Army CHESS 2008 Contract Vehicles Guide - KMI Media Group

REGULATIONS
STANDARDS, POLICIES AND REGULATIONS
The Army’s effort to develop a joint net-centric information enterprise requires the use of a rapid
development and acquisition process that leverages commercial-off-the-shelf technologies.
This challenge is compounded by the quick pace of IT change and the requirement that systems
provide joint, interagency and multinational capabilities. CHESS addresses these challenges
by providing IT products that promote interoperability—the ability of two or more networks,
systems, devices, applications or components to exchange information between them and to
use the information so exchanged. For the Army, information exchange means making the data
visible, accessible, understandable, trusted and interoperable to the user needs.
A variety of commercial standards, policies and regulations are used to help achieve this high
level of interoperability, with additional benefi ts such as:
- Reduce development time
- Promote sound engineering practices
- Provide common approaches with interchangeable components
- Lower installation and startup costs
- Reduce need to maintain large inventories
- Promote vendor neutrality, which increases competition, lowers total costs
and increases returns on investment.
26 | 2008 CHESS Contract Vehicles Guide | Military Information Technology | April 2008
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