Innovation & Experimentation

Investigating ‘Next Generation’ and ‘Generation after Next’ Problems and Solutions

Innovation and Experimentation into the next generation of information exchange requires in-depth knowledge of present day technology and best practice.

Nexor’s subject matter experts possess a wealth of experience across a range of industries and have been trusted to operate at the forefront of MOD’s research & development projects.

This means that Nexor understands the fundamentals behind the UK’s National Technical Authority switch from accreditation and certification-based security to principle based methodologies. Our team of experts can therefore ensure that any solutions or advice we provide will address any problem in a manner that can be implemented in this new environment.

Our Innovation & Experimentation services can be separated into these key aspects which will likely be required to solve your problem:

Architecture & Solution Design

Nexor have a proven track record in developing the architectures and solutions of tomorrow for cross domain and secure information exchange environments, as well as secure information exchange within a wider array of solutions and can do the same for you and your projects.

Our architecture and design activities can be grouped into four areas:

Cloud Security Architecture

• Cloud security architecture is a specific combination of security controls tailored to the cloud. It is designed to protect the full suite of cloud infrastructure, including cloud-specific technologies, monitoring systems and business processes. 
• Nexor’s Consultants provide a specialised approach to ensure that the unique threats and vulnerabilities presented by the connected nature of the Cloud are addressed and managed and that your solutions can meet your security requirements in a cloud environment.

Network Security Architecture

• Network security architecture is a specific approach that is required to cope with the challenge of different access requirements and threats around the network.
• Nexor’s Consultants will work with you to address the risks that come with data moving into and out of networks, so as not to compromise everyday organisational activities.

Information Security Architecture

• Information security architecture has a specific focus on where information is stored, how it is accessed and how it moves around between systems. 
• Nexor’s Consultants will design and help implement security controls to protect the information and ensure that it cannot be accessed by people or systems that do not have the correct permissions.

Solution Design

• Solution Design is the first step towards the eventual physical deployment of any solution, outlining what needs to be built out, and how it integrates with other solutions and services.
• Nexor’s consultants will work with you to design of your new secure information exchange solution, ensuring that security is designed in from the beginning and leveraging the architecture areas outlined above. By working with Nexor, you will be able to access a vast pool of knowledge from our future thinking work within Defence and Government customers.

Prototype & Experimentation

Once you have completed your solution design, it is often beneficial to prototype to tangibly test your ideas and solution designs with end users prior to investing in building the complete solution. These prototypes can be built in varying degrees of functionality to test design concepts and experimenting with our users interact with different approaches validating your designs and refining as you interact with users.

Prototyping & Demonstration

• Prototyping activity is the creation of a mock-up or high-level solution that can simulate or demonstrate the main functionality of the proposed solution, including the user interfaces. A prototype’s purpose may vary depending on your needs and the stage of the project, but usually it is used to test the concept with stakeholders and end users.
• The Nexor team can support the creation of prototypes from high level designs, data flows and user experiences, through to specific DevSecOps activities, enabling the prototype to work in specific environments where needed.  Additionally, we can support stakeholder engagement and demonstrations to gather feedback on the design and use of the prototype to inform the next phase – experimentation.

Experimentation & Validation

Within the Defence community, Experimentation is described as the controlled and directed activities designed to discover new information about and idea or concept, test a hypothesis or validate a solution or choice. To do this, often the concept or solution will need to be more sophisticated than a prototype in order to allow users to interact with it as they would an operational solution in an operational scenario.

Taking the lessons learned from the prototype and building a minimal viable solution that can be used for experimentation with end users is the next key step of any innovation project that enables you to test your proposed solution with a wider group of users and stakeholders or identify further gaps in capability. The level of proof you might need to provide the next funding stage will be different dependant on the challenge and how future thinking your innovation project is.

Nexor uses four stages to move the project from prototype to through to a market facing product.

• Design Experiments – what elements are you trying to solve with what users, in order to understand how the solution needs to be modified?
• Run the experiments and modify the solution accordingly
• Test how your solution works with other technologies/systems
• Finalise experimentation and agree the proposed solution and move to trial

Integration, Interoperability, & Trials

Once you have completed your experimentation with your users, secured stakeholder buy-in and funding, it is time to integrate your minimal viable solution into existing processes and systems as this is the only way you can truly test interoperability and trial the solution in a real-world scenario.

Integration & Interoperability 

• Before minimal viable solutions can be turned into full solutions ability to integrate and interoperate with existing systems and technologies must be achieved
• Nexor’s consultants will carry out an assessment of the deployment environment to identify potential issues and build an understanding around any potential changes to a prototype that may be necessary to enable a seamless and speedy integration into this environment.

Trials

•  As your innovation project moves to trial, many of the operational and management activities needs to be addressed, this can cover such things as training, support, equipment/hardware, information handling, logistics and personnel 
• Nexor have a track record of building, deploying and supporting hardware and software solutions into defence and government and therefore can support your project through and beyond the trial phase.

Why Nexor?

Nexor Research & Innovation Services are provided by a team of highly skilled problem resolution security consultants including NCSC Certified Cyber Professionals consultants. We are readily available to take on your problem and deliver a solution that will meet your requirements and ultimately solve the problem. We have already led research for a range of organisations such as UK and European Defence Ministries, The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), UK Government Agencies, and leading Global Industry organisations in areas such as Data Centric Security, Single Information Environment and Zero Trust.

Benefits

The principal benefit of this approach is that it provides evidence to guide capability decisions in the near, medium, and long term, whilst reducing the risk or designing, developing, and implementing solutions that either do not address the problem or are not usable by the end users.

Through Nexor’s Innovation and Experimentation services we enable you to adapt to changing needs, or better define your future systems, with suitable agility and to cost effectively find the best way to solve end user problems and/or enable a step change in performance.

This can only be achieved through clear problem definition and the timely exploration of ideas, generating evidence that enables effective decisions and choices.