IT Talk

January - March 2015 Volume 5 • Issue 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov
IT Talk

Jan - Mar 2015 Volume 5 • Issue 1

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Larry Sweet

Editor and Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic and Web Design

Michael Porterfield

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/ocio

v insidenasa.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

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6

9

4

10

Message from

the CIO

NASA in

the Cloud

Big Data

Going

BYOD

I3P Update

In this Issue
Message from the NASA CIO

Each year, millions of people in the 

United States make New Year’s 

resolutions. There are several IT 

resolutions that I feel will contribute to 

greater success for NASA IT in 2015.

As an organization, we’ve made significant 

strides. Our IT services are being 

evaluated as the first Business Services 

Assessment (BSA) Pilot, which will help 

determine the health of IT services across 

the Agency. All of this is designed to help 

focus IT services on improved efficiencies 

and improved IT security and to provide 

an affordable service and operating 

model that meets the Agency’s needs. 

We are a very good team, and we are 

getting better. So I am truly thankful to all 

the Centers and appreciate all the hard 

work and commitment to improving the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

(OCIO) and IT services for NASA.

So, with this in mind, this year, just like all 

the rest, I have some proposed key goals 

for 2015. Here’s a list of my top priorities:

1. Take care of our people – They 

are our most important asset.

2. Improve communications among 

and with the Center CIOs, OCIO 

staff, and our stakeholders. 

3. Continue building a top notch, 

Agency IT Leadership Team that 

models NASA’s core values.

4. Improve integration within OCIO, 

find efficiencies, and share 

resources where we can.

5. Deliver on our promises: Service 

delivery, technology infusion, 

and project execution.

6. Develop the information security 

continuous monitoring (ISCM) 

capability across NASA.

7. Ensure the Business Services 

Assessment (BSA) and MSC 

decision optimizes NASA IT.

8. Implement an effective portfolio 

management approach 

across our service areas.

9. Strengthen and improve 

vendor management.

10. Develop a data management 

strategy/framework to address 

TCAT-identified data problem.

~Larry

New CIO at NSSC

Daniel “Danny” Harvill has 

been selected as the new 

Chief Information Officer (CIO) 

at the NASA Shared Services 

Center (NSSC). Harvill began his 

duties on October 17, 2014.

He has been with NASA for 

approximately 5 years at the NSSC. 

For the past year, Harvill has been 

the Chief Information Security Officer 

(CISO), responsible for the overall 

IT Security program for the NSSC.

Previously, he held positions as: 

Project Executive; Subject Matter 

Expert (SME) for network, Voice over 

IP (VoIP) and information systems; 

Change Control Board Chair for 

infrastructure, architecture, and 

configuration for the enterprise 

data; and Chief Security Officer for 

the NASA Agency Consolidated 

End-User Services (ACES) 

contract. Welcome aboard! v

Happy New Year from the OCIO Family!

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2015 3
4 www.nasa.gov

Going BYOD at JSC

By Matthew Rodriguez, Computer Engineer, JSC Information Resources Directorate

NASA employees often come 

back from the holiday vacation 

with a sleek new phone, tablet, 

or laptop that they are eager to 

connect to the Internet and start 

using for e-mail and calendar 

updates in their daily workflow. 

But should these personal devices 

connect to the NASA 

corporate network?

To support personal 

mobile devices and 

the Bring Your Own 

Device (BYOD) initiative, 

Johnson Space Center 

(JSC) has implemented a 

wireless network named 

“nasabyod.” The purpose 

of this BYOD network is 

to allow JSC employees 

with NASA Data Center 

(NDC) credentials to 

connect their personal 

mobile devices to the Internet for 

work-related e-mail, calendars, and 

Web-browsing while maintaining 

focus on the protection of NASA 

networks and data. As with the 

guest network, users who connect 

to nasabyod are limited to Internet 

access (Web-browsing, e-mail, 

calendars) and cannot access 

the internal, corporate network. A 

virtual private network (VPN) client 

must be used on personal devices 

to securely access internal NASA 

resources. The nasabyod network 

supports the same authentication 

and encryption standards as 

the corporate network.

By offering the JSC community 

a separate wireless network for 

BYOD, the Center reduces the 

risk to its internal resources. 

Approximately 15 percent of all 

wireless clients at JSC connect 

to nasabyod. This translates to 

between 700 and 800 devices 

connecting to the BYOD 

wireless network on 

a daily basis. As the 

number of BYOD devices 

increases, it is important 

to provide employees 

with an alternative to 

keep their personal 

devices off the NASA 

corporate network.

JSC wants to help 

employees increase 

their productivity and 

improve their workflow 

if they choose to bring 

their own device, and the JSC 

BYOD network is available to get 

them online and back to business 

in a way that suits them. v
IDEAS To Enhance Operations 

on Earth and in Space

By David J. Miranda, Project Lead for IDEAS project, Kennedy Space Center, and

Co-Authors Allan Villorin, Delvin VanNorman, and Michael McDonough

Imagine that you are an engineer 

or technician working on a 

critical space system and all 

the information you need is 

immediately available to you 

when you need it. All your work 

procedures, not just the ones 

you happen to have with you, are 

accessible on demand. You can 

quickly document your work with 

images and text with ease. Every 

move you make is recorded on 

demand, and you can play it 

back later for training or analysis. 

For your particular task, you can 

immediately see exactly what 

others have done before you. 

Imagine having a telepresence 

capability that streams what 

you are seeing—as you see 

it—to colleagues anywhere 

in the world. In addition, all 

the emergency sensors and 

system health data are instantly 

available. When an emergency 

occurs, you find out immediately, 

and further instructions are 

made available exactly when you 

need them. And all of this can 

be wirelessly transmitted across 

the globe or stored locally. Now 

imagine all of this displayed and 

accessible right from your safety 

goggles using an embedded, 

lightweight wearable computer.

In October 2014, a team led by 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 

early-career employees was 

awarded funding by the Space 

Technology Mission Directorate 

(STMD) to develop a wearable 

computer with an optical headmounted display. The goal of 

this project, titled the Integrated 

Display and Environmental 

Awareness System (IDEAS), is 

to enhance real-time operations 

by providing various means of 

communication and augmented 

reality data to field engineers 

here on Earth and in space. 

The IDEAS device would allow 

users to have access to and 

modify critical information on a 

transparent, interactive display 

in their non-obstructed field of 

view without taking their eyes 

or hands off the work in front of 

them. The proposed technology 

would dramatically improve the 

user’s situational awareness, thus 

improving safety and efficiency. 

Once the technology is proven 

initially for ground operations, 

it can be transitioned for use in 

many other areas, ranging from 

laboratory research to in-space 

mission operations, as well as 

to commercial manufacturing.

This KSC team was one of four 

that were selected from across 

the Agency as part of STMD’s 

Early Career Initiative (ECI) 

pilot program. The program 

encourages creativity and 

innovation among early-career 

NASA technologists by engaging 

them in hands-on technology 

development opportunities 

needed for future missions. 

The core team of NASA 

early-career employees 

on this project is made 

up of employees of KSC’s 

Engineering and Information 

Technology directorates. 

The team members are 

Michael McDonough, Delvin 

VanNorman, Allan Villorin, and 

project lead David Miranda. 

The team chose to partner 

with KSC contractor Abacus 

Technology, the Florida Institute 

of Technology’s Human 

Centered Design Institute, and 

Orlando small business Purple 

Rock Scissors. These partners 

bring to the team a mix of skills 

that will involve innovative and 

agile approaches, ensuring 

that a technology is developed 

with the user in mind.

The IDEAS team is excited to 

join the other projects in STMD’s 

Game Changing Development 

Program and to develop a 

technology that can enhance 

NASA’s future operations.

The other teams selected for 

the ECI pilot program and their 

topic areas are as follows:

v Marshall Space Flight 

Center: Lightweight 

Integrated Solar Array and 

Transceiver (LISA-T)

v Stennis Space Center: 

High-Speed Video 

Imaging with Disruptive 

Computational Photography 

Enabling Technology

v Langley Research Center: 

On-Orbit Autonomous 

Assembly of Nanosatellites v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2015 5
NASA in the Cloud 

By Roopangi Kadakia, CISM, Web Services Executive

According to Amazon, NASA has the 

largest exposure of any U.S. Federal 

Government agency in the public 

cloud. Currently, the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL) has, on average, 

more than 400 instances running 

in the cloud, while the Office of the 

Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Web 

Services has more than 300 instances. 

In the past, OCIO Web Services had 

approximately 500 instances, but 

through efficiency and consolidation, 

they have been able to decrease this 

number by 40 percent. The number of 

instances for the Computing Services 

Service Office (CSSO) is approximately 

75. Each instance can be considered 

a virtual server. These instances do 

not include many of the Software as 

a Service (SaaS) offerings that NASA 

may be currently using, including 

our new help desk software called 

ServiceNow, Dropbox, MS Office 

365, Google Apps, and others. 

What exactly does cloud 

computing mean to NASA, 

and how can it benefit us? 

NASA has approximately 25,000 

servers in its network. These servers 

need to be refreshed on a regular 

basis. They are stored in a data 

center that takes up real estate and 

uses other assets such as power and 

cooling. If these servers could be 

leased instead of owned, we would 

pay only for the use of the computing 

platforms. Also, they could be 

switched on or off remotely. One can 

potentially save money, have more 

efficient management of servers, have 

much less capital expenditure, and 

start standardizing the environment 

for better security and performance.

For starters, let’s look at the 

most essential characteristics of 

cloud computing. There are five 

characteristics that must be available 

for a service to be considered 

to be in the cloud. These are:

1. on-demand self-service—you 

should be able to turn on or 

off your services as needed;

2. broad network access—your 

services are available over the 

network and accessible via mobile 

phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, etc.;

3. resource pooling—the provider’s 

computing resources are pooled or 

shared using a multi-tenant model, 

with different physical and virtual 

resources dynamically assigned and 

reassigned according to demand;

4. rapid elasticity—depending 

on your application usage and 

load, the service can scale up or 

down rapidly as needed; and

5. measured service—the service 

can monitor, control, and 

report on your utilization.

As NASA starts evaluating many of the 

functions that are performed by those 

25,000 servers, we’re looking at which 

ones can benefit from the different 

service models that are currently offered 

by a variety of cloud services providers. 

v Infrastructure-as-a-Service 

(IaaS) examples are virtual 

machines, storage, networks, 

or other fundamental 

computing components, 

resources, and capability.

v Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) 

examples are programming 

languages, libraries, databases, 

Web servers, services such as 

execution runtimes, or developer 

tools supported by the provider.

v Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) 

examples are e-mail services, help 

desk systems, and other services 

that use the provider’s applications 

running on a cloud infrastructure.

v Second-Tier Services—such as 

Data-as-a-Service, Desktop-asa-Service, Security-as-a-Service, 

and Recovery as a Service 

(Backups)—are constructed on 

top of the above services.

Currently, NASA has over 150 

applications, Web sites, and SaaS 

offerings in the Amazon cloud. Most 

of these systems utilize the Web 

Enterprise Systems and Technology 

(WESTPrime) contract. Others are using 

the CSSO’s General Purpose Managed 

Cloud Environment (MCE) or their 

High Performance Computing MCE.

Some of the current customers for 

the applications, Web sites, and SaaS 

in the Amazon cloud are the NASA 

Engineering Network, nasa.gov, 

science.nasa.gov, and inside.nasa.

gov Web sites, as well as the entire 

DevOps suite powered by Atlassian. 

The WESTPrime environment has 

been approved to process information 

up to a moderate level and also 

has a segregated environment the 

can support ITAR information.

So what is the future of 

cloud usage at NASA? 

The possibilities are endless, and 

some are game changers. We will 

just name a very small number here.

Let’s first look at what is in the pipeline. 

The CSSO is collaborating with the 

Science Mission Directorate on Earth 

sciences collaboration, OpenNEX 

data sharing, and Tournament Labs.

Web Services is collaborating with the 

Imagery Experts Program on images.

nasa.gov which will be available 

starting July 2015. This service will 

empower the public to find the bestof-the-best of NASA’s images, videos, 

and audio clips from one location. 

Cloud scalability will allow NASA to 

handle multiple-resolution options 

and jumps in visitor volume without 

breaking the service or impacting the 

individual visitor experience. Users 

of this service will be able to utilize 

images on their own applications 

and Web sites, and the images 

will automatically provide the best 

resolution for the device and bandwidth 

6 www.nasa.gov
JPL’s Cloud Computing Strategy

By Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and Jonathan Chiang, Chief 

Engineer, Office of the CIO, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Did you hear the one about one 

data center and three clouds? If 

you didn’t, read on. It’s the Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL’s) Cloud 

Computing Strategy in a nutshell.

The road toward cloud computing 

began at JPL in 2008 with the vision 

and strategy of a single JPL data 

center. A data center, you say? Yes, 

but a logical one, where users can 

rent rather than buy capacity and 

pay for only what they use. Sounds 

like a cloud, doesn’t it? Exactly. The 

clouds (private, public, and hybrid) 

are simply nodes on the single logical 

data center system. In 2008, JPL IT 

started experimenting hands-on with 

cloud computing and tried cloud 

computing from 10 different vendors. 

Today, most new workloads go into an 

operational cloud environment from 

a handful of vendors/environments, 

but still within the framework of 

the single logical data center.

A key component of the strategy 

has always been for JPL IT to lead 

and enable the use of computing 

efficiently and securely for everyone. 

By coordinating the access to the 

computing resources, JPL IT can 

ensure that the applications and 

data are placed in the data center/

cloud environment that is most 

appropriate and at the lowest cost. 

JPL IT also led the creation of the 

JPL Cloud Computing Commodity 

Board (CCCB) that oversees the longterm cloud computing procurement 

strategy. This board meets monthly 

and is composed of members 

from IT, security, legal, finance, 

procurement, and export control, as 

well as end users. It ensures that the 

strategy will continue, in that JPL 

will stay on the forefront of cloud 

computing for years to come.

The CCCB is now tackling Software 

as a Service (SaaS). It’s important for 

JPL to know where all the critical data 

reside, especially if they are hosted 

outside. The CCCB and the cloud 

computing strategy will help ensure 

that JPL picks the right vendors and 

that SaaS (already used by human 

resources, travel, engineering, and 

others) is as effective as possible.

One pleasant surprise was the 

explosion of innovation once we 

implemented an International Traffic 

in Arms Regulations (ITAR)–certified 

cloud. Much of our data are ITARsensitive and had to be kept inside 

our firewalls. Once they had the 

flexibility and security of an ITARcertified cloud (Amazon’s GovCloud) 

available to them, developers and 

end users have rapidly tested new 

concepts and emerging technologies 

in this cloud. They created over 20 

analytics prototypes, and several of 

these prototypes were infused into 

operational missions in a matter of 

weeks instead of the years it usually 

would take. On the Mars Science 

Laboratory (MSL) and Soil Moisture 

Active Passive (SMAP) missions, 

telemetry data are automatically 

copied from the legacy system into 

the ITAR cloud (Amazon’s GovCloud). 

Here, operators can visually combine 

and manipulate telemetry streams 

consisting of 200 million data points 

for MSL and three billion for SMAP 

in the same way one manipulates 

stocks on Yahoo or Google Finance. 

Because of the cloud, this is done 

without adding risk to the missions. 

This would not be possible in the 

legacy system and has led to the 

creation of the analytics cloud. Other 

areas where cloud computing is 

speeding innovation include science 

experiments, science collaboration, 

Earth science, radar processing, 3D 

printing, augmented reality, mobility, 

wearable computing, crowdsourcing, 

the Internet of Things, and more.

Missions have adopted the OCIO-led 

cloud computing approach because 

it provides almost infinite computing 

and storage capacity on demand, 

and they need to pay only for what 

they use. All new missions are using 

the single data center/cloud model. 

For example, the proposed Europa 

Clipper mission is entirely built on the 

cloud and is running unprecedented 

models and experiments. The 

proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission 

will likewise be built on the cloud. MSL 

and Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) 

are also using cloud computing, 

as are many other missions.

The vision of the single logical data 

center includes seamlessly bridging 

computing and storage between 

the private and public clouds, i.e., 

the hybrid cloud. This will complete 

the vision established over 6 years 

ago. The pilot will be operational 

early next year, and the JPL 

missions, scientists, and engineers 

will benefit for years to come. v

used. The technology in the cloud 

necessary to make the application 

a success has finally caught up to 

the big idea of images.nasa.gov.

Web Services is also working with the 

Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) to 

provide business process, architecture, 

software, and systems modeling tools in 

the cloud. We have already successfully 

completed a pilot utilizing MagicDraw 

and will continue to work with OCE to 

evaluate how to provide these tools to 

the entire NASA engineering community 

in an effective and cost-efficient way.

For more information about 

Web Services, visit http://inside.

nasa.gov/webservices/. v

NASA in the Cloud (continued)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2015 7
Sunny Forecast for Cloud Storage 

Gateway Technologies

By Heather Thomas, Intern, and Michael Koester, Computer Engineer, JSC Information Resources Directorate

The Information Resources Directorate 

(IRD) at Johnson Space Center 

provides institutional storage services 

at JSC via a consolidated storage 

environment made up of storage, data 

protection, and archival environments. 

Costly capital investments 

for expensive components—

hardware, software, licensing, and 

maintenance—can be eliminated, and 

operational costs reduced, through 

the utilization of cloud-based storage.

In 2014, IRD performed a proof of 

concept with the Computing Services 

Service Office (CSSO) to use Amazon 

Web Services (AWS) to identify 

innovative ways to accomplish backup 

jobs while cutting costs. This concept 

included the use of the Riverbed 

Steel Store Technologies Cloud 

Storage Gateway (CSG) solution as an 

intermediary between AWS and JSC.

Benchmarking activities including 

Gartner (technology research and 

consulting firm) and IT Security 

discussions occurred. During the 

prototyping, networks were monitored, 

and an assessment was completed on 

the impacts to the network as well as 

testing with our Symantec NetBackup 

and Quantum StorNext environments. 

A testing plan was formulated 

and focused on the integration of 

Symantec NetBackup to AWS via 

the Riverbed Steel Store Appliance.

During the testing period, a multitude 

of backups and restorations were 

performed on both physical and 

virtual servers. Results showed that 

there was a lower-than-expected 

load on the institutional network (less 

than 1 Mbps) utilizing the AWS cloud 

storage and the Riverbed optimization 

techniques, duplication, and 

compression. Encryption was verified 

for data in motion and at rest in the 

AWS cloud without data leakage.

Lessons learned include the following:

• Technology used was compatible 

with several backup clients 

and cloud providers.

• Appliance integration with Active 

Directory is a challenge due 

to permissions for the NASA 

Data Center (NDC) domain.

• Leveraging the brokering and 

security controls implemented by 

CSSO resulted in efficiencies.

The utilization of CSG technologies 

can be efficient for data movement 

while leveraging wide-area network 

technologies for the transfer of large 

quantities of data. The cloud has the 

potential for significant cost savings 

in maintenance, operations, and 

capital infrastructure investments 

for NASA in the years to come.

For additional information and points 

of contact, see the JSC/CSSO 

Collaborative Cloud Testing Report 

at https://sp.ksc.nasa.gov/sites/

adcc/Pages/CCCOIpres.aspx. v

2014 International Space Apps Challenge Winners attend Orion Exploration Flight Test 

1 launch December 5, 2014 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in FL.

8 www.nasa.gov
Big Data Big Think

By John D. Sprague, End User Architect, Office of the Chief Information Officer

Ed McLarney, Center Chief Technology Officer, Langley Research Center

A community of Big Data subject 

matter experts have been 

getting together for the last three 

months and formed the NASA 

Big Data community. It is led by 

Deborah Diaz, CTO for IT in the 

Office of the Chief Information 

Officer, and Tsengdar Lee, Earth 

Science Weather Focus Area 

Lead in the Science Mission 

Directorate and meets biweekly. 

Recently, subject matter experts 

from all over NASA converged 

on the brand new Integrated 

Engineering Services Building 

at Langley Research Center to 

strategize on Big Data at NASA. 

All NASA missions, from space 

exploration, to aeronautics, to 

science, can take advantage of 

emerging big data techniques as 

a significant mission accelerant. 

Big Data can be thought of as 

streams of data too big to process 

on your personal computer or 

workstation in a reasonable time. 

Two Ames Research Center 

scientists coined the phrase 

several decades ago when they 

were processing large volumes 

of data. Big Data is now known 

for the “5 Vs”, Volume, Velocity, 

Variety, Veracity and Value. Huge 

volumes of data, coming in 

quickly, in an unbelievable variety 

of formats. And NASA has lots of 

it! The Big Data Big Think tackled 

issues like: representative mission 

challenges & solutions, accessing 

data across the Agency, dark data, 

metadata challenges, topography 

of data,modeling and simulations, 

data portability, ingestion and 

visualization, as well as other 

formats (estimates are over 51,000 

types industry-wide). Another Big 

Data Face to Face Technical Forum 

is being planned for late Spring 

at Ames Research Center to help 

NASA missions take advantage 

of this exciting new capability. v

KSC CIO, Vanessa Stromer (left) and Deputy CIO, Gary Cox tour KSC’s new data center. It will 

consolidate multiple data centers at KSC totaling 25,000 square feet of space into a single 5,000 square 

feet. The Tier 3 data center is saving the Center approximately $500K per year in energy costs. 

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2015 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications 

Service Office (CSO)

The Communications Service Office 

completed the transition to a new 

Instant Meeting Voice Conferencing 

Service in December 2014. This 

transition is expected to save the 

Agency over $2 million a year in 

operating costs. The new service, 

provided by PGI/CenturyLink, is 

an unattended voice conferencing 

service that is available for use 24/7 

and does not require going through 

the reservation system after the initial 

setup. Each host user is provided with 

an account that includes a toll-free/toll 

number and a personal identification 

number (PIN) for both the host and 

the participants. The host will provide 

the toll-free/toll number and the 

participant PIN to those participating 

in the scheduled conference.

Instant meeting accounts are 

requested via the Enterprise 

Service Desk (ESD) and are 

available in three different types:

1. Domestic: allows toll-free dialing 

to the contiguous United States 

(CONUS) and other domestic 

areas including Hawaii, Alaska, 

and U.S. territories (e.g., the 

U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and 

Puerto Rico), plus Canada.

2. Global: allows standard incountry toll and toll-free 

dialing from all international 

locations except China, 

Brazil, Malaysia, India, the 

Philippines, and Taiwan.

3. Global Enhanced: allows toll and 

toll-free dialing from all Global 

locations plus China, Brazil, 

Malaysia, India, the Philippines, 

and Taiwan. This account has 

additional security features 

including a 10-digit passcode, 

music on hold until the leader 

is present, and a mandatory 

post-conference report.

The CSO Desktop Mobile Video 

Conferencing (DMV) Service, also 

available via the ESD, was put 

into production in October 2014. 

This service provides a desktop 

video collaboration service that 

allows users to collaborate using 

both NASA standards-based 

Video Teleconferencing Service 

(ViTS) rooms and a wide range 

of cross-platform devices that 

include iPads and iPhones, as well 

as other devices using Android, 

Mac, Linux, and PC platforms, 

from almost anywhere. This 

flexibility allows NASA projects an 

alternative method for individual 

remote team members to join a 

videoconference without having to 

reserve a videoconferencing facility 

or be at a NASA facility to attend the 

meeting. The DMV service is capable 

of hosting meetings at NASA and 

non-NASA locations and combines 

the voice, video, and data sharing of 

project information in ONE service, 

allowing multiple participants to 

seamlessly share information without 

turning over “rights” in one meeting 

at the same time. Project rooms can 

also be set up to allow participants 

to meet even when the host is 

not available. The DMV service is 

also available through the ESD.

Agency Consolidated EndUser Services (ACES)

Like-for-Like Mobile Refreshes: 

Like-for-Like mobile refreshes are 

continuing on a rolling deployment 

schedule across NASA Centers. 

Like-for-Like mobile refresh is for 

end users who will be replacing 

their mobile device with the same 

device type they currently have 

(e.g., iPhone to iPhone or cell phone 

to cell phone), 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. Users 

scheduled to receive the refresh 

will receive e-mail notifications 

prior to deployment with details 

on schedule and actions required 

for refresh, including backing up 

data from their current devices.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus 

Now Available: The iPhone 6 and 

iPhone 6 Plus are now available to 

NASA end users who are eligible 

for mobile refresh and those who 

need to place an order for a new 

device. Additional information can 

be found on the ACES Web site.

Internet Explorer (IE) 11: IE11 will 

be deployed to ACES Windows 

users in February 2015. A pilot 

was held in late 2014 to ensure 

that IE11 was compatible with the 

NASA ACES environment prior to 

general deployment. Application 

owners are encouraged to continue 

to test against current applications 

to ensure compatibility and provide 

feedback on any issue encountered. 

IE11 is available on select computers 

in local ACES Development Test 

Labs (DTLs). Users will receive 

communication regarding the 

upgrade prior to deployment.

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).

Enterprise Applications 

Service Office/NASA 

Enterprise Applications 

Competency Center 

(EASO/NEACC)

The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) 

Line of Business (LOB) is preparing 

a nomination submission for the 

American Council for Technology 

10 www.nasa.gov
(ACT)–Industry Advisory Council 

(IAC) Igniting Innovation Awards. The 

ACT-IAC is the combination of two 

dynamic forums where Government 

and industry leaders collaborate. 

The goal, as stated in the ACT-IAC 

Nomination guide, is as follows: 

“ACT-IAC’s Institute for Innovation 

seeks nominations so it can provide 

visibility and recognition for those who 

have developed and deployed highly 

innovative IT products, services, 

systems and solutions that benefit 

government (federal, state, local 

and tribal) and the citizen during the 

period 2013–2014.” The NASA Center 

for Internal Mobile Applications 

(CIMA) is teaming with Identity, 

Credential, and Access Management 

(ICAM) to submit a nomination for the 

NASA smartcard-derived credential.

The Education LOB released the 

capability to input multiple locations 

for an activity into production on 

November 26, 2014. Column layout 

was improved by the replacement of 

an unallocated column with a Total 

column on the post-management 

forum, also released to Production. 

The Financial/ACTS LOB supported 

the ERB opening of period 16 in the 

year2014, as well as the rerun of two 

Nominal Account Closing rules. The 

LOB also provided ongoing support 

of the 2015 financial statements. 

It was noted that changes were 

needed due to the discontinuation 

of the Transaction Partner field. As a 

result, the Federal Indicator field will 

be used instead. In January 2015, 

major testing and validations will 

continue. Several issues have been 

logged with SAP and are currently 

being worked by the vendor.

Enterprise Service 

Desk (ESD)

ESD Supporting ITSC 

The ESD is now supporting the 

Information Technology Security 

Center (ITSC) as of December 

1, 2014. In Tier 0, tickets can 

be opened in Category 1 under 

“Security.” End users are 

encouraged to reference “ITSC” in 

their ticket or phone call to ensure 

that their call is correctly routed.

ESD by the Numbers—FY14

The positive impact of the ESD’s 

processes, technology, and culture 

is reflected in its performance. The 

FY14 “Average Speed of Answer” 

was 82.3 percent in 60 seconds 

for 264,135 calls. The “Abandoned 

Call Rate” was 3.1 percent, and 

the “First Call Resolution Rate” 

was 97.1 percent. In FY14, 97.82 

percent of customers agreed or 

strongly agreed that they were 

satisfied with the NASA Shared 

Services Center’s (NSSC’s) service 

from the employees of the ESD.

Order-To-Pay (OtP)

The first phase of the Order-toPay project went live November 

24 with no major issues. The 

Center Validation Tool (CVT) for 

reconciling Agency Consolidated 

End-User Services (ACES) invoices 

is now in place with ESD Subject 

Matter Experts’s involvement 

complete for this phase. The 

next phase for the Enterprise 

Service Request System (ESRS)—

Tech Refresh is in process with 

deployment planned in April 2015.

Web Services (Web 

Enterprise Systems and 

Technology, or WESTPrime)

DevOps: NASA engineers...need 

real-time collaboration? WESTPrime 

is working on a solution to make 

your life easier. WESTPrime 

has been testing the integration 

of MagicDraw, a client-based 

application, and Teamwork, a 

cloud-based repository. MagicDraw 

is currently being used by some 

NASA engineers and is a business 

process, architecture, software, and 

system-modeling tool. Teamwork 

is a cloud-based repository that 

allows for version control and 

collaboration in real time. Through 

the integration of MagicDraw 

and Teamwork, collaboration 

will be simple and seamless.

As an added bonus, WESTPrime 

configured a cloud server for 

MagicDraw license management 

to enable shared licenses among 

the Centers in an effort to reduce 

cost and surplus licensing. 

There are several engineering 

applications that could be 

migrated similarly to the cloud, 

so that they too are shared 

across locations, thereby further 

reducing NASA’s overall costs.

NASA Image and Video Library 

(project name—AVAIL): The 

development of images.nasa.

gov is underway! The searchcentric, public-facing Web 

application will roll out in July 

2015. Images.nasa.gov will be a 

one-stop shop for the best-ofthe-best of NASA images, videos, 

and audio clips. The ambitious 

project will leverage NASA’s vast 

multimedia library collections from 

all Centers and feature the latest 

and greatest NASA has to offer. 

Visitors can search, share, and 

download directly from the site.

If we build it, they will come! 

Leveraging cloud scalability means 

that visitors’ volume spikes will not 

impact the user experience, which 

will keep the public coming back for 

more. Finally, technology caught up 

to the big idea of images.nasa.gov!

Looking Ahead: The exciting 

NASA.gov redesigned look 

and feel will make its debut 

in 2015. Keep an eye out for 

news on the big revelation! v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2015 11
IT Talk

The CIO's attended a face-to-face 

meeting at NASA Headquarters 

from December 16-18, 2014.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

HDI Visits NASA Headquarters Again!

By John D. Sprague, End User Architect, Office of the Chief Information Officer

The HDI Capital Area Local Chapter 

(formerly Help Desk Institute) visited 

NASA Headquarters on November 19, 

2014, with another heavily attended 

monthly meeting. The topic was 

“Introduction to Cloud Computing,” 

with guest speaker Stephen Simchak, 

who managed help desk, service desk, 

and desktop support services for the 

Federal Aviation Administration, General 

Electric, the National Institutes of Health, 

and Philip Morris. Karen Petraska, 

NASA Computing Services Executive, 

also helped kick off the meeting with 

a discussion of what NASA is doing 

to move more services to the cloud.

Capital Area President William Liberti 

and President Emeritus Sandy 

Seroskie welcomed Stephen and the 

group to NASA Headquarters. 

The fundamentals of cloud 

computing were covered, and 

then representatives from 

several Federal agencies and 

companies gave examples 

of how the move to cloud 

computing is manifesting 

itself at service desks.

HDI is the world’s largest IT 

service and technical support 

membership association. v

Speaker Stephen Simchak discusses 

cloud computing at the NASA 

Headquarters Glennan Assembly Room.