U.S. Air Force Central Command
Dashboard takes on AFCENT's coordination battle
Challenge
The problem faced was the warfighting command's Airmen used many different systems, internet, intranet, and extranet sites to store, share and refer to information. It becomes a colossal problem in a command where more than 99 percent of the people assigned to USAFCENT only stay for an average of six months or less during a tour. New folks come in and have to learn a new system, a new filing method and a new job and then remember to pass that on to their replacements a few months later.
Solution
The team decided to use Microsoft Office SharePoint servers as the backbone of the system that would eventually connect Shaw AFB, S.C., to 26 other bases or sites worldwide with similar equipment. The servers would have to facilitate collaboration of efforts at all levels of an organization, and after much effort, trials and testing, and a few other software additions, the CC's Dashboard was born.
AFCENT also required an event-driven replication process to ensure that every time anything is done to a document in the system, an automated signal is sent to all connected servers to let them know an update was made to shared information in real-time. The document could be loaded at the CAOC, changed by someone at USAFCENT Headquarters, updated on the server back at the CAOC and throughout the AOR in less than 5 minutes.
Return
With all the replication to various server farms in the AOR and stateside, the system is near fail safe. Continuous replication of information and uploading and editing files, makes the information found on the Dashboard the same whether the user is in Afghanistan, South Carolina or downtown Baghdad.
The CC's Dashboard is enabling the warfighter to come one step closer to winning the battle in cyberspace by allowing content to be visible from one side of the globe to the other within a matter of seconds.
About the Organization
United States Air Forces Central is the air component of United States Central Command, a regional unified command. USAFCENT is responsible for air operations (either unilaterally or in concert with coalition partners and developing contingency plans in support of national objectives for USCENTCOM's 20-nation area of responsibility in Southwest Asia. Additionally, USAFCENT manages an extensive supply and equipment prepositioning program at several AOR sites.