Soldiers get upgraded, cloud-centered AKO platform

The Army is upgrading its Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal, sometimes called the world’s largest intranet, by moving more information to a cloud environment, increasing security and providing soldiers with an improved ability to access files, collaborate and access combat-relevant information more quickly, service officials said.
The service’s Enterprise Content Collaboration and Messaging (EC2M) is currently in the process of giving AKO a new look and feel as well as an upgraded platform.
“EC2M is also replacing the AKO Single Sign-On service with Enterprise Access Management Service (EAMS-A),” according to Army officials with Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Services.
The EAMS-A capability provides an Identity and Access Management (IdAM) solution for Army applications, regardless of system configuration or hosting location.
Migration to the cloud is part of a broader service wide effort to consolidate data centers, increase virtualization and decrease the Army’s global hardware footprint.