Harris Opens Cyber Integration Center
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) recently announced its decision to create the nation’s first cyber integration center, which will provide managed hosting services in a trusted environment for federal and commercial clients.
The new Harris Cyber Integration Center will be located on the outer cusp of the Washington Metropolitan area, according to Maj. Gen. Dale Meyerrose, vice president and general manager for Cyber Integrated Solutions. The location was purposefully decided by Harris to provide crucial access to government clients while being removed from any risk zones, Gen. Meyerrose said.
“It is within 120 nautical miles of what we believe the center of cyber activity in the United States is right now,” he said. “It’s far enough out that it is not in any of the risk zones.”
That distance is also a key method of attracting federal business, as many government agencies define the greater Washington Metropolitan area as a radius of 120 nautical miles from the center of the capital.
“In some of the current statements of work for cyber implementation, geography is still important,” Gen. Meyerrose said. “It’s like they want it close enough that they can visit, but they don’t want it so close that it drives up costs … or gives them a problem with disaster recovery.”
Gen Dale Meyerrose
Earlier this week, Harris announced its plans to acquire SignaCert, Inc., which Gen. Meyerrose describes as “the world’s largest global trust repository.” This additional capability will enhance Harris’ ability to find and deliver trusted information applications to the Cyber Integration Center.
“The repository has almost 2 billion unique software signatures … And it’s growing by 5 million elements a day and will double in less than a year,” Gen. Meyerrose said. “So we’re combing an assured platform, one that we own and protect, to a tier-3 data center.”
The acquisition will enable Harris to provide around-the-clock capabilities to clients.
“We believe that we will have the capability with SignaCert along with a couple other applications and things we’re developing within Harris to give a continual 24 by 7 verification of chain management within data sets,” Gen. Meyerrose said. “That’s how we’re going to define trust.”
So why did Harris decide to set up a Cyber Integration Center?
“We believe that there is an emerging cyber market which will have several fundamental differences from the current ways of fielding and servicing IT and IT services,” Gen. Meyerrose said. “We think it starts with the secured platform, encompasses a supply chain integrity calculation and process and then … the same thing needs to be applied to data and applications while they’re in action.”
The Cyber Integration Center is different from other centers set up in recent months. Rather than focusing on innovation, the Harris center uses innovative solutions and delivers cyber capabilities to potential customers, “growing them into a higher level of trust, certifications, infrastructure as a service, security as a service, identity management as a service and development as a service,” according to Gen. Meyerrose.
The opening of the center is also forward looking, with Harris betting that cyber will become an important fixture in the future.
“Cyber is in Harris’ DNA,” Gen. Meyerrose said. “This represents our belief about what’s going to be relevant in the future. The acquisition of SignaCert and the announcement of our Cyber Integration Center, which will be open for business later this year, are the foreshadowing of where we believe the marketplace will be.”
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