them to collaborate on and have visibility; we have a more holistic picture of ourselves, our warfront, the information sharing is a lot faster we can keep up with upcoming events,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Matthew Neau, Unified Platform software factory director of operations.
“Unified Platform offers a very large environment that supports warfighter needs in alignment with Cyber Command’s mission. The software factory is the portion of Unified Platform that provides all of the tools that enables all of our customers to practice DEVSECOPS, or development security operations, of their applications that are destined for that platform,”
Using lessons learned and employee feedback from the team’s previous facility, a “desk farm,” project manager Erin Landry worked with the team leads to design a space that would aid in both collaboration and focused individual work for 100 people each day.
“Here, we wanted all of the space usable,” said Chris Coy, acquisition program manager and contracting officer’s representative for the UP software environment contract. “Here we have desks that are separated by small collaboration areas. We have ‘the campfire,’ we have a training setup with the couches here, and we have the little breakout pods where four to six people can collaborate, and we have privacy booths.”
The natural light-filled area is comprised of three different types of spaces, offering opportunities for meetings, private phone calls, individual workstations and training.
“The purpose of this place is collaboration,” Neau added. “You’re not just here to do busy work … you’re here to hold most of your meetings.”
Efficiency-creating technology abounds, from digital, touch-screen whiteboards to glass sky folds that allow the meeting space to be broken down into smaller conference rooms. DOD and international partners and customers, commercial technology developers and universities can all collaborate in person and digitally at the new facility.
“When we have a meeting, you want your virtual participants to be as active in that meeting as the people that are in that room having that discussion,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, and Networks. “Well, to do that, you need technology. You need to have bandwidth to be able to share video. You'd need to have touchscreen whiteboards to be able to interact back and forth. Now, our virtual participants are first class citizens.”