"Achieving the contract award milestone is an important step for the Alliance. This IT modernization means the Balkans area of operations will be more closely connected to the rest of NATO, creating a strengthened communications infrastructure," said Alexandru-Mihai Andrei, Senior Project Manager, NCI Agency.
The Balkans area of operations includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Albania.
Site improvements at all locations will include upgrades to IT equipment at subordinate ground stations to communicate with mission headquarters, as well as replacing IT infrastructure and client device equipment.
Experts from the Agency will also work with Airbus to install the latest IT infrastructure and services needed to host up-to-date applications capable of enterprise level information sharing and communications. And they will re-engineer the existing architecture to align with current NATO standards, while implementing server virtualization and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) improvements.
Other locations being refreshed with state-of-the-art IT equipment include the European Union Command Element, which is located at NATO Joint Force Command (JFC) in Naples, Italy and also Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) EU Support Group based in Mons, Belgium.
The contract was awarded on 18 May 2021 and the NCI Agency plans to complete the project by the end of 2022.