Army Knowledge Online Information System - Essay Example

Army Knowledge Online Information System Army Knowledge Online Information System Introduction With the increasing application of technology in various fields, organizations are combining information technology and people’s activities that will support operations, decision making and management of an organization. The US military, like any other organization, established a project that will help in general office management. This project has evolved to an Information System named Army Knowledge Online (AKO). AKO information system provides different services including classified and unclassified networking, using a single sign on function to Army, Army families, Department of Army Civilians and selected contractors over the web platform. According to Army National Guard ( 2011), AKO is a web portal that provides capability for email, directory services, blogs, file storage, instant messenger, and chat. Users also have acess to links and access to other related Army websites like Army Training Requirements and Resources System (ATRRS), Interactive Personnel Electronic Records Management System (iPERMS), Medical Protection System (MEDPROS). AKO’s users include Active Duty officers of Army, Department of Army civillians, National Guard members, select contractors and reserves. The users use the system to access services like Army asset management, Army tools and other web services. This web services make it an enterprise collaboration tool for the US army. AKO’s Hardware Being a worldwide accessible intranet, the Army Knowledge Online system needs a high performing and scaling central system that will serve all its users without failure. AKO’s server hardware is therefore required to be reliable and maintain uptime. AKO information system runs on one of the world’s best performing servers- the 9/ HP ProLiant Gen8 Server Blade. This server has ability to accommodate and process demands from more than 2 million AKO users online. The server is highly configurable and wired to the server racks to provide more room for Army to create a server rack and host more servers for performance. The ProLiant Gen8 Server technology supports lower power consumption with increased efficiency and has reliable dynamic cooling. It connects the vast AKO users through virtualised Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections for high speed data and information delivery. The server has an integrated SAS controller that supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 for the two internal hard disk drives. It has a cache of 512MB flash backed write standard. With AKO’s data being crucial, loosing such information is catastrophic. Using such system for AKO ensures that fault tolerance is guaranteed and data loss minimised. The performance of the server is powered by one four-core Intel Xeon E5 2.5GHz processor with an expansion socket for a second CPU. The system also has 16GB of RAM with expandable capacity of up to 512GB. The server’s scaled power puts AKO at a level of meeting the demands of millions of military users, their families, contractors and DoD. The end users of AKO include the active duty military offices and their families, select contractors and others who access AKO from remote. They access the AKO information using different hardware that has ability to access the internet securely. These devices include laptops, mac books, desktop PC with standard connection to the internet. The devices require minimal hardware requirement to operate like 512MB RAM, 800 MHz Processor and internet connection support. The serving offices on mission use special military equipment. Users with smart phones can also access the information system so long as they have authorised access by logging in. AKO’s Software AKO information system is probably one of the systems that will require a secure operating system to run on given the nature of its work. At the server, AKO is hosted by the parallel processing and secure UNIX operating system. This operating system supports high performance and scalability. UNIX operating system allows encryption technologies that will support securing the classified information that the system handles. Highly rated encryption application tools are used to ensure that data is encrypted and decrypted appropriately as per national security standards. Intrusion detection applications are also in place to ensure AKO is not penetrated by intruders or hackers intending to expose its information. This includes the use of firewall software. End users accessing AKO will require standard client operating systems on their computers like Windows, Linux, Android, Mac OS and others. They also require an internet browsing enabled application like internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, safari and others that will allow them access AKO online. According to AKO manual (2010), users can go mobile by using the website in their mobile phones. This depends if the mobile phone can support the AKO browsing. Inputs AKO information system takes different inputs for its operation. Users intending to access AKO intranet must input access credential. The access credentials must comply with the DoD security policy. According to TechTarget (2012), AKO access follows DoD security policy and requires a strong password or combination of a Common Access Card (CAC) smart card and Personal Identification Number (PIN). As of July 2010, soldiers must also answer 3 out of 15 personal questions of their own choosing in order to further validate access with knowledge-based authentication. This single sign on allows access to about 300 applications and services offered by AKO. User can send communication messeges into the e-mailing section in the system, post on discussion boards or groups, Instant message colligues or family. AKO has file area where users can upload or input files for official and personal use. The system also recieves Army personal data, Army e-learning materials both audio, video and written. Family and refference data input for every individual personel is also mantained by the system. Medical examination data, financial benefit allocations and legal data or information also create part of the inputs of AKO. Outputs AKO’s outputs include reports used at the strategic levels of the US military. AKO’s training function allows military personel and soldiers to access Army education online. Army can view Army learning progress, read Army e-learning material, view Army correspondence, access training material from the US Army virtual University. They can also access their Army transcript on any education programs they been through. Points gunnered through these education activities are used to promote officers. The finance function of AKO offers the Army officers to view their financial earning statement, housing allowance records, leave day status, earning statement, and food allowance records. On the other hand, medical function will display an officer’s medical history, their physique records, DNA records and deployment readiness status. References Army Natioanl Guard. (2011, Jul 18). Army Knowledge Online. Retrieved Nov 25, 2012, from Army National Guard: https://g1arng.army.pentagon.mil/Systems/AKO/Pages/Default.aspx TechTarget. (2012). AKO. Retrieved Nov 25, 2012, from Army Knowledge Online: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Army-Knowledge-Online-AKO US Army. (2010, Jul). Army Knowledge Online . Retrieved Nov 25, 2012, from User Guide Manual: http://prim.dtic.mil/Documents/AKO-DKO_User_Guide_FINAL.pdf Read More