What Is the VA Virtual Filing System?

The VA VFS exponentially increases the speed of VA service delivery.

The VA Virtual Filing System is what makes the hundreds of Virtual Veterans Affairs Offices (VVAOs) around the country possible. VVAOs share space in existing buildings such as medical clinics, colleges and universities.

Virtual Filing Systems (VFS)

A VFS is a type of client-server computer network. It allows a distant "client" computers to access files stored on a central "server" computer. The VFS server handles translation of files stored in multiple formats (e.g., .doc, .pdf., .jpeg) on disparate operating systems (e.g., Windows, Unix, Mac) and delivers them to the client without the client computer having to change applications.

Why Veterans Affairs Has Gone Virtual

Using a VFS vastly increases the speed with which VA benefits and services are delivered. The system allows VA administrators to deliver services in literally thousands of more locations than previously possible.

Virtual Veterans Affairs Offices

The VA VFS makes it possible for a VVAO administrator to have an office in a medical clinic or on a college campus and, via the virtual filing system, enter data into and extract data from a veteran's files as if the administrator were in an actual VA office. Some veterans benefits are delivered by state governments (educational assistance, for example) and some are delivered by the federal government. To the VVAO, thanks to the VA VFS, these files are now accessible as if they were stored on the hard drive of the computer sitting on the administrator's desk.

Resources

• Website of a Virtual Veterans Affairs Office Website