Navy leans on commercial technology for computing upgrades.

• Author: Parsons, Dan
• Position: Navy IT

When the Navy finally boils down its sprawling information systems into two main networks, they will consist almost entirely of commercially available technology tweaked and retrofitted to meet military security standards.

The dramatic overhaul of the second-largest computing network in the world consists of three main efforts: building an ashore system; its afloat counterpart; and ensuring the two can communicate.

In the IT world, technology progresses at breakneck speeds, often outpacing the Defense Department's best efforts at modernization. Basing its new network architecture on commercially available technology and rebidding on a cyclical basis for system upgrades is designed to tamp down the cost associated with the service-wide network overhaul.

"This is one of the most commercial-off-the-shelf programs in the Navy's history," said Capt. Shawn Hendricks, program manager for the service's Next Generation Enterprise Network. "It's all about keeping cost down by leveraging what's out there and readily available.

NGFN is the shore-based component of the Navy's network upgrade strategy. Its shipboard counterpart, the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Service, or CANES is being developed in parallel. Together they will dramatically update and replace the current Navy-Marine Corps Intranet and 11 other networks at sea and ashore. NCMI represents about 80 percent of the Navy's intranet infrastructure with a user hale of about 800,000 personnel, Hendricks said.

While adequate for the service's current needs, NCMI's software and hardware components are becoming outdated and upgrades are becoming scarce as commercial technology progresses.

"We're meeting requirements today, but we're starting to face problems," Hendricks said. "I'm running on systems they don't even make any more. If you can't get the parts for it, what do you do?"

NCFN will consolidate, upgrade and standardize all the Navy's shore-based computing and data-storage systems across the United States and at bases and installations abroad. A request for proposals was issued in May. Prior to the July 18 deadline, Hendricks said about 150 responses to the REP had been received, but wouldn't elaborate on which companies had submitted proposals. The system is estimated to cost $4.5 billion over four years with full fielding scheduled to be completed sometime around 2016.

"We are still on track for a tentative award date of February next year, but as the circumstances on the...