IT Talk

April - June 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 2

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Information

Technology

Innovations

at NASA CIO
IT Talk

Apr - Jun 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 2

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:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/ocio

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 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

facebook.com/NASAcio

 twitter.com/NASAcio

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5

6

4

10

Farewell Message

from the CIO

NASA Development

Test Labs

NASA's IT

Innovations

Data Privacy

Day

I3P Update

In this Issue
Farewell 

Message

from the

CIO

By Linda Cureton

As many of you know, after 34 years of Federal service,

I have decided to retire. This doesn’t mean that I will stop 

working and sit on a beach—though I was hopeful for a 

minute. But I’m starting a new chapter in my book of life. 

With that said, I want to take a moment to reflect 

on the last 31⁄2 years here at NASA. I must say, 

having the opportunity to help strengthen the 

technological infrastructure of one of the world’s 

greatest agencies has been a highlight in my career. 

I am very proud of a couple of key accomplishments. 

One of things we did early was with cloud computing. 

NASA took a risk, and we had a compelling solution. 

We also jumped out early with Nebula and turned 

it over to the community as Open Stack. 

I could not have gotten the job done without 

many of you. I’ve had the pleasure of being 

surrounded by top-notch executives. 

I will miss being tightly connected with the missions that 

citizens need. Being a part of the executive team has 

enabled me to have a front seat to some spectacular 

moments in NASA’s history, like being at Kennedy Space 

Center to see a space shuttle launch. I really love solving 

problems and coming up with creative solutions. 

But I know that as I move on to this next chapter 

of my life, you will be left in capable hands and 

NASA will continue to do great things. 

—Linda

ITMB Face to Face Participants

at Kennedy Space Center

NASA Says Goodbye To CIO Linda Cureton

NASA OCIO IT Talk April-June 2013 3
International Space Apps Challenge:

On Earth and In Space

By Sarah Rigdon, OCIO Communications Specialist

NASA is gearing up to lead the second 

International Space Apps Challenge, 

a two-day technology development 

event to be held on April 20 and 21, 

2013. Participants from around the 

world will work together to solve 

current challenges that are relevant to 

improving life on Earth and in space.

The 55 curated challenges will be 

tackled by teams in 75 cities on all 7

continents—and in space. Challenges 

are grouped into four broad 

categories: open source software, 

open hardware, citizen science 

platforms, and data visualization. 

In the spirit of transparency, 

collaboration, and open government, 

event judges require that all projects 

submitted for local judging or global 

recognition be licensed open source.

Anyone can participate in the 

International Space Apps Challenge. 

Registrants include engineers, 

technologists, scientists, designers, 

artists, educators, students, 

entrepreneurs, and many others.

Results from the 2012 International 

Space Apps Challenge include the 

Aurora Project, an app that shows 

aurora intensity, the International 

Space Station’s location, and space 

weather data using the WebGL 

globe platform; VICAR2PNG, an 

app that allows anyone to view, 

enjoy, and remix NASA’s mission 

images from the Cassini mission; 

and the Pineapple Project, an app 

that identifies the optimal crop for 

a community by filtering a tropical 

crop database by location, rainfall, 

latitude, elevation, and pH.

Challenge descriptions for 

this year’s event and a list of 

locations are available at

http://spaceappschallenge.org/.

Data Privacy Day By Valarie Burks, Deputy CIO for IT Security Division

Data Privacy Day began in the United 

States and Canada in January 2008 

as an extension of the Data Protection 

Day celebration in Europe. The day 

commemorates the 1981 signing 

of Convention 108, the first legally 

binding international treaty dealing 

with privacy and data protection. The 

U.S. Congress recognized this day by 

passing a resolution declaring Jan. 

28 National Data Privacy Day. Each 

year, public and private organizations 

as well as universities celebrate 

this day by lending support and 

emphasizing the importance of data 

protection and privacy awareness.

NASA is actively engaged in 

supporting privacy data protection 

at all times. We continue to dedicate 

resources to ensuring overall 

protection of privacy information 

and a heightened awareness 

by our employees, contractors, 

and partners of the importance 

of privacy data protection.

By creating a united front across all of 

NASA in the protection, prevention, 

and preservation of information 

integrity and accuracy at NASA, 

privacy data will be appropriately 

protected as you perform your 

daily activities. These activities and 

actions are trending first steps:

҆ 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 the identity of 

those from whom you collect 

information, privacy best practices 

and procedures, incident reporting, 

and all other aspects for information 

protection developed by NASA. 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.

҆ Reduce personally identifiable 

information (PII) collection 

(a White House initiative). 

NASA employees should only 

collect the information that 

is necessary to support the 

accomplishment of tasks or 

missions on behalf of NASA. This 

is the first step in reducing the 

risk of a potential data loss.

҆ Protect and limit disclosure of PII 

during daily use. It is important to 

avoid leaving sensitive, personal 

information in clear view, such as on 

a printer, desk top, computer screen 

that can be viewed by passersby, 

or in recycling bins or non-secured 

common trash cans. Also avoid 

sending it in an unsecured email to 

any distribution large or small, but 

especially large distribution lists.

҆ Protect your own privacy. 

Remember to be conscious 

about how you protect and 

disclose your own personal 

information. Do not hesitate to 

question an individual asking 

for your Social Security number 

(SSN) or any personal information 

about their reasons for collecting, 

intended protections, privacy 

policies, etc. Ask specifically for 

their privacy policies and where 

you can review them prior to 

providing your information. Avoid 

becoming a victim of a dumpster 

diver; use a shredder or some 

other means to ensure information 

is completely non-usable when 

disposing of documents containing 

your personal information.

Your support in this effort will help 

improve the protection of our 

information and our IT security 

posture. The more employees are 

aware, the more we can identify and 

take actions to mitigate information 

security risks across NASA. v

4 www.nasa.gov
NASA Development Test Labs Provide for Real-Time 

Testing of New Software and Systems

By Emily Townsend, ACES Communications Lead

Hundreds of new software programs, 

systems, and patches are deployed 

to NASA’s computer systems every 

year to help us work better, faster, 

and smarter. NASA’s information 

technology (IT) organizations are 

charged with delivering these 

services with greater functionality 

and reliability and in less time. 

One way that the Agency 

Consolidated End-User 

Services (ACES) Office helps to 

accomplish this is through the 

use of development test labs 

(DTLs) stationed at each NASA 

Center. These test labs provide 

application owners across NASA 

with the opportunity to test existing 

applications against new, soon-tobe-deployed software or systems 

to look for any compatibility 

issues. This pretesting helps 

minimize IT risks for the Agency 

by identifying how new programs 

could potentially “break” existing 

programs and finding solutions 

before full deployment begins.

While testing is also facilitated 

through the NASA Enterprise 

Applications Competency Center 

(NEACC) for the most commonly 

used applications, additional testing 

is often needed for less common 

applications that are used by specific 

groups or in specific labs. The DTLs 

provide an opportunity to reach 

these other application owners.

Centers are putting a renewed 

emphasis on using their DTLs. 

Stennis Space Center (SSC), for 

example, recently reopened their 

multifaceted DTL. Stennis’s DTL 

supports its mission by providing 

users with the capability to 

regression-test and validate their 

applications with Center-specific 

requirements. The DTL provides 

the necessary testing environment 

for new ACES users, as well as 

ongoing support for established 

mission-critical applications. The 

SSC DTL is currently supporting the 

SSC voice-mail exchange (VMX) 

project by testing its capabilities and 

performance on a new platform.

If you are an application owner 

interested in helping to pretest 

through DTLs, please contact 

Roscoe Sheehy, the ACES Office 

operations manager, at roscoe.

sheehy@nasa.gov to provide your 

name and contact information. v

Development test labs are 

available at the NEACC 

and all NASA Centers 

to test applications.

NASA OCIO IT Talk April-June 2013 5
NASA’s IT Innovations

A lot of great work is being done in the world of information technology 

(IT) innovations at NASA. In this issue, we’ll explore a few of the IT 

trends and cutting-edge technologies at our NASA Centers. We’ll also 

take a closer look at who is helping to make this technology news.

The NASA Office of the Chief 

Information Officer (OCIO) 

Communications Service Office 

(CSO) is responsible for end-to-end 

infrastructure in support of voice, 

video, and data communications 

services for the Agency. In order 

to deliver high-quality, high-value 

services to the NASA community, the 

CSO employs its Services Design 

and Development Lab (SDDL). The 

SDDL has three basic functions:

1. Investigate trends, troubleshoot 

issues, and stage equipment 

prior to deployment.

2. Develop new services and features.

3. Transition emerging technologies 

into production-quality services.

The SDDL enterprise lab is located 

at Marshall Space Flight Center 

(MSFC). This lab consists of 

36 network equipment racks, a 

collaboration services lab (with end 

devices associated with integrated 

voice, video, and data services), and 

a meeting space for engineering, 

operations, and vendor collaboration.

The SDDL is extended to all NASA 

Centers via the CSO Prototyping 

Network (CPN), a virtual overlay across 

NASA’s internal wide-area network. This 

configuration allows Centers to perform 

joint testing and discovery without 

impacting any production environment. 

It was used recently to research, 

develop, and stage NASA’s Internet 

Protocol version 6 (IPv6) service, which 

has been used to meet the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) IPv6 

FY12 mandate. The SDDL will also be 

used to develop strategies for meeting 

the OMB IPv6 FY14 mandate, which 

requires that all NASA end devices be 

able to reach Internet sites via IPv6.

Research and development of 

emerging technologies related to 

communications services are led by 

the CSO’s Communications Emerging 

Technologies (CET) lab at Ames 

Research Center (ARC). The CET 

lab participates in the CPN and is 

instrumental in identifying and vetting 

enabling technologies, which are 

then introduced into the productionoriented environment of the SDDL 

Enterprise lab before being delivered 

to the NASA user community.

Other projects are focused on the 

Information Technology Infrastructure 

Integration Program’s (I3P’s) goals 

of transforming the Agency’s IT 

services to a more efficient enterprise 

model (e.g., Consolidated Network 

Operations Center), better supporting 

the collaboration requirements of 

NASA’s missions (e.g., desktop mobile 

video), and securing the infrastructure 

(e.g., Agency perimeter firewalls).

To connect to the CPN environment, 

contact your Center’s NICS 

customer service representative 

(CSR) (https://cso.nasa.gov/

CSRs_Page). Your lab need not be 

a CSO or even an OCIO lab—any 

IT lab is encouraged to join. v

Key Personnel App

By Katie Poole, GSFC, and Jane Maples, MSFC

For over 20 years, the Goddard Space Flight 

Center’s (GSFC’s) Information Technology 

and Communications Directorate (ITCD) 

successfully managed the yearly production 

of the GSFC Key Personnel Directory. Formerly 

known as the “little white book,” this hardcopy publication contained work and afterhours contact information for Goddard’s civil 

servant management and supervisory staff. 

While the document proved functional, 

maintenance of the directory proved to be 

an ineffective method of meeting GSFC‘s key 

personnel requirements. The printed book 

had its share of challenges: the meticulous 

task of soliciting contact information; 

continuous personnel changes, which often 

nullified recently obtained data; and, most 

significantly, the challenge of protecting 

personally identifiable information (PII).

In early 2012, ITCD initiated a task 

to investigate concepts to replace 

the existing book with an electronic 

version that would be readily accessible 

and adequately protect PII data. 

Then, in February 2013, in collaboration 

with the Center for Internal Mobile Apps 

(CIMA)—located at the NASA Enterprise 

Application Competency Center (NEACC)—

ITCD deployed the Key Personnel App (KPNA) 

mobile app in order to leverage Agency 

software development capabilities in a 

mature and secure hosting environment. 

The CIMA design augments and enhances 

the existing “NASA Contacts” mobile app 

to meet GSFC KPNA requirements. This 

active integration with the NASA Enterprise 

Directory (NED) provides current employee 

data while reducing the need to maintain 

multiple databases. Key personnel and 

other designated users have access to 

a “Groups” tab that allows them to call, 

text, or e-mail from within the mobile 

app. This app is available on iPad, iPhone, 

Blackberry, and Android devices.

Team Members

GSFC—Katie Poole (Lead)

Tim Schauermann

Shinetta Freeman

CIMA—Jane Maples (Lead)

Corey Baswell

Randall Johnson

Peter Cauwels

Kellie White

6 www.nasa.gov
A JSC Innovator—Chad Parks By Neesha Hosein, JSC Publicity Specialist

Chad Parks believes innovation and 

its true value usually happen when 

there is a specific problem or situation 

that needs a solution, providing 

an opportunity for innovation. 

Parks is the technical lead engineer for an 

Information Technology and Multimedia 

Services (ITAMS) contract project 

called Integrated Service Management 

(ISM). Parks and his team have found 

ways to streamline and consolidate 

service requests within their organization, 

which supports the Johnson Space 

Center’s (JSC’s) Information Resources 

Directorate (IRD). The IRD is headed by 

the JSC Chief Information Officer.

“The project scope goes even further 

than service request management," 

Parks said. "Its entire scope and goal 

is to see gains in the areas of incident 

and problem management, configuration 

and release management, and asset 

management and discovery. The ISM 

team has just completed phase I.” 

This has resulted in improved 

incident tracking, reporting, and 

promoting of business processes 

that are in alignment with the 

Information Technology Infrastructure 

Library (ITIL) v3 best practices. 

Aside from the ISM project, Parks is also 

responsible for the daily operations and 

management of the IRD’s Customer Support 

Center (CSC), JSC’s Forms Department, 

and IRD's Engineering Drawing Control 

Center. He provides technical guidance, 

project management, business process 

improvement, and strategic planning, and he 

ensures that the products and services meet 

or exceed customer expectations, among 

other cross-Center and Agency initiatives. 

Outside of work, Parks likes to "spend 

time with family and friends around a 

big pile of spicy crawfish," having grown 

up in Louisiana. He enjoys travelling, 

keeping up with mobile technology 

advances, playing video games, and 

being out with his wife, Katie. 

"I really enjoy waking up every day and 

going to work to support one of the greatest 

agencies ever created in the history of 

this country," Parks said. "The folks I 

work with are some of the most dedicated 

and talented individuals I've met. It's a 

pleasure being part of their team."

The IT Consumer’s Connected Living 

Room Meets JPL’s Conference Rooms

By Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief Technology Officer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

It is the job of information technology 

(IT) to create an environment 

that seeks out innovations and 

listens hard enough to recognize 

truly innovative ideas, wherever 

they come from...and then to 

implement them quickly. 

Platitudes? Read on.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL) Chief Information Officer 

(CIO) Jim Rinaldi was so impressed 

with the way wireless projection 

is used in all of Apple Corporate’s 

conference rooms that he wanted 

wireless projection in all of the 

conference rooms at JPL. Tasked 

with determining an optimal plan 

and method for implementation, 

Emerging IT specialist Gabriel 

Rangel and I engaged the help 

of the JPL user community, CIO 

Technology Advisory Board 

members, scientists, engineers, TV 

operators, network technologists, 

and several JPL leaders with private 

conference rooms. It was clear that 

concurrent wireless projection would 

enable a new level of collaboration 

both inside JPL and beyond.

The question, though, was,

how could we economically 

infuse inexpensive consumer 

technologies into the JPL enterprise 

on all devices? The solution was 

unexpected and (we hope) elegant: 

we standardized around Apple’s 

Airplay protocol. Airplay simulators 

will be installed on the regular 

conference room computers, and 

private offices can buy Apple 

TVs from JPL’s IT catalog. JPL 

employees can buy and install 

recommended “Airplay-speaking 

apps” (ranging from free to a onetime charge of a few dollars) for their 

devices. All equipment purchases 

and installation will be coordinated 

via the normal JPL IT catalog and 

the JPL unified service desk.

The principle of “first do no harm” 

will apply. The existing capability 

to plug in the video graphics array 

cable will remain in place and 

will only be removed when the 

wireless projection capability has 

proven its value. And we expect 

that it will happen very quickly.

NASA OCIO IT Talk April-June 2013 7
Latest Mobile Application News from the 

Center for Internal Mobile Apps (CIMA)

Mobile App Developer Virtual Workshop on April 24, 2013

In an effort to continue collaboration 

across the Agency related to mobile 

application development, the Center 

for Internal Mobile Applications (CIMA) 

and the Emerging Technologies and 

Desktop Services (ETADS) organizations 

will be hosting a mobile app developer 

virtual workshop on April 24, 2013. 

A variety of mobile app development 

topics related to public and enterprise 

-only apps will be discussed. 

Development on various platforms (iOS, 

Android, BlackBerry)—both native and 

hybrid (HTML5), as well as analytical—

will be among the topics discussed. 

Participation is open to anyone within 

the NASA community. For additional 

information, or if you are interested in 

participating, please contact us at

msfc-cima@mail.nasa.gov.

Mobile Downloads. CIMA recently 

released new versions of NASA 

Contacts, which includes the new 

BlackBerry version of the app. All 

versions (iOS, Android, and BlackBerry) 

are available for download from apps@

NASA (https://apps.nasa.gov). 

Coming soon to apps@NASA is the 

much-anticipated Android version 

of WebTADS Mobile (for time and 

attendance). All Android users out 

there who have been patiently waiting 

should watch for it on apps@NASA.

Development Center (Dev Center). 

There are several new “how to” 

videos available to assist developers 

with getting started in developing 

a mobile app on Dev Center. Dev 

Center is a provisioned application, 

and access can be requested by 

submitting an online NASA Account 

Management System (NAMS) 

request. You will need to request 

access to the CIMA NASA Developer 

as the new application. Simply search 

for “CIMA” when 

you are in NAMS. 

How do I 

access Dev 

Center once 

I have been 

notified that my 

account has been provisioned?

1. Open your Internet browser and 

type in the following url:

https://apps.nasa.gov.

2. Once the website is displayed, 

select the “Sign In” link next to the 

search field in the upper right corner 

of the page.

3. Once you have authenticated into 

the website you will be able to 

select the tab labeled “Dev Center.”

For additional information pertaining to 

CIMA’s mobile service offering, please 

visit https://cima.nasa.gov. v

IT Labs: Improving Information 

Infrastructure

By Chatwin Lansdowne, Lead for IEEE Standards Association, Project 1877

When you are a long way from home 

in space, one little, overlooked defect 

can cause a loss of a mission and 

kick off a high-profile investigation. A 

NASA program can easily spend 

more than 25 percent of its budget 

carefully testing, analyzing, and 

documenting the performance of 

components, subsystems, individual 

systems, and systems of systems.

An IT Labs–funded project is now 

producing a plug-and-play modular 

approach to test automation. Institute 

of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 

(IEEE) Standards Association Project 

1877 will define a Web/XML test 

orchestration interface that will enable 

discovery of modular assets; summary 

control and status data and metadata; 

and behaviors, requirements, hardware 

interfaces, and other descriptive 

information in a standardized machineinterpretable information format.

The IEEE 1877 standard is built on 

an interface that was developed at 

the Johnson Space Center (JSC) 

through demonstration activities 

in a half-dozen JSC engineering 

laboratories. The interface has been 

adopted by Training Systems 21st 

Century, which will become the 

Space Station training facility. Called 

mREST, the interface combines 

plug-and-play and Web-services 

protocols with automatic test 

markup language (ATML). ATML 

is an IEEE information framework 

standard. The mREST prototype 

emerged from a Constellationfunded study that was defined by 

Chatwin Lansdowne and executed 

by METECS software engineers.

ATML was initiated by the U.S. 

Department of Defense in 2002, and 

it seeks to make test capabilities 

agile by separately describing each 

piece of equipment, linkage, test 

article, interface, and requirement. 

With the team’s ingenuity and support 

from IT Labs, a new aerospace 

industry standard is emerging that 

can transition ATML into products.

More information may be found in 

this article under IEEE copyright

at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/.

abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6058728

(sign-in required). v

8 www.nasa.gov
NASA’s 2013 Federal 100 Award Winners

By Sarah Rigdon, OCIO Communications Specialist

Congratulations to 2013 Federal 100 

Award winners, Dr. Sasi Kumar Pillay, 

NASA Chief Technology Officer for IT, 

Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief Technology 

Officer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 

Tony Facca, Project Manager for 

Emerging Technology and Desktop 

Standards (ETADS) at Glenn, and 

Jeanne Holm, Chief Knowledge 

Architect at the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory as well as Data.gov 

Evangelist at the General Services 

Administration (via Intergovernmental 

Personnel Act). Federal Computer 

Week, a Federal technology and 

business news publication, recently 

honored the winners at a gala at the 

Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

Facca, Pillay, Soderstrom, and Holm 

all say they were surprised and 

honored by their nominations and 

wins, and pleased for the Agency’s 

representation in a highly regarded 

spotlight on work in Federal IT. 

Soderstrom said NASA’s presence 

in the award “should tell us that 

we need to keep innovating and 

to redouble our efforts to make a 

difference with IT in people’s lives.” 

Pillay said the award is “a testimony of 

the wonderful work we do at NASA,” 

and Facca concurs with the feeling 

of community. “It’s a chance for the 

entire federal IT community to feel 

proud of our accomplishments and 

a few of the people that helped.”

This year’s winners were chosen by a 

select panel of government and industry 

leaders. Twenty-two winners came 

from industry, two from academia, one 

from state government and 75 from 

the federal government—with 56 in 

civilian agencies, 15 in the defense 

sector and four from Capitol Hill.

Congratulations to this year’s winners for 

representing the Agency in government 

IT excellence. For more information, visit

http://fcw.com/articles/2013/01/30/

fed-100-winners.aspx. v

NASA Leads Federal Forum

By Kathy Rice, IS01, NEACC Project Management Office

The Systems Application Product’s 

(SAP’s) Federal Forum was formalized 

in 2007 to enable collaboration among 

Federal agencies that had deployed 

SAP. It began as a “grassroots” effort 

to build a coalition of U.S. Federal 

SAP clients to share experiences 

and become “one voice” to influence 

product development for the benefit 

of all. Since then, LaTonya Powell 

has embraced the forum as her 

major focus. Powell coordinates 

and hosts quarterly conference calls 

to answer questions and discuss 

upcoming regulatory changes. She 

said, “The Federal Forum is a group 

that you can count on! We are a 

reliable presence in the IT industry.” 

In 2010, Powell planned the first 

face-to-face (F2F) workshop for all 

Federal agency participants and key 

SAP representatives. The annual 

F2F workshop was held January 

29–30, 2013, at NASA Headquarters

in Washington, DC. This year’s agenda 

was developed with the goal of 

increasing participation by broadening 

the focus areas to include budget 

formulation and reporting. Several 

agencies shared recent successes, 

such as DOI’s implementation of the 

U.S. Department of the Treasury’s 

electronic invoicing solution and 

business objects, and the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture’s public 

budget formulation solution. SAP 

presented the latest innovations related 

to budget formulation, reporting, 

and performance improvements 

when working with extremely large 

volumes of data, which are challenges 

to all agencies. The face-to-face 

workshop provides an opportunity 

for SAP to give insight into their 

timeline for developing the system 

changes and making them available 

to their customers. Having SAP’s 

implementation timeline allows for 

better internal planning, which is critical 

to the efficiency of implementation 

under budget constraints.

When asked to elaborate on her role, 

Powell said, “I’m not just a facilitator 

because I understand the system. 

I am a subject matter expert and a 

leader. It’s rewarding when attendees 

express their appreciation to me for 

not only planning the face-to-face, 

but everything leading up to it.”

Participation for the workshop began 

with approximately 50 onsite attendees 

and has grown to this year’s onsite 

total attendance of 126, the highest 

onsite attendance ever, with over 100 

people connecting via WebEx and 

teleconference. Powell said, “NASA 

has benefited greatly from the SAP 

Federal Forum and we will continue 

in the leadership role to maintain 

the momentum that we’ve worked 

hard to build over the last five years.

We’ll continue to be successful in 

our efforts by maintaining continuity, 

keeping those areas most important 

in the forefront for discussion and 

collaboration and continuing to provide 

a conduit for open communication 

with each other and with SAP.” v

NASA OCIO IT Talk April-June 2013 9
Information Technology Infrastructure 

Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services 

Office (CSO)/NASA Integrated 

Communications Services (NICS)

CSO is continuing to develop a 

voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 

plan to determine the best method 

for the expansion of VoIP services 

to replace aging NASA telephone 

services. The NICS contractor has 

awarded a contract to Force3/

Cisco for an indefinite delivery/

indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract 

for Unified Communication 

Infrastructure Equipment that will 

support the VoIP implementations. 

Hardware, software, system 

licenses, end-user licenses, 

handsets, and maintenance 

are included with this contract. 

Additionally, voice-mail and E911 

services may be added. This 

contract will allow for better pricing 

for the VoIP equipment and will be 

used for all procurements of future 

VoIP requirements. CSO/NICS 

continued to work with the Chief 

Information Officer (CIO) and the 

Chief Technologist to communicate 

the plans and service direction 

to the service’s stakeholders 

by briefing the Information 

Technology Management for 

Business (ITMB) in February 

regarding the status of the project.

On February 22, 2013, CSO and 

the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) 

rolled out the desktop mobile 

videoconferencing (DMV) pilot 

service. The DMV service, based 

on the Vidyo product, will provide 

videoconferencing from 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 almost any 

device. The DMV pilot service 

is available to order via the ESD 

under “Collaboration Services.”

Additionally, the Information 

Technology Infrastructure Library 

(ITIL) training has been made 

available to NICS and CSO. As 

ITIL processes are being rolled 

out by I3P programs, NICS has 

initiated a contract-wide, Webbased training program. This 

continual service improvement will 

help ensure that ITIL is ingrained 

in the everyday Tier-2 processes.

The first five ITIL processes that 

have been developed and are 

available as audio/video files are 

incident management, problem 

management, request fulfillment, 

change management, and 

service asset and configuration 

management. Additional training 

materials available as of April 

1, 2013, are being developed 

for the ITIL processes of 

portfolio management, strategy 

management, catalog management, 

service-level management, 

capacity management, supplier 

management, release and 

deployment management, and 

continual service improvement.

Agency Consolidated EndUser Services (ACES)

NASA DAR Update: Data-At-Rest 

(DAR) encryption is complete on 

99 percent of NASA laptops. Each 

Center has now identified desktop 

systems with sensitive data that 

require DAR encryption. Of those 

systems identified, over 60 percent 

are now encrypted with DAR. If you 

have a DAR desktop with sensitive 

data that require encryption, please 

submit a service request through 

the ESD/ESRS system, which 

is accessible on the Enterprise 

Service Desk website at https://

esd.nasa.gov/secure/main.cfm.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 

Migration and Mailbox Size 

Increase: NASA’s email will be 

upgraded to Microsoft Exchange 

2010 between July 3 and August 

28, 2013. As part of this upgrade, 

NASA Operational Messaging 

and Directory (NOMAD) mailbox 

sizes will be increased. Most 

users will receive a mailbox size 

increase from 400 megabytes 

to 1 gigabyte. After migration 

to Exchange 2010, temporary 

mailbox size increases will no 

longer occur. Please visit ACES’s 

website for additional information.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) 

Deployment: IE9, Microsoft’s 

enhanced browser that was 

planned for deployment to 

ACES computers on March 12, 

2013, has been delayed due to 

compatibility issues with the ACES 

Product Catalog (APC). The new 

browser will now be installed 

sometime in April, following 

the resolution of this issue. An 

updated date and time will be 

provided in future communication.

New ACES Personnel: New 

people supporting the ACES 

contract include Mr. Kyle Cossey, 

a program analyst supporting the 

End-User Services Office (EUSO) 

as a contractor with Al Razaq 

Computing Services. He is based 

at the Marshall Space Flight 

Center EUSO, in Huntsville, AL.

Enterprise Applications Service 

Office/NASA Enterprise 

Applications Competency 

Center (EASO/NEACC): A 

modification to the Enterprise 

Applications Service Technology 

(EAST) contract was successfully 

completed and issued to end 

the EAST stabilization period 

and implement full terms and 

10 www.nasa.gov
conditions of the EAST contract. 

An additional modification was 

issued to exercise the option to 

extend the period of performance 

for the contract to run from 

February 1, 2013, through January 

31, 2015. The ICE-COOP task 

order was extended through 

December 31, 2013, in support of 

the Human Exploration Operations

(HEO) Mission Directorate.

The Office of Education completed 

the user-acceptance testing. 

Training for users will include 

participants within and outside of 

NASA (many at universities and 

colleges that participate in NASA 

Education programs). The SAP 

WebGUI was decommissioned 

on March 15, 2013, and 

replaced with XenApp Citrix 

access, providing Web access 

via Citrix to all three Centers 

facing SAP clients. The NEACC 

is developing and finalizing the 

NEACC service-level standards 

(SLS), NEACC satisfaction survey 

process, and schedule. This will 

consist of up to five strategic 

focus areas (SFAs). The first 

evaluation period for the SLS 

1.1 SFAs will last 3 months and 

run from May 1 through July 31, 

2013. All subsequent evaluation 

periods will last 6 months.

Enterprise Service Desk 

The ESD Enhancements Project 

consists of enhancement requests 

that contain desired updates 

to ESD functionality based on 

customer feedback and lessons 

learned from production use. 

Several aspects of the tool have 

been modified during this project, 

including interface design data 

exchanged with the I3P contracts, 

notifications and availability 

features, and information displayed 

on the ESD Tier-0 website. 

These enhancements will:

҆ Grant Tier-2 providers the ability 

to generate help tickets, even in 

cases when a single customer 

is not identified. This will be 

especially helpful to the NICS 

team, who frequently work 

tickets generated from a system, 

not a person. Automation will 

be built into the process so that 

the tickets are quickly routed 

to where they need to go.

҆ Allow individuals placing On 

Behalf Of orders to find new 

hires earlier in the on-boarding 

process. Those departing 

the Agency will be left in the 

system for On Behalf Of orders 

for a short time following 

separation. An individual’s 

status will be displayed when 

placing an On Behalf Of order.

҆ Allow Centers the opportunity 

to create specific groups for 

approving orders at the IT 

and Resource levels. When 

changes are implemented, 

this can prevent every 

approver from receiving 

emails for every request and 

allow each Center to develop 

the workflow that is most 

appropriate for their approvers.

҆ Allow end users to edit a 

service request as it works 

its way through the approval 

cycle; requests that are edited 

will need to be re-approved.

҆ Allow users to subscribe 

to receive notifications in 

the system, but suppress 

notification emails. 

҆ Ensure that customers 

and contacts will receive 

notification emails when orders 

are approved or rejected.

҆ Ensure that knowledge 

articles and help tickets are 

print-friendly; help tickets will 

have an easy email option 

allowing end users to share 

an open ticket with a POC.

҆ Grant knowledge article authors 

new searching capabilities within 

the knowledge article library that 

will assist them in managing 

content they have created.

The ESD enhancements project 

went into production in April 2013.

Web Enterprises Services and 

Technology (WESTPRIME)

The latest I3P acquisition, 

WESTPRIME, has been awarded 

to InfoZen to provide NASA’s 

cloud-based Web-hosting 

solutions across all Centers. 

WESTPRIME services will 

be fully integrated with the 

other I3P initiatives to provide 

seamless, complete, and costeffective services and solutions 

for NASA IT requirements.

WESTPRIME will enable NASA 

to leverage the opportunities and 

benefits of cloud computing, 

which include the following:

Rapid server provisioning times;

҆ Automatic scaling of server 

instances and bandwidth;

҆ Automatic backups;

҆ Improved security;

҆ Greater transparency;

҆ Improved search functions

҆ Ongoing and proactive customer 

outreach that includes training, 

support, and help; and

҆ Ongoing cloud innovation 

and solutions.

NASA OCIO IT Talk April-June 2013 11
The Year Up Program and the OCIO

By Sarah Rigdon, OCIO Communications Specialist

Nationwide, one program brings big-name 

organizations and young adults in major 

cities together for a year of learning and 

growth: the Year Up Program. A 501(c)(3) 

with a mission to engage low-income young 

adults in a “high support, high expectation 

model that combines marketable job skills, 

stipends, internships and college credits,” 

the education and workforce development 

benefits corporate and federal partners as well 

as youth aged 18 to 24. Preshana Simmons, a 

new face at the OCIO, is currently the second 

Year Up intern at the office. She says one 

benefit of the program is the help and support 

throughout. “What makes Year Up different 

are its core values as well as feedback. Every 

Friday Year Up takes part in an activity called 

Friday feedback, where feedback is given 

and received. We are taught that feedback is 

constructive criticism and a way to grow. NASA 

gives Year Up associates the opportunity 

to practice learning and development skills 

learned at Year Up.” She can attest to the 

rigorous application process for the program, 

which is “purposely made difficult to see how 

persistent you will be.” She says she’s enjoying 

the program and has learned a lot so far, from 

configuring computers to professional skills. 

Welcome Preshana to the OCIO! 

For more information on Year Up, 

see www.yearup.org . 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