The majority of the Navy could shift to a thin client computing environment, says departmental Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen.

"It appears to be something we could do fairly quickly, where it's appropriate, and get some big game," Halvorsen said Jan. 27 while speaking at a DON IT conference panel in San Diego, a recording of which was posted online March 2.

Earlier that month, Vice Admiral David "Jack" Dorsett, the deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance and director of naval intelligence, released a "NAVADMIN" directing Janice Haith, the DON deputy CIO to "focus on shifting computing processes away from traditional desktop hardware and making greater use of  platform as a service, infrastructure as a service  and software as a service capabilities."

Dorsett's thin client order came in the context of a Navy IT efficiency initiative under which Navy activities cannot buy or upgrade servers, systems or data centers.

Data centers are "a touchy subject," Halvorsen acknowledged. The Marine Corps plans to open a data center in Kansas City, while the Navy is putting together a plan to reduce its number of centers.

"The next step is where it is going to get harder. Marine Corps wants to look and see where do I want to build my back-up data center? And my question is going to be, why? Why don't you back-up with the Navy?" Halvorsen said.

The Navy and Marine Corps have a "new partnership spirit," Halvorsen added.

"The relationship between the Navy and the Marine Corps now has gone from 0 to 100, so it's working really well," said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin Nally, the Marine Corps CIO, who was on the conference panel.

The Marine Corps, too, will start using thin clients as part of a refresh of its Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, Nally said.

The efficiency drive will also seek to reduce the number of applications running on DON networks in an effort to reduce bandwidth consumption, Halvorsen said. Even so, a push to make the workforce more mobile would lead to an increase in bandwidth consumption, he added. Personal use might be curtailed, but not eliminated.

"What do you think drives bandwidth at the end of March? What drives all our bandwidth? Yeah, the Final Four. At the end of March our bandwidth across the networks goes crazy. Now, do we want to stop people from checking the scores of the Final Four? There is a good morale point there. We will probably have to look at some things like that. It might mean that while you can check the scores you will no longer be able to stream the games to your desktop," he said.

For more:
- read the NAVADMIN on Navy IT efficiencies
- listen to Halvorsen and other panel members at the Jan. 27 DON IT conference
- read a transcript of the panel
- go to a webpage with other DON IT conference audio and transcript links

Related Articles: 
Think tank warns against reinvestment plans before DoD efficiency savings are realized 
Air Force grapples with bandwidth and workforce shortages 
Navy prepares NGEN procurements