NMCI helps pare legacy systems

EDS legacy information page

Electronic pinball games and versions of WordStar, the Reagan-era word processing program, are currently some of the biggest hurdles facing the Navy as it works to implement the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

These so-called legacy applications have been an incredible "bugaboo" for NMCI largely because of the mounting number of them, said Capt. Chris Christopher, Navy Department deputy program executive officer for information technology.

Navy officials said the shift to a new network is an opportunity to clean house. Capt. David Aland, the Navy's deputy chief information officer, compared it to moving: One doesn't take everything from the old house, but one sorts through the stuff one needs and gets rid of the rest.

Most of the older applications will be replaced by NMCI's standardized suite of 22 applications. Others will undergo security testing and, if approved, will move to the Navy's new enterprise network operated by Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The sheer number of legacy systems as of Aug. 24, 25 sites had reported more than 15,000 systems to EDS would bog down the new network. Furthermore, the continued use of multiple programs would undermine one of the key advantages of an enterprise network: using a standard suite of interoperable applications across the organization.

The Navy has not set specific targets because the decision about which legacy applications stay or go is made on a site-by-site basis, Aland said. The sites that have gone through the process so far, however, have cut between 30 percent and 80 percent of their systems, he said.

Commander, Naval Reserve Force, for example, managed to cut 2,500 applications down to some 300, an almost 90 percent reduction. Allie Lawaetz, an NMCI program executive with EDS subcontractor Science Applications International Corp., said the site is still going over its list. Meanwhile, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command headquarters started with 3,800 applications and has 1,800 applications today.

Some of this work was done to prepare for the Year 2000 date change, but Christopher said the focus then was merely on whether systems were mission-critical and whether they would work. The focus of the NMCI effort has been on whether the applications are necessary and secure, or whether the functionality is replaced by NMCI's standard software suite.

And all that takes time. For the handful of sites that have undergone the process so far, Aland said it has taken eight or nine months to fully inven.tory and validate the applications. "It was taking too long because we weren't starting early enough," Aland said.

Vice Adm. Richard Mayo, the Navy CIO, wants to halve that. He issued a memo instructing sites to start early at least four months before EDS is scheduled to take over the network at a site.