EDS rolls out first NMCI seats

Naval Air Facility Washington

Less than a year after the massive Navy Marine Corps Intranet contract was awarded, the Navy's $6.9 billion effort to create an enterprise network became a reality.

Electronic Data Systems Corp., the vendor for the Navy's effort to contract out its information technology network, officially has taken control of five desktops at the Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C., a Navy activity at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

The transition of the first seats marks an important milestone for NMCI, EDS officials said. "It brings the concept of NMCI into reality. We now have something to look at what NMCI is. We can kick the tires and show that it works as proposed and as advertised," said Rick Rosenberg, EDS' NMCI program executive.

EDS will next be working to transfer all of NAF Washington's 600 seats to the NMCI network, Rosenberg said. NAF Washington is the first of three locations at the forefront of rolling out NMCI.

Petty Officer 1st Class Ian Gehrmann, a 30-year-old aviation maintenance man from Madison, Wis., was the first to be logged on to the NMCI network Sept. 7, sending an e-mail message to Navy Secretary Gordon England and other senior officers.

EDS has taken responsibility for network operations and maintenance at 29 sites and more than 42,000 seats. This stage, called assumption of responsibility, typically requires that EDS take responsibility for individual contracts at each site.

Cutover, where all of a site's users move to the EDS NMCI network, is the second step. NAF Washington is the first site to take that step.