Unified approach: U.S. Navy plans to consolidate networks

摘要

For years, the U.S. Navy has been living with a costly maintenance, logistics and support problem. The trouble is this: Each of the C4I systems aboard its ships requires a separate network infrastructure with a unique set of wires and experts to keep the system running. Now, the Navy plans to replace those "afloat networks" with a single, common network system. The purpose of the Navy's Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program is to bring an off-the-shelf network to the roughly 300 ships in the Navy's fleet and to some shore-based sites. Navy leaders believe they have been leaving money on the table by maintaining their old systems without gaining new capabilities. By consolidating the computing infrastructure around a common network, Navy officials hope to extract best-of-breed technology and capabilities from the commercial sector.