Miles Jamison 
The Department of War requires a resilient, multi-layered platform built on hybrid cloud capabilities to support modern defense infrastructure and enhance defense readiness, Mike Krafft, vice president of federal at Broadcom, said in a recent interview with DefenseScoop.
Hybrid cloud technologies that integrate native and private cloud environments, along with a common, secure footprint across the DOW, help ensure security and compliance at the edge. Moreover, comprehensive network visibility and artificial intelligence-driven capabilities further enhance data management and operational performance.
What Is Hybrid Cloud?
A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines private and public cloud resources. It enhances defense readiness by accelerating capability deployment, providing scalable operations, and enabling secure, resilient mission execution.
Hybrid cloud also supports the ongoing modernization of legacy and sensitive systems without interrupting missions, facilitates edge computing in remote or deployed environments, and promotes advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making. Its widespread adoption across the Department underscores its critical role in sustaining modern military readiness.
Why Is Hybrid Cloud Essential to Defense Readiness?
Building on this foundation, hybrid cloud architecture plays a pivotal role in strengthening mission readiness for organizations handling sensitive or regulated workloads. By facilitating secure collaboration across services, combatant commands and multi-vendor ecosystems, it enhances interoperability and joint force readiness. A well-implemented hybrid cloud creates a unified, policy-driven environment connecting on-premises and public cloud infrastructure, allowing mission owners to rapidly deploy capabilities, scale workloads on demand, reduce costs, maintain data sovereignty and leverage the agility of public cloud platforms.
Cybersecurity is central to defense readiness, and hybrid cloud enables the transition from traditional perimeter-based security to identity- and data-centric models. In this environment, zero trust replaces perimeter defenses by continuously validating identity and access across data-centric hybrid cloud environments—including on-premises systems, cloud resources, remote endpoints, and internet of things, or IoT, devices—reducing risk and strengthening defenses against threats such as ransomware, phishing and data breaches. Automated security controls, continuous monitoring and shared-responsibility models further enhance system resilience and survivability in contested cyber environments.
How Does Hybrid Cloud Shape Cybersecurity?
Expanding on the cybersecurity benefits, cloud migration has reshaped cybersecurity from a perimeter-focused model built on firewalls, intrusion detection systems and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to an approach centered on identity, data protection, governance and resilience. This shift has driven the adoption of hybrid cloud architectures, in which cloud providers secure the underlying infrastructure while federal agencies safeguard their data, applications and configurations—areas where missteps like exposed storage buckets have led to breaches.
What Is DISA’s Role in DOW’s Hybrid Cloud Environment?
To support this transformation, the Defense Information Systems Agency, as the combat support agency for the DOW’s information system network, is tasked with integrating capabilities and services to advance the department’s hybrid cloud environment. Under the DISA Next strategy, the agency seeks to establish a resilient, secure and globally accessible hybrid cloud environment that combines government-managed infrastructure with commercial cloud services.
Built on DevSecOps principles, this environment will enable automated, scalable and secure delivery of capabilities through “as code” and “as a service” models. Leveraging initiatives like Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability 2.0, or JWCC 2.0, and the Joint Operational Edge, DISA provides multi-vendor cloud access from enterprise systems to the tactical edge. Modern cybersecurity measures and continuous monitoring safeguard data and applications, ensuring warfighters have agile, reliable access to mission-critical information worldwide.
What Is the Impact of Hybrid Cloud Strengthen on Joint Force Integration?
Finally, hybrid cloud strengthens joint and combined operations by enabling secure, seamless data sharing across services and combatant commands. It provides the enterprise scale needed to support joint initiatives such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2. By enabling multi-vendor, interoperable environments, hybrid cloud reduces reliance on any single provider while enhancing resilience and interoperability across domains.
