IT Talk

October - December 2012 Volume 2 • Issue 4

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Mars Science Laboratory
IT Talk

Oct - Dec 2012 Volume 2 • Issue 4

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Linda Y. Cureton

OCIO Chief of Staff

John Hopkins

Editor and Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic and Web Design

Michael Porterfield

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/ocio

v insidenasa.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

facebook.com/NASAcio

 twitter.com/NASAcio

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6

8

4

12

Message from

the CIO

Oh, What a Night!

JPL OCIO Journey with 

Mars Science Laboratory

IT Labs:

Fueling Innovation

Space 365 App

JPL IT Recognized with 

Industry Honors in 2012

In this Issue
Message from

the CIO

By Linda Cureton

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity continues to captivate many of us 

every day. But what is even more entrancing is the Information 

Technology it took to get us to the Red Planet. We’ve often 

heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Well in 

this case, it certainly took the help of several NASA families 

to bring this child, or mission, to fruition. In this issue we’ll 

hear from engineers and scientists in their own words about 

the IT aspect of the mission and the remarkable science 

the Mars Science Laboratory is bringing us every day. 

We’ll also highlight some of the innovative projects being 

funded by the NASA IT Labs program. IT Labs was 

created to help make strategic investments in innovation. 

It is an innovation incubator, soliciting ideas from the 

greater NASA community and enabling their development 

as part of a rapid, low-cost, low-risk process.

And finally, we have some new faces in the Office of the 

Chief Information Officer family. We’ll take a closer look at 

who they are and what they are bringing to the team.

—Linda

National Cybersecurity 

Awareness Month

NASA Themes: STOP • THINK 

• CONNECT as NASA Leaps 

Forward in Cybersecurity

By Evelyn Davis and Rebecca Shore-Suslowitz,

NASA IT Security Division, OCIO

October is designated as the National 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month. NASA 

is teaming up to promote awareness to 

help improve the understanding of why 

cybersecurity is important in our everyday 

lives. It is a shared responsibility that begins 

and ends with you. It is critical that we 

learn how to protect and safeguard NASA 

information and information systems. By 

learning best practices, NASA employees 

can be equipped to better protect the NASA 

IT infrastructure and sensitive information. 

Every small leap in understanding effective 

cybersecurity practices helps to ensure that 

we are improving our IT security posture.

No country, industry, community, or 

individual is immune to cyber risks. To 

protect NASA and its data, members 

of the NASA community are reminded 

to STOP. THINK. CONNECT.

STOP: Before you use the Internet, take 

time to understand the risks and learn 

how to spot potential problems.

THINK: Take a moment to be certain 

that the path ahead is clear. Watch for 

warning signs and consider how your 

actions online could impact your safety.

CONNECT: Enjoy the Internet with 

greater confidence, knowing you have 

taken the right steps to safeguard 

NASA and your NASA computer.

Headquarters will kick off NASA’s awareness 

activities on October 3, 2012, with the 

NASA National Cybersecurity Awareness 

Month Training. During October, everyone 

in the NASA community is encouraged to 

participate in Center cybersecurity awareness 

activities, which are designed to educate 

the NASA community on its cybersecurity 

responsibilities. Information on each Center’s 

awareness activities is available on the 

Information Technology Security Awareness 

and Training Center (ITSATC) Web site. v

HEADS up

stop

think

connect

Stop.Think.Connect.TM is a national public awareness campaign 

aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and 

empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online.

NASA OCIO IT Talk October-December 2012 3
Space 365 App

By Jane Maples and Kellie White, MSFC-CIMA

NASA continues to use technology to connect 

people with space activity information that 

is relevant to their lives. The new mobile app 

Space365 contains a searchable index of more 

than 4,000 events that educators, students, 

and the overly curious among us can search to 

find NASA and space-related facts. Space365 

delivers NASA events and quirky trivia facts 

for each day of the year straight to the user’s 

mobile device. The mobile app gives users 

access to a wealth of space-related information 

at the palms of their hands, allowing users 

to search by date, keyword, or category for 

recurring aviation and space events and 

anniversaries. Searching for Mars, for example, 

produces at least 47 different events.

The application also answers puzzling 

Martian trivia questions: When was 

the Mars Science Laboratory (A.K.A. 

Curiosity) launched? Who discovered the 

Martian moon, Phobos, and when? 

Space365 was officially launched on Friday, 

August 3, 2012, at the U.S. Space and 

Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. The launch 

was planned to coincide with the landing 

of Curiosity, NASA’s latest Martian rover. 

Space365 was developed by the Center for 

Internal Mobile Applications (CIMA), which is 

located at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 

and part of NASA’s Planetary Science Division 

within NASA’s Science Directorate. Since 

the launch, Space365 has been downloaded 

more than 2,200 times via iTunes and has an 

average star rating of 4.5. The app has been 

downloaded more than 95 times on Google 

Play and has an average star rating of 5. 

Using the product set services provided by 

CIMA, an analytics set called Pulse, we can 

obtain information related to the app’s user 

base, including country (see inset map) and 

mobile device data, as well as the overall 

number of searches initiated on a daily basis. 

If you are interested in the services CIMA 

provides, please visit https://cima.nasa.gov. 

The Space365 mobile app is available for 

download via iTunes and Google Play. v

Web Browser

Version Wars

By John Sprague, End-User Service Executive, 

and Irene Wirkus, Emerging Technology and 

Desktop Standards (ETADS) Manager

These days, it’s no longer a one-Web-browserfits-all strategy for accessing Web sites and 

browser-based applications. With rapid changes 

in technology and new browser versions being 

released in industry as quickly as every 8 weeks, 

it is difficult for Web site curators and application 

vendors to keep up. Sometimes applications 

fall behind or vendors make a decision to 

support only one or two different browsers. 

For users of these sites and applications, it 

can be a frustrating experience. You might 

wonder why new browsers are implemented 

and versions updated when you would prefer to 

remain with the status quo because it works. 

Every year, the NASA ETADS team, at Glenn 

Research Center in Cleveland, OH reviews 

the hardware and software configuration 

standards for NASA. NASA Technical Standard 

2804, Minimum Interoperability Software Suite, 

identifies the required software configurations 

for use on NASA computers. During the annual 

review process, the ETADS team works with 

stakeholders across the Agency to test new 

browser and software versions to ensure 

interoperability to the greatest extent possible, 

while continuing to maintain a secure and 

viable computing infrastructure. When it comes 

to Web browsers, the best security and the 

most features typically comes with the latest 

versions, making it very important for the 

Agency to remain up to date. Currently, our 

standards support Internet Explorer, Mozilla 

Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome at close 

to the latest industry-supported versions. 

As we navigate this new world and adapt 

to a changing model of application delivery, 

it is important for users to remember the 

added security and new features that are 

available with the newest browsers and adopt 

a no-one-browser-fits-all strategy toward 

accessing sites and applications. Over the 

coming months, much work is going to be 

done in this area to improve communications, 

understanding, and application delivery. In 

the end, we will provide the best industry 

can offer to benefit our NASA community. 

For more information or to view the latest on 

supported browsers or desktop standards, 

please visit the ETADS Web site at http://etads.

nasa.gov/DCS/CurrentStandard.shtml. v

4 www.nasa.gov
Dev Center Goes Online

By Kellie White, MSFC-CIMA

Have you ever thought it would be 

a good idea for the NASA coding 

gurus among us to have a place to 

collaborate regardless of where they 

are located within the Agency? Well, 

you are not alone, and the Center for 

Internal Mobile Applications (CIMA) 

has provided just that—a place for 

the coding inclined to share ideas and 

knowledge related to the development 

of mobile applications. CIMA released 

Dev Center for use by the Agency 

only a couple of months ago, and 

it has been well received by the 

community since the initial release. If 

you are currently developing a mobile 

application or planning to develop a 

mobile application, you will want to 

gain access to this online community.

Dev Center was implemented to 

help enable the Agency to share 

ideas, resources, and innovation 

across multiple directorates, 

projects, and programs. Dev Center 

has been approved for use by 

NASA and endorsed by our Agency 

Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Simply put, Dev Center is an online 

community for those wanting to learn 

more about mobile development. 

IT provides developers access to 

framework modules, mobile libraries, 

and fully developed code to assist 

in jumpstarting new projects. 

Dev Center is a provisioned 

application, and access can be 

requested by submitting an online 

NASA Access Management System 

(NAMS) request. Simply search using 

the phrase "CIMA NASA Developer."

How do I access Dev Center 

once I have been notified my 

account has been provisioned?

1. Open your browser and type in the 

following url: https://apps.nasa.gov

2. Once the Web site is displayed, 

select the “Sign In” link next 

to the search field in the upper 

right corner of the page.

3. Once you have authenticated 

into the Web site, you can select 

the tab labeled “Dev Center.”

For additional information on 

our mobile services, please visit 

https://cima.nasa.gov. v

Goddard Space Flight 

Center: Providing 

Ready Access

By Danielle Moore, Communications Lead, 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The increasing demand for easily accessible 

information is becoming an ongoing trend in 

both the public and private sectors. Commercial 

businesses, financial institutions, and others 

have all gone mobile and have implemented 

mobile sites that provide consumers with 

pertinent information at the touch of a fingertip.

In June 2012, Goddard Space Flight Center’s 

Information Technology and Communications 

Directorate set out to do the same. The creation 

of the Mobile Intern Site was intended to 

provide the incoming summer interns with basic 

information they needed to become acclimated 

with the Center and its surroundings. The 

project team interviewed various generational 

groups on Center, collaborated with the Office 

of Education, as well as with the Office of 

Communications, to capture information and 

features that addressed many of the frequently 

asked questions and concerns that the summer 

interns typically have during their first weeks 

on Center. Site features include: a complete 

map of Goddard Space Flight Center, GPSenabled walking directions, access to the 

NASA Enterprise Directory, and much more.

Since its implementation, the web site has 

received significant praise, including from 

the Center Director. It is deemed to be a 

valuable tool and asset to not only the summer 

interns, but to all Goddard employees. As a 

result, Goddard employees can expect to see 

additional enhancements in the upcoming 

months. Work is currently underway to expand 

the site to target Goddard’s entire civil servant 

and contractor workforce. New features will 

include links to WebTADS, launch schedules, 

SATERN, and detailed on-boarding information 

from Goddard’s Office of Human Capital 

Management. The name of the site will soon 

change to Goddard Mobile and will include a 

separate, but similar, mobile site for Wallops 

Flight Facility, a likely no cost investment.

The Mobile Intern Site is compatible with 

Androids, iPhones, iPads, and Blackberrys. Visit 

http://mobile-intern.gsfc.nasa.gov. Please note, 

you must be on the NASA network to access 

all features. Enter your NDC\username and 

password when prompted. If you have questions 

contact danielle.c.moore@nasa.gov. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk October-December 2012 5
On August 5, a worldwide audience 

watched and celebrated the Mars 

Science Laboratory’s (MSL) successful 

Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) 

and Curiosity’s touchdown on Mars. 

For JPL’s OCIO, it was a celebration 

of a successful Project partnership. 

This article examines the preparations 

for that historic night through 

reflections from JPL IT leads.

Robin Dumas, IT Flight Project 

Support Manager and Julie Reiz, 

Information and Configuration 

Manager: Preparation for 

EDL began years ago.

Robin: The OCIO has been involved 

with the MSL Project since 2006 when 

the decision was made to use OCIOprovided IT services rather than create 

a separate project IT environment. A 

Service Level Agreement (SLA) was 

carefully crafted and monitored to 

ensure that the project’s IT needs 

were being met. This required a great 

deal of coordination within OCIO 

among different IT service teams.

Julie: As EDL approached, our 

OCIO Flight Projects IT Readiness 

Initiative, an integrated crossOCIO team that conducted weekly 

meetings with stakeholders and 

other support areas outside of the 

OCIO, worked to identify the types 

of IT support needed for critical 

mission events. The team focused 

on preparing for Curiosity’s landing 

and maintained open communication 

paths with all participants. 

Gabriel Rangel, IT Solutions 

Strategist: The OCIO played an 

important role in public engagement. 

As part of the Innovating Together 

focus, in 2009 we started working with 

the Mars Public Engagement Office 

and the Office of Communications and 

Education to enable new world class 

experiences to help tell the story of the 

wonders of Mars to the public. During 

the past three years (an IT decade), we 

helped to put their creative ideas into 

practice. It started with a cloud-hosted 

Be a Martian citizen science gaming 

web site, which then evolved into a 

virtual immersive experience, and a 

mobile application. We also helped 

create and deliver the Spacecraft 3D 

mobile augmented reality app on the 

iPhone and iPad. This has led to an 

effective and ongoing relationship 

where we prototype new capabilities 

and put them into production 

much more rapidly than before.

Richard Van Why, Operations 

Manager and MSL Support 

Coordinator: The OCIO provided 

extensive on-call and onsite support.

Preparing for EDL required extensive 

coordination. We met monthly with 

MSL Real Time Operations to ensure 

that all IT services and support 

were aligned with the Service Level 

Agreement and met weekly with the 

MSL navigation team to discuss high 

performance computing needs:

҆ The JPL Galaxy and JPL 

Nebula supercomputers were 

dedicated to MSL and ran close 

to 200 24-hour Monte Carlo 

simulations at 20 GB each.

Oh,What A Night!

JPL OCIO’s Journey with Mars Science Laboratory

By Whitney Haggins, Gary Beaner, Jonathan Chiang, Robin Dumas, Joy 

Laibl, Gabriel Rangel, Julie Reiz, Richard Van Why, and Janet Zadeh

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

6 www.nasa.gov
҆ The OCIO supplied on-call 

support from two days before 

until four days after EDL, and 

began onsite support the day 

before through the day after 

EDL. Our onsite support teams 

consisted of two shifts ready to 

provide any necessary support.

҆ Our conference room support 

team ensured all critical 

conference rooms were 

ready for EDL and were 

onsite to provide support.

We published a Support Activity 

Reference Guide for our providers 

with coverage schedules and 

contact information for all OCIOprovided IT services. Over 100 

OCIO team members were part of 

the on-call and onsite support for 

MSL during their critical window. 

Joy Laibl, Network Engineering 

Manager: Preparing for the IT 

needs of the many JPL visitors 

presented a challenge.

Our biggest concern for MSL 

was enabling appropriate 

network access to IT resources. 

MSL challenged us with their 

requirements, and this enabled us 

to examine technologies, brainstorm 

and create effective solutions:

҆ We worked with the project to 

create role-based profiles and 

defined isolated environments 

to ensure appropriate access for 

the right people—especially for 

the MSL Science Zone, a secure 

network layer where partners 

and Principal Investigators 

from around the world access 

MSL science systems.

҆ We moved from hardwired 

connections to ubiquitous 

and pervasive Wi-Fi.

҆ We partnered with Cisco to 

bring in 20 ruggedized access 

points around critical areas for 

enhanced Wi-Fi coverage.

҆ We laid extensive cabling for 

areas needing hardwired access.

It takes a coordinated effort 

and team to support an 

event of this magnitude. 

Gary Beaner, 

Telecommunications Manager:

Communication systems had to be 

increased to meet MSL’s needs.

MeetingPlace (JPL’s audio, video, 

web conferencing application from 

Cisco) was upgraded to support 

250-300 connections to meet 

MSL’s requirements. We also:

҆ Arranged special telecom 

services for the MSL 

science community.

҆ Worked with AT&T and 

Verizon to offer improved 

cell phone coverage through 

the use of Cell On Wheels 

(COWS) in project spaces, 

the main JPL auditorium, 

and the central mall area.

҆ Established mini call centers 

using VoIP phones to 

accommodate the increased 

calls into JPL.

҆ Installed 

phones in 

strategic 

locations for 

guests and VIPs.

҆ Installed analog 

lines for the 

satellite JPL 

Store locations.

Jonathan Chiang, 

IT Directorate 

Engineer: 8 million 

hits in one minute!

With less than four 

months to the MSL EDL 

event, our team had to 

engineer and migrate a 

legacy content management system 

and the Mars public outreach Web 

sites to Amazon Web Services. 

Working with the Ground Data 

Systems, Public Outreach and 

contractor teams we developed 

a solution that would download 

raw images and telemetry directly 

from Curiosity and place them 

into Amazon S3 storage buckets. 

Now the content managers for 

the Mars Web sites can easily 

create informative Web pages with 

powerful real–time images. We 

dealt with shifting requirements, 

including implementing live 

streaming of NASA TV and migrating 

the Eyes on the Solar System Web 

sites two weeks before EDL. 

In short, we successfully met a high 

volume of traffic and took a legacy 

application and completely ported 

it to a new platform in the cloud. 

We delivered 120 TB of throughput 

during the night in video streaming 

alone. Adding the static content, we 

exceeded 150 TB. In one minute the 

websites served 8 million hits. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk October-December 2012 7
IT Labs: Fueling Innovation

IT Labs is the Technology and Innovation Division 

of NASA’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for IT in 

the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). 

It is an innovation incubator, soliciting ideas from 

NASA’s scientists and engineers and enabling their 

development as part of a rapid, low-cost, low-risk 

process. There are 14 ideas that have been awarded 

funding from IT Labs for FY13. Here is a small synopsis 

of what they plan to accomplish in the coming year.

Baselining NASA’s Mobile Device 

Theft and Recovery Processes

Led by Irene A. Wirkus, Glenn 

Research Center (GRC), this 

collaborative effort will attempt 

to identify measurable gaps 

and deficiencies in NASA’s IT 

security training efforts, augment 

IT security’s mobile forensics 

capabilities, and demonstrate the 

efficacy and value of enterprise 

mobile-device management.

Benchmarking Virtual 

Collaboration Technologies 

Across Government Agencies

Led by Mary E. Walsh, Ames 

Research Center (ARC), this 

benchmarking study will identify 

virtual collaboration in use, or 

planned, at the other 11 Federal 

research and development 

(R&D) agencies. Results will 

help NASA continue necessary, 

mission-enabling meetings in 

more affordable ways and will 

support Information Resources 

Management (IRM) Strategic 

Objectives 1.5 and 3.2.

Communications Dashboard

Led by David W. Scott, Marshall 

Space Flight Center (MSFC), this 

project will build a software test 

bed to explore unconventional 

integration, presentation, and 

exchange of flight control 

communications in intra-Center 

and inter-Center contexts, which 

will create a unified interface for 

multiple communication tools 

to complement and augment 

voice loop discussions.

DropBox for the Enterprise: 

Secure Collaboration 

for Mobile Workers

Led by Manson Yew, Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 

this follow-on to the DragDrop-Sync-Share project will 

take the capabilities explored 

previously and provide a 

proof of concept for secure 

collaboration for mobile workers.

Engineering Enterprise 

Data Harvest Standards

Led by Chatwin Lansdowne, 

Johnson Space Center (JSC), 

this follow-on to the ATML and 

SysML project is driven to reducing 

the cost and schedule of the 

engineering cycle for flight projects 

by using industry standards to 

enable automated data harvesting 

into interoperable formats.

Enhance NASA’s Large File 

Transfer (LFT) Capability 

to 100 GB Capacity

Led by Bryan K. Walls, 

MSFC, this project proposes 

enhancing or replacing the 

existing LFT to support larger 

files while maintaining a 

shared NASA resource—rather 

than supporting multiple filetransfer implementations on a 

program by program basis.

Evaluation of Personal Identity 

Verification (PIV) Two-Factor 

Authentication with iPads

Led by Irene A. Wirkus, GRC, 

this project seeks to determine 

whether a Smartcard reader 

can be used on an iOS device 

to access NASA applications 

requiring PIV authentication.

Image Data Mining of Terrestrial 

and Lunar Data Sets

Led by Ali Shaykhian, Kennedy 

Space Center (KSC), this 

research endeavor’s objective 

is to explore novel IT in order 

to benefit from huge data sets, 

such as the 192 TB of data, 

images, and maps delivered 

from the Lunar Reconnaissance 

Orbiter on the Moon.

Lightweight Digital Signatures

Led by Manson Yew, JPL, this 

project will analyze the NASA 

environment and summarize the 

barriers to digital signatures. It 

will also explore the potential 

cost-saving benefits for NASA to 

implement tiered digital signatures.

Mobile Audiovisual Broadcasting 

from Field Sites and Beyond

Led by Mike Toillion, ARC, this 

investigation will probe into 

the implementation of mobile, 

cellular, and satellite streaming 

technologies as a means to 

broadcast audiovisual data from 

field sites to NASA Centers, labs, 

and education/public outreach 

(E/PO) community partners.

Radio Frequency Identification 

(RFID) Equipment Inventory

Led by Fabiola C. Martin, Langley 

Research Center (LaRC), this 

venture will use RFID tags to 

manage and account for the 

8 www.nasa.gov
Center’s controlled inventory. 

This capability will reduce the 

inventory cycle, improve data 

accuracy, and keep better 

track of property compared to 

the current use of line-of-sight 

barcode scanners to inventory 

more than 25,000 items annually.

Safeguarding NASA’s 

Mobile Assets

Led by Irene A. Wirkus, GRC, this 

collaborative effort will study the 

efficacy, viability, and enterprise 

requirements needed to support 

Intel’s antitheft technology. This 

technology is inherent to Intel’s 

processor architecture and 

has the potential to augment 

NASA’s Data at Rest initiative.

Security for Mobile Applications

Led by Andrew J. Cecil, MSFC, 

this project will produce a 

strawman security control 

configuration to understand how 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST) controls can 

be applied to mobile applications 

and devices—both personal 

and Government-issued.

sysadmin.nasa.gov—Knowledge 

Sharing for Improved Operations

Led by Branson Matheson, 

LaRC, this project will perform an 

internal hosting of a communitysupported, centralized set 

of services that will be made 

available to all NASA system 

administrators. This community will 

help organize information, enhance 

cross-Agency communications, 

and improve operations.

Videoconference E-Concierge 

(V-Concierge)

Led by Manson Yew, JPL, this 

proposed multiphase project will 

provide an analysis that would 

support a way forward for greater 

utilization of videoconferencing 

by NASA programs and projects.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) 

Authentication & Automated 

Policy Enforcement

Led by Richard M. Pearson, 

Headquarters, this project 

proposes to unify and 

consolidate VPN authentication 

and policy enforcement 

throughout the Agency within 

the LaunchPad framework.

Wolfram Alpha Search 

Overlay Integration

Led by Allan Stilwell, JSC, this 

project will assess the technical 

capabilities of the Wolfram 

Alpha API by researching the 

documentation and producing 

a working proof of concept that 

will integrate the Wolfram Alpha 

results with JSC search results.

You can keep track of IT 

Labs projects and connect 

with NASA’s innovators at 

https://labs.nasa.gov. v

IT Labs @ LaRC By Ed McLarney, LaRC Chief Technology Officer for the OCIO

Langley Research Center (LaRC) is 

benefitting from the Agency IT Labs 

program. Langley prototypes funded 

by IT Labs include experimentation 

with digital eBook publishing, an 

initiative to stimulate collaboration 

among system administrators 

NASA-wide, and a prototype to 

use Radio Frequency Identification 

tags to improve inventories. These 

projects and the IT Labs program 

are briefly discussed below. 

Transition to Digital Publishing: 

The goal of this project was to 

develop the technical and business 

processes to enter the emerging 

world of digital publishing for mobile 

devices. The prototype produced a 

modern, interactive iBook for iPad. 

And eBooks promise to include 

many features, including navigation, 

interactive video, 3D, and audio. This 

project was completed in August, 

and results and demonstrations are 

available from Larry Merrill at LaRC.

Radio Frequency Identification 

(RFID) Inventory Prototype: The 

goal of this project is to use RFID 

tags to manage and account for the 

Center’s controlled property inventory. 

Current technology uses line-of-sight 

barcode scanners to inventory over 

25,000 equipment items annually. This 

current process takes from 6 to 12 

months to complete. With the RFID 

Inventory prototype, we anticipate 

being able to cut inventory time and 

increase accuracy. Fabiola Martin, 

from the LaRC Center Operations 

Directorate, is the project lead.

Sysadmin.nasa.gov Collaboration 

Site: The goal of this project is 

to provide collaboration methods 

for system administrators across 

NASA. This is a grassroots proposal 

developed by a large group of 

system administrators and IT security 

professionals around the Agency for 

the internal hosting of a communitysupported centralized set of services. 

Capabilities will include a code and 

script sharing repository, a system 

administrator shared knowledge base, 

and other essential collaboration 

items. Eric Everton is the Government 

sponsor, and Branson Matheson is the 

project lead and system architect. 

Similar projects are under way across 

the Agency using funding from 

the IT Labs program. For IT Labs 

information, see https://labs.nasa.gov/

SitePages/About IT Labs.aspx. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk October-December 2012 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services (NICS)

With “Transition” completed and 

“Transformation” under way, the CSO–

NASA Integrated Communications Services 

(NICS) team has embarked on a path 

to socialize proposed transformation 

initiatives with their stakeholders.

During a recent series of face-to-face 

meetings, CSO/NICS presented snapshots of 

the 16 proposed initiatives to Communications 

Architecture Working Group (CAWG) members 

and communications subject matter experts 

(SMEs), who represent each NASA Center, 

to convey information about each initiative. 

In addition, a roadmap that described 

dependencies among the initiatives was 

also presented to provide a perspective 

regarding how all the initiatives fit together. 

Because of this effort, members from 

both groups are now better equipped to 

discuss these transformation initiatives 

with their Center stakeholders and to 

foster a collaborative environment that 

can position the initiatives for success.

End-User Services (ACES)

Recently, Apple announced the release of the 

iPhone 5. Although the iPhone 5 is commercially 

available, it is not yet available on the Agency 

Consolidated End-user Services (ACES) 

contract. Normally, Apple does not provide new 

products to resellers until consumer demand 

has been satisfied at Apple retail stores. 

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Enterprise Services 

is working with suppliers to determine an 

availability date. Typical lead time can be up 

to 2 months after commercial release. It is 

anticipated that the iPhone 5 will be available 

to NASA users within the next 3 months 

or sooner. NASA customers who choose to 

defer their mobile seat refresh in anticipation 

of getting an iPhone 5 should be aware of 

this potential delay to Government clients.

In other news, two new people are now 

supporting the ACES contract. William “Rich” 

Horton is the NASA Contracting Officer and 

Sheila Fogle is the ACES Contracting Officer’s 

Technical Representative (COTR). If you 

need assistance regarding this contract, 

please contact one of these individuals. 

Mobile Information Protection (MIP), also 

known as Autonomy Connected Backup, 

is the ACES solution for providing backup, 

restore and data protection services on PC 

and Mac devices. Quarterly notifications are 

being sent to end users who have not had 

a successful backup in 30 days or more.

The End-User Service Office is now 

conducting monthly program reviews. These 

reviews are focusing on the following items: 

achievements, risks and issues mitigated, 

what is not going well and why, upcoming 

events and milestones, prioritizing future 

efforts, and identifying and providing status 

on process improvement initiatives.

Throughout 2012 ACES Technology Expos 

are occurring at the Centers. HP Enterprise 

Services and its partners are featuring an 

assortment of the technology available through 

ACES. The Expos will showcase current seats 

and products, as well as upgraded versions 

for platforms that will reach “end of life” 

in the next 90 days. For more information 

regarding Center Expos, visit https://

aces.ndc.nasa.gov/subnav/expo.html.

A new process has been implemented for 

reporting lost, stolen and damaged devices. 

It is critical to report a lost or stolen device 

and to document the incident immediately. 

Proper reporting procedures minimize security 

vulnerabilities and productivity loss while 

enabling faster return to service. For more 

information on what to do regarding lost, 

stolen and damaged devices, go to https://

aces.ndc.nasa.gov/subnav/lost.html. 

Enterprise Applications Services (EAST)

The Enterprise Applications Service Office/

NASA Enterprise Applications Competency 

Center (EASO/NEACC) is currently preparing 

for release 13.1, the major fiscal year-end 

cutover release, with regression testing under 

way. Concurrently, a modification to the 

Enterprise Applications Service Technologies 

(EAST) contract is targeted for late October to 

end stabilization and respond to a significant 

budget cut. Off-campus operations are 

relocating to the Marshall Space Flight Center 

(MSFC) to trim costs and preserve as many 

EAST jobs as possible while minimizing 

impacts to services. Two buildings have been 

vacated, and the third off-campus building 

will be vacated in fiscal year FY13. The EASO/

NEACC teams are adjusting to no longer being 

collocated, while striving to continue providing 

excellence in operations and customer service.

Two major task order efforts are expected to 

become new lines of business (LOB) in FY13. 

The Product Lifecycle Management/Product 

Data Management (PLM/PDM) LOB will evolve 

from task orders currently being executed 

under the EAST contract in support of the 

Integrated Collaborative Environment (ICE). 

NASA’s engineering programs and projects 

are responsible for managing programmatic 

and technical data across all phases of the 

life cycle. These types of data range from 

budgets, schedules, risks, cost actuals, and 

contract data in the programmatic category, 

to concepts, design requirements and 

specifications, technical risks, models and 

simulations, system configurations, software, 

test and evaluation results, and logistics plans 

in the technical category. ICE is a Web-centric 

environment that currently provides services 

that support many of these needs, including 

collaboration, product data management, risk, 

schedule, requirements and cost management, 

and design and systems engineering in 

a secure and controlled architecture.

The second new LOB involves the NASA Office 

of Education Infrastructure Division (OEID). A 

transition project to bring OEID applications 

under EASO/NEACC operations completed 

in late September 2012. This transition will 

streamline the application management 

and leverage EASO/NEACC capabilities 

for future enhancements. The OEID’s IT 

vision includes strengthening configuration, 

integration and usability, plus building robust 

reporting capabilities, featuring dashboards, 

and providing mobile applications. 

Two large IT projects are slated for FY13. The 

Identity, Credential, and Access Management 

(ICAM) Modernization project will replace aging 

infrastructure, and the eTravel System II (ETS2) 

project will implement an eGov replacement 

for our current FedTraveler system. 

Enterprise Services Desk (ESD)

The Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) 

Enhancements project completed its 

combined Preliminary Design Review (PDR) 

/ Critical Design Review (CDR) in September. 

The enhancements project will add several 

new capabilities to ESD this Fall.

҆ ESD is adding the ability for Tier-2 

providers to generate incident tickets, 

even in cases when a single customer 

is not identified. This will be especially 

helpful to the NICS team, who frequently 

work tickets generated from a system, 

not a person. Automation will be built 

into the process so that the tickets are 

quickly routed to where they need to go.

҆ ESD will move to an hourly Lightweight 

Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 

10 www.nasa.gov
data pull, which will keep personnel 

data more accurate in the system.

҆ Individuals placing On Behalf Of 

orders will find new hires available 

earlier in the process, which will 

help onboarding processes. Those 

departing the Agency will be left in 

the system for On Behalf Of orders for 

a short time following separation. An 

individual’s status will be displayed 

when placing an On Behalf Of order.

҆ New flexibility will be added to the 

approver queues which will allow 

Center POCs the opportunity to create 

specific groups for approving orders; 

when implemented, they can prevent 

every approver from receiving emails 

for every request and allow each Center 

to develop the workflow that is most 

appropriate for their approvers.

҆ End users will be able to edit a service 

request as it works its way through 

the approval cycle; requests that are 

edited will need to be re-approved.

҆ Users will be able to subscribe for 

notifications in the system, but suppress 

notification emails if that is their preference. 

Mandatory Agency-wide messages will 

continue to be delivered to the users’ 

inboxes regardless of preference.

҆ Customers and contacts will receive 

notification emails when orders 

are approved or rejected.

҆ Knowledge Articles and help tickets will 

be print-friendly; help tickets will have 

an easy email option allowing end users 

to share an open ticket with a POC.

Additionally, the ESD team is also 

implementing updates to the available 

categories used for submitting incident 

tickets online and reorganizing the services 

Catalog - making services easier to find for 

end users. The team is participating in tiger 

team efforts to ensure accuracy of the I3P 

Configuration Management Database (CMDB). 

Furthermore, the team in parallel continues 

to develop Problem and Change Management 

Modules as part of the ESD 1.2 release. 

Web Services and WESTPRIME

Web services are continuing under the 

current vendor, whose contract has been 

extended through April of 2013. Current 

services include the following features: 

1. Web content delivery 

2. Web site development 

3. Content management 

4. Bandwidth management 

5. Search capabilities 

6. Collaboration services 

7. Web hosting 

NASA is also shifting to a new Web-services 

model that uses Amazon Web Services 

for cloud-based enterprise infrastructure. 

This cloud-based model supports a 

wide variety of Web applications and 

sites using an interoperable, standardsbased and secure environment.

The acquisition strategy for the Web Enterprise 

Service Technology (WESTPRIME) contract is 

to compete this requirement among several 

sources under the U.S. General Services 

Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule 

(FSS) Information Technology Schedule 70. 

NASA released the Request for Quote (RFQ) 

for WESTPRIME in August 2012. An award 

selection will be made by April 30, 2013. 

The goals of the WESTPRIME contract are to 

1. Enhance business and technical agility; 

2. Eliminate vendor-specific dependencies; 

3. Drive down operational overhead 

for Web presence; 

4. Drive down the cost of custom 

Web and on-demand services for 

missions, programs, and projects; 

5. Increase NASA IT security; 

6. Explore collaborative services 

across NASA Centers; and 

7. Improve online customer service 

delivery through innovative technology.

New Hires at Glenn

LES FARKAS

Les Farkas was selected in June 2012 as the first IT Chief Technology 

Officer (CTO) at Glenn Research Center. Prior to his selection as the 

CTO, Farkas served as the Chief of the IT Security Office at Glenn, where 

he worked to develop the IT Security Strategic Plan for the Center. 

During his 28 years at Glenn, Farkas has led several Center teams, 

served as Glenn’s Enterprise Architect for NASA’s Enterprise Architecture 

(EA) program, and was 

the Center’s HSPD-12 

Implementation Manager. In 

December 2005, Farkas was 

one of only five NASA civil 

service employees to receive 

certification in enterprise 

architecture from the Federal 

Enterprise Architecture 

Certification (FEAC) Institute. 

Farkas holds a bachelor’s 

degree in computer science.

SEAN GALLAGHER

Effective July 2, 2012, Sean Gallagher joined the Glenn Research Center 

Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) as Deputy CIO. Gallagher 

joined the team from the consulting industry with specialized expertise 

in the management and administration of large IT implementations 

and consulting engagements for defense, Federal, and commercial 

organizations. During his consulting tenure, Gallagher developed a 

robust software development 

practice, delivering 

knowledge management 

and collaboration solutions 

to a variety of customers in 

civil, defense and private 

organizations. Gallagher 

served as a communications 

officer, network engineer, and 

human resources manager 

in the United States Army. 

He holds an undergraduate 

degree in physics and a 

master’s degree in computer 

information systems.

NASA OCIO IT Talk October-December 2012 11
JPL IT Recognized with Industry Honors in 2012

By Tom Soderstrom, IT CTO and Whitney Haggins, Communications Specialist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW (1225 Eye Street)

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

NASA@Work Winner

How well do you know your coworkers? Kevin 

Powell currently supports the Office of the Chief 

Information Officer Project Management office in 

an IT role. He assists with status reporting, risk 

management, and the usage of metrics tracking 

in SharePoint. What you may not know is that he 

has a varied background with high-tech start-up 

companies. Just recently, Powell won an award 

through NASA@Work for a technical submission 

on the topic of “Non-invasive Measurement 

of Intracranial Pressure”—not what you may 

have expected from an IT support professional! 

NASA@Work is an internal collaboration 

platform that connects the collective knowledge 

of individual experts from all areas within the 

NASA organization via a private Web based 

environment supported by InnoCentive. The 

platform provides a venue for Challenge Owners, 

those looking for solutions or new ideas, to pose 

challenges to internal Solvers, those within NASA 

with the skill and desire to create enlightened 

solutions. The Solvers who deliver the best 

innovative ideas are rewarded and recognized 

for their contributions. Congratulations 

to Powell and the NASA collaborative 

environment—get to know your co-workers! v

NASA

CIO

The JPL IT Directorate was recognized with two 

separate industry awards for innovation in 2012.

In July 2012, CIO Magazine’s “CIO 100 Award” panel 

selected JPL IT as “one of the top 100 innovative 

organizations that uses IT effectively to create business 

value.” JPL was one of only three Government-focused 

organizations selected in the 2012 competition, with 

nominations from across Government and industry.

The award highlighted JPL’s initiative of changing 

IT from “Information Technology” into a proactive 

and action-oriented organization that “Innovates 

Together” with everyone. As part of the award, the 

panel recognized the proactive collaboration between 

JPL IT and missions, NASA, academia, industry, and 

the public; the exploration and sharing with the public 

about IT trends; the consumer technologies available, 

including the IT Petting Zoo; cloud computing; and 

the innovations in mobile and video technologies.

JPL’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), Jim Rinaldi, 

explained the Innovating Together mission in an 

article published by CIO Magazine, which can 

be read at http://www.cio.com/article/711437/

NASA_s_New_Innovation_Mission.

JPL IT was also recognized in September 2012 

as part of InformationWeek’s 500 most innovative 

organizations. JPL was chosen based on its breadth, 

depth, and innovative use of mobile applications 

to educate the public about NASA and space in the 

category of innovation in Government. These mobile 

apps have been downloaded well over a million times.

When congratulated on the awards, Jim Rinaldi said, 

“On behalf of our IT staff, I’m pleased that industry 

recognizes the hard work and rapid innovations 

by the JPL IT community and that we can help 

evolve IT. It’s also gratifying to help share the 

wonders of NASA with the public in new ways.” v