EDS scales back network centers

Electronic Data Systems Corp. has reduced the number of network operations centers (NOCs) it will install when the Navy Marine Corps Intranet is fully up and running.

The original plans were for NMCI to have six network operations centers, but Rick Rosenburg, EDS' NMCI program executive, said that EDS has determined that NMCI will be able to work efficiently and effectively with fewer NOCs.

The global NOC will be at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. In addition, EDS has recently opened NOCs at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., and at North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado Island in San Diego County, Calif. The fourth center will be constructed at Ford Island in Oahu, Hawaii.

Original plans were to build additional NOCs at Naval Station Bremerton, located near Seattle, and at Florida's Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Those facilities will be transformed into server farms that, if necessary, could be transformed into NOCs, Rosenburg said.

The NOCs provide mission-critical services for the Navy's new EDS-owned network, such as network management and monitoring, help-desk support, user administration and information assurance.

Capt. Chris Christopher, deputy program executive officer for information technology at the Navy Department, noted that NMCI is a contract for a service. Therefore, the Navy does not dictate to EDS how to provide that service but has instead established service levels that EDS must meet. EDS then decides how best to meet those service levels.