Digital Government

Kocher, Ballmer chart IT's future

The combination of the Internet and other technological innovations, such as advanced speech recognition, electronic paper and software that enables computers to see and learn, will fuel a dramatic shift in the next five years in the way the government and the commercial sector do business, accordi

Digital Government

AF lab taps two under Answer

The Air Force Research Laboratory at WrightPatterson Air Force Base, Ohio, last month tapped two vendors for a broad range of information technology support services, replacing older contract vehicles with services available under a General Services Administration contract. With the signing of the

Digital Government

Micron positioning for services push

Montgomery, Ala. With profit margins on personal computer sales plummeting to their lowest levels in years, one of the federal market's most successful PC vendors unveiled a dramatic business strategy this month that focuses on the burgeoning market in information technology services and support

Digital Government

'Workarounds' keep SPS on track

After holding three major exercises to field test the Defense Department's troubled $326 million Standard Procurement System, the Air Force developed 340 technical 'workarounds' to problems that would have made it impossible for the service to deploy using the system. SPS is intended to automate th

Digital Government

Russians ask for Y2K help with nukes

Russia lags far behind in its efforts to fix potential Year 2000 problems that threaten its command and control systems and nuclear warhead storage facilities, according to a Pentagon message that details highlevel talks between the U.S. Defense Department and the Russian Ministry of Defense. The

Digital Government

Air Force to expand IT2 program

MONTGOMERY, Ala. The Air Force's Standard Systems Group this fall plans to ramp up its procurement of information technology products and services by adding a throng of new contracts to a recently created streamlined computer procurement program. SSG plans to add more products to its Information

Digital Government

Microsoft to tailor support for DOD

Montgomery, Ala. Microsoft Corp. has proposed customizing a set of software support services for the Defense Department to ensure that DOD's systems stay up and running during a war, senior Microsoft officials confirmed last week. In an interview last week with Federal Computer Week, Microsoft pr

Digital Government

Air Force unveils PowerPoint-to-Web technology

MONTGOMERY, Ala. The Air Force Air Armament Center has developed the World Wide Webbased Executive Management Information System, which enables users to post information directly to World Wide Web pages from Microsoft Corp. PowerPoint slides or Excel spreadsheets without first sending the data

Digital Government

Russians ask for Y2K help with nukes

Russia lags far behind in its efforts to fix potential Year 2000 problems that threaten its command and control systems and nuclear warhead storage facilities, according to a Pentagon message that details high-level talks between the U.S. Defense Department and the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Digital Government

IT lessons emerge from Kosovo

In one of the first pubic discussions of lessons learned from the 78day military operation in Yugoslavia, senior Air Force officials today credited advancements in information technology for what they called the first successful military campaign to rely on air power alone.

Digital Government

Microsoft prez outlines future computer to Air Force

The president of Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday told a packed house of Air Force and industry representatives that the single biggest challenge facing the Defense Department and the information technology industry is finding more efficient ways to manage and communicate corporate knowledge.

Digital Government

Air Force BPA sales double

Sales continue to skyrocket on the Air Force Standard Systems Group's premier contract covering desktops, laptops and servers, with the volume of business more than doubling since June. Dell Computer Corp., Gateway Inc. and Micron Electronics Inc. to date have sold $64 million worth of standard com

Digital Government

SQL Server gains ground on Oracle

Microsoft Corp. is not used to playing second fiddle, so you can imagine how strange the mood must have been around the software giant's federal division during the past few years knowing that 75 percent of the government market would not touch your database product. But things started to change fo

Digital Government

Security gaps persist in DOD nets

Despite countless warnings dating to 1996, the Defense Department's information networks continue to be plagued by serious security flaws and weaknesses that have opened up almost every area of the department to cyberattacks and fraud, according to a new General Accounting Office report. Released l

Digital Government

IT central to Kosovo reconstruction

The U.S. Information Agency this week plans to ship dozens of computers, printers and other technology tools to Kosovo, where a small number of Internet centers will form the foundation of a massive reconstruction effort throughout the ravaged province. Started in May at the height of the air war i

Digital Government

Experiment helps lay groundwork for post-Kosovo Air Force

An Air Force experiment designed to test cuttingedge information technologies and new warfighting methods is applying lessons learned during the air war in Yugoslavia to forge a revolutionary change in the way the U.S. military responds to global crises. Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX)

Digital Government

DOE's nuclear Y2K tests shaky

The nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons will not be affected by the Year 2000 bug because the warheads do not rely on any datedependent systems or processes to operate properly, according to a recently released General Accounting Office report.

Digital Government

Extensive security gaps persist in DOD networks

Despite countless warnings dating to 1996, the Defense Department's information networks continue to be plagued by serious security flaws and weaknesses that have opened up almost every area of the department to cyberattacks and fraud, according to a new General Accounting Office report.

Digital Government

Four firms face off on sim biz

Four companies this month begin facing off for more than half a billion dollars in systems integration business supporting one of the Air Force's strategic simulation and training programs. Over the next six months, CACI Inc., Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) , Science Applications International Corp.

Digital Government

Air Force passes Y2K test with flying colors

Senior Air Force officials last week said they are confident the service would be able to go to war Jan. 1, 2000, after a critical Year 2000 exercise that involved dozens of the service's aircraft and key command and control systems revealed no major system failures. The Y2K Flag exercise conducted