The US Army's First SharePoint 2010 Deployment: Notes from the Front-Lines

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On my latest project, I am supporting the United States Army in its very first SharePoint 2010 deployment. In my previous support of Army commands,

I've found that there are very few sectors that have a more effective end-user adoption rate than the Department of Defense.  SharePoint is utilized heavily to enable worldwide collaboration between units that are deployed and the bases that support them.

 

Here are but a few common usage scenarios that I've noted amongst many others:

• Google Earth integration within SharePoint team sites
• Secure comms and collaboration within Squadrons
• Versioning control on Office documents
• Heavy usage of Slide Libraries and PowerPoint editing and collaboration to deliver briefs and status reports
• Taxonomy and Folksonomy

Naming Conventions 

Deploying SharePoint within Army commands and groups requires a deep understanding of the technical jargon and a sea of acronyms that dominate the language of our Warfighters.

 SharePoint team sites, webparts, libraries all take on different names that are used daily.

 

Challenges

A SharePoint deployment in the classified world requires a totally different mindset. Attention to detail is a must. Network and Windows platform security can change the complexity and direction of the deployment of SharePoint.

This SharePoint deployment is groundbreaking in terms of SharePoint 2010 running on SIPRNET.

 

 

What is SIPRNET?

The Secure Internet Protocol Router Network is a classified computer network used for sharing information up to Secret level.