DISA welcomes Torres as new Hosting and Compute Center deputy
Renee Hatcher
Digital Communication Branch
Office of Strategic Communication and Public Affairs
April 21, 2022 

Bob Torres started a new position March 20 at the Defense Information Systems Agency as the principal civilian deputy of the Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC).

Torres, who came to DISA in 1993, has been with HaCC since it was established in October 2021. HaCC's mission is to provide the warfighter with best-value hosting and compute solutions to achieve mission success.

“The HaCC is up and running and ready to support the agency and DOD,” he said.

As HaCC’s principal civilian deputy, Torres is responsible for the oversight of more than 2,000 civilian employees working on programs to advance DOD cloud initiatives and hosting capabilities.

“My goals are to support all of our employees and to dedicate ourselves to making the HaCC the premier IT organization of the DOD,” he said. “Our vision is to be the warfighter’s provider of choice for hosting and compute.”

Torres will oversee the implementation of the strategic goals found in the HaCC action plan. To support DISA’s effort to prioritize command and control, HaCC plans to implement cloud capabilities to support mission partners overseas with an emphasis on agility and advanced capabilities, such as artificial intelligence/machine learning.

Using innovation to drive force readiness, some of HaCC’s goals are to increase the use of automation and shared resources to achieve efficiencies and standardization, and to develop cloud adoption accelerators to enable the rapid deployment of cloud services in a secure manner across multiple providers.

Torres said another goal is to automate the correlation of cyber data across all hosting and compute environments.

To enhance harmony between cybersecurity and the user, HaCC plans to pilot a service that will provide users with automated configuration control and security patching.

Continuous learning and empowering the workforce is another priority for Torres and HaCC.

“I think empowering my team will help drive mission success,” said Torres, who plans to create a training framework that cultivates the “technician of the future” who can operate across all hosting and compute disciplines.

Torres began his federal career in the U.S. Air Force where he spent almost 10 years as a computer specialist. During that time, he was involved in the deployment of numerous high-profile computer systems, most notably the Integrated Maintenance Data System. He deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

While in the Air Force, Torres was awarded the General Rawlings award for Innovated Uses of Computer Technology and numerous others.

After his separation from the Air Force, Torres spent about 15 years working in industry where he was the key computer engineer for a $300 million acquisition effort for DISA.

In 2001, he was recognized for his technical leadership in developing the Assured Computing program for DISA, which is still used as the model for ensuring robust and reliable computing service delivery for DOD.

In 2007, he accepted a role in the civil service as a storage administration lead.

Prior to his current role, Torres held several leadership positions throughout the agency including HaCC’s Compute Operations Division, the Data Center, the former Services Directorate, the Services Delivery Division and the Defense Enterprise Computing Center in Oklahoma City.

No matter where he was serving, Torres said one of his highest priorities has always been his teammates and his new role with HaCC is no different.

“I love the energy and dedication of our folks to always do their best for the HaCC, the agency and DOD,” he said. “DISA remains relevant to the success of DOD, and our leaders and employees really strive to be at their best all the time and provide the best possible products.”