Advancing the Tactical Edge with K3s and SUSE RGS

“Based on the open architecture and the modularity, our intent here is to create an ecosystem of capabilities, of infrastructure that we can plug and play, so that we can orchestrate to mission-specific requirements—K3s makes this possible.” Ki Lee, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton.

K3s powers Booz Allen Hamilton’s SmartEdge solution — enabling real-time, data-driven decisions which dramatically improve operational outcomes and increase the probability of mission success.

The company is one of a growing cohort of organizations working in association with the U.S. Department of Defense to drive open source innovation into strategic defense initiatives and, through their work with SUSE Rancher, can give warfighters the information edge on the battlefield.

An early adopter of open source, it was not until 2018 that the team at Booz Allen identified K3s as the right solution, due to its small footprint and lightweight distribution. Their relationship with the Rancher Federal team (now SUSE RGS) was a natural next step, and Booz Allen deployed K3s, defining a new era in military tactics at the edge.

Pioneering a New Frontier in Military Tactics

The objective for Booz Allen is to enhance military operations in complex and remote locations with the use of groundbreaking technologies. Why? To enable decision-making at the point of data collection.

In dangerous conditions, the ability to access behavioral and situational data in real time and on the fly often means the difference between life and death. SmartEdge addresses the increasing need to gather data in real time and perform analysis at the point of collection, supplying immediate insight which results in faster decision-making in pressurized, inhospitable environments. Like battlefields.

The role of K3s is critical — providing the automated cloud-to-edge DevSecOps capability required. It allows Booz Allen to do updates with different deployment strategies and operate their edge devices in a clustered fashion, supporting distributed processing across devices.

Battlefields are constantly changing, and an enabler like SmartEdge allows an individual to serve as a force multiplier. The emphasis is no longer on preparation. Training or pre-briefing based on existing intelligence gathered in advance can quickly become outdated.

Instead, a highly portable, containerized infrastructure provides real time updates on any device in any environment. Removing the gap between data capture and insight delivery reduces time-to-insight by 80%: from hours to seconds.

Booz Allen’s priority is to deploy SmartEdge in as many scenarios as possible, where it can make a real and tangible difference, enabling its clients to use an ever-increasing range of devices and ultimately ushering in a new horizon of possibilities.

Click to discover how K3s and Booz Allen’s SmartEdge improve the likelihood of mission success.