Nearly all organizations struggle to some degree with information silos, multiple data owners, and disparate applications and data formats. However, within the high-pressure world of the U.S. Government's intelligence community, these challenges can be significantly more complex, and the stakes considerably more critical. That's why, in November 2008, Edge Technologies was asked to join a team of IT experts working with the U.S. intelligence community to develop and deploy web-based visualizations to help streamline information access, analysis and decision-making.

Providing staffing, engineering and technology services, Edge's preliminary work employed a permissibility model to provide real-time, meaningful, quick-glance and high-density information access regarding the health of critical IT infrastructure system services and processes. Quickly recognizing the potential of Edge visualization technology within the broader intelligence field, Edge was tasked with other contracts within the larger initiative.

Prior to the design and deployment of Edge visualization technology, analysts and decision makers were often forced to make multiple inter-departmental and inter-agency requests for information and wait for responses. Final decision-making processes typically involved manual reviews, comparisons and compilations of hard copy spreadsheets and reports.

As team members and team leads on the new visualization effort, Edge personnel developed a visualization framework and next generation widgets to include the geospatial view. The Edge solution dramatically reduced development time (and costs) and quickly provided a system that seamlessly collects and consolidates information from a variety of tools and applications, then aggregates the information and presents it to the user through a highly customizable screen.

Clever Widgets, Intelligent Solutions

Visualizing quantitative information requires a left brain/right brain approach; a rare combination of technological expertise, creativity and an understanding of how humans think. Using advanced technology, Edge's data visualization experts can transform an organization's existing data resources into user customizable graphical displays with drill-down capabilities.

Leveraging its expertise in data integration with its use of leading-edge technologies, Edge was able to significantly accelerate the visualization process. And with the team's extensive work within the intelligence community, there was virtually no learning curve. Edge's comprehensive knowledge of data access and security significantly reduced the time and risk often associated with the integration of data from disparate sources, while providing the security and content management functions needed to control data, views and system access.

Results The Edge visualization solution provides the intelligence agency instant, role-based access to information presented in a user-customizable format. It enables the client to design, construct and deploy real-time, custom, operational and analytic visualizations, as well as create ad hoc reports using their existing data sets, web applications, and internet services - without incurring significant software development costs. Perhaps best of all, the Edge solution is repeatable and easy to configure, allowing technical administrators to quickly construct virtually any relevant visualization needed to meet business and mission goals.

The end result is intelligence defined: an increased capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding; an aptitude for grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, to make better decisions faster.

For more on the Intelligence Agency Desktops, read the Case Study.

Helping the Pentagon Take Command and Control of its Network

In 1992, the Pentagon was designated a National Historic Landmark and had never undergone a major renovation. The Pentagon Renovation & Construction Program Office's (PENREN) activities began in 1993 in a historic effort to modernize six-and-a-half million square feet within the 65-year-old structure. PENREN rebuilt the Pentagon after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

PENREN's mission is to provide the Pentagon with optimum facilities and information technology through renovation, construction and modernization.

Mission-Critical, Vision Essential

Just as the Pentagon's physical infrastructure had become a massive maze of modern and legacy structures and supporting systems, so had its information network. The Pentagon's massive network had grown and evolved over the years, becoming increasingly difficult to manage, with disparate applications running on multiple screens. To gain full command and control of the network, the prime contractor called in network management and data visualization specialist Edge Technologies.

The Pentagon had a wish list of features for the network management solution. First, they wanted their applications, such as Netcool Suite and Remedy, integrated onto a highly secure yet easy-to-use single-sign-on (SSO), single-sign-out (SSX) desktop. They wanted a customizable look and feel (LAF), login pages, session extension, automated password reset, floating of channels/views (launching in a separate window), and custom integrations. And the solution needed to provide more than 1,000 administrators with exceptional performance, high availability and integrated application round-robin failover across multiple physical sites.

Off-the-shelf Simplicity, Custom-made Success The Pentagon's requirements were ideally suited to a hybrid custom/COTS solution based on Edge's integration workhorse, enPortal. Edge Technologies' enPortal is the industry's leading secure, single sign-on network management integration portal. A distinct advantage of enPortal is extremely rapid deployment made possible by its prepackaged Product Integration Modules (PIMs). enPortal PIMs provide plug-and-play integration of products from CA eHealth, Hewlett-Packard, InfoVista, Micromuse, Remedy and more.

Results

Using enPortal technology as the core of the solution, as well as a dedicated on-site TS/SCI cleared support/consulting team to help customize and implement the solution, Edge delivered a comprehensive Network Management strategy, that quickly and securely helped the more than 1000 administrators:

• Reduce Complexity: enPortal eliminates the need for multiple consoles, providing access to a variety of applications through a single screen.
• Enhance Security: enPortal organizes and focuses access to underlying applications, managing access through a single, closely controlled login point.
• Maximize Performance: enPortal consolidates pertinent information onto a single pane of glass providing the clarity to identify and resolve issues more quickly.
• Save Time and Money: enPortal's Rapid Deployment eliminates the "heavy lifting" and maintenance inherent to in-house integration.

For more on Pen Ren, read the entire Case Study

From drug trafficking to terrorism to white-collar crime, law enforcement agencies are facing increasingly sophisticated adversaries that blur traditional lines between borders and cultures, technologies and organizations. To combat these challenges, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have adopted advanced analysis and visualization tools that identify connections, patterns and trends in complex data sets.

One of the most advanced is Analyst's Notebook 8 (AN8) from i2. More than 2,000 organizations worldwide across criminal justice & public safety, national security, military and commercial sectors rely on AN8 to quickly turn large volumes of data into actionable intelligence. And i2 relies on Edge Technologies for the video capture tools that makes AN8 training quick and easy.

Training Expands and Enhances Tool's Power

i2 Analyst's Notebook 8 delivers the rich, assisted analysis and visualization capabilities needed to help turn large sets of disparate information into high quality and actionable intelligence. In the hands - or at the fingertips - of an experienced AN8-savvy analyst, this powerful software can dramatically reduce the time needed to solve, reveal and disrupt criminal activities. The question is how to capture and share this knowledge, without taking the analyst out of the field.

Edge Technologies enCapture, The Force Multiplier

Edge enCapture is a powerful video capturing software that records the actions taken on a computer screen and easily creates wmv, mpeg or avi files from the desktop. It is the ideal solution for creating software training, demos, tutorials, and additional material to enhance presentations. enCapture also supports text annotations, sound, and screen notes.

enCapture records all screen activities, such as movement of the mouse, processes of applications, and the inputs from the keyboard. With enCapture, analysts can capture their AN8 computer screen actions, save them in a standard movie format and share them across secure intranet connections with other agency analysts. There is no need to download Flash, or other special programs, to run enCapture.

A key feature of the Edge solution is enCapture's ease-of-use. The client had previously attempted to create training files using other commercial screen-capture products. Ironically, the very products evaluated to facilitate training were difficult to use and would then require training on the software intended to provide the training. Conversely, enCapture is extremely simple to use and can be put to work in minutes.

enCapture empowered the agency to:

• Increase AN8 training resources available locally and across distances
• Create on-the-fly updates to processes, techniques, and procedures as new Analyst's Notebook features are added
• Quickly duplicate successful analytical solutions to combat new criminal tactics
• Create visual Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Create problem-solving procedures visually

enCapture allows the agency to capture and share the analysis techniques of their most experienced analysts with their team of more than 12,000 users. Providing step-by-step "hands-on" instruction expedites training and yields better analytical results faster. enCapture provides an innovative and affordable way to make analysts and AN8 more productive, without taking top analyst's out of the field.

For more information on i2 read the entire case study here.