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Members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team need better communications. Though they feel positive about their mission progress and the abilities of the Iraqis, the soldiers face constant frustration with the status of their information-sharing equipment. Obtaining sufficient support once tools are delivered is an aggravation as well. For troops covering a large geographical area, the “dump it and get out of there” mentality of some providers can result in problems for those who remain behind.

The end of the space shuttle program is the signal for NASA to turn to the private sector for human access to orbit. The space agency that built a series of manned spacecraft to blaze a trail to the moon now is placing its bets on several commercial space technology companies to provide entry for humans into low earth orbit. This new direction for the government space agency has several goals. First, it seeks to establish a domestic manned orbital capability to reach the International Space Station. After the shuttle program ends this year, the only way for spacefarers to reach the space station for the next few years will be through Russian space agency launches.

According to Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, the U.S. Defense Department was operating 772 data centers as of July 30. 2010. The Office of Management and Budget defines a data center as any room that is greater than 500 square feet and is devoted to data processing. Kundra called for a 38 percent reduction in the number of data centers by 2015. Though such calls are driven by budget considerations, the metric of counting how many data centers can be eliminated is misleading. From a budget standpoint, only the reductions in the Defense Department’s $36.3 billion fiscal 2011 information technology expenses will matter.

I am -- yet again, amazed at who I run into at various networking events. I am tempted to go into "listen-only" mode, sometimes when I spend too much time in my cave (i.e., home office) so… occasionally, I have to remind myself to open up a bit and talk at these events. I usually come away with another valuable contact.

Work hard-play hard. The new Divide app lets you integrate your work life and personal life in one smart phone.

Knights Armament Company, Titusville, Florida, was recently awarded a more than $6 million contract for the procurement of 10,479 clip-on sniper night sights.

The Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory, State College, has been awarded a $150 million contract modification to increase the contract ceiling, providing up to 1,560,000 addition

Northrop Grumman System Corporation, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, has been awarded a nearly $35 million contract action for non-recurring engineering efforts to design, integrate, and test all hardware,

L-3 Communication Systems, Salt Lake City, Utah, recently received a $32 million contract modification for the procurement of hardware for the common data link Hawklink system for the MH-60R helicopte

Lafayette Group Incorporated, Vienna, Virginia, has been awarded a contract potentially valued at nearly $31 million for technical support to federal, state, a