Intranet Installation Nears Completion

Signal, Sep 2007 by Lawlor, Maryann

As final NMCI seats are placed, Navy and contractor share views on pros and cons, ups and downs.

The mission objective for the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet was a simple, one-line item: Combine the thousands of systems, applications and control mechanisms in the entire U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps together into one uniform, well-managed network. Simple, but far from easy. The promised payback from this undertaking was also simple: enhanced security, increased efficiency and the capacity to move more military personnel from the computer management field onto the battlefield. Now, as the project approaches the end of its initial contract period - even taking user rumbling and grumbling into account- the world's largest private network appears to be working as planned.

With one month remaining on the original contract, approximately 95 percent of the more than 350,000 Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) individual seats initially ordered are now in place. Only seats in the most challenging fields such as the intelligence and nuclear communities remain to be installed. In keeping with the ever-changing essence of technology, lead contractor EDS Corporation is now updating the technology of approximately 40 percent of the completed seats. This will ensure that users can exploit capabilities developed in the seven years since the Navy signed the contract to create the NMCI with the Piano, Texas-based firm. The service's goal is to refresh approximately 100,000 of the seats annually. So far, the process has progressed smoothly and customer satisfaction has jumped markedly.

The significance of the NMCI grows with each step the armed services take toward networkcentric warfare. Lessons learned by both the Navy and the contractor have been as painful as any suffered by pioneers. But the experience gained on each side is the core material for the textbook many military organizations are following as they get out of the information technology business and into the business at hand: defending the nation by taking advantage of networking.

The road to where the NMCI currently resides has been a rocky one. Among the early hurdles in the service's lane was the discovery that its systems were home to more than 100,000 applications; the service was prepared to handle a total closer to 10,000.

Potential security risks precluded all of these legacy applications from being installed on NMCI systems, so the problem had to be tackled from two angles. First, applications that were absolutely necessary for a command to fulfill its mission were quarantined on the old network until they could be tested to determine the next step. Second, area managers were assigned to scrutinize the legacy applications in 23 functional areas to determine which to keep and which to delete. To remain in use, applications had to be tested to ensure that they met specific security requirements and interoperated with Windows 2000, the operating system of the initial NMCI rollout. Testing to ensure that applications meet these criteria continues as necessary.

All of the seats being rolled out today feature Microsoft XP. The Navy is now testing Vista, Microsoft's newest operating system, because some of the software developed by companies other than Microsoft and prior to Vista's release did not provide the drivers and other software pieces required to ensure interoperability with the new operating system.

But the Navy was not the only organization experiencing problems from the NMCI implementation. EDS found itself spending money it could not immediately recoup from the Navy because payment was contingent on installation, not equipment purchase. Some reports indicate a six-month lag between purchase and installation mostly because of legacy system issues. Navy officials disagree with this figure and say it is closer to 30 to 45 days. Similar problems occurred with infrastructure update expenses.

Equally important to these high-level challenges were problems the NMCI's new users were facing. Most of the issues they raised had to do with some aspect of performance, explains Col. Lyle M. Cross, USMC, acting program manager, NMCI, Arlington, Virginia. Comments about the NMCI found on Internet message boards bear out Col. Cross' assessment. Many criticize the speed-or rather lack of it-of the browser and network drives. Others contend EDS was not holding up its end of the NMCI contract in terms of providing cutting-edge technology. For example, the speed at which DVDs became the medium of choice for sharing files caught NMCI installation and refreshes off-guard. Users were receiving information needed for work on DVDs but could not view the information because the hardware did not feature a DVD driver.

Performance problems could be tied to any number of causes, Col. Cross points out Sometimes just increasing the amount of random access memory proved to be a relatively inexpensive stopgap solution that could be put into place until the scheduled technology refresh occurred. In some cases, the refresh schedule was adjusted to address performance problems sooner than planned, Col. Cross says.