Computer users at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., will soon migrate to the central Air Force Network.
Over a 40-day period beginning July 23, technicians will begin migrating workstations, network users and e-mail addresses into the AFNet.
The goal of this project is to collapse all individual or stand-alone Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard networks into one network.
During the migration, some users may experience network or e-mail access interruptions, but for the majority, user impact will be minimal.
Although software and hardware problems are to be expected, the AFNet migration project represents a major change to how computer networks are managed, and is one of the most complex Defense Department technology initiatives ever attempted.
Until now, MAJCOMs and various other Air Force organizations have been operating their own independent networks, consequently driving unique and unit specific requirements. Over the years, this “county option” approach led to standardization and security problems, high operation and maintenance costs, and a lack of enterprise situational awareness. In short, there was no single organization or commander responsible for the network.
The AFNet migration project addresses these issues, and places Air Force cyber operations under the operational control of a single commander. This approach will yield a significant improvement in the Air Force’s ability to fight daily virus activity and malicious intrusion attempts.
Additionally, AFNet migration will centralize services like e-mail and data storage, significantly improving network security and standardization. Finally, operational and training costs will be reduced through the elimination of redundant systems and services.
The most visible change will be in the format of e-mail addresses on base. Addresses will change from first.last@losangeles.af.mil to first.last@us.af.mil.
Regardless of the base or organization assigned, this new address will remain with users for the duration of their Air Force career or affiliation. As more bases join the AFNet, airmen will be able to log into their accounts from any AFNet base without requesting and creating an additional account, allowing easy access to the network during deployments, TDY or PCS moves.
Sites such as the Air Force Portal, Air Force Personnel Center, Defense Finance Accounting Service, will also remain easily accessible regardless of duty location. The migration will also result in a “consolidated” customer service help desk called the Enterprise Service Desk, which is designed to serve as a “one-stop” shop for the resolution of common user problems.
As the projected start date approaches, a team of Air Force Network Integration Center, 690th Network Support Group, and 61st Communications Squadron technicians are busy preparing equipment and resources to facilitate the migration.
More information will be provided to base personnel as it becomes available.
