The military's netcentric goal has many of the same goals as private-sector companies: the development of agile, adaptive, highly integrated environments.

'Maybe, arguably, the IT world is moving even a little more faster than the military can anticipate,' said Ray Bjorklund, an analyst at Federal Sources Inc. The government is often tied down by lengthy budget cycles that require two to three years of planning.

But Bjorklund sees the W2COG effort similar to the open-source initiatives that are helping to make integration possible. 'If this consortium is a way of jump-starting collaboration among industry, then great, it's a great tool,' he said.