Ministry of Defence builds MoDNet communications system and 'autonomous cloud' platform on Office 365 and Azure

Don't worry - it's not running in the public cloud

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is rolling out a new Office 365-based internal communication and collaboration system called MoDNet, along with a custom offline "autonomous cloud" for users "separated from the mothership".

The systems rely on Microsoft's new UK data centres, which went live today and were set up partly at the behest of the MoD.

"I'm engaged in what Satya Nadella says is one of the most comprehensive implementations of Office 365 anywhere in the world," said the MoD's chief digital and information officer, Mike Stone (pictured), speaking to Computing yesterday.

"Linked to that, we've persuaded Satya he should set up data centres in the UK, so I think you could say we've contributed to the prosperity agenda here by getting Microsoft to come with us as the anchor tenants of data centres," Stone continued.

"So I'm working very closely with Microsoft as we seek to deliver a capability to defence that we haven't had previously, which is one that fully exploits the power of the cloud and of mobility and of enterprise social media. What I'm seeking to do is fundamentally transform the information capability that we provide to Ministry of Defence staff."

Stone said that when the current infrastructure, known as the Defence Information Infrastructure, was first set up in 2005, people "had far more capability for them at work then they did at home". However, this soon changed.

"As a result of the explosion of innovation that came with the cloud and social media, people these days have got far more at home than at work in terms of capability, and I'm seeking to progress that. So, I've changed the overall goal of my organisation - which really was about providing end-to-end systems to defence - to providing core common platforms and common application services that sit on top of that, particularly around collaboration and productivity, as well as supporting the differentiated applications that different parts of the business need."

Where Microsoft comes in is with these "common application services". Summed up, it's "just about every aspect of Office 365 there is", said Stone, who believes many people see Office 365 as simply "a new version of PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Outlook" whereas in fact these are "just a small part of it".

"What we are providing with the use of OneNote and OneDrive allows people to move from one device to another and access all of the documents available to them they've had on another device, and collaborate in multiple ways through OneNote, into a single document, bits Excel, bits of PowerPoint, records of meetings, handwriting on there, etc."

The MoD is deploying Skype for Business and "all of the capabilities that come with it, including Sway and Delve" as well as Power BI.

But Stone said one of the biggest changes with the new set-up is that the MoD will be patching the software "on a daily basis" to make it "evergreen", which he admits will present some management challenges.

"Users who may have complained before that they didn't have the latest will now have that, but they may find a button may have moved since the day before, for example. But that's a nice challenge to have as opposed to what users have at the moment."

The scheme is currently in beta with 1,000 users, with a full rollout beginning in late October or early November, said Stone.

The deployment is expected to take 12 months and will extend to overseas users, as well as those with no cloud connection.

"Separated from the mothership"

"I'm working with Satya to deliver a capability that will allow us to be able to support the disadvantaged user who will become 'separated from the mothership', as it were," said Stone, describing a cloud that will operate out of network range but then be able to synchronise later, giving the example of a submarine sinking below available range then having to resync immediately upon surfacing.

"It's connected to the cloud completely when it's synchronous, but is capable of supporting itself when it's not in connection with the rest of the network," he said, explaining it will be built on top of the Azure Stack.

"We're developing, with Satya, a concept of the autonomous cloud as well, to support those types of disadvantaged users."

Security-wise, while Stone said he could legally store data anywhere in the European Union he believes defence data "needs to be here in the UK".

Stone said it was around November 2013, two years before Microsoft announced its plans to build UK data centres, that he approached Nadella personally about a use case involving the MoD.

So did the MoD's efforts to attract Microsoft to the UK involved any financial inducements from the government?

"No. Other than contracting for the use of Azure, there's been no other support to Microsoft through all this," Stone said.

Stone also described Microsoft as a "much more humble company than it ever used to be - not everything has to be painted Windows".

He explained that the MoD had a need to share documents beyond .doc into open documents, and the MoD can now save into .mdf files.

To ensure security, Stone said the system is run within a "private instance" of cloud.

"We will be looking at hybrid cloud, but our use of this is in a private instance - I'm wanting to ensure greater levels of security than might otherwise be the case."