DOD Enterprise Email meets some resistance

The Defense Department’s DOD Enterprise Email system has the capacity to handle up to 4.5 million users and late last year absorbed 1.5 million when the Army completed its migration to the system in August.

And in September, DOD CIO Teri Takai issued a memo giving the other services and DOD component agencies until early January 2014 to submit plans for moving to the system.

But the migration is meeting some resistance, according to Federal News Radio, which reports  that the Navy and Marine Corps, which have opposed moving to the system, are still not sure about making the switch. The primary concern is cost, and whether it makes sense to abandon their own enterprise email system — through the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet — in favor of the DOD-wide system. The Navy is doing a business case analysis on the feasibility of the move, Federal News Radio reported.

DOD Enterprise Email (DEE) is part of the department’s Joint Information Environment, an overarching effort to develop cloud-based networks to deliver secure voice, data and intelligence throughout the military enterprise. DEE uses Outlook Anywhere with Common Access Card-authentication for access and security features including Electronic Mail Security Gateway for Internet email traffic and McAfee GroupShield for email, according to the Defense Information Systems Agency, which manages DEE.

And despite the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ reticence, DOD officials have said been insistent on all of the services moving to the system.

However, not every agency within DOD will be able to make the switch. The Army last month acknowledged as much when it announced that “organizations unable to participate” in DEE would have a choice of Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps for Government. Those organizations include the Army Recruiting Command and the Army Corps of Engineers.