Army Geospatial Enterprise Architecture

Description and Background 

The Army Geospatial Enterprise (AGE) is an integrated system of technologies, standards and processes that provide a comprehensive framework for systematically managing, exploiting and sharing geospatial data, information and services to enable Army full spectrum operations. Geospatial services provide standard interfaces to AGE capabilities that enable operational collaboration, decision and action.

The AGC Geospatial Acquisition Support Directorate (GASD) Architecture Team is developing the Army Geospatial Enterprise Architecture (AGEA) to provide support to the Army Acquisition Community for implementation of the AGE. The AGEA is an integrated collection of technologies, data, services, standards, best practices and policies that optimizes the accessibility, interoperability, quality, and utility of geospatial data and services across all Army systems.

Benefits

The AGEA will provide the following benefits:

• Migrate operations from data-centric and product-centric to service-based and mission-based
• Improve interoperability and reusability of capabilities
• Improve security through services that can be integrated with existing security infrastructure
• Leverage capabilities that are fit-for-purpose and make them available throughout the enterprise at all computing environments
• Reduce operational and training costs

Status

The GASD has performed the following:

• Identified a set of six core capabilities (raster dissemination, vector dissemination, collection, production, processing and exploitation and utilization), which will be the initial focus of AGEA development
• Developed an approach for describing the AGEA, including briefings
• Developed an initial gap assessment, a living document that will describe gaps in existing capabilities and provide indications of relative costs and benefits for addressing these gaps
• Developed an approach for describing the capability subsets that will be needed to achieve desired levels of functionality for the core capabilities, including artifacts designed specifically for program managers and engineering teams

Future Developments

GASD’s future activities in support of the AGEA include the following:

• Fully document core capabilities and develop a series of capability subsets which will be expanded and extended.
• Provide outreach to the Army community to ensure that the AGEA is clearly defined, is widely understood and supports user requirements.
• Support the development and deployment of new capabilities that are consistent with the AGEA

GASD is available to provide engineering services to assist PEOs/PMOs in the development of system architectures that support geospatial capabilities.