IT Talk

October - December 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 4

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov
IT Talk

Oct - Dec 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 4

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/

 www.facebook.com/NASAcio

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6

9

4

10

Message from

the CIO

Developing 3-D 

Technology to 

Turn Space into 

'Machine Shop'

NAMS Gets

a Facelift

National Cybersecurity 

Awareness Month

I3P Update

In this Issue
New Chief 

Information 

Officer 

for Glenn 

Research 

Center 

Named

Mr. Sean M. Gallagher is the new Chief Information 

Officer (CIO) for the John H. Glenn Research Center 

(GRC). Mr. Gallagher officially took over the role on July 

27, 2014. He previously served as GRC’s Deputy CIO 

and as Acting CIO. Mr. Gallagher’s diverse management 

and IT background enables him to critically evaluate the 

challenges and opportunities facing the Office of the Chief 

Information Officer and leverage his experiences to guide 

his team through the ever-changing IT landscape. 

As CIO for GRC, Mr. Gallagher says he envisions an 

organization that executes the fundamentals of IT and 

service delivery phenomenally well. Understanding GRC’s 

employees’ business processes and requirements, and then 

delivering quality IT that supports those practices are the 

fundamentals that he considers critical to the organization’s 

success. One of his goals is to leverage investments in IT 

to drive efficiencies and enhance business activities across 

GRC through process improvement, process automation, 

enhanced reporting, and simplified access to data. Mr. 

Gallagher recognizes that achieving these goals in a budgetconstrained environment is a challenge, but it is one he is 

ready to take on. He outlines his plan for success: “It really 

starts with understanding our customers’ requirements, 

helping to represent them, and then identifying how and 

when to effectively leverage enterprise services, and how 

and when to tailor localized services specific to their needs.” 

When asked what motivates him each day, Mr. Gallagher 

said, “Every day is an opportunity and a challenge and 

that excites me. My family drives a lot of what I do and the 

enjoyment I receive from my work and personal lives really 

motivates me.” A significant portion of that motivation also 

comes from the approximately 3,200 Glenn employees 

that count on stable IT services to be available everyday 

for them to perform their work. As Mr. Gallagher notes, 

“We’re a service delivery organization and I highly value 

the services we can and do provide to our customers.” v

Message from the NASA CIO

We live in a climate of persistent threats and intrusions into our networks and 

information technology systems. Securing those systems is a responsibility 

we all share. The nature of NASA’s work makes cybersecurity critical to 

our missions and general infrastructure. During October, I am encouraging 

everyone in the NASA community to participate in Center cybersecurity 

awareness activities as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness month. 

In this issue, we’ll take a closer look at some common sense rules to 

protect yourself and your organization against cyber threats. We’ll also 

take a sneak peak at the world's first 3D printer in space. It will blast off 

this month and could change the way NASA does business aboard the 

International Space Station. This unique technology could help lay the 

foundation for broader in-space manufacturing capabilities. We’ll further 

highlight some other innovative projects happening at the Centers.

And finally, team members at the NASA Enterprise Competency Center (NEACC) 

located within Marshall Space Flight Center are working hard to enhance the 

user experience as part of the Identity, Credential, and Access Management 

(ICAM) modernization effort. A facelift is on tap for the NASA Access Management 

System (NAMS). The new look and feel is sure to please everyone.

I hope you enjoy this issue.

~Larry

NASA CIO Leadership Meeting 2014 (l-r): Leigh Anne Giraldi, 

Jim Rinaldi, Larry Freudinger, Sean Gallagher, Dana Mellerio, 

Lara Petze, Dennis Vandertuig, Dinna Cottrell, Annette Moore, Jeff 

Seaton, Gary Cox, Larry Sweet, Jonathan Pettus, Deborah Diaz, 

Vanessa Stromer, Terry Jackson, Jim Walker and Victor Thompson

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2014 3
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

STOP.THINK.CONNECT—Cybersecurity Best Practices to Protect and Safeguard NASA’s Information and Assets

October 2014 marks the 11th Annual 

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 

sponsored by the Department of Homeland 

Security (DHS). NASA is teaming up with 

DHS to promote awareness and improve 

understanding of the importance of 

cybersecurity in our everyday lives. 

It is a shared responsibility that begins and 

ends with you, the NASA employee. It is critical 

that we learn how to protect and safeguard 

NASA information and information systems. By 

learning best practices, we will be equipped 

to better protect sensitive information as well 

as the NASA IT infrastructure. Every small 

step toward better understanding of effective 

cybersecurity practices helps to ensure that 

we are improving our IT security posture.

No country, industry, community, or individual 

is immune to cyber risks. To protect NASA and 

its data, members of the NASA community 

are reminded to STOP.THINK.CONNECT. 

STOP: Before you use the Internet, take 

the time to understand the risks and learn 

how to spot potential problems. Avoid social 

engineering and phishing attacks by not giving 

out sensitive information to anyone unless you 

are sure they are indeed who they claim to be 

and should have access to the information.

THINK: Take a moment to be certain 

that the path ahead is clear. Watch for 

warning signs, and consider how your 

actions online could impact your safety. 

Phishing attacks use e-mail or malicious 

Web sites to solicit personal information 

by posing as a trustworthy organization.

CONNECT: Enjoy the Internet with 

greater confidence, knowing you have 

taken the right steps to safeguard 

NASA and your NASA computer.

Headquarters kicked off NASA’s awareness 

activities on October 1, 2014, with the 

NASA National Cybersecurity Awareness 

Month Training. During October, everyone 

in the NASA community is encouraged 

to participate in Center cybersecurity 

awareness activities, which are designed 

to educate the NASA community on 

its cybersecurity responsibilities. 

To learn more about cybersecurity 

awareness, visit http://www.grc.nasa.

gov/WWW/CIO/ec_itsat/index.htm.

For questions or to report any suspicious IT 

Security or Cybersecurity incidents, please 

contact NASA’s OCIO Security Operations 

Center (SOC) available 24x7 at 1877-627-

2732 (1-877-NASA-SEC) or soc@nasa.gov. v

Recognizing and Avoiding *Phishing

By Michael Knight, Incident Response Manager, Information Security, LaRC

What You Can Do to Avoid 

Becoming a Victim 

Regard Unsolicited E-mails with Suspicion

Don’t automatically trust every e-mail sent to 

you, even if you know the sender. Never open an 

attachment or click links in an unsolicited e-mail. 

Treat E-mail Attachments with Caution 

E-mail attachments are commonly used to 

sneak a virus onto your computer. These viruses 

can help steal important information from 

your computer or compromise your computer 

so it is open to further attack and abuse.

Use Common Sense

When an e-mail arrives in your mailbox 

promising you big money for little effort, 

accusing you of violating the Patriot Act, or 

inviting you to join a plot to grab unclaimed 

funds involving persons you don’t know in a 

foreign country, take a moment to consider 

the likelihood that this is legitimate.

Learn the E-mail Policies of the Organization 

Most organizations doing business online 

now have clear policies about how they 

communicate with their customers in e-mail. 

Many, for instance, will not ask you to provide 

account or personal information via e-mail. 

Configure Your E-mail Client for Security 

There are a number of ways you can 

configure your e-mail client to make you less 

susceptible to e-mail scams. For instance, 

configuring your e-mail program to view 

e-mail as “text only” will help protect you 

from scams that misuse HTML in e-mail.

Summary

Ignoring these recommendations may leave 

you at risk for identity theft, information 

theft, the abuse of your computer for 

illegal activity, the receipt of bogus or 

illegal merchandise, or financial loss. 

E-mail is a convenient and powerful 

communications tool. Unfortunately, it also 

provides phishers and other malicious 

individuals an easy means for luring potential 

victims. The scams they attempt range from 

old-fashioned operations to schemes using a 

combination of e-mail and fake Web sites to trick 

victims into divulging information. To help protect 

yourself from these, you should understand what 

they are and what you can do to avoid them. 

*Phishing /fiSHiNG/ noun: the practice of 

using fraudulent emails and fake websites 

to extract information from users. v

Cybersecurity Best Practices To Protect and Safeguard NASA’s Information and Assets

4 www.nasa.gov
By Les Farkas, Chief Technology Officer, Glenn Research Center

Information Technology security organizations 

are continually working to improve and 

evolve their support system for managing 

information security risk. At NASA, this 

support is provided to organizations, system 

owners, management, and program or project 

managers who are responsible for assessing 

the risk posture of their IT systems and the 

information they contain. Providing timely 

and meaningful information to these decision 

makers is a fundamental role of the IT security 

organization. But how should risk be assessed? 

Are annual IT security plan reviews adequate, 

or should we provide decision makers 

real-time updates of their system risks?

Perhaps we should simplify our examination 

of this situation and ask 

the question every NASA 

Center Director should be 

asking: How secure are we? 

While the question may be 

simple to ask, the answer 

is oftentimes much more 

complex and a challenge for 

IT security organizations to 

answer succinctly. One way 

to simplify the answer is 

to utilize the science of Big 

Data/Advanced Analytics to 

identify potential risk patterns 

that, when combined with 

use of graphical display 

dashboards that depict 

heat maps, deliver riskprioritized actionable insight.

Big Data/Advanced Analytics enables risk 

managers to uncover previously unseen 

patterns and to develop sharper insights about 

the IT security of their environments. The 

volume, variety, and complexity of information 

relevant to IT security risk management 

are growing rapidly. Examples are network 

packet data, privileged activity monitoring, 

performance monitoring, transaction monitoring, 

sensor data, vulnerability information, 

configuration information, change management 

information, context-related data, external 

threat intelligence, identity and access data, 

user activity monitoring, business value data, 

Web log data, application monitoring, and 

compliance monitoring. The confluence of these 

data elements presents the big picture of risk.

In addition to the back-end analytics, 

front-end graphical dashboards could be 

implemented to provide an overall “heat 

map” visualization of IT systems risk (See 

conceptual example). Such dashboards 

could be configured with pushbutton access 

to IT security personnel for consultation, 

system administrators for alerts and ad 

hoc reporting requests, and mouse pointer 

hover-over pop-up boxes to provide 

additional detail. Furthermore, system 

owners could remotely and securely access 

dashboards via secure authentication 

and communication mechanisms.

The Department of Homeland Security 

displays color-coded, easy-to-read threat/

risk placards at many 

NASA Center entrances 

to indicate our physical 

security risk posture. 

NASA should be able to 

provide this same sort 

of IT security quick-look 

for senior management. 

The science of Big Data/

Advanced Analytics 

enables organizations 

to gain insight into what 

has happened and what 

probably will happen. In the 

context of protecting our 

information assets, what 

could be more important 

than this insight? v

Utilizing Big Data/Advanced Analytics to 

Answer the Question: How Secure Are We?

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2014 5
NASA Marshall, Partner Company Develop 3-D 

Technology to Turn Space into 'Machine Shop'

By Janet Anderson, MSFC Public Affairs Specialist

Suppose an astronaut needed to make a 

repair on the International Space Station. 

Rather than carry a few "spares" for 

the voyage, what if tools and equipment 

could be made right there in space?

It may seem like an unbelievable feat, but 

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and its 

partner, Made in Space Inc. of Moffett Field, CA, 

have developed and tested just that—the first 

"machine shop" to perform 3-D printing in space.

The 3-D Printing in Zero-G Experiment, or 3-D 

Print, has been underway since October 2012. 

It will fabricate components and equipment 

on demand for manned missions to the space 

station and other destinations in the solar system.

"The greater the distance from Earth and 

the longer the mission duration, the more 

difficult it is to resupply materials," said Niki 

Werkheiser, 3-D Print project manager in 

NASA Marshall's Technology Development 

and Transfer Office. "The space station is an 

ideal platform to begin changing the current 

model for resupply and repair to one that is 

more suitable for all exploration missions."

The 3-D experiment will use extrusion-based 

additive manufacturing, which builds parts, 

objects, and tools layer by layer out of plastic 

deposited by a wire feed through an extruder 

head. The plastic is melted in the extruder 

head and deposited through a tiny hole. Parts 

can be printed from data files loaded on a 

computer at launch, as well as from additional 

files uplinked to the computer while in orbit.

The experiment hardware was built by Made 

in Space Inc. "Our team is extremely excited 

to have worked with NASA Marshall to 

develop a 3-D printer to operate in space—

something that's never been done before," 

said Jason Dunn, Chief Technology Officer at 

Made in Space. "We feel that manufacturing 

in orbit, rather than on Earth, is a necessary 

next step toward achieving NASA's vision 

of sending humans to Mars and beyond."

NASA Marshall's role was to guide the design 

process and conduct all the reviews for the 

experiment, including project design and 

critical design, as well as the environmental 

and qualification testing to ensure the 

hardware was flight certified. Testing was 

done at various Marshall Center facilities.

"The technology to produce parts on demand in 

space offers unique design options that aren't 

possible through traditional manufacturing 

methods, while offering cost-effective, highprecision manufacturing," said Werkheiser. 

"Additive manufacturing limits the need to 

stockpile parts, and may alleviate a lot of 

structural and geometrical constraints caused by 

launch loads and vehicle stowage requirements.”

"We also look forward to using this 

technology as an educational tool—offering 

students the opportunity to design and build 

parts for missions," Werkheiser added. 

The 3-D printer effort is a shared investment 

between NASA’s Human Exploration and 

Operations and the Space Technology 

Mission Directorates, which together seek 

to innovate, develop, test, and fly hardware 

for use in NASA’s future missions. v

The 3-D Printer, center, will fabricate 

components and equipment on demand 

for manned missions to the space station 

and other destinations in the solar system 

as a part of the 3-D Printing in Zero-G 

Experiment conducted by NASA's Marshall 

Space Flight Center and its partner, Made 

in Space Inc. of Moffett Field, CA (NASA)

6 www.nasa.gov
Augmenting our Reality

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

We are hearing more about Augmented 

Reality (AR) these days. As the Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) studies how 

we will work in 2025, AR shows up near 

the top of disruptive game changers. So, 

how can everyone understand it better?

An excellent way to appreciate the power 

of AR is to experience it personally through 

the Spacecraft 3D application, one of 

NASA’s first AR applications. The app was 

a rapid-fire partnership development from 

the start between JPL’s outreach and IT 

organization team members: Kevin Hussey, 

Evan Chan, Paul Doronila, Brian Kumanchik, 

Kyle Dodge, Jeff Liu, Sandy Erickson, 

Jason Kang, Phu Kieu, and Christian Hill.

The first version was released just in time 

for Curiosity’s landing on Mars and enabled 

the public to experience and interact in a 

completely new way with Curiosity in 3D on 

their iPhones. This unprecedented capability 

to view, share, and interact with the rover 

led to tremendous interest from educators, 

NASA employees, and the public and also 

led to several subsequent upgrades. 

Today, Spacecraft 3D (downloaded over 

a million times) runs on iOS and Android 

devices, as well Google Glass, and can 

be downloaded from their respective app 

stores. You can now view and interact with 

current and future spacecraft destined 

for all reaches of the solar system (six to 

Mars, five to other planets, and seven Earth 

Science spacecraft). In addition, you can 

experience the wonder of two Deep Space 

Network antennas and one space telescope. 

One of the more exciting enhancements 

involved eliminating the need for a dedicated 

“target” card. Spacecraft 3D can now 

recognize images as the target, a development 

that is showcased in a recently published 

National Geographic book about Mars. In 

addition, users can now interact with all of 

the spacecraft without a target card, using 

the app’s new ‘Manual Mode’. This change 

will have a positive impact on educators and 

students of any technical or scientific field.

As you experience the wonders of our NASA 

developments in Spacecraft 3D, consider 

what is next for AR. Just as Spacecraft 

3D has evolved into a platform through 

which we can tell the NASA story, we 

expect that AR will become a platform 

used for engineering, testing, verification, 

troubleshooting, and more. In short, it will be 

a cornerstone of how we work in 2025, and 

NASA can be a leader in this exciting field.

We invite you to join us in this quest to 

communicate and augment our reality 

to reach soaring heights in science, 

engineering, IT, and outreach. Hint: it 

will be much sooner than 2025! v

Three Dimensions of a Digital Cutter 

By Jaumarro A. Cuffee, JSC I3P Outreach 

Printing with 3D technology continues 

to be an exciting innovation. However, 

adding dimensions to non-3D printed 

media offers significant improvements.

Since February 2014, the Information 

Resources Directorate’s (IRD) multimedia 

services at Johnson Space Center (JSC) 

has been producing “3D cutouts.” Photo 

Operations Supervisor William Close is 

hesitant to use the term “3D” when referring 

to the cutouts, though, because it can be 

misleading. The images themselves are 

printed with an inkjet printer, then mounted 

onto foam board and dissected using 

a digital cutter with optical recognition. 

For some of the more popular printed 

media, the digital cutter introduced three 

dimensions—safety, speed, and efficiency.

Iconic crew patch plaques are displayed 

inside the Christopher C. Kraft Mission 

Control Center, flight crew offices, and 

various locations in and around JSC. When 

the IRD multimedia services first took over 

the fabrication of these plaques from the 

onsite machine shop, the precise cuts 

reproducing the patch outline were made by 

hand with a scroll saw. Each plaque took 45 

minutes to create. The shift to the Kongsberg 

digital cutter made the process handsfree and safer. It also reduced production 

time from 45 minutes to 15 seconds.

Farewell boards are another popular printed 

media that typically consist of individually 

printed NASA images cut down, mounted 

on a sturdy backing, and framed with a 

photo mat for signatures and well wishes. 

With the advent of the digital cutter, multiple 

images can be printed across a large sheet. 

The sheet is then mounted onto sturdy 

backing and the digital cutter is used to 

create multiple boards with space for 

signing. The number of steps needed to 

produce boards is thus reduced. Further 

adding to the efficiency of the process is 

the mass production of farewell (or event) 

boards and other products small enough 

to space across a 52 by 96 inch sheet.

In addition to introducing safety, speed, 

and efficiency, the digital cutter has 

enabled paper figures to stand as fullcolor crewmember silhouettes. It also 

allows the International Space Station 

(ISS) to stand out in narrow spaces as 

a brilliant image set off from the wall 

with intricate cuts detailing the edges of 

various ISS modules and solar arrays.

For traditional media, safety, speed, and 

efficiency are only three of the dimensions 

gained by introducing updated technology. 

Newer technology also offers improved 

representations and expanding possibilities. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2014 7
Going Paperless

By Steve Simpson, Acquisition Technical Lead, “Work Different Project,” and Wayne Wong, 

Enterprise Apps Software Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 

improvements to the business process are 

as valuable as those that apply directly to 

the missions. This is especially apparent 

in the JPL Acquisition Division, which in 

partnership with the JPL Office of the Chief 

Information Officer (OCIO), has created the 

Interactive Acquisition Network (IAN).

In October 2012, the JPL Acquisition Division 

unleashed the “Work Different” project. The goal 

of the project was to make the procurement 

process a completely paperless one. A short 

20 months later, the “Work Different” team 

rolled out the IAN to a trained and invested 

acquisition division. This strategic partnership 

between JPL’s Acquisition Division and the 

OCIO enabled the successful development of a 

paperless system built according to Enterpriseapproved systems and architectural standards. 

Thanks to this system, procurement packages, 

including all associated documentation, 

signature requirements, and storage formatting, 

are electronically managed from requisition 

to closeout and travel seamlessly through the 

JPL community. JPL’s customers and suppliers 

will see additional benefits with the rollout of a 

fully secure Digital Signature solution in 2015.

IAN was subject to a significant number of 

success criteria. A few nonnegotiable ones were:

1. compliance with contractual requirements,

2. ability to enhance the mobility of 

the procurement process,

3. ability to improve document 

management and business continuity,

4. ability to increase data security 

and data integrity,

5. ability to increase collaboration, and

6. demonstration of hard and soft savings.

After extensive market research, we discovered 

that we already had the needed software tools 

in our possession that would allow us to avoid 

the significant costs of pursuing alternative 

solutions and their customized development. 

The IAN architecture is built on Microsoft Office 

2013, SharePoint 2013, and OneNote 2013, all 

of which already reside on the JPLers system. 

Subcontract packages are built on OneNote 

template-driven forms, then routed though 

SharePoint workflow using InfoPath 2013 forms 

to gather reviews, comments, and approvals. 

The system allows for reassignments, rework, 

and resubmittals. Once the approvals have 

been gathered, the Acquisition Subcontract 

Manager files the approvals and can then 

submit the final OneNote package for internal 

signature workflow—with external signature 

to be rolled out in the new fiscal year.

IAN creates uniform file storage 

requirements in SharePoint folders with 

the files backed up as part of the lab’s 

standard disaster recovery protocol.

By the end of this calendar year, JPL hopes 

that IAN will accommodate remote auditing, 

thereby ensuring significant time and cost 

savings for both JPL and the audit community.

Since June 2014, nearly 200,000 subcontractassociated documents have been uploaded to 

the system. These documents were previously 

stored on a shared file server and on the 

Subcontract Managers’ workstations. In a little 

over 3 months, there have been more than 

3,000 subcontract packages created and more 

than 2,500 routed through the review process.

Click here to view the video presentation, 

“IT Heroes Showcase: Paperless Contracting 

Initiative at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).” 

For further information regarding IAN, please 

contact Martin Johnson, Manager of the 

Acquisition Process Improvement Office 

at Martin.R.Johnson@jpl.nasa.gov. v

PRA NEWS TO USE: 

Web-based Interactive 

Technologies: Data 

Search Tools, Calculators, 

and the Paperwork 

Reduction Act (PRA)

On September 5, 2014, the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) released 

new guidance titled “Web-based Interactive 

Technologies: Data Search Tools, Calculators 

and the Paperwork Reduction Act” to clarify 

when and how the Paperwork Reduction 

Act (PRA) applies to Federal agencies’ use 

of technologies that help the public search 

for data. Specifically, the OMB memo 

addressed Web-based data search tools 

and calculators. It also included a handy 

list of exclusions to the regulatory definition 

of “information” under the PRA. The new 

guidance builds upon OMB’s April 7, 2010, 

memo titled “Social Media, Web-Based 

Interactive Technologies and the PRA” that 

clarified the applicability of the PRA to 

Web-based social media tools, contests, 

and challenges. Links to the documents 

referenced above are provided below:

• Web-based Interactive Technologies: 

Data Search Tools, Calculators, and the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (September 

5, 2014): http://www.whitehouse.

gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/

memos/2014/web-based-interactivetechnologies-data-search-toolscalculators-paperwork-reduction-act.pdf

• Exclusions to the regulatory definition 

of “information” under Paperwork 

Reduction Act (September 5, 

2014): http://www.whitehouse.

gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/

memos/2014/appendix-datasearch-tools-calculators.pdf

• Social Media, Web-Based Interactive 

Technologies, and the PRA (April 7, 

2010): http://www.whitehouse.gov/

sites/default/files/omb/assets/inforeg/

SocialMediaGuidance_04072010.pdf

Please contact Fran Teel, NASA PRA 

Clearance Officer, at Frances.C.Teel@nasa.

gov with comments and/or questions. v

8 www.nasa.gov
Coming Soon: NAMS 7.0—NAMS Gets a Facelift 

Sometimes it seems that just as we get used 

to something, it changes. Well, here we go 

again; but this time, it’s a welcome change. If 

you work at NASA, you’ve likely had to request 

access to an application, or other asset, via the 

NASA Access Management System (NAMS). 

Currently, some users may look upon this 

process as cumbersome, in addition to finding 

the system itself a little less than user friendly. 

If you are one of these users, you’ll be happy 

to learn that the folks at the NASA Enterprise 

Competency Center (NEACC) located within 

the Marshall Space Flight Center are working 

to enhance the user experience as part of the 

Identity, Credential, and Access Management 

(ICAM) modernization effort. The new NAMS 

will be available to users on November 12, 

2014. In order to ensure that everyone is ready 

to use the new system, Center communication 

leads and ICAM subject matter experts will 

be working together to conduct Town Hall 

meetings in mid to late October. Be sure 

to watch your Center communications for 

more details. The NEACC will also conduct 

virtual Town Halls for those unable to make 

it to their Center-specific Town Hall.

Visit the ICAM portal (https://icam.nasa.gov) 

for a sneak peek at what the new NAMS 

will look like. In addition to the sneak peek, 

we’ve also listed some important factors to 

be aware of when NAMS 7.0 is released. 

• New URL: Users submitting requests 

for access to logical and/or physical 

assets will use the URL, https://nams.

nasa.gov, rather than the current 

URL, https://idmax.nasa.gov. Don’t 

forget to update those bookmarks!

• Enhanced user interface with new 

look and feel, including navigation 

and alerts, for all users:

• New user-based landing page provides 

user with an overview of provisioned 

and in-process requests, as well as 

a starting point for new requests.

• The new interface offers the ability to track 

the status of user requests and recommend 

system/application access to other users. 

Recommended access appears in the 

users’ “save for later” list within NAMS.

So what’s next for ICAM after the NAMS 7.0 

launch? The ICAM team will be working to meet 

its goal of providing users access to systems 

and buildings on Day 1 of deployment. Since 

ICAM took on this charge, statistics show that 

onboarding time has significantly decreased 

from 3 months to 2 weeks. You may also find 

that other Federal Agencies are looking to NASA 

when it comes to central authentication and the 

use of derived credentials. 

In addition to working 

toward this goal, the 

ICAM team will continue 

its modernization effort 

and release a new 

version of IdMAX in the 

summer of 2016. v

ServiceNow Migration and the NSSC

The NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) 

is presently in the discovery phase of 

the ServiceNow Migration project and is 

collaborating with functional subject matter 

experts (SMEs) to develop requirements for the 

migration from the BMC Remedy 7.5 platform 

to ServiceNow. The purpose of this project is 

to migrate all NSSC workflow and applications 

currently residing on the Remedy platform to 

a ServiceNow, cloud-hosted environment. 

The decision to upgrade the NSSC’s work 

management system to the cloud environment 

is in keeping with NASA’s Office of the Chief 

Information Officer (OCIO) Cloud Policy: “Cloud 

computing offers NASA new opportunities in 

computing scalability, improved availability 

of NASA's public data, faster project startup times and the ability to pay only for the 

computing that you need and use. Shifting 

away from hardware and facility ownership 

has significant cost savings potential for 

the Agency” (OCIO Cloud Policy, 2013).

The goals are to harness this platform for 

the NSSC’s use in a way that best enables 

functional area teams to move beyond 

the limits of existing capabilities. Full 

communication and transition plans are 

forthcoming, and the NSSC is certain to utilize 

what is needed in ServiceNow to benefit the 

NSSC, our stakeholders, and our end-users. 

This includes but is not limited to the following:

• Maximizing Return on Investment 

(ROI) on cloud services: This migration 

to a secure, cloud-based service will 

eliminate 40 on-premise servers. 

This reduction will ensure savings in 

Operating and Maintenance (O&M), 

electrical, and floor space costs, while 

decreasing the time to market for 

the new and enhanced services the 

NSSC can provide to the Information 

Technology (IT) Infrastructure 

Integration Program (I3P), human 

resources, financial management, 

and procurement customers. 

• Refining Services: With direct support 

from ServiceNow’s development 

team to migrate a significant amount 

of NSSC’s and I3P workflows and 

applications, this transition from BMC 

Remedy 7.5 platform to a ServiceNow 

cloud-based environment will markedly 

improve the NSSC’s capabilities.

Cloud computing has the potential to play 

a major part in addressing inefficiencies 

and improving government service 

delivery. The cloud computing model can 

help agencies grappling with the need to 

provide highly reliable, innovative services 

quickly despite resource constraints 

(OMB, 2011). See First Cloud Policy. 

The NSSC successfully started its migration 

to the ServiceNow work-management 

system in early 2014. When completed, 

this 12- to 16-month project will greatly 

enhance the NASA user experience, make 

ordering goods and services from the NSSC 

easier, and integrate metric collection and 

analysis into NSSC process workflows. 

Order-to-Pay (OtP) Project

The NSSC is also managing the Order-to-Pay 

(OtP) project utilizing ServiceNow. OtP consists 

of new requirements to improve the Center 

validation process with a Center Validation 

Tool (CVT) for reconciling Agency Consolidated 

End-User Services (ACES) invoices and for 

creating new services in the Enterprise 

Service Request System (ESRS) for tech 

refresh (early tech refresh) and like-to-unlike 

refreshes. The ESRS will migrate from Remedy 

to ServiceNow as a part of this project. 

Look for deployment of the CVT in October 

2014 and the ESRS in January 2015. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2014 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services 

Office (CSO)/NASA Integrated 

Communication Services NICS)

In response to new and emerging flight 

project requirements, a challenging budget 

environment, and an increasing threat 

environment, the Communications Service 

Office (CSO) has developed an integrated and 

comprehensive communications backbone 

strategy that will attempt to address the 

full range of identified requirements. 

The cornerstone of this strategy is the 

implementation of the Mission Next Generation 

Architecture (MNGA), which will provide a 

secure and flexible infrastructure to support all 

current and future flight project requirements. 

The approach utilized will optimize the CSO 

Communications Backbone through focused 

tech refresh activities and use of latent 

bandwidth within the existing CSO Corporate 

Communications Backbone to provision 

circuits for the MNGA, where appropriate. 

The three key projects that make up the CSO 

Backbone Strategy include the Backbone 

Equipment Refresh (BBER) Project, the 

MNGA Project, and the Mission Backbone 

Transition (MBT) Project. Once the strategy 

was developed and approved, the CSO funded 

the initial work in these areas starting in 

fiscal year (FY) 2013. The CSO prepared and 

submitted a Mission Support Council (MSC) 

Issue Paper, which requested funding for 

the various projects beginning in FY15 that 

makes up the CSO Backbone Strategy. When 

the MBT Project completes the transition 

of current Agency mission-routed data 

customers to the new mission network, it 

is anticipated that significant cost savings 

will be realized as legacy mission data 

circuits are downsized or decommissioned.

End-User Services (ACES)

Office 2013 Upgrade for Windows: ACES 

Windows computer users are currently 

receiving upgrades from Office 2010 to Office 

2013. Upgrades are happening on a rolling 

weekly deployment schedule. Users scheduled 

for an upgrade receive an e-mail message one 

week prior to deployment of the new software. 

The message describes what to expect during 

the installation. A reminder e-mail is sent to 

the user one day before the installation. The 

software is deployed during the standard 

Tuesday night patching window (8 p.m.–2 a.m. 

local time). In order to receive the upgrade 

during this timeframe, users are instructed to 

leave their computers powered on, logged off 

(at the Windows login prompt), and connected 

to the NASA network. Computers left in this 

state will be automatically updated and 

rebooted with no user interaction required. 

Users are encouraged to review the Office 

2013 training documents and videos, available 

at ACES > Services > Software > Microsoft 

Office, to become familiar with the new 

features of Office 2013. New, reimaged, and 

refreshed ACES Windows computers are being 

delivered with Office 2013 already installed. 

Like-for-Like Mobile Refreshes: Like-for-like 

mobile refreshes are occurring on a rolling 

deployment schedule across NASA Centers. 

A like-for-like mobile refresh is for end users 

who will be replacing their cell phone with the 

same phone type they currently have (e.g., 

iPhone to iPhone), the same carrier, the same 

services, and the same phone number. Device 

refreshes are included as part of the monthly 

service fee for ACES seats and are not an 

additional cost to NASA. Users scheduled to 

receive the refresh will get e-mail notifications 

prior to deployment with details on schedule 

and actions required for the refresh, including 

instructions for backing up data from their 

original device. Additional information on 

like-for-like refreshes, including a high-level 

overview of the process and FAQs, is available 

at ACES > Deployment > Mobile Deployment.

BlackBerry Mobile Refreshes: Current ACES 

BlackBerry users will be given the option to 

refresh to another device because BlackBerry 

9900 and 9930 smartphones will soon 

go “end of life” and will no longer receive 

technical support from the vendor. End users 

who require Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) 

should defer their refresh until devices are 

offered that provide this capability. BlackBerry 

users will be included in the upcoming 

refresh cycle and will be contacted through 

the refresh notification e-mails used in the 

like-for-like refresh process with instructions 

to place the order for a new device with 

the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD).

Java 8 Deployment: The Agency plans to 

move to Java 8 in March 2015. Java is 

used for interactive graphics on Web sites. 

Application owners are encouraged to 

test against current applications to ensure 

compatibility and provide feedback on any 

issue encountered. Java 8 is available on 

select computers in local ACES Development 

Test Labs (DTLs). NASA developers and 

system/application owners can also request 

that Java 8 be installed on their computer 

via Client Automation Enterprise (CAE) by 

registering at ACES Application Testing. The 

deadline to complete testing is October 31.

Enterprise Applications Service 

Office/NASA Enterprise Applications 

Competency Center (EASO/NEACC)

The NASA Electronic Forms (NEF) site has 

been migrated to a new platform. The new 

NEF portal will provide users with an enhanced 

look and feel, a centralized repository for 

all NASA and Center forms, and enhanced 

site security measures via Launchpad 

authentication for all internal NASA forms. 

Many of the forms available in the new NEF 

portal have been converted to Adobe LiveCycle 

Enterprise Suite 4 (ES4), the new Agency 

forms solution replacing FileNet. These form 

conversions provide the ability to open and 

use the eForms functionality within supported 

browsers on both ACES and non-ACES 

Windows and Mac platforms with Adobe 

Reader installed. Forms not yet converted 

to Adobe LiveCycle will be accessible from 

the new NEF portal. Users are required to 

authenticate into the NEF portal https://nef.

nasa.gov to access NASA and Center forms.

The NASA Conference Tracking System 

(NCTS) transitioned from the NASA Shared 

Services Center (NSSC) to the NASA Enterprise 

Applications Competency Center (NEACC) 

September 26, 2014. The NEACC is hosting 

the application and provides ongoing 

operational and sustaining support. The 

NSSC will retain transactional responsibility 

for updating the NCTS with conference 

information as requested by the centers. 

The Human Capital and Workforce (HCW) Line 

of Business (LOB) continues to monitor the 

remarks in WebTADS to ensure employees 

are no longer using it to indicate telework 

hours. The center payroll offices are regularly 

notified during the WebTADS super user calls 

of employees who are incorrectly recording 

telework in this manner. The numbers have 

significantly decreased since the Office of 

10 www.nasa.gov
Human Capital Management (OHCM) sent a 

notice to all employees via the NASA Human 

Resources Messaging System (HRMES). 

The finalized changes to the Voluntary 

Leave Bank Program functionality with 

OHCM were approved. Resumix needs to 

be transitioned to Red Hat Linux (RHEL); 

the infrastructure will be assessing 

whether or not Resumix will function on 

RHEL in late October or early November. 

A technical integration design face-to-face 

workshop for Identity, Credential and Access 

Management (ICAM), CIMA, and MaaS360 

was held September 3–4, 2014 at Marshall 

Space Flight Center. The workshop helped 

attendees gain a better understanding of 

what the various integration touch points 

are and how the integrations would be 

implemented. Additionally, more insight 

into the MaaS360 roadmap was provided. 

Integration design architecture drawings 

as well as actions were documented.

Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) 

The ESD continues to operate in a steady 

state, providing periodic releases and 

updates while also providing future updates 

to stakeholders throughout the Agency. Some 

recent ESD activities and events included:

• Release of an enhancement to display 

the ACES Product Catalog (APC) shipping 

costs to end users and approvers; 

• Release of the cancel/reject capability 

for ACES to allow proper handling 

of a service request that cannot be 

processed as submitted or was requested 

for cancellation by the end user; 

• A ServiceNow Migration presentation 

and update for the End User Service 

Board (EUSB), ESD Service Board, and 

the general ESD stakeholder community.

The ESD will continue to keep the IT 

community and stakeholders informed 

of any releases as they arise. 

Customer Service Week at the NSSC

The ESD and Customer Contact Center will 

celebrate Customer Service Week (CSW) 

October 6–10, 2014, at the NSSC and at 

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. CSW 

is an international event celebrated annually 

during the first week of October. CSW is 

dedicated to recognizing the importance of 

customer service and honoring the people 

who serve and support customers every day. 

During the appreciation week, call agents will: 

• Boost morale, as well as motivate 

and promote teamwork;

• Raise Agency-wide awareness of the 

importance of customer service; 

• Thank other departments 

for their support;

• Let customers know about the NSSC’s 

commitment to customer satisfaction; and

• Host senior managers from the 

NSSC as they spend an hour or 

more in the contact centers taking 

calls from NASA customers.

Web Services and WESTPrime 

Heartbleed Virus: WESTPrime users 

benefitted from a swift and multi-layered 

response to Heartbleed. Within just 

hours, all of the components of the AWS 

infrastructure that use OpenSSL, including 

Elastic Load Balancers, were patched 

without intervention from users providing 

a basic protection for most WESTPrime 

applications less than a day after the public 

announcement of the vulnerability. Within 

just a couple of weeks, all of the components 

of the entire WESTPrime infrastructure 

had been patched, and replacement of 

keys and certificates was underway as 

WESTPrime coordinated with application 

owners. WESTPrime handled reporting of 

remediation status to the NASA SOC, and 

was able to perform complete remediation 

and certificate replacement across the entire 

infrastructure in record time, and with minimal 

impact to customers using WESTPrime.

Web Services launches Piwik: Looking 

for a web analytics software platform? 

Piwik is your free open source solution 

for web analytics for NASA internal-only 

websites. It provides detailed reports on 

your website and its visitors, including the 

search engines and keywords they used, 

the language they speak, which pages 

they like, the files they download and so 

much more. For information on how to 

implement Piwik for your site, visit the Web 

Services website at http://inside.nasa.gov/

webservices/content/web-analytics-services.

EVA Drawing Repository Dashboard 

(EDRD) Demo: WESTPrime embarked on 

a new and exciting project with the NASA 

Engineers of Extravehicular Activity (EVA) in 

response to an action from a NASA mishap 

investigation board. The purpose of the 

demo was to provide a search interface 

for EVA drawings and models creating a 

repository/index accessible via an Internet 

browser. The EDRD Demo was used as 

a proof of concept by NASA to show the 

capabilities of the EVA Data Consolidation 

project. The demo used a small sample 

of localized information (canned content), 

to show how a user can make search 

requests or use a 3D image of a space suit 

to quickly drill down to relevant information 

during real-time mission support, anomaly 

resolution, hazard/risk assessments, and 

future hardware upgrades. The EDRD Demo 

was completed on September 30, 2014.

DevOps: WESTPrime is working to adopt 

a (Development and Operations) DevOps 

framework across web sites and web 

applications. DevOps is a newer approach 

to software development that encourages 

better communication, collaboration, and 

integration between development and 

operations functions. By improving the 

communication and collaboration between 

developers and operations personnel, 

WESTPrime will become more efficient while 

also helping NASA rapidly produce quality 

software products. Mid-September marked 

the debut of the first phase of the WESTPrime 

DevOps Software as a Service (SaaS) 

offering. The first phase of the SaaS offering 

includes the implementation of a Git-based 

shared code repository that is available 

to all existing WESTPrime customers; this 

code repository service is powered by 

Atlassian Stash. The remaining phases of the 

WESTPrime DevOps SaaS implementation 

will be completed by the end of 2014 

and will also include implementations of 

Jira Agile, Confluence and Bamboo. The 

environment has been setup in such a 

way that users will be able to navigate 

between the services seamlessly and will 

be integrated with NASA ICAM. This offering 

allows teams to centralize their development 

processes and helps to set the stage for 

future enhancements such as continuous 

integration and continuous delivery. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2014 11
IT Talk

International Space Apps Challenge 

wins Open Government Award!

A panel of international judges has selected the 

International Space Apps Challenge to receive an 

award. The Space Apps Challenge was one of 10 

initiatives recognized for its international mass 

collaboration to generate more than 2,000 crowdsourced solutions in the last three years. This 

year’s Space Apps Challenge, held the weekend 

of 12-13 April 2014 around the globe, was part 

of the winning team of entries to help the United 

States win in the category of Citizen Engagement 

from the Open Government Partnership (OGP). 

The panel of judges were made up of 

distinguished open government advocates 

from around the globe. The Open 

Government Partnership (OGP), which has 

civic participation, launched this prize to 

recognize innovation in citizen engagement 

from 63 participating countries. The Open 

Government Awards is an annual event, and 

this year’s winners were announced recently 

at the United Nations General Assembly. 

The NASA Office of the Chief Information, 

Technology & Innovation Division, led by Deborah 

Diaz, brought together a team of experts to run 

the 2014 Space Apps Challenge event. There 

were 8,196 participants from 95 cities and 

46 countries that submitted 671 projects. It 

had such a high interest around the world 

that there were over 29 Million tweets during 

the weekend event. For more information 

about the 2014 Space Apps Challenge and 

the winners for the Earth Watch, Robotics, 

Asteroids, Technology in Space and Human 

Space Flight categories visit: https://2014.

spaceappschallenge.org. The next Space Apps 

Challenge is scheduled for April 11-12, 2015.

To read more about the 2014 Open 

Government Awards visit: https://www.

opengovawards.org/Awards_Booklet_Final.pdf. 

NASA Ames—Celebrating 75 Years of 

Discovery, Innovation, and Solutions

By: Penny Hubbard, CIO Communications, Ames Research Center

Information Technology has come 

a long way in the past 75 years. 

NASA’s Ames Research Center is 

celebrating this progress on its 75th 

Anniversary by showcasing its past, 

current, and future technological and 

scientific innovations. It has been 

over a decade since AMES invited 

the public behind the scenes at its 

facility. On October 18, 2014 AMES 

will hold a 75th Anniversary Open 

House event. For this momentous 

occasion, each organization is 

developing intriguing, informative, 

and interactive activities and exhibits 

to highlight its unique contributions 

to space exploration. As guests 

arrive, they will receive an Event 

Passport—their guide during the 

event and a wonderful memento to 

take home. The day’s events are 

focused on the following key areas: 

Earth Right Now; the International 

Space Station; Technology; Mars; 

Aeronautics; and the Solar System 

and Beyond. Through behind-thescenes walking tours, informative 

guest-speaker panels, and an array 

of inspirational exhibits, guests 

will be informed, inspired, and 

involved in all things NASA Ames. 

As you can imagine, there are myriad 

logistical factors to consider—safety, 

security, and the environment. 

Attendees are urged to walk, ride 

bikes, or take public transportation 

and event shuttles. In keeping with 

environmental considerations, there 

will be few handouts beyond the 

Event Passport. Instead, guests 

will be able to scan QR codes at 

booths or visit informative Web sites 

(listed in the passport) to view more 

program details. Health and safety 

are paramount at an event of this 

size. Big or small, those details are 

being addressed as only an Agency 

responsible for space flight can. 

Even feeding a crowd of this size is 

a significant undertaking, but Ames 

has it covered with a fleet of over 

140 local food trucks scheduled to 

serve up tasty and diverse treats. 

The Center was hopeful that 

local reaction to the Ames 75th 

Anniversary Open House would 

be positive. Planning and decision 

making began earlier in the year, 

but one question remained: 

Would the public want to come 

and visit? Within days of the 

free-event tickets being made 

available online, the event was 

completely “sold out” to 120,000 

enthusiastic NASA fans. The Ames 

team had its answer, and it was a 

resounding “We will be there!” v