Nov
1
Written by:
CIO/G-6
11/1/2011 10:27 AM
October was the biggest month yet for Enterprise Email and the best is yet to come. The 76,000 migrations in October bring the Army total to nearly 200K users, or 20% of our planned migration to the DISA hosted Email service. Over 22,000 of these users also carry Blackberries. Migrations are going very smoothly as we continue to leverage the lessons learned and improve procedures developed during the pause taken earlier this year. I'm pleased to say the feedback continues to be mostly positive as more people experience the benefits of EE. Consider this note I received earlier in the month from Colonel Chuck Ames while in Southwest Asia. He highlights the convenience of having a single identity on the network.
"Greetings-- It's been a few months since last I checked in with you regarding EEmail-- Despite being in Kuwait and Iraq, I've tried to stay with EEmail. Surprisingly, it hasn't been all that hard. The theater in general has robust enough nets to allow the necessary resources the OWA {Outlook Web Access} application requires to work well, and although there is a latent component to clicking 'send' and the message actually transmitting, it's hardly an issue. Implementing ActivClient/Signatures et al differently at each network causes most of the headaches, I presume exacerbated by routing tangles from cert servers to the desktop.
Contrast that with AKO, and the experience, for mail at least, is favorable. As I traverse the Iraq Joint Operations Area moving from workstation to workstation, all my mail travels with me, all gig plus of it. Importantly, I have not been decorating those workstations with persistent artifacts from my .pst.
I think we ought to look at desktop VoIP as the next hot rock."
I am happy the word is starting to get out and Chuck's message alludes to something that is widely implied but not often stated. Enterprise Email is just the beginning. Our true objective is Unified Communications and Collaboration, what DOD refers to as “Unified Capabilities” including presence and awareness and chat (using the XMPP protocol), VoIP and Video (using SIP) over IP-- all drawing upon the authoritative Identity Service provided by our partners at the Defense Manpower Data Center and the Defense Information Systems Agency, the same service that underpins Enterprise Email. There is real power in having a single, secure, network identity validated by an authoritative source as your "key" to the network. This means that as the network matures, your data and applications will always be available to you whether you are deployed, at homestation or taking some well-deserved time off.
Mike
5 comment(s) so far...
Lets not forget the hardware
Great idea. I've been waiting for this. I only ask that whoever is in charge of putting together the Consolidated Buy List of computers on CHESS to include an integrated webcam on laptops/monitors as a possible configuration to purchase. It makes me cringe everytime I see a dedicated desktop VTC next to a very underutilized laptop being used by the same person. In the effort of unifying service, lets not forget to unify the hardware as well.
By CPT Raoul Fruto on
11/2/2011 4:34 PM
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Re: Enterprise Email Migration hits 20%; Army on Path to Unified Communications and Collaboration
AKO has worked flawless for me. Hope new email system is as reliable.
By Army Guy on
11/3/2011 6:56 PM
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Retired email
Good Morning
While updating my profile I see that as a retiree I have a retired email (*.ret.mail.mil). How do I access the retired email? I sent a test message but it does not go to my default acct.
Thanks
By David Shields USA Retired on
11/18/2011 8:20 PM
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Re: Enterprise Email Migration hits 20%; Army on Path to Unified Communications and Collaboration
Mr. Krieger,
An update from your message back in Aug. I didn't want to be too premature and claim a victory on this back then, but I knew we would do well, the 69th is a great working team.
69th Signal EE Migration
-Mission accomplished, except for a few stragglers to square away.
-I've attached the 69th Migration Timetable Chart (69th MTC) that we used to track our migration.
Our EE Migration mission was an epic success! Almost 13K migrated with an
<1% overall failure rate:
This due to:
- Battalion Commander presence on:
- 5th Sig Cmd daily IPR EE teleconference calls.
- Tiger team site visits
- Briefing at Garrison Community Huddle
- Command Emphasis to all supported AOR customers either by:
- Email from 69th Sig Bn Commander
- Email from OC Chiefs to all supported AOR G6/S6 personnel
- Training on Pre and Post EE Migration Checklist
- Review, correction and return of EE migration provisioning list in a timely manner
- Tiger Team Assistance by:
- 69th Sig LWNSO team members
- 69th Sig ROC team members (soldiers and DAC)
- 7th TTSB soldiers
Our Battalion's success can be attributed to the outstand support we got
from all of our NEC OCs with getting the information out and providing a
positive endorsement for EE and our customers couldn't wait, they wanted EE.
Credit goes to:
-LTC Rivers (69th Commander) led this charge with pre-migration visit all of
our huge customers (JMTC,JMRC, 173rd, 172nd, 12th CAB, 18th SB) and
accompanied the Tiger Team on many missions
-Mr. Dale Jones (Deputy NEC) accompanying and supporting all Post Migration
Tiger Teams
-Mr. Tom Zschokke, training on BB migration and leading the Tiger Teams
-Mr. Jim McCall and Mr. Anthony Willwerth (Grafenwöhr ROC EE Leads)
-Mr. Eli Torres (Ansbach OC Chief & EE Lead)
-Mr. Robert Lucas (Bamberg OC EE Lead)
-Mr. Steven Paguia and Mr. William Jenkinson (Hohenfels OC EE Leads)
-Mr. Albers Marcus (Schweinfurt EE Lead)
-Many Soldiers from the 69th Signal Battalion and 7th TTSB supporting the
Post Migration Tiger Team's efforts with our customers.
Russ Arden
Business Management Center Chief
Grafenwöhr, Germany
By Russ Arden on
12/6/2011 8:57 AM
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Re: Enterprise Email Migration hits 20%; Army on Path to Unified Communications and Collaboration
Wasn't this suppose to be complete and handle all 1.9+ Army email accounts by the end of 2011?
Meanwhile doesn't the award winning Army Knowledge Online handle well over 1.9 million email accounts? Arn't they handling all of these email accounts on roughly 12 internet grade servers?
It seems that Congress cut funding a while ago to 2% until the Army Enterprise Email program proved its value. As a tax payer I would really like to see that documentation… or did the Army provide it and regain the funding? If so, time for FOIA request.
If the Army Enterprise Email program failed to prove it's worth to Congress, isn't it time to shut it down and call it a day?
Which is it? FOIA or shut down? Shaking AKO down for its lunch money is a bully tactic Mr. Krieger and nobody respects a bully… nobody.
By Thomas on
12/24/2011 10:03 AM
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