Army announces enterprise consolidation plan

LAS VEGAS—The Army will begin an enterprise consolidation plan next year that will see the creation of two area processing centers to include a variety of computer servers.The two server farms will be implemented within nine months, and the service will either use existing centers managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency or build their own centers.The Army will then focus on migrating four installations to one or both of the area processing centers within the next year to 18 months, said Joe Capps, director of the Enterprise Systems Technology Activity for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command.Capps declined to name the four installations that would be transitioned until he receives funding for the initiative."We're modernizing the Army to an IT infrastructure that's actually shaped to support global reachback," Capps said yesterday during the Army Small Computer Program conference.In total, the Army will build six area processing centers over several years to enhance enterprisewide network security. Capps said the servers would include e-mail, Web services and the majority of storage.He cautioned audience members against being alarmed about the service's regionalized approach to server management. "There is no intent to break IT at a local level," Capps said.