Innovator wins award for bringing safety to the commercial "cloud" Published March 4, 2015 By Keith Wright Air Force Safety Center Public Affairs KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Jay Johnson, chief of the Analysis and Integration Division at the Air Force Safety Center, has been named one of Federal Computer Week's 2015 Federal 100 Award recipients. The award recognizes innovators in government, industry and academic institutions who play a key role in how the federal government acquires, develops and manages technology. He is responsible for the safety center's complex, but user-friendly, Air Force Safety Automated System, a major component of the Safety Management System. The web-based program provides a reporting, analysis and trending capability and maintains a comprehensive Air Force safety database for all safety disciplines Air Force-wide. Considering the impact of sequestration and funding cuts on the organization, Johnson recognized the need for an alternative to maintaining costly in-house server farms. The best option led to placing safety applications like AFSAS on the commercial cloud. Moreover, it complied with President Obama's directive to use cloud-based services for digital recordkeeping. That move transformed the organization from maintaining 20 plus organic servers, formal operating certifications and substantial information assurance requirements to a system that improved performance, increased efficiencies, exceeded security standards and will save more than $2M in the first three years. "The biggest step in innovation is the acceptance of risk," Johnson said. "Those who want to stay ahead need to be risk takers and force change and make calculated decisions about future needs rather than waiting for change to catch them by surprise." The shift to the commercial cloud began with an "Authority to Operate," a process that took 14 months of coordination and approval, followed by three months of testing the AFSAS suite on the cloud to ensure it would operate effectively and transparently for more than 8,000 users throughout the Air Force and worldwide. "Capabilities for our deployed Airmen have increased significantly because they no longer have to fight bandwidth issues," Johnson added. "For example, data reports that took 20 seconds when AFSEC hosted AFSAS now take two seconds because of the power and speed available from the cloud." The cloud makes AFSAS the only Department of Defense mishap data gathering and reporting system that has the capability to quickly and easily integrate data from non-Air Force agencies into the system. The Defense Contracting and Management Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and Defense Commissary Agency are three DOD agencies currently utilizing AFSAS as their primary mishap data collection and reporting tool. And with the increased capability of the cloud, expansion for other DoD users is easily achievable. Johnson foresees no slow down to the software development process of AFSAS due to the needs of safety professionals requiring more automation of their workflow. Since inception in 2007, the AFSAS team has received more than 15,000 feedbacks from customers and implemented 98 percent of those suggestions. "I'm very excited to see Jay recognized for his work in migrating AFSAS to the commercial cloud," said Maj. Gen. Kurt F. Neubauer, Air Force chief of safety and AFSEC commander. "His leadership and oversight is pivotal to the success of the AFSAS program and technological advancements that strengthen our Airmen's ability to fly, fight, and win!" Johnson is one of only three members selected from the Air Force for this year's awards. FCW will recognize Johnson and his fellow Federal 100 recipients at a formal ceremony March 26 in Washington, D.C.