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ÿÿÿÿÿSeptember 10, 1997
Air Force Data Appetite Expected To Double By 2000
(09/10/97; 12:30 p.m. EDT)
By David Braun, TechWire <Picture>MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The data requirements of the U.S. Air Force are likely to more than double during the next two to three years, even as IT budgets grow at less than 10 percent a year, Cisco CEO John Chambers said Tuesday.
"As you see what voice and video can do for you, the challenge will be to see how you can drive the cost of ownership down," said Chambers, in a keynote address at the Air Force Information Technology Conference in Montgomery, Ala.
The purchase of equipment represents only about a quarter of the total cost of ownership, he said. The rest of the cost is incurred in maintenance, training, and support.
The Air Force, Chambers said, could already envision the coordination of sensors with shooters and the command post so battle decisions could be made by both front-line fighters and commanders in real time. Video and audio technology would also be important in delivering emergency health care to the combat zone.
Chambers was touching a nerve when he addressed the more than 2,000 Air Force personnel gathered at the conference to focus on how the service can move toward the U.S. strategic goal of information superiority.
Much of the Air Force's efforts are focused on pulling together a wide range of legacy systems. Part of the U.S. Defense Department's information superiority initiative is to use commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware and software wherever possible. The armed forces are also attempting to beef up their messaging systems, electronic commerce, and archiving.
The Air Force, like any company, should be thinking along the lines of end-to-end systems provided by a handful of large vendors that are working with one another, he said. There would likely be only two or three major players in computer networking in a decade, said Chambers, adding that Cisco intended to be one of them.
The reliability and security required by military forces should not be provided by any one vendor, Chambers said. "Unless your vendors work together, there are going to be a lot of weak links for hackers to threaten national security," he said. <Picture: TW> |
