Two people working on a laptop and smiling.

CNA and Cloudforce deploy trusted AI to advance national security work

The team’s secure platform, powered by Cloudforce’s proprietary nebulaONE® technology, empowered researchers to rapidly discover insights.

November 20, 2025

As global threats evolve and national security challenges grow more complex, defense organizations are mobilizing to deliver faster insights, adapt to emerging technologies, and maintain the highest standards of data protection. In that effort, AI is reshaping how agencies respond to crises, model future risks, and support decision-making. Deploying AI securely in high-compliance environments remains a challenge.

Nonprofit organization CNA, a federally funded research and development center and analysis organization, supports the safety and security of the United States through its two main divisions: the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. With more than 700 scientists, analysts, and professional staff, CNA works across classified and unclassified domains to deliver insights for agencies including the US Navy, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FEMA, and Health and Human Services (HHS).

With so much data to interpret and so much at stake, CNA sought a way to safely and securely accelerate their insights with the power of AI and large language models (LLMs). Not just any solution would work. They needed a trusted partner to help them implement models that prioritized the protection of such sensitive data.

They turned to Cloudforce, a Microsoft partner with deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and a track record of enabling high-compliance environments. Cloudforce helps customers build scalable, secure solutions that meet the most stringent federal standards—making them the perfect partner to help CNA.

A mission-critical need for compliant, creative AI

Research and analysis at CNA spans some of the most sensitive domains in government, from maritime warfare and autonomous systems to disaster response and law enforcement. With many of the agencies they serve asking for an increasing number of reports to tackle these real-world challenges, CNA saw the potential to use emerging LLM technology to rapidly scour their vast datasets and generate insights. However, given their mandate to protect information within strict compliance frameworks, using public LLMs was out of the question.

“We wanted a partner to help us to deploy an LLM that is secure and compliant so that it can handle our internal data,” said Gregor Goodman, Chief Technology Officer at CNA. “We needed to balance innovation with security to take advantage of cutting-edge tools in the analysis that we’re providing.”

Microsoft referred CNA to Cloudforce, and the partnership was fast, powerful, and collaborative from the start. Together, the companies explored a plan to develop proprietary LLMs and agents that were easy for analysts to use and could securely deploy CNA’s data in creative ways.

“Working with Cloudforce has been phenomenal,” said Rizwan Jan, Chief Information Officer at CNA. “I look at them as not just an extension of the CNA team. They're friends now. They're trusted .... If we have a question, they bring out the entire crew to help us.”

"We were confident enough to demonstrate these AI agents for our customers. The speed and the agility to dream something up and make it happen is unprecedented."

—Gregor Goodman, Chief Technology Officer, CNA

Balancing innovation with security in high-stakes research

First, the teams deployed a new landing zone to help them establish the foundation for a secure cloud structure. They built the landing zone on Azure for US Government, an environment designed to meet the strict compliance requirements CNA operates in. For Cloudforce, it was their first such deployment on Azure for US Government.

After the success of this early project, the teams moved to build out the project for more significant AI capability. They deployed Cloudforce’s proprietary nebulaONE® platform, a secure, AI-powered environment that enables private generative AI experiences in highly regulated sectors. Built on Azure for US Government, this solution empowered CNA researchers and analysts to create custom AI agents that can enhance data analysis for specific projects and use cases. And they gave the solution a nickname to honor CNA’s founder, Philip Morse: Morse Code.

Initially, CNA rolled out Morse Code to just 250 of their employees. It quickly proved useful for literature reviews, idea generation, pattern recognition within datasets, and other use cases across areas of study at CNA. Within a year, it had been rolled out to everyone at the organization. “We didn't even have to work on driving up user adoption,” said Jan. The demand was already there.

As the platform scaled, Cloudforce supported CNA in developing internal governance policies, usage guidelines, and training resources. They focused on prompt engineering to help CNA’s analysts and researchers interact with Morse Code more effectively. Cloudforce reinforced this work with hands-on workshops and documentation to help users get the most out of the tool.

Cloudforce also ensured that Morse Code could integrate with CNA’s existing tools and workflows. For example, CNA linked the LLM to ArcGIS, a geospatial mapping platform, to support projects like flight path analyses.

"Working with Cloudforce has been phenomenal. I look at them as not just an extension of the CNA team. They're friends now. They're trusted."

—Rizwan Jan, Chief Information Officer, CNA

Immediate impacts inspire CNA to think bigger

In just minutes or even seconds, CNA analysts can create a useful, project-specific AI agent in Morse Code to help with a specific government request. With dozens of agents built already, the solution supports research and analysis, saves employees’ time, and reduces their administrative burden.

“Year to date, my cyber team is $1 million-plus under budget because we’re exploring how AI automation can do mundane, repetitive tasks,” said Jan. “We’re winning from an operational perspective, from a business development perspective, and with the trust we’re fostering externally.”

The results have been tangible for the government as well. CNA has used Morse Code to support FEMA with rapid reporting for natural disasters, help the Department of Defense model future water security risks, and assist Health and Human Services in evaluating workforce reduction scenarios. In each case, Morse Code has enabled faster, more informed responses.

All along this journey, Cloudforce has supported CNA in numerous ways. Their partnership remains close, with Cloudforce eagerly taking calls, answering questions, and upleveling the team at CNA to get the most out of Morse Code.

Next, the team plans an even more ambitious transformation: launching an external portal where sponsors and clients can generate curated reports using Morse Code as a self-serve platform. “We have 80-plus years of Navy data,” said Jan. “We have 20–50 years of FEMA, HHS, DHS data. And it's all curated.” The potential of this data and the success of the platform is already being received enthusiastically by some of CNA’s clients.

“We were confident enough to demonstrate these AI agents for our customers,” said Goodman. “The speed and the agility to dream something up and make it happen is unprecedented.”

Explore more Partner Success stories

Discover how organizations like yours are using Microsoft technology to help customers solve challenges, drive results, and scale their businesses.

Browse all stories

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.