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Building The Navy Intranet
wiredog writes "The Washington Post Business section has an article about the ongoing upgrade/integration of the US Navy's computer systems. The $6.9 billion project is the largest Federal IT project ever attempted. The mission is to get rid of, or upgrade, all the old software still in use (including, I kid you not, WordStar), do the same for all the hardware (including, I kid you not, typewriters), and link it all together. There are 100,000 different applications that have to be evaluated, and then either upgraded or replaced. I remember using WordStar. 20 years ago."
The Navy also needs to function like a business. While using WordStar and typewriters may work, keep in mind that it's tough to make corrections to a typewritten document and that sharing documents with other folks not using WordStar is likely quite difficult. Not to mention what these people do when a Word 2002 doc comes to them from someone else. I doubt Word Star has a filter for it. In the long run, the $6B investment may end up saving the Navy money when considering these scenarios.
One of the reasons for replacing typewriters/WordStar/etc is connectivity. With the current system sending a message from one base to another might require using snail mail, or a courier. Modern systems have this thing called 'electronic mail'. I hear it's going to be the Next Big Thing.
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I've had the experience of working in several government agencies that were in the midst of this type of situation. Fortunately, they were much smaller installations. What the article doesn't talk about is the barrier to each individual unit/cost center to purchasing common hardware and software. It is next to impossible for a US Government agency to buy the latest and greatest of anything because of how purchasing works.
In order to buy *anything* you must first go to the GSA (General Services Administration). They send you copies of their current vendor contracts. GSA contracts are put together either yearly or every year and a half. This means that if you aren't ordering at the very beginning of the contract cycle you are getting older models of equipement or software, for higher prices. The contracts are not modified to reflect current market prices or models. If you catch the cycle at the end, you'll be buying 1 to 1 1/2 year old computers/software for 1 1/2 year old prices. A win for the vendor and a big lose for the agency buying stuff.
But wait, there's more. Now that you've ordered through the GSA contract, you have to receive your goods. This takes a very long time. The terms for payment from the US Government is not what you would call favorable to the vendor. The stuff you've bought has to get sent to the GSA, then the GSA has to send it to you. Has anyone ever heard of efficiency in a government agency? I didn't think so.
So what if you don't want to go through the GSA? Well, then you have to write up an RFQ (request for quotation) and publish it so that vendors can submit bids. Not a short or easy process. You then must take the lowest bid that will meet your requirements and start doing the contract thing. Once the contract is in place the vendor can start work. Some government agencies have interesting contract regulations. For example, one that I worked for had an unpublished rule that a vendor could increase the price of goods/services by up to 10% without the contract having to be re-bid. Take that to its logical conclusion.
It's always more difficult when it involves the government.
"Suppose you were an idiot..... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeate myself."
I'm been involved in this "cleanup" for a year now and let me tell you it isn't pretty. While I think its a good idea, unfortunately, their goal is to migrate everything they can to Windows 2000/Office 2000 and get rid of shareware/freeware, therefore open source, products.
Of course there are tons of HP-UX, Solaris, etc boxes that will stay, but those will be in a completely seperate network and not supported. Thankfully, as a Java developer, I can move all my development to a *nix box and keep all the open source software I use.
Its all probably a good idea for the Navy, but I wish they didn't hold such a negative view of any software you didn't pay a crap load of money for.
I am an network administrator who's base is about to be "upgraded" to NMCI. This program is an absolute nightmare! The base they started converting as a test platform in CA is still non-function and it's been at least 18 months since they started.
The number one problem with this system is that the Admral who wrote the contract with EDS didn't know a damm thing about computers or the software that the fleet is using and the primary contractor (EDS) has never delt with the military. You wouldn't beleive the amount of problems we have with they way they want to run the network, it will not support our command mission or requirements.
also, I don't think they've realized that Win2K will not scale to the size they have in mind! Where I to have any say in this we would be running all (where possible anyway) open source software and dumping the billions in M$ costs into more and better infrastructure and training. But who listens to me anyway. It all seems like a huge waste to me.
I believe that you are referring to "PICK" as in Dick Pick, the guy who came up with the thing. The comany is now Raining Data (http://www.rainingdata.com).
In the implementation that we use, the Pick DB runs as a virtual machine on top of AIX. I believe they dropped the OS side of Pick some time ago.
There is a version that will run on Linux as well.
Another problem with NMCI is that once the hardware part is settled and running smoothly THEY WILL GET FIRST DIBBS ON ALL SOFTWARE PROJECTS! That's right boys and girls! So, if your company has developed a cool information management tool that the navy currently can't do without, within the next 5 years (so I've heard) NMCI will get a chance to replace your software with their version without bidding on it!!
And!! You ready for this! THIS NETWORK CAN'T PROCESS CLASSIFIED DATA!! Yep! You heard me! It's sorta like having a car with no WHEELS!!
Man I love payoffs and politicians! They both start will a 'P'! which is damn close to the letter 'S' for screwed!
LFS. Have you built your system today?
This is a serious question... Why should typewriters be disposed of? For general documents, yes of course computers are better. But have you ever tried to fill out a government form by entering everything on your computer and running the form through the printer? I don't recommend it unless you've got a LOT of time and LOT of blank forms. On the other hand, you stick it in a typewriter, line it up till it looks about right, and fill in whatever you need to. You end up with an easy to read document in very little time at all. Granted a template can be made for most US .gov forms, or they can be done electronically, but what happens when they come across some form they don't have a template for?