Active Directory, Exchange Migration coming to MacDill

  • Published
  • By Capt. Loren Peterkin
  • 6th Communications Squadron
MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. --  MacDill Air Force Base will soon become the sixth Air Mobility Command base to migrate its computer users into a "central" Air Force Network. Over a six week period, beginning Oct. 4, an Active Directory and Exchange project team will begin migrating MacDill's workstations, network users and e-mail into the AFNet.

The overall goal of ADX is to collapse all individual or "stand-alone" Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard networks into the AFNet. To the average computer user, most of the changes will be transparent and should not cause any interruption to network access or normal day-to-day operations. But for the Air Force, this represents a major change to how computer networks are managed.

Until now, major commands and other Air Force organizations have been operating their own independent networks, driving unique and separate unit specific requirements. Over the years, this "county option" approach has led to standardization and security problems, high operation and maintenance costs and a lack of enterprise situational awareness. In short, there was no single organization or commander responsible for the network.

The ADX project addresses these issues, and places Air Force cyber operations under the operational control of a single commander. This approach will yield a significant improvement in the Air Force's ability to fight daily virus activity and malicious intrusion attempts. Additionally, ADX will centralize services like e-mail and data storage, significantly improving network security and standardization. Finally, operational and training costs will be reduced through the elimination of redundant systems and services.

So how will this affect you? The most visible change will be in the format of your e-mail address. The migration replaces the old first.last@macdill.af.mil e-mail address with a standard first.last@us.af.mil address. The new addresses will remain with users for the duration of their career, employment, or affiliation with the Air Force regardless of the base or organization assigned. As more bases join the AFNet, Airmen will be able to login to their accounts from any AFNet base without requesting and creating an additional account. This will allow easy access to the network during deployments and throughout TDY and PCS moves.

Sites such as the Air Force Portal, Air Force Personnel Center, and Defense Finance Accounting Service, will remain easily accessible regardless of your duty location.
As MacDill approaches its projected start date, a team of Air Force Network Integration Center, 690th Network Support Group, and 6th Communications Squadron technicians are busy preparing equipment and resources to facilitate the migration of almost 4,000 users. To ensure a smooth transition to the AFNet, look for future 6th Communications Squadron generated eAdvisories, Thunderbolt articles and other announcements for additional migration related information.

You may direct any questions you have concerning MacDill's migration into the AFNet to the 6th Communications Squadron's Comm Focal Point via email to 6cs.cfp@macdill.af.mil.