Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the Armyâs new chief information officer/G-6, is a true believer in a “one Army network approach,â as evidenced by her March 31 address to top Army and civilian leaders, Nextgov reports.
The global Army enterprise network “is all about data availability,” she said, which means the Army has to begin changing how it does business when it comes to IT.
For example, the Army should phase out multiple contracts for IT services for individual installations, instead buying âless gear more often,â Nextgov reports.
The Army is also striving to align IT deployment with the serviceâs force generation cycle — to make sure forward-deployed combat units have the most up-to-date systems, Nextgov reports.
The centerpiece of the Armyâs evaluation of its integrated network and tactical systems is a series of tests the Army is initiating this summer at Fort Bliss, Texas.
When the Army announced her appointment earlier this year, Lawrence said a key priority was network modernization.
Her latest remarks are similar to ones she has been making lately.
âWeâve got to change culture, solutions and paradigm,â she said last month at an AFCEA NOVA event, according to Federal Computer Week. âWe cannot deliver the network like we used to anymore. We canât build unique networks every time we deploy something else. We cannot continue to do business as usual as we did in the past, and we cannot continue to buy IT as we did in the past.â