It’s a definite work in progress, but the military is seeking to expand and combine its communications and collaboration across all its networks.

Federal Computer Week reports the chatter in military circles is about the implementation of an all-inclusive IP network that allows phone, videoconferencing and other communications to ride over the same IP network as email and other data communications.

And while Unified Communications is becoming more popular in the corporate world and in other federal agencies, the challenge is making such services span the full breadth and depth of the military.

“Scaling is always an issue,” said Pat Ryan, director of defense initiatives at Cisco Systems. “For the most part, industry does not require the same scale or information assurance.”

The goal, FCW reports, is to get everything – including phone calls, phone conferencing and videoconferencing – working over IP, without sacrificing quality or reliability. Once this is phased in, the military will have less equipment to maintain, reduce administrative and technical training costs and improve capabilities for multimode communication and collaboration.

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