As all personnel within the Department of Defense and across the federal government are well aware, this is an era of increased budget scrutiny. However, with this scrutiny comes a new opportunity to assess and advance how DoD operates and to improve efficiency across a wide variety of business units and operations. As a significant budget item, the massive information technology infrastructure is no exception and offers a number of areas for improvement, while not compromising product and service quality.
Since December 2010, the Department of the Navy is reevaluating how it approaches IT initiatives and working to centralize and consolidate efforts where it makes sense. These efforts are being made while ensuring operational integrity, maintaining sufficient levels of defense-in-depth and fail-over capabilities, and supporting DoD IT Enterprise Strategy and Roadmap consolidation and efficiency initiatives. These efforts are also designed to recognize and address the costs and risks associated with proposed changes, and will be based on solid business case analyses.
DON IT Integrated Product Teams
In a memo dated Dec. 20, 2010, "DON Information Technology/Cyberspace Efficiency Initiatives and Realignment Tasking," the DON Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen announced the establishment of a new department IT policy and governance board, the Information Enterprise Governance Board (IGB), as well as eight new integrated product teams (IPTs) designed to reshape the way the DON approaches its information management (IM), IT/cyberspace and information resources management (IRM) initiatives. The IPTs formed under this initiative are:
• Data Center Consolidation;
• Application Rationalization;
• Enterprise Software Licensing/Hardware and Software Commodity Purchases/IT Services;
• Navy and Marine Corps Portal Environment;
• Near-, Mid- and Long-Term Initiatives;
• Current and Planned IT Acquisition Programs;
• DON Telecommunications Environment; and
• IT/Cyberspace Workforce and Training.
Through the chartering of the DON IGB, the DON established a single, senior management policy and governance forum to decide on IM, IT/cyberspace and IRM matters. Moreover, the DON is now leveraging existing resources and functional processes used by the Navy and Marine Corps to enable improved collaboration and resolve these challenges more rapidly. The newly created IPTs benefitted greatly from the formation of this streamlined approval process, providing a focused, mission-oriented team that is empowered to operate across the more traditional intra-DON organizational structures.
"Be Enterprise, Be Effective, and Be Efficient"
In a follow-on memo dated May 5, 2011, "DON IM/IT/ Cyberspace Campaign Plan," Halvorsen expands the plan by outlining the DON IM, IT/cyberspace and IRM priorities for the next 24 months, based on the following concepts:
• An enterprise approach;
• Centralized and consolidated efforts;
• Maximized security;
• Protected personally identifiable information; and
• Effective and cost-efficient implementation.
He also laid out his vision for the DON IM/IT/Cyberspace Campaign Plan for FY2011-2013 under the theme: "Be Enterprise, Be Effective, and Be Efficient." This memo provides a framework built on four goals:
Goal 1: Sustain an operationally effective, integrated, secure, and efficient IM/IT/cyberspace and IRM capability.
Goal 2: Ensure protection of sensitive information, including personally identifiable information, and timely access to trusted authoritative information to enable effecti