DOD temporarily halts development in its major data analytics platform for infrastructure upgrades

The Department of Defense is temporarily halting the development of Advana, its primary data analytics platform, to upgrade its infrastructure to meet increased demand, according to an internal communication obtained by Defense One.

The recent email from the Pentagon's new Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer affects users expecting Advana upgrades and new tools. DOD’s Chief Data Officer, Radha Iyengar Plumb underscored the Pentagon’s growing needs for enterprise data and analytics services, which have outpaced the original design of the Advana platform. Initially a financial data management platform, Advana expanded to become a critical component of DOD’s data and analytics strategy. Last year, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks identified Advana as the Pentagon's primary data analytics platform, adding that defense organizations would need executive approval to use other platforms.

Advana has been praised for analyzing key data, such as Ukraine's supplemental funding and weapons shipments. The Pentagon will now evaluate whether the applications are stable and should be integrated into the updated infrastructure. The team is also exploring alternatives for hosting and transitioning use cases to other tools on Advana until the upgrades are complete.