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Ramstein will soon become the final U.S. Air Forces in Europe base to migrate its computer users into a central Air Force network. Over a 10-week period beginning Nov. 12, technicians will begin migrating Ramstein workstations, network users and email into the AFNet.
The goal of this project is to collapse all individual or stand-alone Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard networks into the AFNet. During the migration, some Ramstein users may experience network or email access interruptions, but for the majority, user impact will be minimal.
Although software and hardware problems are to be expected, the AFNet migration project represents a major change to how computer networks are managed and is one of the most complex Department of Defense technology initiatives ever attempted.
“One of the major difficulties in the C4/cyber business is we are operating the future as we build it,” said Lt. Col. John P. Zapata, 86th Communications Squadron commander. “Fortunately, we have planned this effort well to maximize existing technological capabilities that will allow us to gain greater control, standardization, and improve security for the Air Force network enterprise.”
Until now, MAJCOMs and various other Air Force organizations have been operating their own independent networks, consequently driving unique and unit specific requirements. Over the years, this “county option” approach led to standardization and security problems, high operation and maintenance costs, and a lack of enterprise situational awareness. In short, there was no single organization or commander responsible for the network. The AFNet migration project addresses these issues and places Air Force cyber operations under the operational control of a single commander.
This approach will yield a significant improvement in the Air Force’s ability to fight daily virus activity and malicious intrusion attempts. Additionally, AFNet migration will centralize services like email and data storage, significantly improving network security and standardization. Finally, operational and training costs will be reduced through the elimination of redundant systems and services.
How will this affect you? The most visible change will be in the format of your email address. The migration formally replaces the old first.last@ramstein.af.mil email address with a standard first.last@us.af.mil address. Regardless of the base or organization assigned, this new address will remain with users for the duration of their career, employment or affiliation with the Air Force. As more bases join the AFNet, Airmen will be able to log into their accounts from any AFNet base without requesting and creating an additional account, allowing easy access to the network during deployments and throughout TDY or PCS moves.
Sites such as the Air Force Portal, Air Force Personnel Center and Defense Finance Accounting Service will also remain easily accessible regardless of duty location. The migration will also result in a “consolidated” customer service help desk called the Enterprise Service Desk and is designed to serve as a one-stop shop for the resolution of common user problems.
Recently, the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base became the first USAFE base to migrate into the AFNet. This migration has been viewed as a success by leaders at the base- and MAJCOM-level.
“The Spangdahlem comm squadron poured countless hours into pre-migration efforts to make their migration a success, but the real benefit came from the participation of the end users,” said HQ USAFE/A6 migration lead, Capt. Aaron Lake. “If you take an active role in your own piece of the migration by reading the messages and following the instructions, you will likely have a seamless transition. When in doubt, ask questions or open a ticket to get the right attention on your specific issue — don’t suffer in silence.”
Up to this point it has been a lot of hard work by communications personnel behind the scenes at base communications squadrons and HQ USAFE/A6 to ready the command for migration into the AFNet. More than two years of preparation, 1,500 man hours and $10 million in hardware installations have led to a smooth transition for the first USAFE base to migrate into the AFNet.
As Ramstein approaches its projected start date, a team of Air Force Network Integration Center, 690th Network Support Group and 86th CS technicians are busy preparing equipment and resources to facilitate the migration of 14,000 plus users.
“Our focus moving forward is educating our users,” said Chad Willette, 86th CS Plans and Resources Flight. “Providing information in the form of handouts, emails, base paper articles, and radio or television public service announcements is the key. The more information we can relay to the base populous, the better our migration will go.”
(Courtesy of 86th Communications Squadron)
