Army launches enterprise email: DISA will implement

By Army CIO/G-6October 26, 2010

Soldier using a laptop computer
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It was announced 25 October 2010 that the Army and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) recently agreed to initiate the migration of Army usersAca,!a,,c email addresses and calendars to the DISA-managed Microsoft Exchange 2010 service.

"The Army's move to Enterprise Email enables users to access their Army email from any DoD location and to collaborate with any Army user worldwide via a Global Address List and enterprise calendar sharing," said Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson, the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6. Today, most Army users are unable to share calendars or to find contact information for Army email users at other locations.

In 2011, the Army will start migrating Army Microsoft Exchange email users. The migration covers 1.4 million unclassified network users and 200,000 secret network users. This effort will produce significant efficiencies beginning in FY12 and generate annual savings exceeding $100 million in FY13 and beyond.

Users in the Army Chief Information Office/G-6 and Army Headquarters will migrate in January and February 2011. The rest of the migration will be completed by Sept. 30, 2011, and will include Transportation Command, European Command and Africa Command.

Enterprise Email will leverage Army-owned Microsoft software licenses and the DoD cloud provided by DISA. The U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Signal Command (Army) will serve as the Army ISP for email service.

With fewer servers and administrators, and the elimination of unnecessary seams between thousands of current heterogeneous local networks, security will increase. Email storage for most users will grow to 4 gigabytes. The base service will exceed current standards, enabling the Army to skip a generation of Microsoft email capabilities. Enterprise Email also will substantially reduce hardware and storage expenses, and eliminate email and spam-filtering redundancies.

"The Enterprise Email partnership between the Army and DISA is a tremendous opportunity to achieve significant capabilities and efficiencies," said Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett, DISA Director. "This is an important step forward for all DoD users, and will serve as the initial catalyst for transitioning DoD towards an enterprise solution."

"Enterprise Email is one of several major Army IT efficiency initiatives that support Secretary of Defense efforts to free up resources for other Defense Department priorities," Sorenson said.

Once users are on Enterprise Email, they will have access to the Army Enterprise Service Desk (AESD) and a global phone number will provide IT support no matter what the email issue. In February 2010, seven CONUS installations began using the AESD; as of August 2010, the first-call resolution rate was 66 percent -- above industry standard. The Army will continue to be the primary contact for Army customers, and provide all initial end-user device support for incident and problem resolution via the AESD.

"We know we can be more efficient," said Sorenson. "For example, Ft. Belvoir, Va., has 15 email servers and six different help desks on a single installation. Other posts, camps, and stations have similar redundancies. Our goal is to make email capability more efficient and ultimately more effective for our Soldiers and Civilians."

Enterprise Email is only one part of the Army move to a global network enterprise. However, it is foundational for implementing other enterprise initiatives like Enterprise Active Directory, Enterprise Identity Management, Enterprise SharePoint Services and Enterprise Service Desk.

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