# Presentation: 739967

## Universal
 Telecommunications
 Network

*** ******Telecommunications***
*** ******Network***

***NRCS Meeting******September 2002***

** **

## Topics For Discussion

**UTN Overview**
**Survey Findings**
**Focus Groups**
**Next Steps**

## UTN Overview

- The goal of the UTN is to provide*** ***USDA agencies and offices the fundamental shared** **corporate telecommunications capability necessary to support USDA missions and the business transformation process.

## Vision for UTN

- Robust telecommunications network
- Scalable, reliable, secure, cost effective
- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Enables USDA agencies to meet Departmental missions and goals for serving their customers

- “UTN is the fundamental telecommunications enterprise infrastructure needed for USDA program delivery.”

- Development and operation of a shared corporate telecommunications network
- Consistent with Department’s enterprise architecture
- Acquire world-class partners necessary to design, implement and operate network throughout USDA program life-cycle

## UTN’s Targeted Objectives

- Initiate continuous monitoring and proactive network support service
- Ensure business requirements drive telecommunications service
- Provide best value, quality telecomm service in support of strategic goals
- Provide secure enterprise network infrastructure
- Introduce network management tools
- Establish performance metrics to define secure, reliable, robust network
- Establish SLA framework

## UTN will provide common functionality and interoperability for USDA

**UTN will provide common functionality and interoperability for USDA**

- Reliability
- Robustness
- Customer Service
- Technology Infusion

- Stability
- Scalability
- Best Value
- Security

- UTN will ensure the following attributes:

## Top-Level Yearly USDA Telecommunications Expenditures*

|  | FY02 | FY03 | FY04 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Total | $93,793,085 | $91,206,323 | $95,325,543 |

**********As Reported by the Agencies in the UTN Survey  ***
***(Note:  Totals do not include cost data for:  FAS, FSIS, FS, ***
***FNS, DA, OO, GIPSA, ARS, OCR, OES, and OIG)***
***The ***_***cost categories***_*** include:  data circuits, voice circuits, voice communications, ***
***international circuits, remote access, internet service provisioning, wireless, ***
***security, managed service agreements, network support, personnel, hardware, ***
***and software.***

## Transforming Business and Technology Functions to UTN Design Attributes

- Baseline
**“****As-Is”**

***Business and Technology Functions***

***UTN Solution***

**Synthesis**

**Transforming Business and Technology Functions to UTN Design Attributes**

## Business Requirements Drive UTN Solution

**Goal of UTN Survey**
- Ensure a clear understanding of the telecommunications requirements of USDA Agencies and Offices in order to build the UTN to fit their needs
**Methodology**
- Requirements process began with collection and analysis of relevant business-related and telecommunications data** **– focusing on Agency and Office responses to two web-based surveys
- Examination of applicable industry standards and best practices, and information from existing OCIO documents also used
**Results**
- Functional requirements will provide the basis for:
-  Identifying major limitations of current baseline architecture
-  Evaluating UTN alternative architectures and evolution strategies
-  Developing network performance specifications

## Ranking of High Priority Service Issues

## Business Requirements/Survey Findings

**Business, Telecom, and Data Networking Requirements**
- Network stability identified as a major need
- Need for uninterrupted and fast access
-  To the public Internet and designated systems from the public Internet
-  To the USDA intranet and designated systems from the USDA intranet
-  Among USDA agencies
- Available bandwidth and speed identified as limitations to the current network

**Security**
- VPNs were a requirement stated by the majority of respondents
- Two primary protection needs for secure communications were encryption and firewalls
- Majority of data to be protected identified as financial data, privacy data, and other information defined as sensitive

## Business Requirements/ Survey Findings

- Intranet-related service areas identified as either in use or planned by the Agencies
-  Voice over IP (VOIP)
-  Video (including teleconferencing)
-  Wireless communications
- Remote access identified as a fundamental requirement
- Effective use of network services requires:
- Network systems monitoring, management, and reporting
- Help desk/call center
- Security
- Education and training
- Need for effective communication of network-related outages, events, etc.

**Services**

## Business Requirements/ Survey Findings

**Managed Services**
- Need for monitoring network, equipment, and circuits on a 24x7x365 basis
- Need for proactively monitoring network indicators for potential emerging network incidents
- Need for a controlled trouble resolution process including opening, managing, and closing trouble tickets

**Network Monitoring, Management, Modeling, and Reporting**
- Identified subset of Agencies using SNMP-based monitoring and management tools such as HP OpenView, CiscoWorks, MRTG, and the network modeling tool OpNet.
- Need identified for development of network monitoring guidelines and sample configuration profiles for each of the major systems used

## Focus Groups

**Top Priority Focus Groups**
- VPN
- Web Server Architecture
- Capacity and Performance Planning
- Security
- Wireless
**Purpose of Focus Groups**
- Refine requirements from survey
- Communicate and share agency planning efforts
- Create a forum where synergies can be identified and developed among common initiatives
- Provide an understanding of how UTN will meet the agency needs

## Next Steps

- Complete survey analysis and requirements definition
- Begin focus groups
- Begin planning pilots
- Begin development of UTN design concepts

- Questions?