# Presentation: 598385

## Session # 46

- Federal Student Aid Technical Architecture Initiatives
- Sandy England

## Objective - Key Target State Vision Enablers 	

- Integrated Technical Architecture
- Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- Security Architecture (SA)
- Federal Student Aid Gateway

## Target State Vision

## TSV Architecture Overview

- Integrated Technical Architecture, Portal, ESB, Security Architecture, Gateway and internal applications are integrated within the enterprise target state vision

## Key Target State Vision Enablers 

**Integrated Technical Architecture**
- Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- Security Architecture (SA)
- Federal Student Aid Gateway

## What is Integrated Technical Architecture?

- Common, shared, proven architecture using standardized tools, technology, and technical support services
- An effective technical architecture supports a business’ ability to deliver sufficient resources to users
- Provides strategic and economic benefits

_*Improved Access*_

_*Standardized Methods*_

_*Product Specialist Support*_

_*Standardized Technology*_

*Standardized configuration of hardware and software platforms *
*Standardized messaging technology to support communications across varying hardware platforms, projects and locations*

*Methods, standards, policies, and directives for maintaining an integrated environment*
*Structured approach to evaluate/implement changes into the environment and support problem resolution*

*Highly trained staff to manage resources and provide services*
*Manage daily operations, controlled development environment, maintain software, and plan for future requirements*

## Integrated Technical Architecture Benefits	

**Leverage current investments and assets -***** ***
- Provides simplified, secure, and integrated access to Federal Student Aid services and resources
- Facilitates an enterprise-wide perspective to planning, developing, and delivering IT application systems and services
**Significant cost savings -**
- Reduces hardware, software licensing, and support costs
- Ability to share highly skilled product specialists among multiple teams
**Improved application performance -*** *
- Architecture can be easily scaled to meet capacity and performance requirements
**Increase productivity and efficiency - **
- Applications get “faster and smarter” by implementing best practices, common services, and lessons learned from previous projects

## Integrated Technical Architecture

## Product Selection Approach

- Research best practices and market research to determine industry leaders of products

- Investigate high-level functional and technical capabilities of each product to create a short list of vendors to evaluate

- Create extensive set of criteria to evaluate the short list

- Schedule technical briefings with each shortlist vendor

- Evaluate technical capabilities of the products and ability to meet the evaluation criteria

- Interview/talk with current customers that are using products to assess support quality, etc.

- Conduct Technical Proofs of Concept to determine if products are technically compatible with existing architecture and meet requirements

- Determine business and technical architecture requirements

- Determine which products best fit by evaluating their ability to meet the detailed evaluation criteria and understanding their key differentiators

- Provide product recommendation based on product’s ability to meet the key selection criteria.

## Key Target State Vision Enablers 

- Integrated Technical Architecture
**Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal**
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- Security Architecture (SA)
- Federal Student Aid Gateway

## What is a Portal?

- An integrated and personalized access point to information, applications, and services
- Provides a single, secure, simplified, and personalized access point to business information
- Delivers integrated content and applications, within a unified, collaborative workplace

_*Improved Access*_

_*Integration*_

_*Interaction*_

_*Improved Access*_

*Simplified and standardized look and feel*
*Customized information & services to meet users needs*
*Access content from multiple sources*
*Secure Information*

*Expand portfolio of online transactions*
*Increase self-services & user self-sufficiency*
*Analyze "merged" information*

*Improved internal use of information*
*Secure data sharing with external organizations.*

## Portal Benefits

**Leverage current investments and assets **
**Increase productivity and efficiency**
**Improve decision-making **
**Strengthen constituent goodwill and trust**
**Improved customer service and cost savings**
**Standard look and feel**

## Portal Framework

- Framework provides a taxonomy for describing portal capabilities

## Key Target State Vision Enable	

- Integrated Technical Architecture
- Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
**Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)**
- Security Architecture (SA)
- Federal Student Aid Gateway

## What is a Enterprise Service Bus?

- Architecture and an infrastructure that unifies and connects services, applications, and resources within a business
- Provides the open, standards-based connectivity infrastructure for a service oriented architecture (SOA)
- Provides communication between systems through shared services

_*Improved Access*_

_*SOA Enabler*_

_*Integration*_

_*IT Benefits*__*  *_

*Quickly respond to changing business needs *
*Leverage existing assets in new ways *
*Reduce software development and maintenance cost *
*Improve system security, scalability, availability and robustness** *

*Promotes reuse*
*Foster interoperability*
*Supports incremental implementation** *

*Standardize interfaces*
*Integrate with all new and existing applications*
*Leverages existing Security Architecture** *

## Enterprise Service Bus Benefits

**Provides the following Web services mediation capabilities -**
- Centrally apply security (encryption, authentication, & authorization) by leveraging Security Architecture
- Audit service requests/replies
- Data transformation
- Dynamic routing
**Invoke and reuse shared services across the enterprise -**
- Business logic is accessible at an enterprise level, rather than just the application level
**Choreograph business flows across the enterprise**
**Standards-based - vendor neutral**

## Current State EAI

**EAI Core Capabilities -**
- Assured Message Delivery
- Location Transparency
- Platform Independence
- Protocol Independence
- Single Multi-platform API
- Data Transformation
- Context-based Routing
- Publish-Subscribe
- High-speed Bulk Transfers(> 100 MB)

## Transition State ESB

## Target State ESB

- ESB Technologies

## Key Target State Vision Enablers 

- Integrated Technical Architecture
- Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
**Security Architecture (SA)**
- Federal Student Aid Gateway

## What is Security Architecture?

- Provides a single, integrated authentication, and authorization framework
- Enables consistent Authentication, Authorization, and Accountability
- Authentication:  Who are you?
- Authorization:  What are you allowed to do?
- Accountability:  What did you do?

_*Improved Access*_

_*Services*_

_*Enterprise Security*_** **_*Management*_

_*Consistent Security *_

*Decrease security risks*
*Improves maintainability of systems*
*Offloads “ADHOC” application security from application teams*

*Single sign-on for web applications*
*Simplified registration/approval processing*
*Delegated administration*

*Consolidated security views and reporting*
*Flexibility to accommodate new or redeployed systems*
*Lowers security development and operational costs*

## Security Architecture Benefits

**Provides consistent security services & configurations across Federal Student Aid systems -**
- Decrease security risks
- Improves maintainability of systems
- Offloads ad-hoc application security from application teams
**Gives better service to our customers/partners -**
- Simplified sign-on for web applications
- Simplified registration/approval processing
- Delegated administration
**Promote enterprise security management -**
- Consolidated security views and reporting
- Flexibility to accommodate new or redeployed systems
- Lowers security development and operational costs

## Security Architecture

## Target State Security Architecture

## Key Target State Vision Enablers 

- Integrated Technical Architecture
- Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- Security Architecture (SA)
**Federal Student Aid Gateway**

## What is Gateway?

- It is part of an organization's technical architecture that facilitates the communication between internal applications and external systems
- Provides separation and security between the outside world and an internal network
- Acts as a proxy to broker requests between external partners and Federal Student Aid systems

_*Improved Access*_

_*Customer Benefits*_

_*IT Considerations*_

_*Business*_** **_*Objectives*_

*Simplifies trading partner data exchange*
*Enables right-time data exchange*
*Reduces the number of different data exchange formats*
*Reduces effort required for integration within FSA*

*Supports a wide range of transport protocols and industry data formats*
*Improves visibility of transaction workflows with external partners*
*Web services will be used to facilitate data exchange*

*Standardizes external exchange of data through a single, virtual, secure gateway *
*Enables access to key business services for the external community*
*Right-time exchange of data with trading partners*

## Gateway Benefits

**Creates an enterprise view of external interface information exchanged with Federal Student Aid**
**Enables centralized management of external interfaces**
**Provides the capability for an external partner to upload and download files**
**Provides a layer of security between Federal Student Aid and external partners**
**Creates well defined procedures for integrating with Federal Student Aid services**
**Validates and enforces the use of a standard data schema between systems and enables data consistency throughout data exchange process**

## Current State

- Multiple communication channels and entry points into Federal Student Aid are not centrally tracked or managed
- No real-time data interchanges
- Security architecture is not being leveraged

## Target State Gateway Solution

- TSV Gateway solution will be a single communication channel between Federal Student Aid, external partners and external service providers

## Gateway Framework

## Contact Information

- I appreciate your feedback and comments. I can be reached at:
- Name:Sandy England
- Phone:202-377-3537
- Email:Sandy.England@ed.gov

## Questions?