GNEC is path to joint interoperability, says CIO Sorenson
Interim goal on the way to GNEC is to get Army systems to a federated state.
Fort Lauderdale—All the warfighters are talking about the same thing: the need for joint interoperability. So says LTG Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army’s CIO/G6, who says that the Global Network Enterprise Construct (GNEC) is what will get the service to that goal.
“We are spending a lot of money building out because we have lots of duplicative systems,” said Sorenson, speaking at the LandWarNet 2009 conference on Tuesday. “Now we have to build a single enterprise. LandWarNet (the Army’s part of the Global Information Grid) is fragmented, not standardized and not secure.”
Army G6’s operating principles on the path to GNEC are:
(1) Aggregation — which includes knowing what data are on the network;
(2) Consolidation of equipment;
(3) Standardization of systems; and
(4) Modernization.
“With all the firewalls, we couldn’t see what’s there,” said Sorenson.
The interim goal on the way to GNEC is to get Army systems to a federated state. “They might not be joined together, but they’re pointing in the right direction,” said Sorenson.
The end state is ultimately an enterprise where LandWarNet is global, standardized and secure.
“The GNEC is what will do all that,” he said. “To be an expeditionary force you have to be relevant, and to be relevant you have to have a network.”
There are a number of objectives associated with GNEC establishment. The first objective is to “Operationalize LandWarNet to enable global warfighting capability,” he said. “Our standard mantra is that information shapes the operational environment.” As a result, the Army “must improve its ability to connect to make sure digits can be passed.” The Army’s Fixed Regional Hub Nodes are key to connectivity and can be scaled up to service three divisions, he said.
The second objective is to have data and battle command applications pre-staged to give soldiers global access to data.
The third object is to establish end-to-end network operations.
Those objectives were tested during the recent Network Service Center (NSC) Operational Evaluation (OPVAL) in Germany. The Army plans to establish five NSC’s around the world: Two in CONUS (continental US), one in Southwest Asia (SWA), one in Europe and one in the Pacific. Sorenson provided LandWarNet attendees with an update on the three-year plan for NSC roll out.
Phase One is the establishment of the first NSC in Germany, which is happening now. Phase Two is scheduled for fiscal year 2010, and includes two NSC’s in CONUS and one in SWA. The fifth NSC is planned for Phase Three in fiscal year 2011.
Sorenson said that the key to the NSC program is building the Area Processing Centers (APCs), which is where the data and applications are stored and pre-staged. An industry day on the APCs is scheduled for Sept. 23 at Fort Gordon, to be followed by the issuance of a Request for Proposal, and contract award in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.
The Army is also in the midst of consolidating its active directories down to a total of only two: One for applications and one for e-mail. Said Sorenson: “We have proliferated all these active directories. They are isolated, unsecure, redundant and segregated.”
Sorenson said he expected it to take about 18 months to condense down to two active directories. A Request for Information on an enterprise e-mail strategy was issued this week, and a contract award is expected in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010.