Active Directory and Exchange migrations on the way to base

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LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  Little Rock Air Force Base will soon become the fourth Air Mobility Command base to migrate its computer users into the Air Force network.

Over a two month period beginning August 2, an Air Force's Active Directory and Exchange project team will begin migrating the base's workstations, network users and e-mail accounts into the Air Force network.

The goal of Active Directory and Exchange is to collapse all individual or stand-alone Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard networks into the Air Force network, 19th Communications Squadron officials said.

"To the majority of the base's computer users, most of the changes will be transparent and should not cause any interruption to network access or normal day-to-day operations, but for the Air Force, represents a major change to how computer networks are managed," said Master Sgt. Louis Illidge, 19th CS plans and programs project manager.

Until now, major commands and other various Air Force organizations have been operating their own independent networks, driving unique and unit specific requirements.

"Over the years, this approach has led to standardization and security problems, high operation and maintenance costs and a lack of enterprise situational awareness," said Sergeant Illidge. "In short, there was no single organization or commander responsible for the network."

The Active Directory and Exchange 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, officials said. Additionally, the Active Directory and Exchange will centralize services like e-mail 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.

The most visible change for base network users will be in the format of e-mail addresses. The migration replaces the old first.last@littlerock.af.mil e-mail address with a standard first.last@us.af.mil address.

The new addresses will remain with users for the duration of their career, employment or affiliation with the Air Force regardless of the base or organization assigned. As more bases join the Air Force network, Airmen will be able to login to their accounts from any Air Force network base without requesting and creating an additional account. This will allow easy access to the network during deployments, and throughout TDY and PCS moves, officials said.

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.

As the base approaches its projected start date, a team of Air Force Network Integration Center, 690th Network Support Group and 19th CS technicians are busy preparing equipment and resources to facilitate the migration of almost 6,200 users.

"To ensure a smooth transition to the Air Force network, look for future 19th CS generated eAdvisories for additional migration related information," said Sergeant Illidge.

For more information, call the 19th CS focal point at 987-2666.

(Courtesy of the 19th Communications Squadron)