Navy Leans on Commercial Technology for Computing Upgrades

When the Navy finally boils down its sprawling information systems into two main networks, they will consist almost entirely of commercially available technology tweaked and retrofitted to meet military security standards.

The dramatic overhaul of the second-largest computing network in the world consists of three main efforts: building an ashore system; its afloat counterpart; and ensuring the two can communicate.

In the IT world, technology progresses at breakneck speeds, often outpacing the Defense Department’s best efforts at modernization. Basing its new network architecture on commercially available technology and rebidding on a cyclical basis for system upgrades is designed to tamp down the cost associated with the service-wide network overhaul.

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