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A Case Study in Network Transformation

A Case Study in Network Transformation U.S. Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI)

The Department of the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps had a vision: Create a transformed and operational Enterprise Network Infrastructure for the Navy and Marine Corps to support critical war-fighting missions. By transforming a disparate legacy system into a common global communications and computing environment, while consolidating and regionalizing network operations management, the Navy and Marines have reduced their network's total cost of ownership. They have also improved network performance is measured and guaranteed through mandatory Service Level Agreements.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As a result of one of the largest U.S. Government IT outsourcing contracts in history - totalling more than $8.8 billion - Harris Information Technology Services helped transform the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps legacy network environment into a single enterprise-wide Navy/Marine Intranet. This newly transformed environment has increased network performance by managing the Regional Network Operation Centers to efficient Service Level Agreements.

THE CHALLENGE
The barriers to achieving the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps' vision of creating a common communications and computing environment were daunting:

THE SOLUTION
The prime contractor for the NMCI project (EDS) selected Harris IT Services for its commercial-sector experience in designing and managing enterprise networks. Harris IT Services entered the picture as a Tier-1 subcontractor to transform the voice, video and data network services from the telecommunications demarcations at each base to the wall port of each seat of the enterprise network. From the very beginning, Harris IT Services put its four-step Network Transformation process in motion.

  1. Assess
    • Worked with client to identify seats that would be transferred to EDS/Harris IT Services.
    • Developed initial site-level transition plan, trained staff members and assumed responsibility of customer's network.
    • Gathered data for joint, pier-side and legacy inventory surveys to create actual base designs.

  2. Define
    • Established timeline to assume responsibility for seats operating under legacy network.
    • Ordered new equipment for network migration.
    • Architected and designed active Base Area Network (BAN)/Local Area Network (LAN) for sites, network operations centers and server farms.

  3. Implement
    • Installed and configured active-network components and related items for BANs/LANs, including: computers, servers, switches, routers, racks, rack cabling, support cabling and UPS power supplies.
    • Connected Navy and U.S. Marine Corps sites to Network Operations Centers, deployed BAN/LANs, then connected seats to NMCI network.
    • Tested BAN/LANs to evaluate compliance with service level agreements to maintain legacy connectivity.

  4. Support & Manage
    • Operated and maintained Regional Network Operations Centers (NOCS) and managed optimized Service Level Agreements.
    • Operated and supported network with Tier 2 and 3 help-desk support under enterprise management.
    • Maintained and technically refreshed the Navy and Marine Corps Shore Enterprise Network.
    • Supported the legacy network operations.

THE RESULT
Navy and Marine personnel now have comprehensive, end-to-end information services through a secure, common-computing and communications environment. Harris IT Services helped transform multiple incompatible networks among various Navy and U.S. Marine Corps constituents into one coherent Intranet providing: