# Presentation: 708233

## VA Data Center Consolidation

- John Rucker, Acting Director, VA’s Corporate Franchise Data Center

***The ‘Domains’***

## One Virtual Data Center, Three Physical Locations

- Austin Automation Center (AAC)
- Hines Information Technology Center
- Philadelphia Information Technology Center
- Also Operate VA’s Record Center and Vault
- No truth to rumor name change was implemented to confuse America’s enemies
- No truth to rumor name change was implemented to confuse AAC customers

## Part of the VA’s Massive IT Realignment

- Largest in Federal Government
- First true Department-wide integration of IT personnel and resources in Federal government
- Impacted 4500 employees
- Closely watched by Congress and industry

## Why Do This?The Short Answer

- The decision to move to a Federated IT Management System was made to correct long standing deficiencies in the current decentralized IT management system.
**We have not maintained a **_***standardized***_** IT infrastructure.  **
**We have lost seamless **_***interoperability***_** of IT systems. **
**We have degraded the **_***compatibility***_** of IT programs. **
**We can no longer afford the **_***financial resources***_** necessary to sustain our current IT management practices and the costs of maintaining our legacy systems.**

## Why Do This?The Longer Answer

- Establish a well led, high performing, IT organization that delivers responsive IT support to the three Administrations (business lines) and central office staff sections.
- Standardize IT infrastructure and IT business processes throughout the VA.
- Establish programs to make VA’s IT systems more interoperable and compatible, not only within VA but with the other Federal Agencies with which we interact.
- Effectively manage the VA IT appropriation to ensure sustainment and modernization of our IT infrastructure and more focused application development to meet increasing and changing requirements of our business units.
- Strengthen data security controls within the VA and among our contractors in order to substantially reduce the risk of unauthorized exposure of veteran or VA employee sensitive information.
- Create an environment of vigilance and awareness to the risks of compromising veteran or employee sensitive personal information within the VA by integrating security awareness into daily activities.
- Remedy the Department’s longstanding IT material weaknesses relating to a general lack of security controls.

## Why Do This?The CFD Answer

- Economy of Scale: staff, systems, software
- Responsiveness
- Uniformity of Operations
- Integrated with VA’s regional data center program

## Have Worked Together For Years

- Franchise Fund vs. Appropriated operations
- All 3 centers support Disaster Recovery for VA’s mission critical applications
- Yes, PAID and FMS definitely are considered mission critical
- Philadelphia service desk has been integrated with AAC’s 24 x 7 service desk
- Common tools, policies and procedures

## Warning: Complexity Ahead

## ITIL

- Framework to ensure repeatable processes and predictable outcomes
- Necessary for ongoing operations at regional and national data centers
- In practice and reflected in everyday operations and maintenance – not theoretical
- Web link:  www.itilcommunity.com

**Notes:**
Not a fad.

Origin – based on real world practices and procedures.

Have been training people on ITIL for about 5 years.

Is a guideline, not a hard and fast one size fits all approach. For example, we chose to combine Availability and Capacity Management into one group.

## CFD Implemented ITIL Processes

- Incident Management
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Capacity & Availability Management
- Business Continuity
- Configuration Management

## The Glue that Holds this Together is:

- 24 x 7 Service Desk responsible for Incident Management
- Repeatable processes
- Automated procedures
- No exceptions!

## Tracking an Incident

- What is an Incident?
- All incidents logged and managed by Service Desk via IRT Process
- Service Desk Technicians are Incident Managers
- Incidents received via automated alerts, Email, Phone, Fax, Web, TDD
- Incident reporting nation-wide
- 7000 incidents per month

**Notes:**
An 'IT incident' is any event which is not part of the standard operation of the service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption or a reduction of the quality of the service. 

b. The objective of IT incident management is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible with the least possible impact on either the business or the user, at a cost-effective price. 

c. Inputs for IT incident management result from customer contacts, but can have other origins as well, such as alerts from network management software or detection systems. The outputs of the process are resolved and closed IT incidents, management information, and communication to the customer. 

## A Brief Plea From AAC Support Staff

- If you encounter problems with any application running at AAC, please contact our Service Desk
- PHONE - (888) 326-6780 or (512) 326-6780TDD - (512) 326-6638FAX - (512) 326-7830EMAIL: _[asd@va.gov](mailto:asd@va.gov)_
- 24 x 7 x 365 operation
- All calls are entered into our reporting system
- More reliable than calling individuals

## Random Notes of Interest

- Austin will be installing a new Z9 mainframe in Quarter 1
- We will also do a tech refresh of  the Philadelphia mainframe to support DR
- Expanded WAN bandwidth recently installed
- Additional storage

## Questions?

- Um, did I forget to mention that the Austin Service Desk is open 24 x 7 x 365?
- PHONE - (888) 326-6780 or (512) 326-6780TDD - (512) 326-6638FAX - (512) 326-7830EMAIL: _[asd@va.gov](mailto:asd@va.gov)_