// Decisive LLC · Supported DDF & Alliance Distribution
Substrate is Decisive LLC's hardened, supported distribution of DDF and Alliance — the open-source, standards-based data integration and ISR catalog framework — backed by expert engineering, accreditation support, and long-term sustainment. The open data layer, mission-ready. No vendor lock-in. No abandonment risk.
// The Problem
DDF and Alliance are battle-tested, standards-based, and open source. But "free to download" is not "ready to deploy." Running this stack in a classified production environment is a specialist discipline most programs don't staff for.
// What's in the Distribution
Substrate packages the full DDF and Alliance capability set — the catalog, federation, ingest, and security frameworks — into a hardened, signed, version-stable distribution. The same open standards underneath. None of the operational risk on top.
The core. A metacard-based store, query, and transform engine backed by an Apache Solr provider — with WKT spatial indexing, full-text, XPath, and XML search. Abstracts business logic from the underlying data structures so new sources integrate fast.
Query the local catalog and remote sources in a single fan-out via OGC CSW, WFS, and WCS federated services. An ESB transforms between query standards so disparate systems interoperate.
Alliance adds the DoD/IC/NATO payloads: NITF/NSIF 2.1 imagery, STANAG 4609 full-motion video with KLV/MISB 0601 extraction, and MGMP metadata transformation — each parsed into data-rich metacards for discovery and retrieval.
Authentication, authorization, and auditing built in. Web SSO without modifying the application, an extensible XACML 3.0 policy decision point, WS-Security / WS-Trust, and multi-realm login. A framework to extend, not a black box to fight.
// Standards & Formats
Substrate inherits DDF and Alliance's commitment to open standards — the same wire formats your collection systems, coalition partners, and ISR feeds already produce. No proprietary dialect in the middle.
// Data Pipeline
Every record traverses a deterministic path through the framework — from raw wire format to policy-enforced, federated delivery — with auditing at each stage.
// Deployment Architecture
The same modular framework deploys to fit the tier. Karaf's feature model means you run only the capabilities you need — a full federation node in the cloud, a lean catalog at the forward edge. Substrate's signed images keep every tier consistent.
// Expert Services
Substrate is the distribution. Decisive is the team behind it. We've lived in this codebase — and we wrap it in the engineering, accreditation, and sustainment that turn open source into an operational capability.
Signed, FIPS-capable, CVE-patched container images with security backports and version stability. You upgrade on a schedule that fits the mission — not whenever upstream cuts a release.
Control mapping, IL boundary design, FIPS-capable crypto configuration, and ATO package artifacts. We've walked the accreditation path before and bring the documentation to shorten yours.
Bespoke sources, transformers, and endpoints for your formats and source systems — built against the open Catalog API and delivered independently of the platform core.
Cloud-to-edge installation, upgrades, monitoring, and responsive engineering support. A real team to call when ingest stops — not a community forum thread.
Operator and developer training, runbooks, and architecture enablement so your team can extend and operate the platform with confidence over its full lifecycle.
Where Substrate fits alongside Keystone, Continuum, and your existing stack. Honest guidance on build-vs-adopt, federation topology, and a path that avoids lock-in.
// Security Architecture
DDF and Alliance ship a real security framework — not a bolt-on. Substrate configures and hardens it per Impact Level, mapping each tier to a verified container configuration, cryptographic stack, and policy profile.
// Why Substrate
The core is LGPL open source built on open standards. You are never trapped. If Decisive ever stops earning your business, the framework, your data, and your adapters are yours to keep running. That's the whole point.
Community FOSS has no SLA and no roadmap commitment. Substrate adds the patching, backports, version stability, and responsive engineering that a production mission system requires — and a team accountable for it.
DDF was donated to the open-source Codice Foundation from a defense prime and has been hardened in the open for over a decade. Alliance extends it with DoD/IC and NATO standards. This isn't a startup's first commit.
NITF/NSIF imagery, STANAG 4609 FMV, and OGC services come standard. Federate with coalition systems and existing ISR libraries without writing a custom translator for every partner.
Karaf's modular feature model lets the same signed distribution scale from an enterprise federation node to a lean disconnected edge catalog — no bespoke edge build, no version drift between tiers.
The differentiator isn't the download — it's the team. Decisive operates inside this codebase, builds adapters against its APIs, and shortens your accreditation path because we've already walked it.
// Get In Touch
Whether you're standing up DDF or Alliance for the first time, inheriting an unsupported deployment, or weighing it against a proprietary ingest layer — let's talk about what supported looks like.