Victor Gavin, the U.S. Navy‘s program executive officer for enterprise information systems, says that the service’s pilot efforts to utilize Microsoft Office 365 to migrate the branch’s email to the cloud has progressed, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.
“We’re going to figure out the ease with which we can integrate our unique requirements with commercial products, and it’s also going to teach us how to buy cloud services,” Gavin told the station.
Jared Serbu writes that the Navy will implement full deployment to the cloud based on the results of the October pilot that aims to enable access to email and other Navy Marine Corps Intranet systems from any location.
Gavin noted that he expects the program to build on mobility and efficiency to help users perform their duties.
For the pilot, Dell will provide the Navy with the Microsoft platform and a private cloud environment to host email services under the potential three-year, $2.9 million contract, the report said.
Gavin said the service is working on the total costs to integrate the Defense Department‘s security infrastructure with a commercial cloud product like Office 365.
“The primary purpose of the pilot is to start with the commercial price, add in what we need to do for security, and then make a fact-based business decision based on the results.”
Serbu reports that the Navy asked DoD’s chief information officer earlier this year to waive the service from a DoD policy that requires all military services to use the Defense Information Systems Agency‘s email service due to a business case analysis that pointed to higher potential costs.
