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Navy Reserve Leading Way in Eliminating Legacy Computer Networks

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100519-23
5/19/2010

By Jim Vorndran, Commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command Public Affairs

FORT WORTH, Texas (NNS) -- Navy Reserve completed its shut down of the final legacy computer network May 17 - saving the Navy $1.2 million annually.

Navy Reserve Network (NAVRESNET) service ended following completion of migrating final applications and services from a Reserve Force maintained data center in Fort Worth, Texas to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command data center in New Orleans, La.

"This is a very significant day in the Navy Reserve, and in the Navy, to be the first Echelon Two command to shutdown all legacy networks," Vice Adm. Dirk Debbink, chief of Navy Reserve said. Previously, many Reserve facilities would have multiple workstations to support both the NAVRESNET and Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) hosted applications. With the transition complete and NAVRESNET shut down, users will now have a single computer system accessing network services over NMCI.

"The Navy Reserve now contracts services through NMCI as opposed to having to maintain a physical network infrastructure in Fort Worth," Lt. Cmdr. Michael Leachman, commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command (CNRFC) information assurance manager said. "By not having to maintain the legacy infrastructure we are saving $100,000 each month."

The transition of all Navy Reserve legacy networks to SPAWAR data centers results in a long-term hardware savings in excess of $31 million throughout its lifecycle. The Navy Reserve saves another $6 million that would have been spent on services for contractors, license fees and circuit charges.

NAVRESNET, the last of 12 Navy Reserve legacy networks, was established in 1994 at the direction of CNRFC to satisfy a requirement for Navy Reserve facilities to have interconnectivity through a wide area network. The Navy Reserve's previous 12 networks supported 1,500 workstations, 312 servers and 323 applications. Applications such as the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, the Navy Reserve Homeport, Navy Reserve Readiness Reporting Module and Real Time Administration of Reservists all successfully migrated prior to shutting down the NAVRESNET.

With the disestablishment of NAVRESNET, the Navy Reserve saves money and provides network services through the NMCI which is more secure. "It took a lot of work by many talented people to make this happen, and we were able to do it with no loss of functionality to the end user," Leachman said.

"It is easier to stay with what you have and what you know, but in this case the hard work of many people gave us a better system as we move forward," Debbink said.

So with the order to "Execute NAVRESNET shutdown," Senior Chief Information Systems Technician Darrick Harris, Senior Chief Information Systems Technician Carlton Harris, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Yi Tam and civilian IT professionals flipped switches and disconnected cables to terminate the last remaining Navy Reserve Network.