The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the Army yesterday said they have established accounts for 500,000 Army users of DoD Enterprise Email.

This is a major milestone towards moving all Army email users to the joint Defense enterprise service, the two said. The Enterprise Email Army Service Acquisition report submitted to Congress by the Army in February 2012 said the service expects to save nearly $380 million through fiscal year 2017 on this enterprise email effort.

Overall, approximately 520,000 people in the Department of Defense, including the Joint Staff, U.S. European Command, and DISA, have migrated to the enterprise service.

“This is an incredible milestone and one for which every member of the team can be proud,” said Michael Kreiger, Army deputy Chief Information Officer/G-6, in his recent blog post, thanking DISA, the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), and other partners. “When you consider that [another half million] Army Knowledge Online (AKO)-only users will be migrated in February 2013, we are well on our way to completing Army migration to DoD Enterprise Email by the end of March 2013,” he said.

DISA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins said, “The DISA-Army partnership has been outstanding. The Army has been a dedicated partner in demonstrating the operational enhancements and efficiencies of DoD Enterprise Email.”

“Enterprise email lays the foundation for implementation of other enterprise services, and it brings us a step closer to a true Defense enterprise information infrastructure that enables warfighters to connect, identify themselves, discover and share information, and collaborate throughout the full spectrum of military operations,” Hawkins said.