IT Talk

January - March 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Connecting Anywhere, Anytime
IT Talk

Jan - Mar 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 1

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Linda Y. Cureton

Editor and Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Editor and Writer

Sarah Rigdon

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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12

Message from

the CIO

Connecting

Anywhere, Anytime:

NASA’s Virtual

Executive Summit

NEACC Support for 

NASA’s 2012 Virtual 

Executive Summit

AMES IT Security Lab 

and NASA FedScoop 

Awards

Enterprise Licensing 

Management Team 

(ELMT) Is There for You!

In this Issue
Message

from the

CIO

By Linda Cureton

As we flip our calendars and embrace 2013, I think about the 

challenges ahead and the rapidly evolving pace of technology.

One of the greatest challenges I face as NASA’s Chief Information 

Officer (CIO) is how to empower the NASA community’s use 

of emerging technologies while ensuring that use does not 

compromise NASA’s mission. This balancing act is a critical part 

of the decisions I make in leading the organization forward.

So with this in mind, this year, just like all the rest, I have some proposed 

key goals. Here are several of my 2013 New Year’s resolutions:

1. IT Security is our top priority. Ensuring that NASA data is more 

secure is critical for our Agency. Our equipment and information 

must be protected against vulnerabilities and breaches.

2. Embrace mobile technologies.

3. Firm up policies on bring-your-own-device (BYOD).

4. Remove the stigma out of “remote” and encourage more Centers 

to feel comfortable in embracing the concept of telework. 

5. Use collaborative technologies more. Recently, we launched a 

Virtual Executive Summit that had over 600 executives Agencywide gather remotely using collaborative technologies. This helped 

put us one giant leap closer to implementing Administrator Charlie 

Bolden’s vision of an anywhere, anyplace, anytime organization.

6. Improve service delivery.

We will no doubt face challenges in meeting some of these goals. 

We must all learn to do more with less and live with it. Budget cuts 

are here to stay! But if we work smarter and more strategically, 

I believe there is nothing we as a team cannot accomplish.

—Linda

Cybersecurity Begins 

and Ends with You!

By Meredith Mengel, OCIO IT Security Division

“Laptop with NASA workers’ personal 

data is stolen”—NBC News

Stories alerting the public to NASA’s most recent security 

breach dominated headlines over the last several weeks. 

All civil servants and contractors play a major role in 

NASA’s ability to safeguard IT assets from cybercriminals, 

hackers, and other groups. By creating a united front, 

NASA employees can protect, prevent, and preserve 

NASA data and information systems—the key to 

beginning the cybersecurity transformation at NASA.

How well are you protecting the information you use on a 

daily basis? Here are some tips for keeping your identity 

and data safe—and the world’s focus on NASA’s good work.

҆ Complete NASA’s Annual IT Security Awareness 

Training. This training is required for all Federal and 

contractor employees, and for good reason. It covers 

the protection of your desktop and home computers, 

safeguarding your identity and data, and privacy 

best practices. Be sure to complete this training as 

soon as you can; it’s an important first step toward 

learning how to protect and safeguard information.

҆ Know how to protect your laptop and the 

information on it in case a loss or theft occurs:

1. Lock your laptop when you’re not using it.

2. When transporting your laptop, 

keep it with you at all times.

3. Laptops should be taken into your home 

or office, immediately. Do not leave them 

in the trunk or back seat of your car.

4. Laptops are required to be updated with Data-At-Rest 

(DAR) encryption before leaving Government facilities.

5. Use strong passwords that are not easy to guess, 

and store them separately from your laptop.

҆ Avoid clicking on unfamiliar links or downloading 

files from email, Facebook, or other popular 

communication tools, regardless of who sent them. 

Destructive malware uses these environments to 

spread and weaken your computer’s security.

NASA is depending on all employees to help keep all data 

and systems safe! If you have questions, suggestions, 

or tips for improving cybersecurity at NASA, please 

send them to Agency-IT-Security@mail.nasa.gov. v

Happy New Year from the staff in the NASA OCIO

NASA OCIO IT Talk January-March 2013 3
Ames’s IT Security 

Innovation Lab Team 

Wins 2012 U.S. 

National Cybersecurity 

Innovation Award

The IT Security Innovation Lab team developed 

and implemented a tool that identifies, 

monitors, and raises the visibility of IT Security 

vulnerabilities at a very low cost across multiple 

NASA Centers. Team members Matt Linton (IT 

security operations lead) and Chris and Matt 

Antoun (Web developers) developed, tested, 

and launched the tool quickly and efficiently. 

The team modified Ames’s vulnerability 

detection program to bring responsibility directly 

to system administrators and technical staff—

those who can fix the problems. By normalizing 

and tabulating Common Vulnerability Scoring 

System values for each host and crossreferencing hosts to our asset inventory, 

Centers are now able to produce a “scoreboard” 

showing which hosts are security heroes 

and which are security problems. The scores 

are further modified by constantly scanning 

the Center from a truly external server and 

adjusting scores upward when vulnerable hosts 

have services exposed beyond Agency firewalls.

This win would not have been possible

without an Agency-wide team effort that 

includes Jon Davis at Goddard Space Flight 

Center, Howard Whyte at Headquarters, 

and many Ames Research Center systems 

administrators and IT security personnel 

who tested and provided input on the tool. 

To view the full details of the innovation 

award, visit the NASA Ames News and 

Events site at: http://www.nasa.gov/

centers/ames/news/releases/2012/

rel_cybersecurity-innovation-award.html. v

Ames’s IT Security Innovation Lab Team: (l–r) 

Chris Antoun, Matt Linton, Matt Antoun. Photo 

by Nicholas Theodore

Allison Wolff, Linda Cureton, and Nick Skytland.

NASA FedScoop 

Award Winners

FedScoop recently honored Federal 

technology leaders, innovators, and 

rising stars at the first annual FedScoop 

50 Awards on November 28, 2012, 

in Washington, DC. More than 150 

attendees from the White House, U.S. 

Department of Defense, civilian agencies, 

and industry were in attendance.The 

50 awardees were nominated by their 

peers throughout Government and 

then voted on by FedScoop’s readers. 

More than 8,000 votes were cast 

for the awards that honored Federal 

executives, Federal leaders, industry 

leaders, Federal IT programs, Federal 

innovations, mentors, and up-and-comers.

Congratulations to all our NASA winners. 

҆ Golden Gov—Federal Executives 

of the Year: Linda Cureton

҆ Federal IT Program of the 

Year: NASA IT Labs

҆ FedMentors of the Year: Emma 

Antunes, Web Manager, NASA; and 

Nicholas Skytland, Program Manager, 

Open Innovation Program, NASA

For more information, visit

http://fedscoop.com/fedscoop50-awards-honor-top-federalit-innovators-of-2012/ v

4 www.nasa.gov
NASA OCIO and JAXA Representatives Meet in Maryland

By Lynn Heimerl, STI Program Manager

The NASA Office of the Chief Information 

Officer (OCIO); the Agency-wide Scientific 

and Technical Information (STI) Program; 

and its contractor, the NASA Center for 

AeroSpace Information (CASI), recently 

hosted personnel from the Japan Aerospace 

Exploration Agency (JAXA). The meeting took 

place at the CASI facility in Hanover, MD. 

STI and JAXA have an information exchange 

agreement. This exchange has been 

extremely beneficial for both organizations 

in helping to expand aerospace research and 

development information for their personnel.

Meeting participants included Deborah 

Diaz, NASA Deputy Chief Information Officer 

(CIO); Karen Petraska, Associate Deputy, 

Tech Integration & SE Computing Services 

at Headquarters; Lynn Heimerl, STI Program 

Manager; Gerald Steeman, STI Program 

Analyst; Laurie Johansen, STI Contracting 

Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) and 

Resources Manager; Ann Dixon, CASI Program 

Manager; and Eric Kamenitzer, CASI Deputy 

Program Manager. JAXA participants included 

Akiko Fujii, Administrator, Information Systems 

Department, Knowledge Management System 

Expert; Nobuto Yoshioka, Associate Senior 

Engineer, Engineering Digital Innovation Center, 

Information/Aerospace System Specialist; and 

Norimitsu Kamimori, Director, JAXA Washington, 

DC, Office. Also included were Tony Anania 

and Grant Stoddard of the NASA data center 

consolidation initiative. Michael Genuardi of CASI 

helped with day-to-day activities associated 

with fulfillment of the exchange agreement.

Discussions centered on background 

information on the NASA STI Program and 

CASI, JAXA activities and organization, new 

developments in information management, 

and a discussion of possible improvements in 

the joint NASA-JAXA exchange agreement. 

On October 1, 2003, the Institute of Space 

and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National 

Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), and 

the National Space Development Agency 

of Japan (NASDA) were merged into one 

independent administrative institution to 

perform all of Japan’s aerospace activities 

as one organization, from basic research and 

development to utilization. The independent 

administrative institution is the Japan 

Aerospace Exploration Agency. Per JAXA, 

space development and utilization and aviation 

research and development are steps to 

achieve its nation’s policy objectives. A large 

portion of the JAXA Aerospace Information 

and Reports Exchange (AIREX) System is 

composed of NASA STI information.

The NASA STI Program, which has been in 

existence since the 1960s, is chartered to 

collect, organize, disseminate, and preserve 

NASA’s published research and development 

information defined as STI. The STI Database 

(“Organize STI”) has the NASA Technical 

Reports Server (NTRS) for public use and the 

NASA Aeronautics and Space Database (NA&SD) 

for internal NASA use. The program is also 

chartered to provide the Agency with technical 

publications policy and ensure that all STI is 

reviewed and approved for technical quality 

and restrictions and limitations prior to release. 

In addition, STI collects and makes available 

to NASA international STI from noncommercial 

exchange partners. STI also produces the 

Spinoff publication through the CASI contract 

for the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist.

The NASA STI Program collects, organizes, 

disseminates, and preserves NASA’s 

research and development results.

STI produces Spinoff for the Office 

of the Chief Technologist.

JAXA harvests the metadata via the Open 

Archives Initiative (OAI) from the public 

interface to the NASA STI repository, which 

is called the NASA Technical Reports Server. 

The OAI is an initiative funded by the 

Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Coalition for 

Networked Information, the Digital Library 

Federation, Microsoft, and the National 

Science Foundation. For more information, 

visit http://www.openarchives.org.

STI ensures dissemination to mandatory 

Federal organizations and to commercial 

search engines. STI also disseminates 

information to Google Scholar, which 

provides citation analysis for NASA 

authors and researchers. 

CASI is the STI Program contractor that 

handles the day-to-day implementation 

of the NASA STI charter. CASI is currently 

managed by Chugach Federal Solutions, Inc., 

(CFSI) on a 5-year, fixed-price, indefinitedelivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract 

through Langley Research Center. 

For more information on NASA STI 

and CASI, see http://www.sti.nasa.

gov. For information on JAXA, see http://

www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html. v

From left to right: Tony Anania (NASA), Norimitsu Kamimori (JAXA), Deborah Diaz (NASA), Eric Kamenitzer 

(CASI), Laurie Johansen (NASA), Karen Petraska (NASA), Lynn Heimerl (NASA), Akiko Fujii (JAXA), and Nobuto 

Yoshioka (JAXA). Not pictured: Ann Dixon (CASI), Gerald Steeman (NASA), and Grant Stoddard (NASA).

NASA OCIO IT Talk January-March 2013 5
Connecting Anywhere, Anytime:

NASA’s Virtual Executive Summit

NASA conducted its annual Executive 

Summit the entire month of October 

2012. The Executive Summit provided a 

forum whereby NASA executives could 

collaborate with each other, attend learning 

sessions, and have the opportunity 

to hear from NASA leadership on key 

strategic issues. In the spirit of NASA’s 

commitment to discovery, protection of 

our environment, and utilization of the 

latest technology, this year’s Executive 

Summit was entirely virtual, and by 

all accounts, a resounding success. 

This experiment incorporated suggestions 

from last year’s participants, while taking 

the summit in a new, uncertain direction. 

Its success depended on everyone’s 

willingness to take that step and commit 

to the potential of a virtual summit. 

Ultimately, considerable planning and 

coordination resulted in a collaborative 

and interactive summit that engaged 

approximately 570 executives, 80 percent 

of whom participated in the virtual events. 

Greg Schmidt, Deputy Director of the 

NASA Lunar Science Institute, shared his 

appreciation of the new format. “Hearty 

congratulations to you and everyone 

on this team who accomplished such 

a great task! This is very much in line 

with Obama's executive order 13589, 

November 9, 2011 (http://www.gpo.gov/

fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-11-15/pdf/2011-

29683.pdf), which says in part “agencies 

are encouraged to devise strategic 

alternatives to Government travel, including 

local or technological alternatives, such as 

teleconferencing and videoconferencing.”

Some of the immediate benefits of the 

virtual summit include tremendous 

cost savings. Because executives did 

not travel to the summit, NASA saved 

about $750,000 in travel expenses. The 

summit also exposed executives to new 

technologies. During the month of October, 

executives could access the 2012 Virtual 

Executive Summit from a single launch 

page on the HR portal. In addition to the 

website, executives could participate by 

viewing and commenting on videos, 

participating in live sessions using 

Adobe Connect and by attending 

the one-day onsite at their Center. 

Executives could network with peers, 

pose questions to the knowledgeable 

virtual community, share ideas, and 

interact with senior leadership on 

challenging issues. Just as important 

as the exchange of information, the 

Virtual Executive Summit provided 

an opportunity for executives to 

become more knowledgeable about 

the technology they were using and 

its potential for use in facilitating 

future meetings and events. 

Carol Carroll, Deputy Director for Science, 

NASA Ames Research Center, is optimistic 

about the use of virtual technology at 

NASA. “This has been a terrific way 

to communicate with the NASA SES 

[Senior Executive Service] corps. It was 

easy to use and informative. I think 

this could and should be used more 

often, for example, after the election in 

November and after the budget rollout in 

February. The corporate world regularly 

has video chats with their senior leaders 

to share information about important 

and timely topics throughout the year. 

I would encourage NASA to have these 

SES virtual meetings several times a 

year for specific topics of interest.”

One of the goals of the Virtual Summit was 

to take advantage of the technology that 

allowed for distance learning, messaging, 

and virtual interaction without it actually 

being the focus. Planners designed the 

websites for ease of use and accessibility 

in order to encourage participation and 

ensure that users have a good experience. 

Another consideration for designers is 

that technology in all its forms should 

be transparent so that participants can 

concentrate on the subject matter of the 

presentation without distractions. The 

Executive Summit website addressed 

these requirements by providing users 

with a home base for schedules, 

presentations, and technical support. 

Because the format was different this year, 

planners incorporated pre recorded howto sessions describing Adobe Connect, 

and live session content guidance to 

ensure that everyone was comfortable. 

The online environment allowed flexibility 

in how, where, and when executives 

participated. For example, during the 

first two weeks in October, executives 

completed activities independently

from anywhere and on their own time. 

When Administrator Bolden addressed 

executives on October 30, it was an 

interactive session using Adobe Connect. 

Each Center arranged a conference 

room that had a quality speakerphone, 

a computer with a quality Web camera, 

and projection equipment so that 

everyone could participate. One of 

the unexpected benefits of the virtual 

summit was realized during Hurricane 

Sandy when Headquarters was closed. 

The summit continued, and Assistant 

Administrator Lori Garver presented as 

scheduled from the safety of her home. 

Planners credit the success of the Virtual 

Executive Summit to the concerted 

effort across Centers: The summit 

was successful to a large degree 

because both planners and executives 

embraced change and had the desire 

to learn and use new technology. v

6 www.nasa.gov
Virtualization Evolves at JSC By Neesha Hosein, Public Relations Specialist

As teleworking becomes more common 

across the Agency, wishing to be in 

two places at once isn’t just a saying 

anymore; it’s an option. The Johnson 

Space Center (JSC) piloted the LifeSize 

telepresence systems, now available 

throughout the Agency. This technology 

provides a high-definition (HD), life-like 

video feed with presentation capabilities. 

JSC is also participating in the Chief 

Technology Officer (CTO) Community Desktop 

Videoconferencing prototype, sponsoring the 

VSee application. This is a cloud-based public 

application that allows video, audio, and 

presentation as well as drag-and-drop, filesharing capabilities to NASA employees and 

partners. Other applications in the prototype 

are Vidyo, Adobe Connect, and Blue Jeans. 

“The CTO community is ready to report the 

prototype out to the ITMB for an extended 

prototype/pilot with many more customers 

participating,” said James McClellan, JSC CTO. 

“Google Docs was an IT Labs pilot that is about to 

become a production system and will be available 

for purchase soon from ACES. These tools will 

enable the ‘work from anywhere’ directive along 

with tools we already have, like WebEx.”

We’re seeing rapid evolution of collaboration 

tools with the blast of apps in iTunes and 

Google Play, and NASA is also in the process 

of updating many of its telephone systems to 

move from old analog phones to digital ones that 

use computer Internet Protocol (IP) networks. 

This will enable the availability of a new 

productivity suite called Unified Communications 

and Collaboration (UCC), which allows email, 

voicemail, instant messaging, texting, video, 

and other rich media to be integrated in a 

way that allows users to control them as a 

whole and create what is called “presence.” 

At JSC, several prototypes are under the 

Office of the Future initiative including a Virtual 

Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) prototype for both 

office automation (desktop)-type computers and 

one for high-power engineering workstations. v

Virtual Is Reality at Glenn By Kristin Ratino, Communications Lead, Glenn Research Center

Use of virtual technology is a widely accepted 

practice with leadership and project teams 

at the Glenn Research Center. In response 

to the challenge of limited travel budgets, 

use of videoconferencing technology has 

grown throughout organizations across the 

Center. Teams are strategically assessing the 

way they work and looking for opportunities 

to conserve and utilize travel budgets 

efficiently. Cross-Center and external partner 

collaboration is on the rise, and when 

teams were challenged with reduced travel 

allocations, they sought out alternatives to 

group meetings to effectively work together. 

Managers and project teams alike are turning 

to videoconferencing to fill that gap. Meeting 

virtually can generate thousands of dollars in 

savings each year when you look at just the 

costs associated with travel: airfare, hotel, 

meals, car rentals/taxi service. But teams 

aren’t just realizing a monetary savings. 

Reducing travel also equates to a reduced 

carbon footprint—less energy and fuel used 

for transportation. Additionally, virtual meetings 

often result in increased participation. Team 

members can participate in a virtual meeting 

across the country as easily as if they were 

meeting with a colleague who is colocated, 

without any of the associated travel costs. 

Moreover, with the continued growth in 

technology, participants are no longer 

restricted to conference rooms or offices: 

videoconferencing tools available on laptops, 

tablets, and smartphones have enabled team 

members to participate from nearly anywhere 

an Internet connection is available. While 

many users of videoconferencing agree that 

the technology may not replace the personal 

engagement associated with face-to-face 

meetings, teams recognize the value and 

benefits of virtual technology. They continue 

to identify opportunities to engage colleagues 

and customers utilizing videoconferencing in 

lieu of face-to-face meetings. v

The Next Best Thing to Being There: The JPL/Goddard Presentation Experiment

 By Tom Soderstrom, CTO, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Paul Hunter, CTO, NASA Goddard Space Flight 

Center; Gabriel Rangel, Solutions Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Since 2008, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 

Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) 

has investigated new avenues for collaboration 

through high-definition (HD) video conferencing. 

JPL was one of the first Centers to use LifeSize, 

now available at several NASA Centers and 

Headquarters. So when Tom Soderstrom and 

Gabriel Rangel were invited by Paul Hunter to 

give a talk to the Goddard Information Science 

and Technology Colloquium about innovating 

together, they decided to try something new: 

How to enable a multimedia-rich presentation 

with an engaging interactive demonstration 

without being there in person.

The talk was held at Goddard Space Flight Center 

(GSFC) November 14, 2012. Tom and Gabriel 

“presented” from the OCIO offices at JPL to 

an audience in a large auditorium at GSFC. As 

with anything new, there were a few technical 

issues at the start as several technologies were 

involved. Using high-definition video conferencing 

(LifeSize, ViTS, H.323), the talk was successful. 

JPL gave the presentation using Prezi directly 

over the Internet, enabling the sharing of videos 

and animations locally. Next was the interactive 

demonstration of the Spacecraft 3D augmented 

reality app. Using AirPlay and Adobe Connect, 

the audience was able to see through the lens 

of the iPhone camera at JPL; acquire the “target 

image” held by an audience member at Goddard; 

and experience augmented reality through video 

conference screens separated by 3,000 miles. 

The talk concluded with an interactive Q&A 

session. When asked, audience members were 

very positive about the experience and found it to 

be highly effective, interactive, and fun.

There were lessons learned from the experience 

and some fine-tuning needed. This experiment 

could possibly greatly assist in attracting worldclass speakers to present at NASA Centers, 

saving time and money and enabling future 

coengineering opportunities that leverage 

remote augmented reality. The willingness to try 

something new and make it work by the GSFC/

JPL team made this effort a success. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk January-March 2013 7
NEACC Support for NASA’s 2012 

Virtual Executive Summit

Teams across the Agency collaborated 

to successfully produce the 2012 Virtual 

Executive Summit (VES). The NASA Enterprise 

Applications Competency Center (NEACC) 

was an integral contributor for the event.

The NEACC engineering group provided 

virtualized infrastructure and increased 

central processor unit (CPU) and random 

access memory (RAM) dynamically with no 

impact to the customers and without requiring 

any outages. Through the use of NEACC 

tools, test scenarios and automated test 

scripts were quickly developed for verifying 

that the environment could support the 

expected user load. Application monitoring 

helped to prevent any user impacts.

The NEACC Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) 

line of business oversaw the temporary 

infrastructure augmentations on both 

the portal and appstack infrastructure 

to ensure support for 500–600 potential 

concurrent users. Solid performance 

was delivered throughout the event. 

The NEACC was able to secure the 

executivesummit.nasa.gov URL/DNS entry. 

A new portal “storefront” was created and 

deployed on the NEACC’s portal framework, 

featuring an “event week” calendar showing 

daily offerings with links to those sessions. 

A chat room portlet was made available 

24/7 during the month of the summit, and 

a registration portlet was deployed for 

live sessions, including a user itinerary. 

A threaded message-board forum was 

provided for in-depth topics, questions, and 

answers. Support for the portal included 508 

compliance adjustments as well as analytics 

and tracking for reporting daily statistics. 

Adobe Connect was used for user acceptance 

testing to view demonstrations of the new 

functionality and provide test results instantly.

Three live two-hour training sessions were 

conducted with the Center IT point-of-contact 

(POC) community on the functionality of the 

VES storefront. The IT POCs were the first 

line of support at each Center for members 

of the SES community. Usage statistics 

were reporting daily to the product owners, 

evolving from basic usage counts to more 

comprehensive reporting (key stats: 566 

unique users, 31,619 page views). The content 

of the storefront portlets was a collaborative 

development effort involving the Johnson 

Space Center (JSC) and NEACC resources. 

Constant brainstorming sessions resulted 

in many new components for VES. To quote 

the NEACC lead for the human capital and 

workforce line of business: “The NEACC 

development team was presented with the 

task of pulling this off without much in the 

way of requirements—they definitely proved 

their ability to be agile, flexible, and innovative 

and adjust quickly to pressing timelines.” 

The entire project was turned around 

in less than five work weeks from the 

authority to proceed with development. 

Much of the functionality can be reused, 

not only with future summits, but also 

with other NEACC storefronts such as the 

HR portal and bReady. Because of this 

project, nearly 600 executives were able 

to participate in the monthlong event from 

their workspace or wherever they may have 

been at any given time, saving the Agency a 

considerable amount of travel expense. v

MSFC Virtual 

Meetings

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has 

been leveraging technology to work smarter 

for many years. With shrinking budgets in 

all areas, including travel, the Center has 

seen an increase in use of NASA’s Video 

Teleconferencing Services (ViTS) and WebEx 

to meet virtually in support of accomplishing 

its critical business objectives.

In the last three years, Marshall has 

averaged almost 70 ViTS per month. Many 

of these ViTS connect Marshall senior 

leaders with the Agency, including NASA 

Headquarters and all other Centers. This 

includes a weekly senior management ViTS, 

where Marshall’s Center Director shares 

insights into Marshall and hears how issues 

are impacting other Centers. There are 

also weekly or monthly calls within most 

directorates and institutional support offices, 

such as weekly chief information officer 

(CIO) meetings, monthly human capital 

meetings, legal Agency-wide meetings, 

and periodic procurement ViTS. The Center 

operations group discusses facilities through 

monthly Master Planning ViTS, and the 

public affairs officers (PAOs) at Marshall 

participate in a monthly ViTS with PAOs from 

all Centers. Marshall also frequently uses 

ViTS to connect with the Michoud Assembly 

Facility (MAF) and to work remotely with 

MAF management on important issues. 

The Space Launch System Program Office 

leverages ViTS as a cost-effective way 

to communicate as it builds the nation’s 

new heavy-lift rocket. This includes 

connecting with the Human Exploration and 

Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) 

and integrating with other groups across the 

Center, such as having monthly meetings 

with Langley to discuss the Orion Launch 

Abort System. The Marshall Science and 

Technology Office also leverages ViTS for 

planning visible activities, such as the 

MARS Curiosity Rover event this year. 

Many of the ViTS meetings are accompanied 

by WebEx, an online tool that allows 

users to share materials and facilitate 

productivity while cutting back on sharing 

large files through email. Marshall 

will continue to leverage both Video 

Teleconferencing and WebEx technologies 

to work more effectively and efficiently. v

8 www.nasa.gov
Desktop and Mobile Video 

Conferencing Prototyping for NASA

By Ed McLarney, LaRC Chief Technology Officer 

Innovators across the Agency have 

been busy prototyping desktop and 

mobile video conferencing solutions 

for NASA users and are working 

through the process of taking these 

products from prototypes to pilots and 

eventually to production capabilities. 

The Agency Communications Service 

Office (CSO) and chief technology 

officers (CTOs) for IT from several 

Centers divided the problem set to look 

at several leading solutions. The CSO 

and Langley Research Center (LaRC) 

worked together with a product called 

Vidyo, which links existing ViTS systems 

with desktop and mobile collaboration. 

The CSO currently has Vidyo available 

for prototype users across the Agency. 

Johnson Space Center worked with 

a product called VSee, which is used 

for low-bandwidth collaboration 

with the International Space Station. 

The Astrobiology Institute at Ames 

Research Center has been a longtime 

advocate for collaboration and provides 

Adobe Connect for its users. Adobe 

Connect was used by senior executives 

Agency-wide for the first-ever NASA 

Virtual Executive Summit in October 

2012. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL) experimented with a number of 

cloud-based collaboration solutions to 

include Blue Jeans, which can act as 

a bridge between multiple solutions. 

Each of these products has pros and 

cons, and the CSO and CTO community 

are working through experimentation 

and analysis, with additional briefings 

to IT leadership coming soon.

In the meantime, users interested 

in prototyping with emerging video 

collaboration systems should contact 

one of the following POCs:

•	 Vidyo—CSO: Kathy Hatley/

Bobby Collins (both at Marshall). 

LaRC user: Ed McLarney

•	 VSee—James McClellan at JSC

•	 Adobe Connect—Estelle 

Dodson/Marco Boldt

•	 Blue Jeans/Cloud video 

collaboration—Tom Soderstrom/

Gabriel Rangel at JPL

Chief technology officers and IT 

innovators across the Agency have 

participated in testing these solutions. 

If you’re interested, please contact your 

Center CTO for IT or one of the POCs 

listed above. Have fun collaborating! v

How Ames Research Center (ARC) Meets Virtually

By Estelle Dodson, Collaboration Technologies Manager

As technological advances open up a 

globally connected world, NASA Ames 

Research Center (ARC) is using them 

to improve communication and enable 

greater collaboration across distances 

and disciplines. Building on the collective 

expertise of NASA’s virtual institutes, ARC 

is currently producing virtual programs 

called “Workshops Without Walls.” 

These multiday virtual conferences 

connect presenters with hundreds of 

participants without any travel required. 

These workshops combine a variety 

of online resources, including highdefinition videoconferencing, desktop 

video, real-time meeting applications, 

and social networking. The result is an 

optimal experience for remote and inperson participants, from any location, 

using almost any device—even on 

the go via tablets and smartphones.

The largest workshop thus far had 26 

speakers presenting from 19 locations 

to more than 400 participants. One 

workshop participant stated, “Having 

workshops like these, which are very 

interactive, and accessible to virtually 

anyone...encourages collaboration 

and is a push towards new frontiers 

of knowledge collectively.”

All-Access events are a similar approach. 

The Kepler Science Conference recently 

broadcast a well-attended in-person 

meeting to hundreds of online viewers. 

Remote attendees of an All-Access 

event interact with each other via chat 

and have their questions answered 

real-time by the presenters over the 

video broadcast. A hybrid of these two 

approaches was used recently, when 

students of a two-week Earth Sciences 

program attended 29 broadcast lectures 

at Ames along with hundreds of online 

attendees from around the world. Eleven 

of these lectures were presented remotely 

by renowned scientists who would not 

have been able to participate without 

the use of these virtual technologies. 

Whether it’s Workshops Without Walls, 

All-Access events, or Student Summer 

programs, all of these activities are posted 

online for attendees to reference and for 

NASA to share with a broader audience. 

The success of these events and virtual 

work depends on not only integrating 

multiple technologies, but also on an 

innovative approach—combining the 

best research from human factors 

and organizational management, 

while providing a rich, engaging, 

and easy-to-use virtual experience. 

It’s another step to a future in which 

NASA employees can truly work from 

anywhere, even other planets. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk January-March 2013 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services 

Office (CSO)/NASA Integrated 

Communications Services (NICS)

The Communications Services Office 

(CSO) completed the critical designs for 

two key standardization projects that will 

improve NASA Integrated Communications 

Services (NICS) efficiencies: the Corporate 

Consolidated Network Operations Center 

(C2NOC) (e.g., Network Management and 

Monitoring) and the NICS Consolidated 

Configuration Management System 

(NC2MS) Release 1 (LAN, Firewalls, 

DNC, etc.). The CSO is on schedule 

to begin implementation of these two 

transformational initiatives in early 2013.  

The CSO has also made significant 

progress in the deployment of Internet 

Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network 

infrastructure and access over the 

past several months. IPv6 address 

plans have been approved for most 

Centers, IPv6 routing and domain name 

services have been enabled to the 

Internet, and Centers are progressing 

to enable IPv6 routing locally.

The CSO is also working with the CIO 

chief technologist on several endeavors: 

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and 

Desktop Mobile Video Conferencing (DMV) 

(an extension of the current CSO Video 

Teleconferencing Service [ViTS]). A VoIP 

Identity Protection Technology (IPT) team 

formed and met the week of December 

3 to discuss requirements, available 

technologies, and current Center needs as 

well as plans to support implementation 

of an Agency-wide phone replacement 

strategy. The DMV team has completed a 

prototyping stage and is preparing a pilot 

for Agency-wide use. The DMV service, 

based on the Vidyo product, will provide 

video conferencing between Center 

conference rooms (Polycom and LifeSize) 

to desktop (MAC, Linux, and PC) and/

or mobile (iPads, iPhones, and Androids) 

devices. The DMV service will expand the 

ability to work from anywhere and with 

most any device. Additional information 

will be provided once the service becomes 

available in the Enterprise Service Desk.

The CSO has begun to update and 

expand the Enterprise Architecture (EA) 

for CSO/NICS services.  An initial review 

of the switched voice, collaboration, 

and digital television services has been 

conducted. The EA effort is gathering the 

information on current as-is architecture 

of the service, customer base, service 

partners, and any plans for changes in 

the service. Once completed, the CSO 

EA will provide a base for our service 

architectures and provide information 

for supporting not only our future 

service changes, but also any support 

needed for other I3P service offices.  

Agency Consolidated End-User Services 

Office Deployments: The Agency is 

making progress on transitioning its IT 

services to an enterprise-wide solution. As 

part of the Agency Consolidated End-User 

Services (ACES) contract, held by Hewlett 

Packard, the Agency has now deployed 

over 18,000 systems Agency-wide. All 

existing systems should be refreshed 

under the ACES contract by late 2014.

NASA DAR Update: The agency 

deadline to complete Data At Rest (DAR) 

Encryption on each ACES machine was 

late December. DAR protects the data on 

your computer while it is powered off. 

DAR protection prevents anyone except 

you from logging on to your computer 

and protects all data on your hard drive 

using hard drive encryption. Most laptops 

now have DAR installed and active, 

ensuring the greatest level of security. 

All new machines will come pre-loaded 

with DAR. For more information on 

DAR, go to https://aces.ndc.nasa.gov/

subnav/dar.html. In the event a NASA 

IT device is lost or stolen, it is critical to 

report 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.

iPhone 5 Status: The iPhone 5 is now 

available through the ACES contract 

and is the standard seat for users 

requesting an iPhone. Orders may be 

made through the Enterprise Service 

Desk, with the choice of having AT&T 

or Verizon as the carrier. The Standard 

delivery time for the iPhone 5 is five

business days from the date of request.

Windows 8 Update: In October, Microsoft 

released the newest version of its desktop 

operating system (OS), Windows 8, which 

uses a touch-based interface similar to 

many popular mobile operating systems. 

The Agency’s IT service providers are 

actively working to develop a timeline 

for the best approach and timing for 

NASA to adopt this new Windows OS 

environment. Until a plan is complete and 

fully implemented, NASA and ACES will not 

be able to adopt or provide support for any 

aspect of this new operating system. As 

a result, any Windows 8 installation 

that causes security considerations or 

concerns may be removed from the 

NASA network. Before the system can 

be placed back on the NASA network, 

the system may require reloading of the 

currently supported, NASA-approved 

ACES system software. Any NASA project 

personnel intending to use Windows 8 

functionality before NASA formally adopts 

the new Windows environment should 

contact their local ACES subject matter 

expert (SME) to discuss requirements, 

intended use, and potential risks. 

Enterprise Applications Service 

Office/NASA Enterprise Applications 

Competency Center (EASO/NEACC):

A modification to the Enterprise 

Applications Service Technology (EAST) 

contract was targeted for late December 

2012 to end stabilization and respond 

to a significant budget cut. Three large 

10 www.nasa.gov
IT projects are slated for FY13 and are 

currently in the preplanning phase. The 

ICAM Modernization project will replace 

aging infrastructure, and the eTravel 

System II (ETS2) project will implement 

an eGov replacement for our current 

FedTraveler system. The Electronic Forms 

Initiative (EFI) project will replace the IBM 

FileNet-based NASA Electronic Forms 

System (NEFS), hosted by Ames Research 

Center (ARC), with the Adobe LiveCycle 

Enterprise Suite 4. This Agency solution 

will be hosted by the NASA Data Center 

and supported by the NASA Enterprise 

Application Competency Center (NEACC). 

The current system is no longer supported 

by the vendor, is not 508 compliant, and 

has SHA-256 interoperability issues. To 

support Phase 1 (FY13), the initial software 

acquisition was completed in September. 

Planning is under way, including a 

supporting EAST Task Order, with the goal 

of providing a development environment 

for the Forms teams across the Agency 

to begin learning the capabilities of 

the new solution and to begin form 

conversion by the end of the year. Phase 1 

implementation is targeted for the spring. 

Center for Internal Mobile Applications 

(CIMA): CIMA (http://apps.nasa.gov) 

operates under the EASO/NEACC. The 

CIMA team was represented in the 

“Creating Your Agency’s AppStore” panel 

at the Mobile Government Conference 

and recently met with U.S. Department 

of Agriculture representatives regarding 

the development of mobile apps and 

the sharing of lessons learned.

The NEACC was visited by the U.S.

Department of the Interior’s Business 

Management Office representatives 

to exchange ideas and best practices 

for enterprise business applications, 

including discussions on business 

readiness and IT project management. 

The Office of Education Infrastructure 

Division (OEID) transition project was 

successfully completed with Go Live at 

the end of September 2012. The NEACC 

operations have expanded to include 

the One Stop Shopping Initiative (OSSI) 

and Office of Education Performance 

Measurement (OEPM) applications. 

Major enhancements are in the planning 

stage for delivery of reengineered 

data collection screens in OEPM and 

a Business Intelligence (BI) capability 

across both apps. The Product life-cycle 

management/product data management 

(PLM/PDM) line of business, which 

supports project management across 

Agency missions, has been primarily 

focused on upgrading Windchill 9.1 to 

version 10.1, which is near completion.

Enterprise Services Desk (ESD)

The ESD enhancements project continues 

to progress toward test readiness review, 

which is scheduled for February 25.  The 

“Go Live” date is planned for April. One 

potentially major change the project 

will bring concerns IT and resource 

approver queues within the ordering 

system. Currently, each Center has one 

queue. In some cases, this is inconvenient, 

as many approvers receive an email for 

each request. Once the enhancements 

project is completed, Centers will have 

the flexibility to design these queues 

to best meet their needs. If the current 

methodology works, Centers can keep 

these queues as they are currently set 

up—or, through a series of NASA Account 

Management System (NAMS) requests, 

they can implement a new approach. The 

ESD team will be working with each 

Center’s SME (or appropriate delegate) to 

learn about planned approaches of this 

new feature for each Center.  Centers 

will be responsible for communicating 

changes to their users, but the ESD team 

will be available to assist in the crafting 

and dissemination of messages. We 

want to keep the call agents informed 

and ensure that they are the best 

possible resource for callers. We will be 

encouraging Center communications 

for any Center implementing significant 

changes. For example, IT and resource 

approvers need to understand the new 

methodology and should have a firm 

grasp on which requests that they are 

responsible for reviewing (and what 

they should do if they receive a request 

that they should not receive). Also, Org 

approvers need to understand which 

IT approvers and resource approvers 

that they should select for requests 

within their organization.  The ESD 

team will be available to help craft 

communications and provide distribution 

lists for disseminating messages.  

To continue efforts to empower the 

voice of the customer, the ESD team has 

added a Yammer icon to our social media 

links (which currently include YouTube, 

Facebook, and Twitter). The link will allow 

customers to access either the NSSC 

group (https://www.yammer.com/nasa.

gov/groups/nasasharedservicescenter/

info) or the Ask I3P group (https://www.

yammer.com/nasa.gov/groups/aski3p/

info) within NASA’s Yammer resource. We 

encourage you to join the discussions.

Web Services and WESTPRIME

NASA has selected InfoZen Inc. 

of Rockville, Md., for the Web 

Enterprise Service Technologies 

prime blanket purchase agreement 

to support agency websites. 

Orders against this blanket purchase 

agreement (BPA) will be issued on a 

firm-fixed-price basis. NASA estimates 

the volume of purchases through this 

BPA will be $40 million. The base 

period of performance will be one 

year with four one-year options.

This procurement will enable an agencywide capability to create, maintain, 

and manage websites. The contract 

will provide a cloud-based solution for 

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform 

as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a 

Service (SaaS) for internal and external 

websites and web applications. Those 

services include content management, 

and search and collaborative services, 

such as blogs and wikis. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk January-March 2013 11
Enterprise Licensing Management Team (ELMT) Is There for You!

The Enterprise Licensing Management 

Team Program has been around for 

years. It was established on April 1, 

2008, at the NASA Shared Services 

Center (NSSC) to provide support for 

the discovery, analysis, establishment, 

and management of Agency enterprise 

software licensing. The ELMT maintains 

licensing and contract consolidation 

initiatives activities for NASA and 

negotiates economy of scale pricing 

for selected software. These enterprise 

agreements optimize cost savings by 

leveraging the full purchasing capacity 

of the Agency. By leveraging the 

ELMT, NASA can greatly improve the 

Agency’s ability to identify, acquire, 

distribute, and manage software—and 

save NASA funds to use elsewhere. 

The establishment of Enterprise-level 

agreements (with the goal of achieving 

cost savings, cost avoidance, and 

providing increased capabilities at 

a better value) is being encouraged 

across the Federal Government.

ELMT services include

҆ Business case analysis for potential 

transitions to an Enterprise 

Agreement (e.g., Enterprise License 

Agreement, Blanket Purchase 

Agreement or consolidated 

Agency-wide contract)

҆ Establishment of new 

agreements with software original 

equipment manufacturers and/

or value-added resellers 

҆ Management of 

agreements, to include

҆ Establishing an ELMT 

administrative infrastructure

҆ Processing requests for the 

transfer of available licenses 

from a pool of available 

licenses to a Center

҆ Supporting the procurement 

of additional licenses

҆ Performing periodic software 

license validation audits

҆ Reconciling vendor 

maintenance invoices and 

payment coordination

҆ Facilitating license “true-up” 

activities prior to renewals 

or exercising of options

҆ Tracking licenses that have been 

phased out in lieu of participation 

in an agreement but are still 

Agency-owned and available to be 

reutilized by other NASA Centers. 

The ELMT enables more efficient NASA 

software procurement and business 

processes through the standardization 

of many processes, contractual terms, 

and conditions. The ELMT develops a full 

awareness of many of NASA’s software 

inventory. It leverages and adopts the 

best private- and government-sector 

practices as it seeks to streamline 

processes to maintain or improve the 

level of operations and support while 

delivering increased efficiencies and 

value to NASA. The management of 

NASA’s software licenses through the 

ELMT can help eliminate duplicative 

coverage and overspending on 

software, thus increasing the 

overall value to the Agency. The 

ELMT’s focus on strategic sourcing 

supports NASA’s cost containment 

efforts and strives to support enduser productivity at a better value. 

The ELMT’s effort to consolidate 

software requirements and negotiate 

enterprise agreements for the Agency 

has the potential to realize significant 

total cost of ownership savings 

in software-licensing acquisition 

and maintenance for NASA. As 

NASA moves through FY13, the 

ELMT will continue to enhance its 

business focus by applying the 

same planning capability, attention 

to detail, and dedication to business 

operations that the NSSC consistently 

strives to provide the Agency. 

For information on the latest 

ELMT news and activities, visit 

the ELMT website at http://

www.nssc.nasa.gov/elmt/. v

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

CIO