Army migrates 500,000 email accounts to DISA

The Army transferred 500,000 unclassified email accounts to an enterprise mail system operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency and expects to complete the migration of its remaining 900,000 accounts by March 2013, 15 months behind an ambitious schedule set in early 2011.

DISA said another 20,000 email accounts from the Joint Staff, the European Command and its own employees have also moved to the enterprise email system.

The Army said it expects to save nearly $380 million through fiscal 2017 from its email consolidation project.

The Army email project hit a speed bump in January due to language in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Obama on Dec. 31, 2011, that zeroed out funding for the migration until the secretary of the Army examined other, unspecified alternatives and sent a report to Congress.

Army Secretary John McHugh told lawmakers in February that the service's acquisition approach for enterprise email "is in the best technical and financial interests of the Army and provides for the maximum amount of competition possible,” and the service resumed the move to the DISA-provided service this March.