PEO Perspective: August 2020

CLOUD MIGRATION
The Army is taking proactive steps as an institution to leverage data as a strategic asset. The intent of this effort is to increase the speed of data informed decision-making, while delivering cloud enabled next generation capabilities in a fundamentally different way.

Last month, Project Manager General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) began migration of data from antiquated data storage centers to the cloud as part of the Army’s modernization priority and cloud migration strategy.

The migration was a Herculean effort involving a 189 person team of GFEBS personnel and our critical partners, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NTEC), to transfer enormous amounts of data from data center storage to a cloud system, ensuring bandwidth and back-end support along the way.

In late July, the U.S. Army News Service (ARNEWS) interviewed GFEBS project manager, Col. Donald Burton, and Mr. Jonathan D. Moak, the Senior Official acting as the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management & Comptroller), for an article entitled “Cloud migration modernizes Army’s financial enterprise.”

The migration of GFEBS to the cloud enables accessibility, reliability, and better optimization of data, which is a foundational step toward the Army’s priorities of readiness, modernization, and reform.  The Army’s ability to compete and win relies heavily on its ability to make data-informed decisions at the speed of operational relevance. Data and cloud migration is also a critical step toward optimizing interoperability within the mission partner environment.

LEADERSHIP CHANGES
We are closing out the summer leadership transition period this month. At the end of July, I hosted a simultaneous change of command and renaming ceremony at which Col. RJ Mikesh relinquished the charter for the Army Enterprise Systems Integration Program (AESIP), and Col. Rob Wolfe assumed responsibility and leadership for the Army Data and Analytics Platforms (ARDAP).

Col. Wolfe, who recently completed a master’s degree at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at National Defense University, is also the former product manager for Army Contract Writing System, having led the effort to deliver the Army Leader Dashboard -- now known as Army Vantage -- and establish the PEO EIS Strategic Initiatives Group.

We also know from his time at EIS that Rob is a leader who has overcome challenges through effective leadership, has promoted a culture of professional development, mentorship, and teamwork, and trained and leveraged a team with diverse skills.

The AESIP program has undergone a name change, to ARDAP, which will continue to manage the Army Vantage program, among other ERP modernization and data initiatives. Now that Army Vantage is part of the ARDAP portfolio, Rob is one of the best-qualified PMs to lead this project office.

Last month we also transitioned leadership of Project Manager Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) from Col. Chad Harris, who has led the program since its inception, to Col. Mark Taylor.

Col. Harris’s strategic vision and leadership were instrumental in the execution of the Forge/Armory concept integrating rapid prototyping and innovation. He also made enormous strides in addressing complex challenges across all the programs under his charge. His adherence to the concept of the leadership tree drove that success and set DCO on a course for continued excellence. I am told that one of Col. Harris’s most beloved quotes is, “Invest in the people, and they will invest in the mission.”

Col. Taylor joins us with a wealth of diverse experience and an ability to solve complex issues in a dynamic environment.  Most recently, as the acting director of investments in the Army Budget Office (ABO), he was responsible for the budgeting and execution of the Army’s $34 billion R&D and procurement portfolio.

On August 6, leadership of Project Manager Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (DCATS) will transition from Col. Enrique Costas to Mr. Aric Sherwood. Aric, who has performed skillfully in the last two years as the deputy PM DCATS, will step into the role of Acting PM DCATS. Before joining PEO EIS, Aric served as the director of special programs at ASAALT, and he has intimate knowledge of the PEO structure, PEO EIS, DCATS and the Army priorities.

Thank you to Col. Costas, who for the last three years has managed DCATS’ strategic satellite and terrestrial communications programs, and whose inspired and energetic leadership has left a lasting impression on the entire community.

On August 20, Enterprise Services project director Lee James will host a ceremony at which acting product lead Deidra McCaskill will officially take the reins as product lead for Enterprise Content Collaboration and Messaging (EC2M). For more than a year, Deidra has led the EC2M team in increasing efficiencies and aligning resources to deliver and sustain enterprise-level IT capabilities that enable end-to-end collaboration, messaging and content management across the Army workforce. Congratulations Deidra!

Finally, on Aug. 27, Logistics Information Systems (LIS) product lead Ricky Daniels will officially retire and relinquish the charter, which will be assumed by James O. Winbush, Jr. Congratulations to Ricky on his retirement, and thank you for your many years of service!

We’ll be updating our organization chart to help you stay current with points of contact on the leadership team. As always, please check out our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, as well as the PEO EIS website, for latest updates on events and ways to connect.

WAY AHEAD
After what we know was careful consideration, AUSA has made the decision to conduct a fully virtual AUSA 2020. We understand and appreciate the need for caution and support the decision to maintain the safety of our Soldiers, civilians, contractors, and industry colleagues.

In the meantime, AUSA is conducting virtual senior executive roundtables focused on areas of special interest. Of particular interest are the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) sessions. On July 30, Deputy PEO Brendan Burke participated in a discussion about Live STE. We are currently working alongside Army and DoD partners to help configure the network to support Army requirements and upgrading backbone in Fort Hood to support a pilot effort to determine STE requirements going forward.

Please join me in offering an enthusiastic welcome to our new program leadership – we are pleased to have you on board, and we look forward to continued success with your talents on the team! To those transitioning out of PEO EIS, I thank you for your service and commitment to the mission and your dedicated support of the team.

On a national level, we celebrate Women’s Equality Day August 26, commemorating women’s right to vote. It’s incredible to consider that this hard-fought victory happened only 100 years ago. We are indebted to women leaders such as Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, who last month became the first woman to lead the Army Reserve, and the (unnamed due to security risk) female National Guard Soldier who graduated from Army Special Forces training last month, earning the title of Green Beret -- the first woman to do so since combat roles were opened to women in 2016. They continue to break barriers in service and inspire all of us to reach higher, help to break ceilings and make a positive impact in service to our country.

Thank you for your continued support to PEO EIS, our programs, and the United States Army.

Connecting the Army. Working for Soldiers.

Ross R. Guckert
Program Executive Officer