WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 26, 2010) Army leadership discussed the progress of the LandWarNet enterprise strategy Monday, announcing the roll out of Enterprise Email.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, chief information officer/G-6, explained that the LWN transformation's ultimate goal is to make Soldier access to the Global Network Enterprise easier. He spoke during the "Transforming LandWarNet: Implementing the Enterprise Strategy" panel at the Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition.
"We're transforming this enterprise to make your access to the network simpler," Sorenson said.
To help achieve that goal the G-6 is initiating Enterprise Email, beginning with Army headquarters and the G-6's migration in January or February 2011, with a completed migration across the Army in September 2011. The new service will enable users to access their Army e-mail from any Defense Department location, enhancing communication and collaboration across the Army and eventually, all the services, officials said.
Enterprise Email was created in partnership with the Defense Information Systems Agency and will not affect Army Knowledge Online mail service at this time. According to Alfred Rivera, DISA's director of computing services, the partnership will bring the cost of e-mail service per user, per year down from over $100 to less than $39.
Brig. Gen. Jennifer Napper, commanding general of the Network Enterprise Technology Command, explained that users would no longer need to migrate their e-mails when they move organizations or locations and will have one permanent e-mail address.
"I think that the selling point for a lot of folks is that it really is a GAL," Napper said, "One global address list that's DOD-wide."
In addition to implementing Enterprise Email, the G-6 is working to modernize and improve all aspects of LWN via a "common operating environment," or an approved set of computing technologies and standards enabling secure and interoperable applications to be deployed, officials said.
Another goal of the LWN transformation is to focus on building the capacity of the Global Network Enterprise and to remove the burden of network integration from the Soldiers downrange by aligning the delivery of the network to the Army Forces Generation cycle, said Col. John Morrison Jr., director of LandWarNet/Battle Command, G-3/5/7.
"Now, a lot of folks misconstrue that network modernization is something new. The network exists today," Morrison said. "It's out there, it's alive and well if you go downrange. What we're talking about is the continuous modernization of that network, much like industry does, that makes that better every single day for our formations and for our Soldiers."
"Your ability to connect will be seamless," Sorenson said in closing, "transparent and in many cases, a lot simpler than it is today because we will have an enterprise (structure)."
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