A combined Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) Atlantic and Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) integrated product team worked together to migrate the Marine Corps’ entire Office IT equipment inventory of more than 188,000 computer assets from Windows 7 to Windows 10 operating system.
The process involved multiple onsite “tiger” teams conducting in-place upgrades of suitable hardware, and leveraged the SSC Atlantic Enterprise Staging and Warehousing (ES&W) capability out of Hampton Roads, Virginia to conduct tech refresh and delivery of new Windows 10 upgraded hardware to the enterprise.
"The SSC Atlantic ES&W team helped the Marine Corps achieve a nearly impossible mission,” said MCSC Portfolio Manager, Supporting Establishment Systems (PfM SES) Col. Benjamin Stinson. “They were an integral part of the Supporting Establishment Systems Portfolio team and significantly contributed to the Marine Corps achieving the Office of the Secretary of Defense-directed task on time, the only service to do so. Without the team's support we could not have received, processed and delivered more than 110,000 end-user devices in less than one year. The SSC Atlantic ES&W team became a part of history as this was the largest single IT fielding effort in the Marine Corps to date."
In support of the massive fielding effort, the SSC Atlantic ES&W team increased production by more than 450 percent to ensure all required assets were integrated and delivered to meet the aggressive timeline. They also coordinated all vendor deliveries and ES&W shipments to all Tier III Commands, responding to rapidly shifting priorities and changing schedules. Additionally, the team developed and released new software images, upgraded configuration task sequences, and deployed a computer basic input output system (BIOS) tool that provides the Marine Corps with a completely new capability to remotely standardize Marines’ enterprise BIOS management.
For their efforts in facilitating the migration, SSC Atlantic employees Nathaniel Cooke, Linda Sherburne and Jeremy Swanson received special act awards June 14 at Naval Station Norfolk. The three awardees each attributed the success of the project to strong and decisive leadership and the team’s ability to remain committed in working together toward a common vision.
“My team persevered in executing a time-sensitive task in a constrained workspace through innovation and efficiencies,” said Cooke, ES&W lead project manager. “Through empowerment, passion and commitment, ES&W received, processed and delivered to the warfighter worldwide a reliable and quality IT asset needed to execute and complete the mission successfully."
The scope of this effort touched every base and station across the Marine Corps. With 188,775 assets migrated in place or deployed as of March 30, the effort was declared a success by both Marine Corps leadership and the deputy secretary of defense.
“Our team knew exactly where we needed to go and our leadership provided the resources and direction to get exactly where we needed to be at the exact time we needed to be there,” said Sherburne, ES&W lead logistician.
Without ES&W's ability to drastically increase the facility's throughput and respond to countless changes in delivery schedules and shifting priorities, the Marine Corps could not have accomplished the Windows 10 goal in the time required.
“There are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to ES&W, from the moment assets arrive to the moment they leave, and I believe that having strong leadership in place was a big contributor to the success of ES&W,” said Swanson, ES&W integration lead.
According to Swanson, that leadership allowed teams within to adjust as they needed to accommodate customer's requests, and helped facilitate a project-wide understanding of who the teams provide service to and the importance of their effort for the Marine Corps.
“Looking back on what ES&W has achieved is nothing short of amazing,” said Swanson. “It's the potential ES&W has and the possibilities that may come in the future.”
SSC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communication, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.