Policy Briefs

Army sets IT goals

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 potential security problems, an Army official said June 5.

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, said the Army currently has more good ideas than the money needed to execute them, but its goals are attainable.

Army CIO to take budget helm

The Army's chief information officer is already responsible for the service's entire information technology budget, but that office is still two years away from being able to centrally manage those dollars, according to the Army deputy CIO.

"Being responsible for it and being able to do it are two different things," David Borland, Army deputy CIO, told Federal Computer Week. "The highly centralized management of the Army's IT budget is two years away."

Speaking June 4 at the Army Small Computer Program's IT conference, Borland said the Army's IT budget for fiscal 2004 is $5.58 billion, or about 6 percent of the service's total funding.

"Being able to unravel a complicated budget like the Army's and centrally managing it are different things," Borland said.