CollabNet Powers Forge.mil Launch

CollabNet TeamForge Enables the DoD to Transform Information Technology Innovation.

ANAHEIM, CA - DISA CUSTOMER PARTNER CONFERENCE 2009 -- CollabNet, a leader in distributed application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, today announced that the Defense Information System Agency (DISA), the information systems group for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), has promoted its Forge.mil initiative from limited operational availability (LOA) to Initial Operational Capability (IOC), making it generally available for unclassified use. Forge.mil enables collaborative software development and cross-program sharing of software, system components, and services in support of net-centric operations and warfare. Forge.mil is powered by CollabNet TeamForge, the leading application lifecycle management platform for distributed software development teams, and CollabNet Subversion, the best version control and software configuration management (SCM) solution for distributed teams.

"CollabNet TeamForge is transforming software development at the Department of Defense, enabling Forge.mil users to leverage the net-centric collaborative dynamics of open source software communities to rapidly deliver dependable software, services, and systems," said Bill Portelli, chief executive officer, CollabNet. "The open and flexible TeamForge platform supports the wide variety of tools, technologies, and methodologies in use by the DoD's agencies, systems integrators, and contractors and enables DISA to leverage its RACE private cloud computing infrastructure."

The first Forge.mil property to launch is SoftwareForge.mil, which is a collaborative environment for shared development of open source and DoD community source software. It is available now to the U.S. military, DoD government civilians, and DoD contractors for new and existing projects, enabling the organizations to save money, to improve software development efficiency, and to drive collaborative dynamics that help deliver better software faster to the warfighter. During the three-month LOA period, SoftwareForge.mil attracted more than 1,000 community members and 50 projects.

CollabNet TeamForge provides Forge.mil users with a wide range of capabilities, including software version control, bug tracking, requirements management, and release packaging, along with collaboration tools, such as wikis, discussion forums, and document repositories. The largest and most successful open source software communities in the world, including java.net, openoffice.org, and tigris.org, are also based on CollabNet TeamForge.

"Software development in the cloud and the agile collaborative software development methods utilized by open source software communities are two important trends that are re-shaping the industry's thinking about best practices for software development," said Portelli. "As a leader in enabling these industry trends, CollabNet architected TeamForge to support this new style of software development. The result is that TeamForge drives quality, development efficiency, cost savings, and reduced program risk at the Department of Defense and at companies all around the world."

DISA expects four more components of Forge.mil to be launched in 2009: CertificationForge.mil, which will support agile certification; ProjectForge.mil, which will provide private project portals; StandardsForge.mil, which will drive collaborative standards development; and TestForge.mil, which will provide on-demand software testing tools.

CollabNet partnered with Carahsoft, a trusted government IT solutions provider, to deliver TeamForge to DISA for the Forge.mil initiative. Recently, Carahsoft was awarded a U.S. Department of Defense ESI Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for Open Source Solutions. The BPA will streamline the procurement process and make it easier for Carahsoft to deliver CollabNet-powered solutions to the Department of Defense.