Edge computing flexibility enables critical defense and security advantages

Center of Computing and Information Systems (Mamram)

Mamram – the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)'s central computing system unit – relied on Red Hat to support its primary goal of facilitating multiple edge services to various internal customers across the organization. Mamram provides data processing services for all arms of the IDF. Responsible for the management and development of the IDF's computer and network systems, it created the military's closed intranet network. Mamram intends to provide Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for edge infrastructure with its cloudlet project.

2022 Red Hat Innovation Awards winner

Modern military and defense operations include projects that involve IoT devices. Success depends on the ability to transfer large amounts of data. However, slow connections and a growing number of decentralized projects were making this difficult to achieve.

Mamram was struggling with a legacy infrastructure that made the deployment of new edge solutions slow and cumbersome, preventing crucial apps from being deployed in the field. This would potentially delay the execution of critical decisions.

Using virtual machines at the edge takes up a lot of resources. And managing multiple infrastructure clusters was a significant challenge because it also required resources. Getting consistent throughput while maintaining the highest levels of security added to their concerns.

Mamram understood that processing data at the edge would save both time and money, and better protect citizens. Achieving this would take a combination of dedicated people and products to address key business and technical challenges.

Red Hat already delivered a number of key successes for IDF, and extensive research into Red Hat's roadmap to edge computing helped Mamram decide that Red Hat would be an ideal partner. Mamram particularly relied on Red Hat Consulting, including its solution architects and professional services support, to help guide the project through.

Mamram incorporated Red Hat® OpenShift® into its cloudlet platform. The cloudlet project involves around 100 people—including active-duty personnel and civilians—in project management, development, and system engineering. The use of cloudlets enabled Mamram to create a cloud datacenter responsible for managing IT for edge computing, as well as core technology, networking, and connecting core data centers across the country. Its extended cloud computing infrastructure promises to deliver research and technology to Mamram and IDF quickly and efficiently.

The Mamram team and Red Hat innovated together to change the organizational culture and employ advanced technology, giving IDF a stronger platform that incorporates the newest techniques in modern military operations.

Software and Services

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux®
• Red Hat OpenShift
• Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
• Red Hat Consulting
• Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management
• Red Hat Training

Mamram used OpenShift to extend its center cloud to the edge, which provided a number of benefits. A modernized application development process means edge computing is able to provide the same functionality to IDF units as central cloud, which saves time and increases flexibility.

What used to take weeks to deploy infrastructure services now takes only three to six hours. Mamram now provides edge infrastructure in different configurations, such as on top of Vsphere IaaS or single node OpenShift (SNO) on bare metal. It automates deployment of PaaS processes using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to multiple locations, while OpenShift delivers significantly improved security and compliance. These new capabilities are providing substantial benefits for IDF by lowering costs, and adding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) processes that previously didn't exist. Red Hat Training also helped Mamram improve its onboarding process during its expansion from eight developers to 30 within a year. More importantly, users say that the new cloudlet platform allows them to be more proactive and responsive to new challenges.

Red Hat’s open source solutions have enabled IDF to remain powerful and flexible, capable of reacting quickly to uncertain situations and providing improved security to Israeli citizens in an increasingly volatile world.