Topic Briefing
Realize Significant
Manpower Savings
in PED with edgeCore™
How the edgeCore Platform Enables PED, Reduces Manpower Requirements, & Delivers High-Value, Decision-Ready Data for Dissemination
PED PROCESS:
The Functional Transformation of Raw Data into Situational Understanding
In basic terms, PED is the transformation of raw collected data into usable information distributed for further analysis and/or use as combat information by commanders and staff.
When broken down, the PED process is a collection of functions that fit into one of the following categories:
Processing: Automated or human cognitive-based conversion of collection data into useable information.
Exploitation*: The refinement of raw data to provide information by trained personnel or automation.
Dissemination: The distribution or reporting of relevant information in a format suitable for commanders, staff, analysts, and other consumers.
* These manpower-intensive, human-based processes are heavily dependent on the workload and experience of operators/analysts and have effects on the timeliness and quality of the information/intelligence produced. Most sensor data are processed and exploited by a human at some point during the PED function.
PED is a critical component of the DoD Intelligence Process, which supports commanders by providing the intelligence needed to support mission command and the commander’s situational understanding.
Introduction
The increase in the use of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems over the past decade has created a significant increase of raw collection data available to the DoD and the Intelligence Community. Unfortunately, this surplus of data has also made it increasingly difficult to conduct efficient processing and analysis to produce timely combat information and actionable intelligence. Within the DoD, this problem has sparked changes to intelligence-related force structure, development of new complex information systems, and other advancements, specifically in intelligence processing, exploitation, and dissemination.
PED is a process that supports intelligence operations by converting and refining collected information for reporting to commanders, decision-makers, intelligence analysts, and other consumers through a collection of related functions.
The amount of data that the DoD Intelligence community generates, collects, and stores are exponentially increasing. With much of it unstructured, agencies and analysts are presented with the complicated and challenging task of managing it effectively. Addressing this challenge is not just about efficient use of storage infrastructure, it is also about making data accessible and visible so that it can be used to create actual value and situational understanding for the community.
A Modernized Approach for PED Capability
Much of the PED technology that has been employed over the past decade or so has become deeply rooted, making it difficult for the DoD to modernize and derive the full value from these legacy systems and fleets of applications devoted to intelligence gathering. Moving to situational understanding and real-time networked ISR input and analysis requires a fresh and agile solution.
edgeCore is an adaptable, agile, and flexible convergence of data and interfaces. Using edgeCore, users are able to rapidly access information from any on-premise or cloud data store, application, tool, or third-party data stream and produce actionable visualizations of chosen data in real-time. edgeCore processes this data in memory using a virtual federated data repository where the data can be transformed and aggregated with multiple data sets from multiple applications and displayed for the end-user. Since this is done in memory, everything is done very rapidly and without creating any new data stores, saving time, storage space, and machine resources.
Once data is inside edgeCore and made available to the user, there are a number of actions the user can take to exploit data. Additional transformations can be made in the format required by the end-user such as contextual drill down into the data or combining multiple data sources for new views and analysis. In fact, there may be a requirement to view multiple types of data all on a single pane of glass, (i.e., geographical, weather, streaming data) with associated data visualizations. The edgeCore UI is extremely flexible and enables analysts to efficiently make high-value mission-critical decisions and take or recommend action without having to log into multiple systems and manually correlate data.
The edgeCore platform turns random and disassociated data collected from disparate data sources into decision-ready data that leadership can readily use to make fact-based decisions. Not only can they view the analysis and make decisions easier and quicker than traditional analysis conducted in a solitary fashion, but edgeCore can be configured so that actions can be taken with the required authoritative systems once commanders know to course of action to execute.
As PED has become a growing concern to the DoD, the military publications and doctrine that describe and define PED have been continuously updated to reflect the current state of the rapidly evolving intelligence and PED enterprises. With the advancements in network technology, the intelligence enterprise is evolving from the traditional intelligence “stovepipes,” where each intelligence domain has a dedicated PED process, toward an integrated and distributed network. A distributed PED architecture supports multi-intelligence capabilities and provides continuous analysis with near-real-time collection asset tipping and cueing – which can all be harnessed at a Single Point of Control by the edgeCore platform.
Most importantly, edgeTI understands that leadership is seeking ways to drive transformation in the human/machine interface. The edgeCore platform unleashes the power of analytics in a Single Point of Control (SPoC) so that manpower-intensive processes can be automated and analysts can be driven to higher-value work.
How the edgeCore Platform Enables PED, Reduces Manpower Requirements, & Delivers High-Value, Decision-Ready Data for Dissemination
PROCESSING
edgeCore brings real-time data together from disparate sources in the form needed by the exploitation team without creating any new data stores.
EXPLOITATION
edgeCore provides real-time transformation of the data and puts it in the format that today’s intelligence analyst needs in order to make high-value mission-critical decisions.
DISSEMINATION
edgeCore gives decision makers the data they need, in the most actionable format, all in record time. Not only can they view the analysis and make decisions but edgeCore can be configured so that they can take action within their secure authoritative systems once they know the course of action may wish to take.
edgeCore™ Provides a Distinctive Path to... Total Intelligence
Implications for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems are gaining in popularity and promising advances in eliminating manual collection and processing of data, this takes time to collect the information and turn that information into knowledge. The reason for this is that they require very well-structured formatted data in order to learn behaviors and help process and exploit information.
At edgeTI, we bring all the tools necessary to put disparate information sources into a format and structure that can be easily ingested by ML and AI engines. In other words, before you can advance in your digital transformation journey to ML and AI solutions, you need the edgeCore platform.
What about Systems Integrators and solutions like Palantir?
If you have five years and $150.0 million to spend you might be able to get to the beginnings of a solution.
Success in PED requires agility and the ability to pivot on a moment’s notice. Large, all-encompassing projects the likes of which systems integrators and a Palantir solution would bring have a history of taking 3x – 4x the projected length to construct and deploy in addition to running over budget.
With edgeCore, immediate value in Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination can be attained in as little as two weeks