IT Talk

January - March 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Get Cyber-Bullying Under Control
IT Talk

Jan - Mar 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 1

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Larry Sweet

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:

www.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

3

6

8

4

10

Message from

the CIO

Cyberbullying—21st

Century Violence Attack

Spot the Station—

1 Year Anniversary

New Kennedy Data 

Center Complete in 2014

IT Infrastructure 

Integration Program 

(I3P) Update

In this Issue
Message

from the 

NASA CIO

The New Year is a time 

when we look forward to 

the future. Some of us like 

to think about the great 

memories that the last year 

has given us, and others 

would rather not remember 

the last 12 months at all. 

One of my goals for the 

New Year is to not stress 

out about the things I have 

little control over, but instead 

to embrace our situation as it is, move forward in a positive manner, 

and accept this as our new reality. These days, many Federal agencies 

are forced to look for ways to do more with less. We might not like it, 

but we need to deal with it. I still believe we can make 2014 a stellar 

year in IT. Keeping some strategic resolutions will save money and 

improve productivity. Here are my top 10 2014 New Year’s resolutions.

1. IT Security—ensure that NASA data is more secure. 

Our equipment and information must be protected 

against vulnerabilities and breaches. 

2. Firm up NASA’s policies and position on bring-your-owndevice (BYOD) and embrace mobile technologies. 

3. Strengthen the NASA Chief Information Officer (CIO) 

Leadership Team by embracing collaboration with 

CIOs at the Centers and building trust within the 

Office of the CIO (OCIO) and throughout NASA.

4. Develop an IT program that adjusts to the challenging budget 

environment by being more adaptable and flexible, moving toward 

more “services on demand,” adopting more cloud services and new 

offerings, and improving IT service performance (for example, I3P).

5. Improve IT governance by addressing each recommendation 

outlined by the Inspector General (IG) and approved by the 

Mission Support Council, assessing roles and responsibilities for 

IT decision making, and looking at current model execution.

6. Develop a Digital Government Strategy and Open Data Policy.

7. Continue to show IT’s value.

8. Better leverage cloud capabilities that enable 

mobility and cost reduction.

9. Stop worrying about what we cannot control, and focus more 

on what we can do better that enables our customers.

10.Ensure and embrace a healthy work-life balance for all employees.

I look forward to another year of working with all of our dedicated team 

members. I wish each of you a happy, healthy and successful 2014.

~Larry

New Johnson Space 

Center CIO Named

By Jaumarro Cuffee, JSC I3P Outreach Lead/ITAMS

Annette Moore was selected as the Chief 

Information Officer (CIO) for Johnson Space 

Center, and Director, JSC Information Resources 

Directorate (IRD) on Oct. 22, 2013. Moore says 

the two jobs require a lot from her. “The two roles 

often call for me to be advocate, advisor, counsel, 

mediator, mentor, and many other things.” 

Moore considers enabling team members to 

work from anywhere, cloud computing and 

telepresence as promising initiatives. Looking 

at industry leaders like Google and Amazon, 

Moore says the Agency has done awesome 

things. “We put a man on the moon --- on 

the ISS... I want us not to be satisfied with 

what we’ve done but to continue to look at 

what more we can do and what we can do 

differently. When it comes to those technologies 

I want us to surpass what others are doing.”

To do that, Moore focuses on inclusion, innovation 

and people by serving in various informal and 

formal mentoring programs such as Mid-Level 

Leader Program (MLLP) Center Champion and 

sponsoring center Employee Resource Groups. 

“As IRD explores and enters into partnership 

with other entities...then we will have at our 

hand information, technology, resources, 

ideas and solutions that will make us more 

informed, more innovative and creative service 

providers for our customers,” Moore says.

Moore sees the coolest part of her job as 

working “for” NASA and having an incredible 

staff. “I get to enable and influence that future. 

I can’t imagine anything more terrific!” l

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2014 3
New Kennedy Data Center Complete in 2014

By Bryan “Trip” Banks, IT Project Manager, Kennedy Space Center

A new Data Center will be 

constructed at the Kennedy Space 

Center (KSC), with a completion 

date scheduled for late 2014. The 

16,600-square-foot stand-alone 

facility will be located south of the 

current KSC Headquarters building. 

Compliance with Federal mandates 

required that KSC reduce from 

five Data Centers on site to just 

one. Upon a review of candidate 

buildings, it was determined that no 

existing facility could accommodate 

consolidation goals without 

requiring costly upgrades and 

modifications. Current operations 

in those facilities would be severely 

hampered by the construction effort, 

requiring extended facility outages. 

A business case was presented to 

the Agency Facilities Management 

Board in October 2011 and funding 

was subsequently approved. 

Facility design began in early 2012, 

and a construction contract was 

awarded in September 2013.

The new Data Center will be 

comprised of a 5,069-square-foot 

compute space and will employ fanwall technology for cooling the IT 

equipment, with a return-air plenum 

located within the ceiling. The Data 

Center electrical systems will be 

rated Tier 3 (Uptime Institute) and 

include redundant uninterrupted 

power systems and backup 

generators, with a “day one” 

electrical IT load of 380 kilowatts 

and the capability to expand to 700 

kilowatts. The utility electrical power 

to the building will be provided from 

mutually exclusive feeds, adding a 

layer of additional fault tolerance. 

The Mechanical systems will be 

at Tier 2 level on “day one.”

The Data Center is designed to 

be self-sufficient and will include 

a loading dock, storage area, 

setup and test environment, 

Operations Center, and service 

yard. It will also house the KSC 

Alternate Protective Services 

Control Center. An administration 

area with four cubicles is included, 

but the facility will not have 

permanent residents, as the Data 

Center will be predominantly 

a “lights-out” operation. 

The new Data Center allows 

KSC to reduce approximately 

25,000 square feet of current 

compute space by 80 percent, 

thereby significantly reducing 

Center power and administrative 

costs. Once the functionality 

of the current Data Center, 

located within the 48-yearold Central Instrumentation 

Facility, is migrated to the new 

facility, the building will be 

demolished, eliminating the 

operations and maintenance 

costs associated with that 

136,378-square-foot building.

The new Data Center is designed 

to be both scalable and modular, 

quickly adapting to accommodate 

new IT architectures and 

technologies, and it will 

serve as a key component in 

maintaining the Kennedy Space 

Center’s position as the world’s 

premier launch complex. l

NASA Enterprise Applications Competency Center (NEACC) Disaster 

Recovery: Planning and Testing before a Disaster Occurs

By Kathy Rice/IS01/NEACC Communications Lead (Interview with Benjamin C. Jones, NEACC Support Systems Manager)

 When the threat of disaster becomes 

a reality, how prepared are our IT 

professionals to handle disaster 

recovery at the NEACC? A disaster 

recovery plan (DRP) is a plan for 

business continuity in the event of 

a disaster that destroys part or all 

of a business's resources, including 

IT equipment, data records, and the 

physical space of an organization. 

In June 2013, the NEACC utilized 

a major release test phase as an 

opportunity to conduct a remote 

replication—asynchronous (RRA) 

exercise. An integrated test cycle 

(ITC) test environment was moved 

to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 

to have end users conduct normal 

testing, as part of the RRA test. 

When asked about the test approach, 

Benjamin C. Jones said, “The test 

approach criteria included defining 

the disaster recover [DR] test scope, 

documenting the technical failover 

process, and validating the recovery 

process for the impacted applications 

and data. The goal of the test was 

to determine the amount of data 

loss if the systems were brought 

(Continued on page 5.)

4 www.nasa.gov
Ames Helps Pave the Way for NASA’s Future 

Use of Cloud Computing Services 

By Raymond O’Brien, Chief, External Projects and Services Division, Ames Research Center

A combination of Federal policy, paired 

with an increasing understanding of cloud 

computing within NASA, has created new 

opportunities and challenges for the Agency 

Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). 

Cloud services, if properly leveraged, can 

offer lower costs, seemingly infinite scale and 

capacity, and almost immediate access to 

computational services, ultimately benefitting 

project teams and organizations who adopt 

this powerful new service. However, obstacles 

to institutionalizing cloud services still remain. 

The OCIO, in partnership with IT Experts at 

Ames and several other Centers (e.g., JPL, 

LaRC, MSFC, and JSC), has been working to 

develop NASA’s approach for cloud security 

compliance, technical integration, and 

business processing. The work is targeted at 

enabling broad cloud adoption, while ensuring 

proper levels of IT security, policy compliance, 

and integration with existing NASA IT services 

and business functions.

One of the largest challenges associated with 

cloud computing is adapting to a model of 

shared-responsibility for computer security. 

We’ve grown accustomed to on-premise 

infrastructure where security is solely 

NASA’s responsibility. Now the physical 

infrastructure, and native software used to 

deliver commercial cloud services, exists 

outside of NASA. To address IT Security risks, 

the Federal Government will soon require 

all commercial cloud services adhere to the 

Federal Risk and Authorization Management 

Program (FedRAMP). FedRAMP provides 

a standardized approach for security 

assessment, authorization, and continuous 

monitoring of cloud products and services. 

Due to the complexity of FedRAMP, Ames 

is helping OCIO develop FedRAMP-aligned 

Agency approaches for analyzing the security 

posture of commercial cloud providers and for 

developing Agency-level “umbrella security 

plans” to minimize the administrative and 

security burdens on NASA cloud service 

consumers.

Another hurdle to cloud adoption is integrating 

commercial services with existing Agency IT 

services. NASA’s IT Service Operators must be 

involved as they are essential to architecting 

and implementing the approaches needed 

for effective integration. For example, cloud 

services should work with in-place NASA 

authentication and access mechanisms, 

and also provide NASA’s OCIO Security 

Operations Center (SOC) with adequate access 

and visibility for monitoring, analyzing, and 

mitigating any threats occurring in the cloud. 

Ames, with its partners, is operating a pilot 

on behalf of the OCIO, demonstrating the 

levels of integration required to provide NASA 

with secure, efficient, and effective access 

to commercial cloud services, while also 

providing proper Agency-level visibility and 

management oversight.

A third area challenging cloud computing 

adoption is the business side of the equation, 

including identifying the best purchasing 

and payment approaches for gaining access 

to cloud services. Ames is currently piloting 

a cloud-service acquisition approach, with 

a goal of demonstrating how the OCIO can 

implement a responsive NASA-wide cloud 

acquisition vehicle, and provide streamlined 

cloud service ordering and payment processes. 

Two pilots are being conducted (one by Ames, 

one by Langley) to demonstrate how the online 

ordering and funding process can be made 

as quick as administratively possible today, 

shorten the timeframe between ordering 

a cloud service and gaining access to it, 

and ensure NASA financial and acquisition 

requirements are still met.

Leveraging early experience gained from 

the discontinued Nebula cloud project, along 

with expertise from other NASA Centers and 

Offices, Ames is actively working with the OCIO 

to facilitate NASA’s responsible, secure, and 

effective use of cloud computing. 

It is exciting to be part of this powerful 

initiative, in the early stages of cloud service 

adoption. With its diverse collection of 

missions and projects, the entire Agency 

stands to benefit as it learns to leverage cloud 

computing and gains more experience with 

this exciting new form of computer services 

known simply as “The Cloud.” l

down unexpectedly. Additionally, the 

expectation was to raise awareness 

of the RRA failover process and 

DR in general, and validate the 

NEACC’s DR strategy and plan.”

The DR technical checkout identified 

anomalies with server replication. 

As a result, the failover scenario will 

be evaluated prior to the next test. 

Awareness of the RRA failover process 

and DR, in general, was increased 

by conducting the test and engaging 

all lines of business before, during, 

and after the DR test. Jones noted 

that the DR test required significant 

cooperation between network and 

data center service providers in order 

to execute the failover/recovery, 

according to the planned script.

The DRP strategy was validated 

by successfully recovering target 

systems within the 72-hour recovery 

time objective (RTO)/recovery 

point objective (RPO) window. 

The actual recovery time was 26 

hours. All applications performed as 

expected and target databases were 

successfully recovered at KSC.

In summary, Benjamin C. Jones said, 

“This test was a major milestone and 

a resounding success! We moved 

five ITC application environments 

to KSC and got them back up at 

Marshall Space Flight Center [MSFC] 

in less than four days. We met our 

objectives, captured a great deal 

of data, and now have a better 

understanding of what could happen 

in a disaster. We will sort through the 

data and develop a post–disaster 

recovery report with clear steps to 

address what we have learned.”

(Continued from page 4.)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2014 5
Cyberbullying—21st Century Violence Attack

By Ericka Brown, Project Support Assistant (DMI)/NASA Information Technology Security Division

Cyberbullying is a term familiar to 

computer users and IT professionals. 

Bill Belsey, cyberbullying expert, defines 

it as follows: "Cyberbullying involves the 

use of information and communication 

technologies such as e-mail, cell phone 

and pager text messages, instant 

messaging (IM), defamatory personal 

Web sites, and defamatory online 

personal 

polling 

Web sites, 

to support 

deliberate, 

repeated, 

and hostile 

behavior by 

an individual 

or group that 

is intended to 

harm others."

Children and 

teens have 

been greatly 

affected by 

this new 

wave of 

bullying 

though a 

growing 

number of 

adults are 

being attacked as well. Cyberbullying 

is different from other forms of bullying 

in that (1) attacks take place using 

electronic technology, (2) victims 

do not always know nor likely have 

had personal encounter(s) with 

their attacker and (3) victims can be 

targeted without provocation. Reports 

have been found wherein bloggers 

have attacked fellow bloggers due to 

a disagreement of opinion wherein it 

was later learned that the blogging 

cyberbully was experiencing a 

personal trauma therefore admittedly 

attacked based on their personal 

experiences and lashed out at their 

victim at random. Another report 

illustrated how a social media user 

received comments on pictures on 

their Facebook page which rapidly 

went from unkind to aggressive and 

threatening. In each scenario we see 

that the victims did not personally 

know nor provoke the cyberbullies. But 

you can see how using public websites 

can prompt this very serious crime.

Research shows that children and 

teen victims are often too afraid or too 

embarrassed to speak with their parents 

or others about their experiences 

with cyberbullies. The tactics used 

in cyberbullying (malicious language, 

photographs, and untruths) can have 

devastating effects on their targets 

and the healing and/or recovery time 

can be extensive. Unfortunately, when 

these attacks are concealed and/or go 

unchecked too long the victims can 

lapse into a depression and, in extreme 

cases, victims have committed suicide.

But, we can help prevent and stop 

cyberbullying! Eric Dunbar, author 

of “How to Fight Cyber Bullying,” 

has outlined four tips that succinctly 

encapsulate the myriad suggestions 

offered to protect us against 

cyberbullies. He’s penned an acronym 

which we should find fairly easy to 

remember: NASS. NASS offers a 

straightforward approach for adults 

(and youth) in cybersecurity protection:

Never give out your personal 

information online (passwords, 

photographs, home addresses, etc.).

Always resist retaliation but do 

report any harassment to your 

Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Stop

responding 

to the 

cyberbully as 

cyberbullying 

is a form 

of mental 

terrorism.

Save

suspected 

emails or text 

messages 

as these can 

be used as 

evidence 

if bullying 

escalates.

If you find you 

or someone 

you know 

has become 

a victim of 

cyberbullying, "How to Fight Adult 

Bullying" by braniac offers tips, a few of 

which have been paraphrased below:

• Do not forward malicious 

electronic message. Reply to 

sender (or reply all) that the target 

and their family/friends could 

be hurt by the message and its 

distribution therefore the sender 

should refrain from sending you 

similar messages in the future.

• Block, report and flag any 

and all electronic messages 

by a cyberbully.

• Go online for resources to 

help deal with cyberbullying 

(i.e. National Crime Prevention 

Council) or create a 

cyberbullying support group.

(Continued on page 7.)

6 www.nasa.gov
As a parent you can do the following:

• Do not erase or delete messages 

from cyberbullies as it can be 

used as evidence if a case 

of cyberbullying is filed.

• Use software to block cyberbullies.

• Enact privacy settings on 

social networking pages.

• Talk with your children about 

the dangers of cyberbullying 

and, if you need help, visit the 

U. S. Department of Health and 

Human Services website, www.

stopbullying.gov, to obtain more 

information on this topic.

The worldwide web is a powerful, 

dynamic and invaluable tool that can 

be enjoyed more fully with the proper 

precautions. Hopefully, these tips will 

prove useful in your cybersecurity 

protection. Remember, you are not 

powerless! Stay informed, do your 

research and, when necessary, 

contact your local law enforcement 

agency who is equipped to work 

to protect you and your family 

from further cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying stops when everyone 

takes a stand to fight back. l

Protection Against Cyberbullying

By Dr. Brenda L. Ellis, Program Manager, IT Security Awareness and Training Center, Glenn Research Center

Cyberbullying is not only inappropriate 

because it violates appropriate online 

behavior; it can also be damaging 

to people. It includes the use of 

electronic technology and cyberspace 

to threaten or cause personal harm 

to others. Examples include sending 

angry text messages, starting and 

spreading rumors through e-mails, 

and posting embarrassing pictures 

and videos on a social networking site. 

Once these items are sent or posted, it 

is difficult to retrieve and delete them. 

The simplest form can be the use of 

e-mail or a social networking site to 

send or post information for personal 

intimidation. A more extreme case 

involves gaining unauthorized access 

to a computer system and using that 

system to bully another person. 

The media often report on teens bullying 

teens, but adults also engage in the 

act to damage reputations or to incite 

desired reactions. What should you do 

if you are a victim of cyberbullying? It is 

important to recognize and act quickly 

and appropriately to reduce the amount 

of damage or embarrassment. The IT 

Security Awareness and Training Center 

(ITSATC) provides tools and activities to 

educate employees on how to modify 

one’s behavior to produce and maintain 

a secure working environment. The 

FY14 Annual IT Security Awareness and 

Privacy training contains a submodule 

on scareware and using cyber-security 

best practices to protect systems 

from unauthorized access. To further 

educate employees on how to protect 

themselves while using social networking 

sites, ITSATC will be hosting a Webinar 

on social networking in July 2014.

If you believe you are a victim of 

cyberbullying in the workplace, 

contact your supervisor. If you 

believe that your computer system 

has been compromised, contact 

the NASA Security Operations 

Center (SOC) at 1-877-NASA-SEC 

(877-627-2732) and your Center’s 

Chief Information Security Officer 

(CISO) immediately. The page is only 

accessible to NASA employees. l

Cyber Security Concerns for Parents

Recently Stennis Space Center held a 

brown bag session titled “Cyber Security 

Concerns for Parents.” The guest speaker 

was Chief David Allen of the Waveland Police 

Department. Chief Allen has over 20 years of 

service in law enforcement. He was formerly 

a criminal and cyber crime investigator. 

The Waveland Police Department also 

participates in a Federal program called the 

Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce 

(ICACT). Chief Allen presented information 

on sexting, cyberbullying, sextortion, and 

various popular mobile applications. 

Sexting is sending sexually explicit messages 

or images using a mobile device. Sexting 

is usually the initial inappropriate social 

activity in the younger generation. Sexting 

cases are increasing and participants 

are as young as 10 years old. This type 

of activity is a spinoff of cyber bullying 

and sextortion. Cyberbullying is bullying 

online via computers or mobile devices. 

Sextortion is being tricked or threatened 

into sending illicit pictures or videos.

There are many mobile applications on the 

iPhone and Android devices used to hide 

information relating to sexting, sextortion, 

and cyberbullying. Kik Messenger is a 

popular mobile application used among 

early teens. It allows children to send 

pictures and text messages without using 

their real names. An application called 

SnapChat is used to send pictures to other 

SnapChat users. Those pictures have a 

10-second self-destruct function. Other 

applications, such as Instagram and Vine, 

are used to transmit sexual content and 

have been associated with abuse as well.

Many children believe when text messages 

and pictures are deleted, the information 

is gone from the device, but this has been 

proven otherwise. Cellbrite, which is used 

by the Waveland Police Department, is 

an application used for mobile forensics. 

It can be used on any type of mobile 

and GPS device. This application will 

circumvent the passcode, if applied, and 

allow the deleted data to be extracted 

from the device. The hardware device 

has plugins and the software have 

various levels to extract the data. 

Session participants received the 

following final guidance:

• Understand and know your 

child’s mobile device,

• Demand the password of 

any application your child 

has on his or her phone,

• Watch for anything with a word 

vault, lock, or encryption, and

• Always monitor your child’s device.

(Continued from page 6.)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2014 7
Spot the Station 1 Year Anniversary

Did you know you can see the 

International Space Station (ISS) over 

your house? Brighter than the planet 

Venus, the ISS is visible to more 

than 90 percent of Earth’s population 

throughout the year around dawn 

and dusk. NASA's Spot the Station 

service (http://spotthestation.nasa.gov) 

makes seeing the ISS easy for more 

than 4,600 locations worldwide. After 

launching on November 2, 2012—the 

12th anniversary of human occupation 

of the ISS—Spot the Station has 

gained more than 520,000 subscribers 

worldwide to its e-mail/SMS notification 

service, and it is in the top three www.

nasa.gov sites in overall traffic.

Spot the Station is a collaborative 

effort between the Human Exploration 

and Operations Mission Directorate, 

the Johnson Space Center (JSC) 

Public Affairs Office, and JSC Mission 

Operations Directorate. Spot the 

Station allows users to check upcoming 

ISS sighting times and locations, 

as well as the available viewing 

opportunities for visiting vehicles such 

as Soyuz, Dragon, and Cygnus. Users 

can also sign up to receive notifications 

of upcoming passes via e-mail or 

text messages up to 12 hours ahead 

of time. Sign up today and never 

miss a Space Station pass again! l

Keeping NASA Data Safe with Ironkeys

By Ryan Black, NASA LaRC, Information Technology Infrastructure Branch (ITIB)

Keeping NASA’s data safe and secure 

is a top priority at Langley Research 

Center (LaRC). Our deployment 

of Ironkey devices, known as the 

“world’s most secure flash drives,” 

reflects our commitment. Ironkeys 

are Federal Information Processing 

Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 3 

validated and utilize Advanced 

Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit 

hardware encryption. They range 

in capacity from 2 gigabytes all the 

way to 64 gigabytes, to meet the 

needs of the user. The Ironkey is also 

waterproof and protected by antimalware software, so users can feel at 

ease when traveling with their data. 

At Langley, we have Enterprise 

Ironkeys allowing for centralized 

administration. An Ironkey 

administrator can prevent any 

mishandling of a lost or stolen Ironkey 

by disabling or initiating a self-destruct 

command remotely. Even if an Ironkey 

is obtained unlawfully without a user’s 

knowledge, the Ironkey itself will selfdestruct after 10 unsuccessful login 

attempts. This centralized 

management also allows for 

customer support should a user forget 

his or her password. The security and 

protection provided by Ironkey enables 

our user community to carry the data 

they need and remain secure with 

the addition of a managed solution. 

For more information about how 

LaRC is implementing Ironkeys, 

contact Ryan Black at 

ryan.t.black@nasa.gov. l

8 www.nasa.gov
Space Apps Challenge Update

By Beth Beck, Open Innovation Program Manager

NASA and other space agencies 

around the world are preparing 

for the third annual International 

Space Apps Challenge. 

Participants will develop mobile 

applications, software, hardware, 

and data-visualization and platform 

solutions that could contribute 

to space exploration missions 

and help improve life on Earth.

The 2014 challenge will be held April 

12–13. Here’s a glimpse of a couple 

of the 2013 winning apps, which 

represent wide-ranging solutions to 

challenges on Earth and in space.

The Best Mission Concept, 

Popeye on Mars, offers a reusable 

greenhouse for Mars, comprised of 

a fully equipped aeroponic system to 

grow spinach over a 45-day mission.

The Most Inspiring App, T-10, 

saves time for astronauts by 

using the location of Station and 

real-time weather data to alert 

astronauts when conditions are 

good to snap photos of designated 

locations on Earth. Astronauts 

can indicate when they will look 

out the cupola down on Earth so 

T-10 app users can wave back 

at the crew. The T-10 Apps team 

received "Astro-monials" from 

Station crew about the need 

for T-10 on Space Station.

In 2014, half the challenges will 

come from NASA and represent 

its major mission directorates and 

other key investments, and half 

will come from other organizations, 

such as space agencies, industry, 

and global partners. To learn more 

about the International Space 

Apps Challenge, visit http://

spaceappschallenge.org. l

Winners Corner

Congratulations to the Open 

Innovation Team at NASA for 

being one of eight winners of 

the 2013 Nextgov Bold Awards. 

Deborah Diaz, Deputy Chief 

Information Officer (CIO), along 

with Nicholas Skytland, led 

NASA’s Open Innovation Team 

to create the International Space 

Apps Challenge. This was the 

largest hackathon to date. The 

event brought together thousands 

of people to collectively tackle 

58 challenges, create software 

and hardware, and create data 

visualizations that addressed 

real-world problems.

For more information about the 

awards, visit http://www.nextgov.

com/cio-briefing/2013/07/dozenagencies-produced-19-finaliststech-innovation-awards/67661/.

Diaz has won the 2013 FedScoop 

50 Federal Leadership Award. The 

FedScoop 50 Awards recognize 

the achievements of 50 of the 

Federal IT community’s best and 

brightest minds and innovators. 

This year, hundreds of individuals 

and programs were nominated, 

and more than 20,000 votes were 

cast. The full list of the 2013 

FedScoop 50 Award Winners 

can be found at http://fedscoop.

com/fedscoop-50-awards-honordcs-government-tech-elite/.

Finally, several individuals within 

the NASA Office of the CIO have 

received Headquarters Honor 

Awards. The awards recognize 

employees who have made 

significant contributions to the 

HQ community. Congratulations 

to everyone for their outstanding 

accomplishments!

The winners include the following:

Civil Service/Contractor 

Team—International Space 

Apps Challenge Team 

Exceptional Performance—

Jackie Gill

Cooperative External Achievement 

Award—Karen Petraska

Special Service Individuals—

Vicky Essick l

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2014 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services 

Office (CSO)/NICS

The I3P Program contract 

formulation included provisions 

for ITIL v3 Service Management 

Framework implementation. ITIL 

v3, which originated in the United 

Kingdom’s Office of Government 

Commerce (OGC), is a compilation 

of best practice guidance for IT 

Service Management to assist 

in the improvement of IT service 

delivery. Under leadership and 

direction from the Communication 

Services Office (CSO) Manager, Beth 

Paschall, CSO readily adopted ITIL 

v3 to improve service delivery to 

Communications customers. Utilizing 

the NASA Integrated Communications 

Services (NICS) contract, CSO 

began its implementation of ITIL 

v3 by establishing a core group 

of ITIL experts, certified under the 

Capabilities track of v3. This team 

provides stewardship for all aspects 

of ITIL implementation, training, and 

continual service improvement. 

Under the leadership of this group, 

CSO/NICS has established internal 

processes and procedures within all 

areas of the Service Management 

Lifecycle; to include: Strategy, Design, 

Transition, Operations, and Continual 

Service Improvement (CSI). The 

team ensured success by involving 

management and support personnel 

in ITIL v3 training, NICS-specific ITIL 

process training as well as process 

ownership, definition, implementation 

and maintenance. To date, the 

team has lead implementation of 

thirteen processes providing an 

integrated service delivery model. 

The implemented processes are: 

Incident Management, Problem 

Management, Change Management, 

Request Fulfillment, Service Asset 

and Configuration Management, 

Service Level Management, Service 

Catalog Management, Release 

and Deployment Management, 

Capacity Management, Strategy 

Management, Supplier Management, 

Service Portfolio Management, 

Continual Service Improvement. 

The remaining ITIL v3 processes 

are in work and scheduled 

to be implemented by the 

2nd Quarter of CY2015. 

End-User Services (ACES) 

Instant Messenger/Presence Upgrade 

Complete: Microsoft Lync 2013 is 

now the Agency solution for instant 

messaging (IM) and presence. To 

learn more about IM/Presence, 

refer to documentation available 

at http://nomadinternal.nasa.gov/

nomad/documentation.html. 

Transition from WebEx to Lync: 

NASA implemented Lync Web 

Conferencing in early December. 

Currently, Lync Web Conferencing 

and WebEx are available to users. 

The pilot to test the features of 

Lync 2013 began in late October 

and ended in early December. 

NASA extended WebEx for a threemonth period to ensure appropriate 

time for testing. An Agency-wide 

message was sent with links to 

training and additional information. 

Nighttime Computer Patching: 

Patching has now moved to 

nighttime! Software and security 

patches are now released each 

Tuesday night between 8:00 p.m. 

and 2:00 a.m. local time to minimize 

disruptions during work hours. 

These patches help protect against 

security vulnerabilities and maintain 

current software versions. To take 

advantage of Tuesday night patching, 

computers must be powered on, 

logged off and connected to the 

NASA network. Please see the ACES 

Web site for instructions to ensure 

your system is in the correct state 

to receive nighttime patching.

OS X 10.8 Upgrades for Macintosh: 

NASA has completed Mac operating 

system upgrades from OS X 10.6 to 

10.8. and from OS X 10.7 to 10.8. 

Enterprise Applications 

Service Office/NASA Enterprise 

Applications Competency 

Center (EASO/NEACC) 

The Electronic Forms Initiative (EFI) is 

replacing the current NASA Electronic 

Forms System (NEFS) software 

component (IBM FileNet) with Adobe 

LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 4. The 

EFI Initial Operating Capability (IOC), 

EFI Phase 1, go-live of the platform 

solution will occur in December 2013. 

During FY14, the EFI Final Operating 

Capability (FOC), EFI Phase 2, key 

goals are to complete conversion/

migration of all forms, scale the 

platform, replace the NEFS frontend portal, and decommission the 

IBM FileNet and Center legacy 

infrastructures. NASA Acquisition 

Internet System (NAIS) – NEACC 

Security’s latest Hailstorm scanning 

for the public components of NAIS 

identified only one Low finding noted 

for sixteen continuous hours of 

testing, consisting of 85,000 attacks. 

The team has updated the NAIS help 

page to remove links to Remedy as 

requested by IT Security (from PWC 

pen testing). The NEACC BI Team 

is currently testing SAP Business 

Objects (BOBJ) in Sandbox using the 

criteria defined during the evaluation 

period. BOBJ Versions have been 

determined and Single Sign On has 

been implemented for both Analyses 

for OLAP and Office. Currently, there is 

an outstanding high vulnerability for the 

BOBJ server on the security scans. The 

security team is working with MSFC 

to provide a fully qualified URL that is 

needed in order to replicate the issue 

and to log a message with SAP. This 

will impact our schedule if not resolved. 

Detailed planning for the implementation 

of SAP Business Objects products is in 

process. The planning includes briefings 

to the other LOBs, train the trainer 

dependencies, testing strategy and 

coordination with 14.2 release activities. 

Several issues have been identified with 

the Migration of Cognos to the Windows 

10 www.nasa.gov
platform. The last show stopper was 

resolved via a hot fix from Cognos.

Enterprise Service Desk (ESD)

The next ESD release is scheduled 

for June 2014. Design efforts for 

the release are underway and the 

team is excited about the upcoming 

enhancements. Some of these 

new enhancements include: 

• The ability to request a 

service for a customer at one 

Center, who is assigned to 

another, in a TDY status; 

• Providing a “service complete” 

e-mail to a customer who 

submitted a request through ESRS; 

Providing a “real-time” status to 

Knowledge Article (KA) submitters 

in a published status while 

opening, viewing or editing a KA;

• Providing additional detail to 

customers upon completion 

of service requests; 

• Providing customers with Centerspecific KA’s via advanced 

search filters on Tier 0; 

• The ability for customers to 

attach comments and to use MS 

Word copy/paste feature with 

survey form responses; and

• Providing customers the ability to 

view the Urgency field from Remedy 

when viewing incidents tickets. 

The start of FY14 marked the 2nd 

anniversary for ESD on Nov. 1, 2013, 

moving beyond the transition phase and 

into a “steady-state” mode of operation. 

As we look back, the past two years 

have provided a deeper and stronger 

relationship with our I3P service 

providers as we collectively grow the 

quantity and quality of services being 

provided to our customers. The ESD 

Team is able to communicate and 

work new services, process changes 

and implement changes in a timelier 

manner with minimal impact to our 

customers. Through the past two years, 

the ESD has welcomed visits from 

NASA’s top management, including: 

Charles Bolden, Lori Garver, Jeri 

Buchholz and Larry Sweet to name a 

few. The ESD Team has seen several 

successful I3P transitions to include: 

ACES, NICS, WESTPrime and Tier1 support to the Space Technology 

Directorate (STD) and the Standardized 

Performance Appraisal Communication 

Environment (SPACE). We look 

forward to continuing this momentum 

into the coming calendar year.

Web Services (WESTPrime)

WESTPrime adds the mammoth NASA 

Engineering Network (NEN) to the 

list of successful migrations. Teams 

from WESTPrime and NEN worked 

to ensure a seamless transition into 

the WESTPrime Amazon GovCloud 

environment. Full migration was 

complete in late August and teams still 

work closely for ongoing success.

Currently, WESTPrime is building the 

platform to support the migration 

of approximately 53 of NASA 

Headquarters’ applications and 

environments. The services are slated 

to go online January 14, 2014. 

As we head into 2014, WESTPrime 

will begin to analyze already migrated 

websites and applications for 

efficiencies, to include: instance sizing, 

technical components, changing 

persistent staging and architectural 

efficiencies. Standardization of data 

siloes and repositories will enable 

WESTPrime to provide cost effective 

and efficient Platform as a Service 

(PaaS) and Software as a Service 

(SaaS), as more and more sites 

and applications are deployed into 

WESTPrime’s cloud environments.

WESTPrime’s Change Management 

Board has initiated two weekly 

maintenance windows for site 

upgrades, updates, bug fixes 

and enhancements. The weekly 

scheduled maintenance windows 

are Thursday’s from 8pm – 10pm ET 

and Sunday’s from 12pm-2pm ET. 

Sky watchers: WESTPrime supported 

NASA’s Live Streaming Video 

with over 116,800 simultaneous 

viewers as the successful MAVEN 

launch zipped through the sky 

on November 18, 2013. l

NASA CIO Larry Sweet (l) takes a call at ESD.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2014 11
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 IT Labs: Behind-the-Scenes 

Contributions to a Star-Studded Stage

By Kevin Rosenquist, IT Labs Communications Coordinator/Wyle

IT Labs supports NASA by 

empowering IT Heroes across the 

Agency to make IT better. In 2011, 

IT Labs sponsored collaborative 

projects from Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL) and Marshall 

Space Flight Center (MSFC) that 

helped evaluate Agency Large File 

Transfer (LFT) requirements and 

weigh them against current NASA 

and industry solutions. At MSFC, 

Bryan Walls led the “Enhance 

NASA’s Large File Transfer 

Capability to 100GB Capacity” 

project to determine if an upgrade 

to Accellion, the Agency’s current 

LFT solution, would be technically 

acceptable and the most affordable 

solution for the Agency’s video 

transfer needs as compared to 

other similar software capabilities. 

Concurrently, JPL’s Michael 

Killingsworth performed a 

similar analysis with his project 

“Dropbox for the Enterprise: 

Secure Collaboration for Mobile 

Workers,” but that focused on LFT 

from an end-user perspective, 

versus the specific Agency video 

needs. Both projects came to 

the same conclusion. The most 

effective solution was to upgrade 

NASA’s existing LFT system. 

Last December, NASA OCIO, 

in partnership with the Human 

Exploration Operations Mission 

Directorate, upgraded the Agency’s 

LFT solution from 20 gigabytes 

to 100 gigabytes. With minimal 

investment, IT Labs was able to 

support these IT Heroes in finding 

the best-fit solutions for NASA.

Another innovative IT Labs project 

from MSFC that is quickly realizing 

Enterprise service potential is 

“PIV-Derived Credentials for Strong 

Mobile Application Authentication,” 

led by MSFC’s Jane Maples. 

By implementing a personal 

identification verification (PIV)-

derived credential capability, NASA 

users can securely access multiple 

NASA services from multiple 

mobile devices while remaining 

in compliance with Federal IT 

Security guidelines. This muchneeded solution brings NASA one 

step closer to realizing the vision of 

“Any device, anywhere, anytime...

securely.” This is another example 

of how, with minimal investment 

and a relatively short development 

cycle, IT Labs helps further the 

NASA mission through better IT.

Learn more about IT Labs, 

these funded projects, and 

others at https://labs.nasa.gov

(NDC credentials required). l