OUT OF THE BOTTLE. The Pentagon probably won't meet the oneyear deadline set by CINCPACFLT Adm. Archie Clemins to develop a worldwide intranet. But Defense Department deputy CIO Marv Langston is paying attention. He recently set up a senior steering group to 'look at the policies and procedures fo
OUT OF THE BOTTLE. The Pentagon probably won't meet the one-year deadline set by CINCPACFLT Adm. Archie Clemins to develop a worldwide intranet. But Defense Department deputy CIO Marv Langston is paying attention. He recently set up a senior steering group to "look at the policies and procedures for establishing a secure and assured network," which Langston has dubbed the Global Information Network Enterprise, or GINE, pronounced like creatures who pop out of bottles.
The GINE steering group, the Interceptor has learned, will spend the next six months working on policy and guidance to develop a network "that is as transparent, ubiquitous and simple to use as the telephone.'' It would serve the commanders in chief, the military services and Defense agencies. The steering group will examine polices and procedures for both long-haul and regional networks, with control of the latter a source of increasing frustration between the services and the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Langston hopes to have this review done in time for incorporation into the Year 2000 quadrennial Defense Review. I note with some interest that this effort is in the hands of a steering group and not an Overarching Integrated Product Team, indicating that perhaps as we move into the new year, OIPT madness will be history.
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NEW WINE? At this stage, no one has any idea what effect, if any, the GINE study will have on DISA. But, like any good marketer faced with the possibility of competition, DISA director Lt. Gen. Dave Kelley has repackaged his agency's Defense Information Systems Network as "DISN 2000" to reflect the change from the old switched analog DISN to the new ATM-backed DISN running on multiple Sonet rings.
If I were Kelley, I'd call the new network the "New and Improved DISN 2000" to make it seem even more impressive in the face of potential competition.
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THE DISA/GSA PEACE PACT. Kelley, making his annual luncheon address to AFCEA's Washington, D.C., chapter, told the crowd that he and GSA telecom honcho Dennis Fischer have agreed to "stop the war" over who runs regional metropolitan- or wide-area networks, with the lead going to DISA or GSA depending on the relative concentration of civilian or DOD employees in a given area.
Kelley quickly followed up this peace offering with a statement that DISA still intends to build its own National Capital Region MAN and not throw in with GSA.
Based on this new information, Fischer should evaluate carefully any unexpected invitations from Kelley for a walk through the woods to grandmother's house.
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FINALLY EMPLOYED? I'm told, although I cannot absolutely confirm it, that former Capitol Hill aide and now Litton/PRC Inc. vice president Paul Brubaker finally has landed a Pentagon job, sitting at the right hand of deputy CIO Langston.
If so, this would mark the end of one of the longest high-level job searches ever chronicled within this column, with each half-step carefully marked by the Interceptor and his mobile units.
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