An Internet-based portal is increasing the interconnectivity of military branches and the ability for service members to conduct joint training online.
U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability (JKDDC) partnered with the Army and the Air Force in successfully testing the ability to establish single sign-on (SSO) authentication between Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) and the Air Force Portal website. This allows seamless access between these unclassified portals and the training systems used to conduct joint training.
The SSO previously integrated JKO with the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) and Defense Knowledge Online (DKO) portals. The technical test added the authentication systems used by the Air Force portal.
Mark Willmann, JKDDC's joint knowledge distribution chief, added that the eventual goal is to move the successful test into production and then look toward including the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard into the SSO federation as well.
"We would like to see service members being able to use JKO as their single source for all online joint training," Willmann said. "It's also important from the perspective of access to other information and capabilities that are currently restricted within unique service portals."
Toy Robinson, Global Combat Support System (GCSS) - Air Force program manager, and his team helped coordinate the Air Force's entry into the SSO federation. So far, his team has been encouraged by the results of federation testing.
"The main advantage to federation is that instead of creating an account for each service, you simply trust the account information from a trusted source, such as the identity provider," Robinson said.
Service members lacked a connection to conduct joint training or interact with their counterparts prior to JKO, as service portals do not automatically recognize each other's authentication systems to allow website access.
"If JKDDC can assist the service portal systems to become more interoperable through initiatives such as this one, then that improves the individual service members' access to the full extent of the DOD capabilities that are available to them," Willmann added. "That's an important part of what being 'joint' is all about."
Robinson believes that the SSO federation can help set the framework for a larger effort down the line, including more Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and DOD organizations.
"I believe this is going to be just the beginning of a federation cloud where OSD organizations can share data securely, under a trusted relationship, increasing mission effectiveness and reducing the threat to the global gig that supplies that threat back to the warfighter in real time," Robinson added. "We've gone through the cost of building it. We can provide that to the rest of DOD so that they do not have to rebuild or redevelop their security infrastructure to take advantage of our larger offering."
Since April 2007, about 193,000 online courses have been completed through JKO. A course catalog listing all of the training opportunities available on JKO is located on the website's home page, http://jko.jfcom.mil/.
