Army sets IT goals for 2015

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — By 2015 the Army should be able to deliver security patches to 90 percent of its servers, or disconnect those servers, within 12 hours of learning about a potential security problem, an Army official said today.

By that same date, the Army should have a global help desk operation, addressing problems across the service whatever the theater of operation.

Those are just two of the goals for improving network defense and lowering information technology costs, which Army officials have laid out as part of the service's plan for improving the management and security of its IT infrastructure.

Robert Ringdahl, chief integration officer at Army Network Enterprise Technology Command's Enterprise Systems Technology Activity (ESTA), said the Army currently has more good ideas than the money needed to execute them, but its goals are attainable.

Speaking today at the Army Small Computer Program's IT conference, Ringdahl outlined numerous goals in security and IT management for 2015:

* Reach a Web server penetration rate of zero.

* Control access to network services and data stores based on the roles assigned to users, not their personal identities.

* Provide a common relevant operating picture, in which information on a network's status is available within 30 minutes after a security problem arises and analysis of that event is provided within two hours.

* Complete the ongoing server and application consolidation.

* Lower the average user's IT "self help" time from its current level of 5 hours per week to one hour per week.

Netcom became operational in October 2002; its job is to perform enterprisewide management of the Army's networks and IT. ESTA is the network management arm of the command, Ringdahl said.