By Margaret McBride
WASHINGTON — The Army successfully completed the bulk of its migration to one of the Army’s highest priority IT initiatives, DOD Enterprise Email, at the end of July.
Army users can now access their email securely from anywhere in the world at any time.
This effort began in January 2011 and improves operational effectiveness, security, and efficiency. Before migration, the Army spent considerable resources managing and securing disparate legacy email systems.
More than 1.43 million Army users migrated on the unclassified Non-classified Internet Protocol (IP) Router Network, or NIPRNet, and 115,000 users on the classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet. This includes Active Army, Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Army Medical Command, and Army civilians and contractors. The Joint Staff, Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. European Command have also migrated to DOD Enterprise Email, or DEE.
“I want to thank our mission partners around the world who helped us reach this milestone,” said Mike Krieger, the Army’s Deputy Chief Information Officer/G-6. “It’s been a learning experience for all of us, the Army, the Defense Information Systems Agency, Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, the Defense Manpower Data Center, industry, and other IT professionals.”
DISA, the service provider, hosts the DEE’s cloud-based email, calendars, and supporting global address list, or GAL. The Defense Manpower Data Center provides a data feed to the GAL.
With enterprise email, the Army greatly increases management and control of IT resources and improves execution and performance of IT services. The DEE also eliminates inefficient network configurations and many administrative costs, freeing resources for other priorities.
The Army is saving $76 million in fiscal year 2013 and expects to save $380 million through 2017.
DEE is the first DOD service to use a single authoritative identity management capability that is foundational for moving to other IT enterprise services such as collaboration, content management, and an enterprise service desk. Identity credentials embedded in Common Access Card, or CAC, and public key infrastrure, or PKI, cards guarantee the identity of all DOD personnel and greatly improve security.
More than 43,000 participants from across the Army are currently participating in the Enterprise Content Management and Collaboration Services, or ECMCS, pilot. Begun in May 2013 and running through January 2014, the pilot is evaluating content management and records management services using the DOD Enterprise Portal Service, a DISA hosted and managed solution for enterprise collaboration. The pilot will inform an acquisition decision for enterprise services.
The Army also plans to roll out Unified Capabilities, or UC, the integration of real-time communication services that include finding people online and communicating instantaneously over text, voice, and video. UC bridges the gap between Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, and other computer-related communications technologies. A request for proposal is planned for fiscal year 2014.
“We are leveraging lessons learned as we implement other enterprise services,” said Krieger. “We’ve still got plenty of work left to institutionalize DEE and enterprise services in general.”
The Army DEE team has shifted to sustainment operations, continuous improvement through performance metrics, and re-engineering enterprise business processes. In addition, the team is migrating personnel who had deferrals or extensions.
