Letters

Intranet Intuition

First, let me say I am not a champion of how the Navy Marine Corps Intranet has been planned and executed ("Intranet Snafu," Aug. 15), but I do understand the reasons and needs for such an effort.

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David

McGlinchey quotes a Navy captain with a background in procurement who questioned whether a new network was necessary. He said existing technology met all his needs and he didn't know why you'd replace something that is free, simple and easy with something that is complicated and shackled. With all due respect to the captain, let's dissect his comments.

Existing technology met all his needs: While this may be true, I would hazard that it was not very secure and probably did not provide the necessary standardization across hardware, software, protocols, policies and procedures to allow additional capability that will be needed tomorrow. One of the primary advantages of the NMCI concept is it can provide a homogeneous architecture to support greater security, collaboration and data-sharing. This is simply not possible at the levels required with the current heterogeneous collection of uncoordinated and sometimes poorly designed and managed networks.