Data Systems Analysts
Strategic Solutions for Safeguarding Critical Information

There has been a continuous stream of nation-state and criminal assaults on secure networks that has resulted in data breaches and theft of critical and sensitive information. While there is no single solution to combat these threats, technology is advancing at a rapid rate to secure information. Defense agencies are leveraging new technological capabilities including artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud, internet of things, and knowledge management to accomplish their missions effectively and successfully.

Building on 55 years of experience, Data Systems Analysts (DSA) has been providing proven, effective, mission-driven information security solutions, services, and operational support to government agencies and commercial enterprises around the world. “DSA’s cybersecurity service provides the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data to ensure that customers share, communicate, and collaborate securely beyond all borders,” states Fran Pierce, Chairman and CEO of DSA. For federal clients, DSA provides comprehensive life cycle analysis and engineering services that include operational risk evaluation and mitigation, applied technologies, and ongoing sustainment support to meet their program goals. DSA provides secure IT systems through agile development frameworks for implementing systems and application design, development, test and integration, operations and legacy system modernization, and cloud realization. “We extract hidden knowledge, deliver breakthrough insights, and drive more informed business decision-making using strategy assessment, business intelligence, and data management,” adds Pierce.

DSA also offers energy management solutions, environmental sustainability consulting, and technical expertise that includes energy information management systems development and implementation as well as ISO-50001 assessment. “We have developed business strategies and redefined our offerings to address emerging threats, new technological advances, and business processes,” remarks Pierce. DSA offers each customer a unique value proposition by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative practices. DSA’s numerous achievements include pioneering the first packet switch that linked major airlines’ reservation and communication systems and being the first company to certify and accredit a federal and commercial identity management system and a common access card-enabled authentication solution. “We also designed, implemented, and continue to support one of the largest SharePoint instances in the U.S. Army,” adds Pierce.

DSA’s cybersecurity service provides the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data to ensure that customers share, communicate, and collaborate securely beyond all borders

Pierce narrates a success story involving a program initiated by the DoD. There was a need to connect geographically dispersed soldiers, civilians, and contractors, and enhance their ability to accomplish their missions through the application of collaborative tools and processes. For this, they required secure, asynchronous collaboration support for DoD and military personnel across diverse missions while securing knowledge retention within the defense department. DoD lacked agile business systems that adhered to the principles of the social web and were already being used by military personnel in their personal lives, but that were predominantly missing from existing DoD business systems. Having recognized that an open collaboration platform with strong knowledge management potential could benefit the entire DoD, DSA gathered feedback from military and civilian users while the program was being developed to quickly identify detailed program requirements and decrease the amount of time traditionally needed for data gathering, thus saving time and money. The early feedback helped guide the initial development, governance, and continued expansion of milSuite by the DoD community. DSA provided DoD a suite of tools that model public social media tools, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Tumblr and YouTube, all secured behind the DoD firewall.

Moving forward, DSA is seeking to expand its support for the Army, Air Force, and other services throughout the U.S. and overseas. “We continue to demonstrate resilience by weathering recurring industry turbulence, changing customer demographics, economic recessions, budget deficits, and rapidly changing technology,” concludes Pierce.