New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the Central Data Centre, Army Cloud and Digi-Locker for the Indian Army here today.
Complimenting the Army for initiating such steps as a part of the Digital Army programme he said this can be of great use for faster documentation, information and speedy delivery of services.
The Minister emphasized the need to educate and sensitize every person in the force on the advantages of such services and technology upgradation. However, he also said that maintaining, checking and securing the system is equally important.
The facility under the Army Cloud includes a Central Data Centre, a Near Line Data Centre, both in Delhi and a Disaster Recovery site for replication of its critical data along with virtualised servers and storage in an environmentally controlled complex.
This is similar to the Meghraj; the Cloud of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and will provide all Information Technology Infrastructure including servers for computing, storage, network and network security equipment centrally, for automation of Indian Army.
The latest technologies in the field have been incorporated in the implementation of the first ever Software Defined Data Centre, wherein all the resources could be provisioned to different applications on the Cloud, on click of a button.
It has already started providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to the pan Army users as the first Cloud service and will soon provide Software as a Service (SaaS).
With the launching of Digi-Locker, it will provide a secure and exclusive data storage space to all the units and formation headquarters of the Army over its dedicated data network.
The Digi-Locker of Indian Army is similar to e-Locker of Digital India program and has all the advanced features like digital signatures and watermarking.
This is an important step towards implementation of cyber security as it precludes carriage of soft copies of data on CDs/DVDs and removable media.
Users can store, share and access the data from anywhere any time on the Army Data Network. The infrastructure and platforms being made available for automation and digitisation will catalyse the pace of digitisation in all branches of Army and is a landmark towards transforming Indian Army from platform centric to a Network Centric Force, which would leverage the technology as a force multiplier.
In keeping with the national vision of Digital India, the Indian Army has launched a program for Digital Army with nine pillars for digitisation.
Three of the nine pillars of this umbrella program, namely Broadband highways, Universal access to telephones and Army Data Network stress upon Information Technology Infrastructure development.
Another three namely e-Governance, Electronic delivery of services and Online information for all, focus on delivery of services to all units and formation headquarters.
For any modern army, the Network Centric Operations are essential for meeting enhanced challenges of asymmetry, lethality, fluidity and non-linearity in the present day battlefield. The Indian Army is addressing this key area comprehensively.
The Chief of the Army Staff General Dalbir Singh, Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen MMS Rai, Signal Officer-in-Chief & Colonel Commandant Corps of Signals Lt Gen Nitin Kohli and all senior officers of Army Headquarters were present on the occasion.
