IT Talk

July - September 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 3

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

What NASA’s PIV 

Smartcard Means 

to You!
IT Talk

Jul - Sep 2013 Volume 3 • Issue 3

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

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NASA Names Sweet

as New CIO

What NASA’s

PIV Smartcard

Means to You!

NASA Forms Initiative— 

eForms Migrating to New 

Application Software

Spreading Innovation

Without Travel

I3P Update

In this Issue
NASA Names Sweet 

As New CIO

Larry N. Sweet is NASA's new Chief Information Officer. 

Sweet has a long history with NASA. He joined the agency 

in 1987 at the Johnson Space Center where he has 

served as supervisor and manager for more than 26 years. 

Since February 2007, Mr. Sweet has been the JSC Chief 

Information Officer and Information Resources Director. 

Sweet took the helm in leading the agency's information 

technology efforts and capabilities June 30. He is 

responsible for ensuring NASA's information assets are in 

line with federal policies, procedures and legislation. 

As NASA's top IT official, Sweet also manages a number 

of other major IT efforts, including the Information 

Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P), 

which consolidates and integrates NASA's IT services to 

enable collaboration and reduce costs to the agency.

Mr. Sweet began his career with NASA as a Branch Chief 

in the Center Operations Directorate. He moved on to 

the Information Resources Directorate, serving as Office 

Manager, Division Chief and Deputy Director prior to being 

selected as Director. In addition, Mr. Sweet completed a 

formal detail in 2002 as Deputy Director in the JSC Public 

Affairs Office and a rotational assignment in 2005 at NASA 

Headquarters in the Institutions and Management Office. 

Sweet earned a BA in Visual Communications in 1978 

from Texas Lutheran University, in Seguin,Texas. l

National Day of 

Civic Hacking

By Nick Skytland, Ali Llewellyn, and Sarah 

Rigdon—Open Government Initiative

On June 1-2, 2013, more than 11,000 

citizens representing businesses, nonprofits, 

government agencies and local residents 

teamed up to participate in over 95 events 

throughout the United States as part of the 

National Day of Civic Hacking. The goal 

of the initiative was to improve the lives 

of citizens by working together to solve 

challenges facing local communities and the 

governments that serve them, at all levels.

Building on experience from the planning 

of the International Space Apps Challenge 

just weeks earlier, the NASA Open 

Innovation Program led the public-private 

collaboration which engaged more than 

twenty federal, six states, and dozens of 

local government agencies. Each agency 

offered challenges and data sets to work on.

NASA’s challenge, titled We Love Data, 

encouraged teams to use its vast open data 

resources and to help the Agency think 

differently about how citizens can engage 

and use spaceflight data. The open ideation 

challenge encouraged the development of 

software, hardware, and visualizations. 

“We changed the dynamics of citizen 

engagement, collaboration and partnerships 

using technology to solve domestic 

challenges in an unprecedented way,” said 

Deborah Diaz, Deputy CIO at NASA. “This 

massive collaboration movement involving 

federal, state and local government truly 

connected with all types of interested 

consumers, experts, youth, coders and 

interested citizens who want to voluntarily 

contribute and make a difference.”

The event was one of the largest mass 

collaborations in US history and the results 

will be celebrated at the White House 

Champions of Change event on July 23rd.

Find out more at hackforchange.org. l

NASA OCIO IT Talk July-Sept 2013 3
Spreading Innovation Without Travel

By Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Gabriel Rangel, Specialist on Emerging IT

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology

Since 2010, the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory’s (JPL) Chief 

Information Officer has 

hosted industry leaders 

from Eucalyptus, the Google 

Driverless Car Program, Netflix, 

Mitnick Security, the SANS 

Institute, and Wirth Research, 

who shared their expertise in big 

data, cloud computing, cyber 

security, and innovation with 

the JPL community. On May 

16, JPL CIO, along with JPL’s 

Office of the Chief Scientist and 

Office of the Chief Technologist, 

welcomed Stephen Wolfram, 

creator of Mathematica 

software and the Wolfram|Alpha 

computational search engine, 

to JPL to give a rare talk.

Recognizing what a tremendous 

opportunity it would be for 

colleagues outside of JPL to 

participate in this very special 

talk, JPL IT Chief Technology 

Officer Tom Soderstrom 

and Emerging IT Specialist 

Gabriel Rangel decided to 

test the viability of presenting 

remotely to other Centers. 

The IT CTO at JSC, James 

McClellan, enthusiastically 

agreed and rapidly organized 

a remote session at JSC.

The 90-minute talk consisted 

of a presentation followed by a 

Q&A session. There were more 

than 300 people in JPL’s largest 

auditorium and JPLers watching 

from their office via JPL-TV. 

High-definition video was sent 

between JPL and JSC using 

NASA’s network, with about 50 

people participating at JSC in 

an auditorium. In addition, the 

talk was made available to other 

NASA IT personnel and Caltech 

and Embry Riddle Universities 

via a password-enabled JPL 

Ustream account over the 

Internet. It all worked flawlessly.

The talk was also recorded 

and made available for viewing 

on JPL Tube and NASATube, 

enabling users to watch at their 

leisure and then search for 

specific segments of the talk 

they are interested in, thanks 

to JPL Tube’s and NASATube’s 

automatic transcription and 

capability to search for words 

spoken during the talk.

The ability for all NASA Centers 

to participate in real time in 

exciting and innovative talks, 

wherever they are given, is 

important for our future. Being 

able to search for the content 

of these talks and view them 

at each user’s convenience 

via a capability such as 

NASATube is also important, 

regardless of which NASA 

Center produced the talk or is 

searching for the talk. It will help 

drive education of the NASA 

workforce; influence industry 

innovators more broadly: 

and drive innovation much 

quicker, with less travel, and at 

significantly lower cost. That 

is an exciting future indeed. l

Courtesy - NASA/JPL-Caltech

4 www.nasa.gov
Innovation Destination: Johnson Space Center (JSC)

By James McClellan, JSC Chief Technology Office, and Jaumarro Cuffee,

JSC IT Infrastucture Integration Program (I3P) Outreach Lead/ITAMS

Nearly 1,700 miles away, Johnson 

Space Center attendees in 

Houston were considering ways 

to apply the ideas presented 

by Dr. Stephen Wolfram in his 

discussion that was broadcast 

live from the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL) on May 16, 2013.

Allison Wolff from the OCIO IT 

Labs program sees potential 

in the further development 

of natural language search 

interfaces and the use of natural 

language commands for a codesharing library to reduce the 

redevelopment of duplicate code 

and capabilities. Allan Stilwell, 

who manages a Wolfram|Alpha 

search prototype, sees the 

potential that these capabilities 

may have on measuring software 

health. Stilwell sounded hopeful, 

noting that “trying to come up 

with a good base framework could 

help NASA save a lot of money 

in the future and change how 

we make decisions on software 

releases in general.” Stilwell also 

manages IT projects, JSC Search, 

new technologies, innovation, 

and development in the JSC 

Information Resources Directorate.

The chief technology officers 

(CTOs) at JPL and JSC 

coordinated the live broadcast 

of this event. Using existing 

infrastructure, such as Internet 

Protocol Television and Ustream, 

the CTOs were able to multiply 

the audience at minimal cost. 

Reactions to the presentation 

ranged from seeing a 

computational search engine as 

futuristic to seeing it as another 

tool for enhancing security. The 

specific benefit may vary among 

attendees, but the fact that they 

have been exposed to new and 

evolving technologies bespeaks 

the success of the CTO. l

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) IT 

Recognized with Industry Honors

By Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief Technology Officer, and Whitney Haggins, IT Communication 

Specialist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

The JPL IT Directorate was 

recognized with two separate 

industry awards in June 2013.

JPL IT has been named by 

CIO magazine to the 2013 

“CIO 100,” recognizing the 

organization as “one of 100 

innovative organizations that 

uses IT effectively to create 

business value.” This is the 

second time JPL IT has been 

named to the CIO 100, having 

been previously named in 2012.

The award recognized JPL 

IT’s multiyear partnership with 

the Mars Science Laboratory 

(MSL) project, part of its 

initiative of changing IT from 

“Information Technology” into 

a proactive, action-oriented 

organization that innovates with 

other JPL organizations, NASA 

Centers, and industry. Working 

with MSL, the Mars Public 

Outreach Office, the Office of 

Communication and Education, 

and Television Operations, JPL 

IT made extensive use of cloud 

computing for outreach and 

mission-critical events, allowing 

easy access for JPL employees 

and visitors to each other and 

to the data by providing an 

unprecedented network access. 

They also enabled JPL mobile 

applications, mobile games, 

and Web site innovations to 

help tell MSL’s story. JPL IT 

will be profiled along with 

other winning companies in the 

August issue of CIO magazine. 

In addition, on June 17, the 

International Data Group’s 

Computerworld announced that 

JPL IT was named to the 2013 

list of 100 Best Places to Work 

in IT, an annual ranking of the 

top 100 work environments for 

technology professionals by 

Computerworld magazine. This 

is the first time JPL has won this 

award. The list is compiled based 

on a comprehensive questionnaire 

regarding company offerings 

in categories such as benefits, 

diversity, career development, 

training, and retention. In 

addition, Computerworld 

conducts extensive surveys 

of the IT employees, and their 

responses factor heavily in 

determining the rankings. 

Jim Rinaldi, Chief Information 

Officer of JPL, said, “I’m very 

proud and happy that the 

innovation, excellence, and hard 

work of all JPL’s IT employees 

are recognized by these 

industry organizations.” l

NASA OCIO IT Talk July-Sept 2013 5
What NASA’s PIV Smartcard Means to You!

By Leslie Cahoon, Service Executive—Identity, Credential, and Access Management, and Rob Winters, ICAM Engineer

With sophisticated passwordcracking programs commonly 

available, passwords alone 

provide little security in today’s 

information technology 

environment. This is especially 

true if hackers gain access to 

systems where user names and 

passwords are stored. Federal 

smartcard credentials such as 

personnel identity verification 

(PIV) cards provide multifactor 

authentication features that 

mitigate these threats, as well as 

digital signature and encryption 

capabilities. This permits 

workers to access Federal 

information systems with a 

much higher level of assurance. 

Under the GPRA Modernization 

Act of 2010 the Executive 

Office of the President has 

issued several Cross-Agency 

Priority (CAP) goals to Federal 

agencies. The Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

Memorandum 11-11 tasked 

agencies to achieve 95 percent 

utilization of PIV smartcards for 

authentication to information 

systems by the end of 2014. An 

interim goal assigned to NASA is 

to achieve 20-percent utilization 

of PIV smartcard authentication 

to Windows systems by 

October 2013. NASA began 

an Agency-wide Mandatory 

PIV Use Pilot Program for 

Windows workstations in 

November 2012. Currently, 

there are approximately 240 

pilot participants. Beginning in 

July 2013, each NASA Center 

will implement its own early 

adoption program. The Agency 

will then begin incremental 

deployments to mandate the 

use of PIV smartcards on 

approximately 9000 Windows 

desktops and laptops by the 

end of FY 2013. This will meet 

NASA’s commitment to OMB 

and put us on the road to full 

PIV smartcard compliance.

PIV Smartcard Benefits

Additional security:

•	 Your PIV smartcard uniquely 

identifies you, right down 

to your fingerprints.

•	 Two factors are required to 

access your computer: your 

PIV smartcard and your PIN.

•	 No password will fall into 

the wrong hands and be 

shared across the Internet.

•	 PIV smartcard can be easily disabled if lost or stolen.

Convenience:

•	 You never have to change 

your PIN (although you 

can if you want to).

•	 Once you log in, most enterprise applications admit 

you without another login.

•	 There are no multiple usernames and passwords (for 

compliant applications).

•	 Eventually, the PIV 

card will replace the 

RSA token as well.

•	 One card for guard gate, 

turnstiles, doors, login, 

encryption, and signing.

The initial mandatory PIV 

smartcard use project has 

several limitations. Only the 

Windows 7 operating system 

will have the security controls in 

place at this time. Workstations 

used by NASA workers without 

PIV cards will be exempted, as 

will workstations whose function 

would be impaired by the 

security controls. Because the 

restriction itself is on computers 

and not user accounts for 

now, you will still have an NDC 

domain username and password 

to access noncompliant 

applications and systems, and 

you will still need to maintain 

that password. In the future, 

all systems and applications 

will use the PIV smartcard, 

and you will no longer need 

a username and password.

After Windows workstations are 

secured with the PIV smartcard, 

follow-on projects will be 

launched to tackle technical 

barriers to expanded use of the 

PIV smartcard. These include 

smartcard login for Macintosh 

and Unix computers; a strong 

password-free authentication 

solution for mobile devices: and 

unified smartcard capabilities 

for e-mail, virtual private 

networks (VPN), wireless LAN, 

and all other NASA applications 

and services. Eventually, the 

PIV smartcard will provide 

authentication to all systems, 

networks, and services, as well 

as guard stations, turnstiles, 

and electronic door locks. The 

NASA PIV smartcard will also be 

enhanced in 2014 to securely 

hold encryption and signing 

certificates that cannot be 

copied from the PIV smartcard. 

These certificates are currently 

installed in the Entrust program 

on your computer and can 

be easily copied to a USB 

drive or other media. l

6 www.nasa.gov
Personal Identity Verification: It Gets Easier

Jaumarro Cuffee, JSC Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Outreach Lead/ITAMS

As the JSC Information 

Resources Directorate prepares 

to launch a Personal Identity 

Verification pilot, active 

smartcard users were contacted 

to offer their suggestions and 

share their experiences with PIV 

and PIN. Those contacted fell 

into three categories – PIV pilot 

participant, optional PIV user 

and multi-purpose device user.

Both the pilot participant 

and optional users found the 

transition easy, if not seamless. 

For most of them, logging 

in with their PIN is preferred 

to using their password. But 

all of them offered the same 

caution – remember your 

password and keep it current.

This group of users reported 

no conflicts between PIV 

and the applications they 

access. For one optional PIV 

user, accessing the bReady 

portal was her primary reason 

for using her smartcard to 

login to her workstation. 

The bReady portal provides 

access to Integrated Enterprise 

Management applications, 

websites and documents. 

For this user, that is nearly 

everything she needs.

Though not all of them were 

initially aware, they all found 

added convenience in the fact 

that they can remove their 

smartcard after they login.

The use of smartcards for PlV 

on desktops and laptops is 

widely known, but some multipurpose device users have 

found that their smartcard 

saves them time at the multipurpose devices used centerwide at Johnson Space Center. 

These devices print, copy, fax 

and scan. If a smartcard and 

PIN are used, the device will 

send scans to the user’s email 

address. When a smartcard 

is not used, an email address 

must be entered manually. 

Besides saving time, those 

users will remember their 

PIN when it is time for PIV.

As the transition to PIV 

approaches, some users will 

be apprehensive about the 

change. Take a lesson from 

Annette Moore, Deputy Chief 

Information Officer for Johnson 

Space Center, who shares 

“the more [she’s] used it the 

easier it has become.” l

Prepare for PIV Smartcard Login!

PIV smart card login is 

coming to a computer near 

you! Be ready for it!

1. Know Your Pin!

You set your PIN when 

you received your PIV 

smart card. Try to log in 

to a Windows computer 

to see if you know it. If 

you don’t know it, go to 

your Center security office 

and reset it to something 

that you will not forget.

2.Test Your Windows Login!

If you have a Windows 

workstation, learn to log in 

with your PIV smart card and 

continue to log in that way. If 

you do not have a Windows 

workstation, try it on 

someone else’s. If you don’t 

have a working smart card 

reader on your Windows 

workstation, contact Agency 

Consolidated End-Users 

Services ACES or your 

information technology 

service provider.

NASA OCIO IT Talk July-Sept 2013 7
NASA Forms Initiative (EFI)—NASA Electronic Forms 

(eForms) Migrating to New Application Software

By John Sprague, Enterprise Applications Service Executive, Valarie King, Agency Business Process and 

Transition Lead, and Terry Langley, Platform Delivery Manager

The NASA Electronic Forms System 

(NEFS) is a suite of tools for filling out, 

signing, submitting, archiving, and 

tracking electronic forms using your 

desktop computer. Many eForms 

users are aware that the “Desktop 

eForms” application (FileNet) is at end 

of life and no longer runs on the latest 

Mac Operating System (Mac Lion and 

above). As a result, NASA and Center 

forms designers have already begun the 

process of converting NASA’s existing 

inventory of forms to Adobe PDF format 

to provide the ability to open and utilize 

the eForm’s functionality on both ACES 

and non-ACES Windows and Mac 

platforms with Adobe Reader installed. 

At the end of FY12, the NASA OCIO 

obtained the opportunity to begin the 

procurement and installation of the 

new NASA enterprise forms solution, 

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 4 

(ES4), to resolve the impacts that the 

NASA user community is experiencing 

with the FileNet solution. The NEACC 

and NASA Center Forms Teams are 

currently jointly working the EFI project 

to stand-up the centralized Agency 

solution at the NDC. As the Agency 

rolls-out the new Adobe LiveCycle 

ES4 solution, Centers have prioritized 

the most used forms to be converted 

first, with the rest following in order 

of usage statistics. The goal is to 

create all newly requested forms in 

the LiveCycle solution, and to convert 

the existing inventories of forms to the 

LiveCycle solution as additional ES4 

components are acquired and Center 

resources are available to support.

As forms are converted, they will appear 

on the NASA Electronic Forms site 

(http://nef.nasa.gov) and be available for 

download. Availability will be indicated 

with a link labeled “PDF”. Click the 

link to download the form. If you do 

not see the link, the form is not yet 

available in an Adobe format. Viewing 

and completing the form will require 

installation of Adobe Reader (version 10 

or later), which is included in the NASA 

standard. Users will continue to be able 

to fill out, save, and print the forms. At 

this time, saved eForms will continue 

to reside on your desktop or where the 

eForm is currently saved. The OCIO 

goal for the future is centralized storage 

and centralized Records Management. 

As the NASA eForms infrastructure is 

scaled to support additional eForms 

with workflows, the capability will 

be made available and implemented 

as required for existing forms.

If you are a MacOS user, you will no 

longer be able to open previously 

completed forms in the FileNet 

format (*.ifm) after you are upgraded 

to Mac Lion or above (10.7+). If 

you wish to preserve previously 

completed forms, open them in 

FileNet Desktop eForms application 

and “Save As” a PDF format. Please 

note, the PDF saved from FileNet is 

read-only and you will not be able 

to modify the data in the form.

For more information or questions 

please contact your Center Forms 

Manager listed at

http://server-mpo.arc.nasa.gov/

Services/NEFS/Home.tml. l

8 www.nasa.gov
New NASA FedTraveler Replacement

By John Sprague, Enterprise Applications Service Executive, and Jean 

Brantley, E-Gov Travel System 2 Project Manager

The NASA Federal travel system 

is being replaced with a more 

commercial-like travel system. 

E-Gov Travel System 2 (ETS2) 

will replace FedTraveler later 

this calendar year and will make 

booking Government travel similar 

to booking personal reservations 

from your home computer 

system. It is a Government-wide 

program that is sponsored and 

administered by the General 

Services Administration Federal 

Acquisition Service. The use of 

ETS2 is required by the Federal 

Travel Regulation for civilian 

Federal Government travel.

ETS2 provides a standardized, 

comprehensive tool to support 

online booking, travel planning, 

travel expense reimbursement, 

payment processing, credit card 

reconciliation, and management 

reporting for NASA. Concur 

Technologies, Inc., will fully 

integrate ETS2 with NASA’s 

core financial, human capital, 

and reporting systems. Training 

will be made available for 

administrators and users in the 

coming months as the system 

is configured for NASA use.

For more information or questions 

on ETS2, please contact

john.sprague@nasa.gov and or 

jean.brantley@nasa.gov. l

NASA OCIO IT Talk July-Sept 2013 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

NASA Integrated Communications 

Services (NICS)

The Communications Service Office (CSO)/

NICS is working toward the completion 

of two major projects that will facilitate 

continued integration of communication 

services across the Agency. The NICS 

Consolidated Configuration Management 

System (NC2MS) will provide a consolidated 

configuration management system for 

all services that are managed under the 

NICS contract. Prior to NC2MS, there were 

several different tools and processes for the 

change and configuration management of 

assets within the communications services 

offerings. The variety of tools and processes 

caused inefficiencies and was not aligned 

with industry best practices such as the 

Information Technology Infrastructure Library, 

version 3 (ITIL v3). NC2MS is based on the 

Remedy Incident Management System and 

will provide change management, service 

asset and configuration management, and 

a common configuration management 

database. Releases 1 and 2, which 

transitioned NASA Center services and their 

configuration items, have been completed. 

Additional releases for other CSO services 

are planned, and the projects are expected 

to be completed by March 2014.

The Consolidated Corporate Network 

Operations Center (C2NOC) is another 

Agency-level project that is under way. The 

goal of this project is to build a seamless, 

integrated network operations system 

capable of managing the CSO corporate 

end-to-end network across all NASA Centers. 

Benefits expected from completion of the 

C2NOC project will include a reduction of 

cost and complexity for CSO communications 

services, establishment of an end-to-end 

operations and management structure, 

and the transition of operational processes 

to an ITIL-compliant service model. All 

project milestones through the operational 

readiness review have been completed, 

three implementations have been completed 

to date, and Agency-wide deployment is 

expected to be completed by December 2013.

The Desktop Mobile Video Conferencing 

Pilot has been extended to the end 

of September 2013. Accounts can be 

requested via the Enterprise Service Desk 

(ESD). Click on “Order Services,” then 

“Collaboration Services, and, finally, select 

“Desktop Mobile Video Teleconferencing 

System (ViTS) (offered as a pilot).”

Agency Consolidated EndUser Services (ACES)

WebEx Upgrade: WebEx, NASA’s current 

tool for virtual collaborative meetings, was 

upgraded on May 31. The new version 

retains the single-sign-on capability from 

Launchpad and introduced several enhanced 

features, including multimonitor support on 

Windows computers, a quick-start page 

for meeting presenters to easily invite and 

remind participants or to share their desktop 

or application, useful keyboard shortcuts, and 

more. See the ACES Web site for additional 

information on the enhanced features.

T-Seat Pilot Testing: A T-Seat (thin client) 

pilot is being conducted to assess the 

suitability of the T-Seat to provide NASA with 

a virtual alternative to a physical computer, 

where data and applications are stored 

in a centralized server environment. One 

hundred participants are now participating 

in the pilot. Results will influence future 

evaluation of T-Seats as a long-term option.

New ACES Personnel: New people 

supporting the ACES contract include 

Mr. Desmond Kerns-Shepard, 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.

Tech Tips: The ACES Web site contains 

helpful Tech Tips that provides step-bystep instructions to help you successfully 

use your ACES IT equipment and make 

service requests. Items for computing, 

mobile, printing, and general requests are 

available. You can find Outlook calendar 

tips, keyboard shortcuts, and detailed 

instructions on services such as requesting 

Data-At-Rest encryption; learning how to 

delete, reassign, change, or move an ACES 

seat; and gathering instructions on how to 

view your assigned assets in the Enterprise 

Service Request System (ESRS) to name a 

few. Visit the Tech Tips page on the ACES 

Web site at https://aces.ndc.nasa.gov/

subnav/techtips.html for more information.

Enterprise Applications Service 

Office/NASA Enterprise Applications 

Competency Center (EASO/NEACC):

The Project Management Office completed 

the draft of the Identity, Credential, and Access 

Management (ICAM) Modernization Project 

section of the Headquarters Infrastructure 

Exhibit 300. The Business Intelligence (BI) 

team is preparing One-Stop Shopping Initiative 

(OSSI) Year 2, which will report in a new format 

that is based on the one used by Jasper 

Soft. In response to security vulnerabilities 

in the former Office of Education Lines of 

Business, the OSSI Development Transition 

from Cold Fusion to Railo was completed. 

A task order modification was initiated to 

incorporate new requirements for the Office of 

Education’s Performance Measure, including 

project management enhancements and 

integration of financial data. The financial 

team continues to support various Agency 

initiatives, including the Reimbursable 

Process Improvements, Performance 

Measure Management Extension Module 

(PMME) Phase 3, Phasing Plan, and Budget 

Structure Remapping. The team supported 

two reviews with the Center/Agency team in 

an effort to obtain consensus on requirements 

for the Lower-Level Cost Collector tool and 

Raising the Level of Obligation initiative. The 

Enhanced Procurement Data Warehouse 

team updated the PRISM Reporting Category 

Extract/Transformation/Load process to 

account for a change with the new PRISM 

7.1. The team has a recommendation for 

Electronic Position Description System 

Data Architecture Restructuring to be 

presented to NASA Headquarters and the 

Procurement Functional Control Board.

Enterprise Service Desk (ESD)

The next ESD Quarterly release is scheduled 

for mid-August. Development efforts for the 

release are underway and the team is excited 

about the upcoming enhancements. Some 

of the new capabilities include the ability to 

search incidents and service requests by 

ticket number, contact name or by customer 

name; a resolution to timeout issues at Tier-0 

to improve end-user experience with ESRS 

and the APC; and, the addition of APC order 

details in ESD email notifications sent to our 

end users. Be on the lookout for new training 

tools and outreach for these enhancements.

10 www.nasa.gov
The ESD is also preparing for the next 

release slated for November 2013. The 

team is currently preparing for the ESD 

Service Board’s top three priorities: update 

emails for closed incidents to assist with 

survey completion, notification to P-Card 

holder upon closure/completion of a 

service request and “On Behalf Of” Incident 

Response Procedures to allow the ticket 

submitter to distinguish between Customer, 

Contact and the Submitter of the ticket. 

This will allow the individual submitting an 

incident ticket to indicate the appropriate 

point of contact for the ticket to ensure ESD 

and the I3P service providers are talking to 

the right person in reference to the ticket..

The ESD Service Board will vote in 

September on their priorities for the 

February 2014 ESD release.

ESD Face-To-Face Held

The ESD Face-To-Face (F2F) meeting 

took place at Johnson Space Center June 

11- 13. The ESD Service Office Manager, 

ESD Service Executive, Communications 

Service Office Integration Leads (SOIL) 

and all ESD Subject Matter Experts 

(SMEs) participated to discuss, identify 

and to resolve ESD related matters.

Desktop Vidyo was used as an effective 

tool for collaboration and participation in 

addition to the WebEx. The ESD Service 

Executive and other ESD SME’s leveraged 

the tool for virtual presence at the F2F. 

Items addressed at the F2F were: What 

does the Service Office need the SMEs 

to do to ensure quality service delivery at 

the Centers? What do the SMEs need the 

Service Office to do to ensure the same? 

What processes and procedures are working 

well? Several action items were identified. 

ESD SMEs received training on Remedy 

Incident Management System and Analytics 

Reporting. The ESD extended their invitation 

to participate to all the I3P SOILs, Service 

Offices, their SMEs and the Center Integration 

Leads community. The ESD Service Office 

captured the week’s discussion and is 

already reviewing the actions with an eye 

toward continuous service improvement.

Web Services and WESTPrime

NASA has awarded InfoZen the 4-year 

Web Enterprise Service Technologies 

(WESTPrime) contract to grant NASA the 

Agency-wide capability to maintain and 

manage Web sites in the cloud. NASA’s 

Web infrastructure—currently distributed 

throughout the United States across 10 

Centers and several satellite facilities—

will be consolidated on a cloud-based 

enterprise infrastructure that will offer 

infrastructure as a service, platform as a 

service, and software as a service for all 

internal and external Web applications.

WESTPrime uses Amazon Web Services 

(AWS), a proven cloud-computing 

solution that supports rapid application 

deployment and migration. AWS is an 

open-source technology with the ability to 

scale services up or down automatically 

according to changing business 

requirements. AWS will provide a secure, 

highly available hosting environment for 

NASA applications and utilities that are 

used to deliver content across all NASA 

Centers and the Federal Government as 

well as to the general public worldwide.

External applications—those Web sites 

available to the public over the Internet—will 

be hosted in the public AWS cloud. Internal 

NASA applications will be accessible via 

the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), configured 

to deny public access, with access to NASA 

networks via a dedicated connection over 

a VPN or AWS direct connect circuit.

The Portal, www.nasa.gov, will have a 

totally new architecture based on cloud 

technologies, and it is designed to handle a 

significant load and defend against security 

attacks. Other sites, including the popular 

science.nasa.gov / ciencia.nasa.gov Web 

site, will initially be migrated to the cloud “as 

is,” although they will leverage AWS features 

wherever possible and will evolve over time 

to a much more cloud-oriented architecture. 

InfoZen is working with NASA’s Office of 

the Chief Information Officer to develop 

a comprehensive risk-based cloud 

security program based on NASA, Federal 

Information Security Management Act, and 

Federal Risk and Authorization Management 

Program standards and requirements. 

The WESTPrime cloud utilizes AWS 

Identity and Access Management, which 

enables secure control access to AWS 

services and resources for end users. l

Exchange 2010

Upgrade

NASA Operational Messaging 

and Directory (NOMAD) service 

is in the process of upgrading to 

Exchange 2010. User migration 

started on July 2 with a lateAugust completion date. As users 

are migrating to Exchange 2010, 

their mailbox size will increase. 

Most users will receive a default 

mailbox size increase from 400 

megabytes to 1 gigabyte. Up to 

10 percent of users will receive 

a default mailbox size increase 

from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes. 

The project is on schedule and 

had a successful operational 

readiness review on June 24.

After the migration to Exchange 

2010, temporary mailbox size 

increases will no longer be 

allowed. Once the maximum 

mailbox size is exceeded, e-mail 

messages will not be sent until 

the mailbox size is reduced below 

its limit. An automatic systemgenerated e-mail message will 

be sent to users as they get 

closer to reaching their mailbox 

limit. Additionally, Exchange 

2010 has a new feature that 

provides quota information on 

the customized status bar. 

Although mailbox sizes will 

increase, mailboxes should be 

managed to ensure that space 

remains available. Suggestions 

for mailbox management include 

moving items that have already 

been sent from the folder on the 

server to the local workstation, 

emptying the deleted items folder 

on the server, and archiving 

older e-mail messages.

Additional information on mailbox 

management is available at 

http://nomadinternational.nasa.

gov/nomad/default.html. l

NASA OCIO IT Talk July-Sept 2013 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

CIO

Michael Porterfield recently won an Inhouse Design 

Award from Graphic Design USA Magazine for 

his redesign of the IT Talk Newsletter. Michael is 

a contractor for Media Fusion (CSSC). July marks 

his third anniversary with the Office of the CIO.

The OCIO staff says thank you to NASA’s Associate 

Deputy Administrator Rick Keegan. From April to 

June 2013 he served as acting Chief Information 

Officer upon Linda Cureton’s retirement.