ES project director connects at AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day

Mr. Lee James, III, project director for Enterprise Services, participated in a PEO EIS panel and "matchmaking" session with industry as part of the AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day.

With approximately 650 attendees and 270 companies represented, this event provided a valuable opportunity for ES to promote awareness of procurement opportunities and increase competition for contracts.

“I always welcome the opportunity to meet face-to-face and shake hands with industry professionals,” James said. “Discussions we have at events like these help us refine our requirements and help industry determine if they want to work with us. We’re working toward improved proposals, which ultimately lead to better products at fairer prices to the taxpayer.”

As a panelist, James answered two questions from moderator John Howell, assistant program executive officer, as well as an online question posed by an audience member. Howell first asked James to provide an example of how one of his programs had shifted to meet emerging needs, and James cited Acquisition, Logistics & Technology Enterprise Systems & Services (ALTESS) as a primary example.

James mentioned that ALTESS was recently designated one of the Army’s 12 enduring data centers, and historically, it is a data center “through and through.” However, he said over the past three or four years, Product Director Tim Hale has been able to reinvent and modernize ALTESS.

“Not only is ALTESS providing the data center function, but it is also providing cloud capabilities,” said James. “We’ve implemented Microsoft Azure Environments, impact levels two through five. We’ve got Connection Access Point implemented, and we’re currently migrating systems and applications as we speak. We already have over 130 systems and applications hosted across those environments.”

Other technological solutions James cited to meet emerging needs were the two multifactor authentication pilots managed by Enterprise Content Collaboration & Messaging (EC2M).

“Those of you who have worked on or accessed our network, know that you can’t do so without a (Common Access Card),” said James. “So we’re working on creating other means to authenticate to the network so you can get in and do your job from any mobile device.”

James also fielded a question from Howell about how close the Army is to getting to the cloud. "I think we're on the cusp," James replied. “The challenge that we face now is the delicate balance of modern capability, cloud capability and our cybersecurity posture. From a network standpoint, certain types of data now have to traverse our network, so there are certain ports that need to be open, there are certain protocols that need to be re-evaluated in order for this data to traverse the network. The mechanisms are there in place, and the Army is committed to migrating us to the cloud.”

At the conclusion of the panel, James spent an hour engaging with industry attendees in five-minute increments, during the final session dubbed “matchmaking.” He extended a thank you to all the participants for coming out and to AFCEA NOVA for putting on the event.

“I think the more we can come together to talk about our problems and potential solutions, the better off we all are in terms of delivering those critical capabilities to our great Army,” said James.