Navy attempts massive consolidation of intranet portals

Vienna, Va. -- The Navy plans to streamline its intranet portals from 59 to two by the end of 2009, said Rear Adm. David Simpson, director of Navy networks, during the Naval IT Day conference on Wednesday.

Simpson said consolidating portals will help the Navy to join the Defense Knowledge Online Web portal, which provides members of the military with e-mail, social networking and teleconferencing capabilities.

A vendor at the conference who declined to be identified said he believed Simpson's comments indicated that the Navy might plan to become a full partner in DKO, which currently has strong backing only from the Army, Defense Information Systems Agency and Joint Forces Command.

But Simpson did not say whether the Navy plans to help pay for the portal. As of late January, DKO had not received funding in the Defense Department's fiscal 2010 budget. The budget outline President Obama released last week did not mention the portal, and Defense officials have remained mum on what to expect in the president's more detailed budget request, due out in April.

Also at the conference, Rear Adm. John Goodwin, assistant chief of naval operations for the Navy's Next-Generation Enterprise Network, said he could not yet provide details on the architecture of NGEN, which is meant to replace the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

But Goodwin did say he envisions NGEN giving sailors and Marines worldwide instant access to the network resources they need, through plugging a Common Access Card into a computer. Goodwin said the Navy plans to hold an industry day within a matter of weeks to provide more details on the project.

Simpson said the Navy must have direct control over the network. This would be a contrast to NMCI, which was outsourced to the EDS division of HP.

Goodwin emphasized that NGEN must be a secure network and said he hits anyone in his office who does not use the word "secure" in combination with the word "network" with a nominal fine.