Hanscom AFB team to rollout major IT upgrades for 700K users

  • Published
  • By K. Houston Waters
  • 66 Air Base Group Public Affairs

A Hanscom Air Force Base information technology team expects to roll out improved end user services to numerous Air and Space Force locations beginning in the summer of 2021.

The Enterprise IT-as-a-Service upgrade, EITaaS, or dubbed “Wave 1,” will provide Airmen and Guardians with an improved and consolidated service desk and catalog for more than 700,000 users worldwide.

Following implementation, Airmen and Guardians will experience faster login times and higher functioning devices. With Wave 1, devices will include automated and non-invasive compliance checks, integrated security management, improved troubleshooting, and perpetual device refresh and hardware updates.

EITaaS is a Department of the Air Force initiative leveraging industry to provide a standardized, innovative and agile information technology service across the Air and Space Forces. EITaaS drives behaviors designed to enhance mission effectiveness using worldwide commercial business services and best practices.

Updates to EITaaS services will occur in waves across all Air Force and Space Force locations.

The EITaaS team is looking to collaborate with commercial industry to provide Airmen and Guardians with improved network performance in Wave 1. The team expects to award a contract by March 2022.

“The partnership between EITaaS and the private sector on Wave 1 will set the foundation for delivering enterprise services across the Air and Space Forces,” said Col. Justin Collins, Enterprise IT and Cloud Capabilities Division, Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Directorate senior materiel leader. “We have seen the user experience improve dramatically at our current bases and are excited to provide this service to all Airmen and Guardians.”

The EITaaS Integrated Program Office is currently experimenting with Wave 1 end user services at eight military installations worldwide. These locations include Buckley Garrison, Colorado; Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Hurlburt Field, Florida; Cannon AFB, New Mexico; Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Alabama; Pope Field, North Carolina; and Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.

Wave 1 is the first set of IT services to expand from the EITaaS Risk Reduction Effort. EITaaS RRE is a feasibility assessment that explores technical, operational, security and organizational requirements for Enterprise IT under three lines of effort: End User Services, Network as a Service, and Compute and Store.

The EITaaS team detailed Wave 1 requirements and discussed technical and business considerations during a virtual industry day Jan. 13. Noteworthy topics included small business opportunities, commercial and contract-driven solutions, pricing models, and incentive structures.

“Wave 1 exemplifies (Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr’s) challenge for the force to ‘Accelerate Change or Lose' as a joint warfighting concept,” said Maj. Anthony Ciamillo, EITaaS program manager. “Wave 1, which is founded on digital transformation, will hopefully go a long way to assisting in the development of Joint All-Domain Command and Control.”

The goal of the EITaaS transformation program is to enable joint, all-domain operations through modern, stable and secure digital infrastructure serving as the foundation for future joint warfighting.