LandWarNet Reshapes NetOps
ARMY NETWORK OPERATIONS/SECURITY CENTER PLAYS KEY ROLE IN FLOWING INFORMATION TO CRITICAL USERS WHEN AND WHERE THEY NEED IT.
More than just a name for the Army’s portion of the Global Information Grid, LandWarNet is becoming a fundamental concept for all aspects of Army operations, according to participants at the Land- WarNet 2007 Conference.
One of the speakers at the AFCEAsponsored event, held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in August, was Colonel Ronald R. Stimeare, director of the Army Global Network Operations and Security Center (A-GNOSC). Stimeare reflected on progress with LandWarNet in a recent interview with MIT magazine.
“The difference between where the LandWarNet has been previously and where it is evolving to today is dramatic,” Stimeare stated. “We are getting closer to a comprehensive solution. With that, no one individual or no one organization is going to be able to get it there in the time it must be done. It has to be a collaborative effort between all of the stakeholders.”
Such efforts are vitally important to Stimeare, who as A-GNOSC director has significant responsibilities when it comes to the future of LandWarNet.
The A-GNOSC’s mission is to “enable battle command across the LandWarNet at the speed of thought,” said Stimeare. As such, the Army GNOSC serves as “the operational execution arm of network operations” for the entire LandWarNet. This includes operating and defending the LandWarNet in support of the various Army Service Component Commands (ASCC), such as those in U.S. Central Command and U.S. Northern Command, and its functional commands, like the National Guard Bureau and the Army Corps of Engineers, Stimeare described.
“The Army has realized that, to be successful, an organization needs to possess the ability to quickly reach out and effect change and enforce compliance, in order to make sure information is flowing to critical users. This is especially true with our expeditionary forces as they deploy around the world responding to various missions across the entire spectrum of operations Stimeare noted. The collaborative Land- WarNet environment must be ubiquitous, transparent and allow users to be able to apply a plug-and-play methodology as they maneuver in and around this cyber battlespace.
A-GNOSC is a key organization designated for bringing about that change. To manage the LandWarNet as a successful element of military network-centricity, Stimeare has many multi-faceted factors to consider.
NETWORK OPERATIONS
A-GNOSC is responsible for network operations, but network operations breakdown into three major components— enterprise management, content management and network defense —Stimeare explained.
Enterprise management includes network management but encompasses far more, he noted. Enterprise management requires a comprehensive approach to bringing resources to bear on Army challenges.
“Enterprise management consists not only of network management but also system management, service management, SATCOM management and spectrum management,” he added. “It involves taking a look at what is required from an enterprise perspective to properly manage things to ensure that information is accessible and available.”
Content management covers the exchange of information and ensuring that users are capable of acquiring and delivering necessary information.
“As for content management, that’s one that a lot of folks have not yet gotten their arms around from an enterprise perspective,” Stimeare lamented. “There are a lot of stovepipe systems out there that do not communicate well with each other, but we must enable a network-centric environment to ensure that everyone that uses Land- WarNet can access information. We have to be concerned that there is a lot of information out there—but is it truly accessible?
“Some subsets of content management are integration, storage, access, discovery and delivery. Somebody has to be looking at that from an enterprise perspective and not just from the perspectives of sub-elements,” he said.
Network defense also is frequently misunderstood, Stimeare observed, as some people equate network defense with computer defense.
“That’s not completely true,” Stimeare said. “Network defense is not only computer network defense, but also computer network defense response actions and defense of computer information infrastructure— where is our intellectual capital and how are [we] protecting it—as well as information assurance.”
Although there is quite a bit of general misunderstanding about these three elements of network operations, Stimeare is proud of how the employees of the A-GNOSC have worked to educate war fighters and civilians alike who rely upon LandWarNet.
“If this is not being looked at holistically, we don’t have enterprise management or control. Instead, we have a bunch of disparate efforts happening in a non-cohesive manner,” Stimeare stated. “We are trying to provide that net-centric enterprise environment where soldiers and users can access information and exchange information. That’s not just inside the Army but also outside the Army to include the joint community, various national level agencies and the international community.
“So when we look at our spectrum of operations and the environment in which we must perform, we must ensure that information that is relevant to our mission as individuals is easily accessible when and where we require it. To have that, you have to be able to go down to the lowest common denominator of information, and that’s really the data element itself. If we don’t have a common way of sharing, accessing and exchanging data, then we have a bunch of stovepipe systems,” he warned.
Stimeare also expressed pride in the AGNOSC’s ability to influence change rapidly to strengthen a collaborative environment across Land-WarNet. Various domains within the Army—including frontline warfighters and the business and intelligence domains—must be able to talk to each other in an enterprise manner, or else success becomes impossible.
Therefore, the A-GNOSC cannot simply field tools without understanding how and why those tools are used and which tools and services constitute a high priority for LandWarNet users and their various communities.
“So we not only just field a tool—fire and forget if you will—but we overlay our network operations initiatives under the construct of DOTMLPF,” Stimeare commented.
DOTMLPF stands for doctrine, organization, training, material, leadership and education, personnel and facilities. The acronym was developed by the Department of Defense as a means of reminding its personnel to think holistically when addressing problems and issuing directives.
“Let’s say you want to put a widget out there, whether it is an enterprise solution as far as providing information or securing information,” Stimeare supposed. “Not only do you hand someone that box, but you need to look at doctrine. Has doctrine been established as to how we field, implement and then operate and finally influence that particular widget? Are there organizations that can deal with those solutions effectively? Are we training and educating folks on that? Are we properly manning the work force in order to handle that? Are we ensuring that the leadership is involved? Do we have the right people, materiel and facilities?”
Any approach to solving a problem requires a look at any cultural change that may result from that approach, Stimeare said. Should a cultural change be required, decision-makers must examine how to implement it. In addition, any new approach may require a change in processes or the creation of new processes at specific locations where that approach will change procedures. Finally, decision-makers must understand if their approaches have the proper resources initially and ensure the proper resources are available in the outyears of any initiative as well.
“In my mind, it is important to take this approach with whatever we do,” Stimeare said. “That way, we ensure that we have the right people using it and we have given them the right training and we have given them the right resources, and if cultural change is required and that we are assisting with that. To take that comprehensive approach is something that can only prove to be successful and enhance and mature LandWarNet, which we must operate within and are responsible for ensuring its use as an enterprise for the folks that need it.”
SECURITY CHALLENGES
A lot of observers may examine the challenges of LandWarNet and recognize that it does for the Army much of what the commercial Internet does for the entire world. So the question inevitably arises: Why not simply leverage the Web to accomplish LandWarNet’s goals? One reason that doesn’t necessarily happen is security.
“We have to be careful on the security side of whom we are gaining information from and whom we are sharing information with as well,” Stimeare said. “Our GNOSC and our theater and functional NOSCs are the ones that have the ability to influence that from a command-and-control standpoint.”
The other reasons involve the kind of information that LandWarNet must distribute, as well as the users of LandWarNet.
“We want to ensure that anybody who is operating inside of LandWarNet is able to do that in a relatively easy, seamless and effortless manner—very similar in the way we use the commercial Internet today,” Stimeare acknowledged.
The pace and goals of Army operations demand that warfighters communicate via data elements and not via old-fashioned messages, radio systems or other means. But A-GNOSC must be conscious of the way in which the Army assembles and uses information. Once that is understood, the organization is then able to help construct the means to access specific information from within a wide range of general information.
“Where do you add information to that ocean of information? Where [is] the inject point? Where are the tributaries that are going to put the information in the right location for others to locate? That’s quite a challenge,” Stimeare reflected.
“If you look at it from that perspective, there is a lot of stuff out there and it is overwhelming,” he continued. “How do you sort through that, and how do you get to the point where the information you are providing is relevant not only to yourself but to others? We want to be able to create an environment across the LandWarNet where individuals as individuals can best obtain information when and where it is required for them to make critical decisions in their jobs.”
But many of the people performing critical jobs in the Army have grown accustomed to doing them a certain way, Stimeare said. The procedures these individuals have learned in their careers have become comfortable, and as such, they may resist any change.
“That is their comfort zone. That is what they have grown up with and that is what has proven in the past to be successful,” Stimeare said, “but if we as users do not get on the train as fast as it is moving with emerging technology, we are not truly going to be able to benefit from everything that it has to offer.”
So replacing conventional techniques with new and more efficient techniques can prove challenging. Concepts such as subscribing, searching and filtering to and through information can prove difficult to those who resist it. These users must receive education on the advantages these techniques provide to the collaborative environment the Army envisions.
“We talk about social networking, wikis, e-mail, video teleconferencing, audio teleconferencing, shared workspace, mash-ups, Web casting and podcasting,” Stimeare remarked. “Are they simply words? Or have we as a work force totally embraced these techniques that are out there? Folks in some respects are only talking about them but not using them. They have not embraced them, nor leveraged them to the extent the younger generation has. It is not intuitively useful to us because we would much rather pick up that piece of paper and read it while we are on the plane.”
FUTURE PROGRESS
Knowledge management revolves around three components: people, processes and technology, Stimeare suggested.
“We have seen things fail in the past when people tried to grab technology and force the technology to be the solution,” he added. “Instead, we must look at the people first and the culture in which they exist, determine the processes required and only then overlay the technology as the last and final step.”
As Army leadership learns more and more about what users require from Land- WarNet, it can accelerate efforts to deploy technology. That is exactly what is happening today, Stimeare declared.
Those efforts have been bolstered by the establishment of area processing centers, which provide enterprise services to “disenfranchised users” who lack resources or the requisite skills, training and manpower to field their own solutions, Stimeare said. The area processing centers eliminate the need to create individual solutions at every post, camp or station.
The area processing centers are an example of how the Army can extend policies from the joint community, which has the lead in the introduction of the Global Information Grid.
“The Army is very much in lockstep with the joint community. We look to joint first,” Stimeare said. “In the absence of solutions or standards or policies, then and only then do we fill the gap. We very much believe in doing things as a community of interest when it comes to network operations.
“We believe that to remain effective in this rapidly evolving collaborative environment, we as the Army’s GNOSC must continue to be aggressive in the enhancement and evolution of our NETOPS capabilities. We must continue to fuse our processes with emerging technology.” However, Stimeare continued, “We are reminded on a daily basis that our real successes continue to be as a result of the strength and determination of our NOSC work force. It is the people that are operating and defending the LandWarNet, that are making the difference and allowing us to have such tremendous success in our very complex and demanding mission. It will be through them that future solutions will be realized for the Land- WarNet, as well as the continuous reshaping of NETOPS.” ♦
