Power to the edge refers to the ability of an organization to dynamically synchronize its actions; achieve command and control

Command and Control (military)

Command and control, or C2, in a military organization can be defined as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission...

 (C2) agility; and increase the speed of command over a robust, networked grid. The term is most commonly used in relation to military organizations, but it can equally be used in a civilian context.

"Power to the edge" is an information and organization management philosophy first articulated by the U.S. Department of Defense in a publication by Dr. David S. Alberts

David S. Alberts

David Stephen Alberts is an American Director of Research for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration .- Biography :...

 and Richard E. Hayes in 2003 titled: "Power to the Edge: Command...Control...in the Information Age." This book was published by the Command and Control Research Program and can be downloaded from the Program's website.

Principles

Power to the edge advocates the following:

• Achieving situational awareness rather than creating a single operational picture

• Self-synchronizing operations instead of autonomous operations

• Information "pull" rather than broadcast information "push"

• Collaborative efforts rather than individual efforts

• Communities of Interest (COIs) rather than stovepipes

• "Task, post, process, use" rather than "task, process, exploit, disseminate"

• Handling information once rather than handling multiple data calls

• Sharing data rather than maintaining private data

• Persistent, continuous information assurance rather than perimeter, one-time security

• Bandwidth on demand rather than bandwidth limitations

• IP-based transport rather than circuit-based transport

• Net-Ready KPP rather than interoperability KPP

• Enterprise services rather than separate infrastructures

• COTS based, net-centric capabilities rather than customized, platform-centric IT

Agility

The philosophy of power to the edge is aimed at achieving organizational agility. Such agility has six attributes:

• Robustness: the ability to maintain effectiveness across a range of tasks, situations, and conditions

• Resilience: the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune, damage, or a destabilizing perturbation in the environment

• Responsiveness: the ability to react to a change in the environment in a timely manner

• Flexibility: the ability to employ multiple ways to succeed and the capacity to move seamlessly between them

• Innovation: the ability to do new things and the ability to do old things in new ways

• Adaptation: the ability to change work processes and the ability to change the organization

See also

• Network-centric organization
  Network-centric organization
  A network-centric organization is a network governance pattern emerging in many progressive 21st century enterprises. This implies new ways of working, with consequences for the enterprise’s infrastructure, processes, people and culture.- Overview :...
  
  
• Network-centric warfare
  Network-centric warfare
  Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations, is a military doctrine or theory of war pioneered by the United States Department of Defense in the 1990's....
  
  
• Network-enabled capability