11 Sep 2014

MoD IdAM is ‘Best Identity and Access Management Project’

The Joint Industry Group (JIG) leading an Identity and Access Management (IdAM) project for the UK MoD last month marked a recent award for ‘Best Identity and Access Management Project’ at the European Identity & Cloud Conference in Munich, in the week that MoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) Mike Stone highlighted the importance of such information capability ‘force multipliers’ in his vision for the MoD’s Information Systems and Services (ISS) transformation.

The IdAM project, which is set to transform the way in which data is shared across the MoD’s entire supply chain, was jointly led by the MoD and industry working as part of the UKCeB Joint information Group.  The team built an IdAM suite to enable the existing Maritime Collaborative Work Environment (CWE) to handle complex information handling and access rules, based on single digital identities.  The initiative will enable secure collaboration between the MoD and its supply chain, and among suppliers, across the maritime enterprise driving significant cost savings and dramatically improving the speed at which deployed defence assets can be supported.

IdAM-enabled services will provide the enterprise with centrally administered digital identities with which to access securely shared information across the CWE, whereas currently each information owner/provider creates and checks user credentials for each system.  This will provide information asset owners with greater ability to control their information assurance, cut down on administration requirements, and improve monitoring and control of correct level clearance for each individual user, as well as potentially enabling network rationalisation, among other benefits.

The IdAM initiative was jointly led by Babcock’s Information Knowledge Management (IKM) team and MoD Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with the building of an IdAM-enabled service with its Maritime CWE, enabling a real business use case to be developed.  Babcock also drew on its good relationships with industry (both IT vendors and enterprise users of the CWE) to take part in the trial, and led the technical governance group, working with the corporate MoD IT teams to address security challenges to ensure development of an accredited and demonstrated platform.

Babcock Marine & Technology Division Head of IKM, Chris Rowley, commented: “We are immensely proud to have won the Best IdAM Project award, in recognition of our joint achievement, the inclusivity of the project across the supply chain, and buy-in from all parties involved in the project.  We are particularly pleased to note the MoD CIO’s recent highlighting of the importance of information capabilities as ‘force multipliers’ increasing effectiveness both in the battlespace and in the corporate space.  The IdAM initiative is one such example.”

The joint team, recognised in the European Identity Awards for its work in building the IdAM platform, comprises the MoD’s Chief Technology Officer, Information Systems and Service, Network Technical Authority, Defence Security and Assurance Services, Chief Information Officer, Submarine Operating Centre, and industry members Babcock International Group, Aurionpro Solutions and Oracle, along with support from other UKCeB industry members.