Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Air Force IT Chief On Wackberry- “We can’t let Research In Motion Ltd. dictate wireless standards for the Air Force.”

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 00:03:05 -0400

Air Force IT chiefs ponder outsourcing, wireless
Source: Newsbytes
Publication date: 2003-08-29

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—One way to gauge IT trends in the Air Force is to listen to what
the service calls its MAJCOM SCs. Translation: Top information systems officers at
the major commands.

At the annual MAJCOM SC panel discussion held during the Air Force Information
Technology Conference earlier this week, nine colonels, one brigadier general and
one civilian discussed systems integration, wireless connectivity and outsourcing.

They were questioned by a former MAJCOM SC, Maj. Gen. Dale Meyerrose, now the
director of command and control systems for the North American Aerospace Defense
Command. A call for more vigorous adoption of wireless networking came from Col.
Richard Jensen, CIO of the Air Force Reserve Command. “The wired net is about as
ubiquitous as you can make it. With wireless, we’re in following mode,” Jensen
said. He said more IEEE 802.11 nets should be installed, with their use becoming
as secure and routine as plugging into the nearest Ethernet port. “You can’t treat
it as something special,” he said.

Referring to the widespread use of BlackBerry handheld computers for wide area
communications, Jensen added, “We can’t let Research In Motion Ltd. dictate
wireless standards for the Air Force.”

Integration of data systems across commands—horizontal integration, as the Air
Force calls it—is an imperative from both Air Force and Defense Department brass,
but is coming slowly, the systems chiefs said.

“Horizontal integration will take another two budget cycles as funding goes to
capabilities rather than systems,” said Col. David Schreck, CIO of the Air Force
Education and Training Command.

Asked if all line programming would be oursourced, Kenneth Percell, director of IT
for the Air Force Materiel Command, said that most of it already has been.

“We’ll never totally outsource our blue-suit programmers, but we’ll have less with
different capabilities,” Percell said.
One questioner, mindful of the recent launch of the IT Commodity Council, asked
whether one vendor would ever have a monopoly on Air Force PC purchases.

That would “have as much chance as a snowball on Talapoosa Street,” answered Air
National Guard CIO Col. James Brown, referring to a nearby road in hot, muggy
Montgomery.

Reported By GCN Daily Updates, http://www.gcn.com
(20030829/WIRES defense-technology, mobile-wireless, outsourcing, daily-updates/)

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=41203304&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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