United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-07-30 monographic deposited born digital 31 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-98-202 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202 P0b002ee180394775 f:ai98202 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202 AIMD-98-202 Computer networks Command/control/communications systems Defense cost control Defense procurement Military communication Telecommunication Information resources management Strategic information systems planning Telecommunication equipment ADP procurement Defense Information System Network Federal Telecommunications System 2000 FTS 2000 Letter Report AIMD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to implement the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), focusing on: (1) those DOD long-haul telecommunications networks operating outside of the common-user DISN; (2) DOD's progress in implementing its policies for managing DISN; and (3) DOD's progress in developing performance measures for DISN, which DOD agreed to do in response to GAO's previous review of the DISN program.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) although DOD has been implementing the DISN program for 7 years, numerous networks continue to exist without the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA) knowledge; (2) GAO's survey found that the military services are operating at least 87 independent networks that support a variety of long-haul telecommunications requirements; (3) the services reported costs on 68 of these networks totalling more than $89 million annually; (4) DOD's inability to restrict the number of networks operating across the department stems from its failure to implement basic telecommunications management policies established at the beginning of the DISN program and its failure to develop objective performance measures for the program; (5) DISA has not developed a comprehensive inventory of telecommunications networks throughout DOD nor have the military services developed inventories of their own networks; (6) DISA has not reported on telecommunications acquisitions, trends (volumes and types of traffic) and costs throughout DOD, and it lacks the data to develop such reports; (7) DOD has not effectively enforced the use of common-user services, nor were Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (ASD/C3I) officials clear on how enforcement would occur; (8) DOD has only recently begun to implement an interim waiver process to exempt DOD components from using common-user networks--a final process has yet to be implemented; (9) DOD has not developed performance measures for the DISN program even though it agreed with GAO's previous report that these measures were essential to ensuring DISN was efficiently and effectively managed; (10) by not implementing the above, DOD lacks the basic management controls to ensure that it can achieve its goal for an interoperable and cost-effective telecommunications environment; (11) specifically, it lacks a foundation for identifying stovepiped and redundant networks that are not interoperable and cannot share information, and replacing them with mandated common-user services; it lacks a basis for maximizing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of DISN; it cannot quantify problems; and it cannot learn from mistakes; and (12) as a result, DOD's stated goals for DISN are at risk, and DOD cannot ensure that DISN is the most cost-effective solution to DOD's telecommunications service requirements. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202.pdf GAO/AIMD-98-202 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-202 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-98-202; Defense Networks: Management Information Shortfalls Hinder Defense Efforts to Meet DISN Goals; Computer networks Command/control/communications systems Defense cost control Defense procurement Military communication Telecommunication Information resources management Strategic information systems planning Telecommunication equipment ADP procurement Defense Information System Network Federal Telecommunications System 2000 FTS 2000 Title 10 Section 3013 Title 10 Section 5013 Title 10 Section 8013 10 U.S.C. 3013 10 U.S.C. 5013 10 U.S.C. 8013