Predicting Th

NextIT De

IT Talk

January - March 2016 Volume 6 • Issue 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov
IT Talk

Jan - Mar 2016 Volume 6 • Issue 1

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Renee Wynn

Editor and Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic and Web Design

Rahsaan Williams

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

Cover Illustration

Christopher Hawley, JPL

3

6

8

5

10

Message from

the CIO

Predicting the 

Next IT Decade

How Can We 

Experience Tomorrow’s 

Innovations Today?

What's All the Hype About?

I3P Update

In this Issue
Happy New Year!

~Renee

New Year’s is often a time to start 

anew and fresh. And just like any 

other year, we have many hopes, 

dreams and things we want to 

accomplish. We’ve come a long 

way in the Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. Over the last 

year, the Information Technology 

(IT) Capability served as the pilot 

for the Agency Business Services 

Assessments (BSA). The BSA 

process establishes a more effective 

operating model that maintains a 

minimum set of capabilities and 

meets current and future mission 

needs. This all falls in line with 

meeting the Federal Information 

Technology Acquisition Reform Act 

(FITARA) requirements at NASA. 

FITARA is legislation passed in 

2014 that among other things gives 

Agency CIOs the authority to sign off 

on technology acquisitions. 

OCIO has made significant progress 

in the development of a solid 

implementation plan. We continue 

to improve effectiveness, shore up 

our IT Security, and provide service 

excellence. Across all 10 Centers we 

stand strong and committed to our IT 

mission.

Here are some key goals I’d like to 

see us accomplish in 2016. 

1. Articulate my vision for the 

NASA CIO Community.

2. Continue to strengthen 

NASA’s ability to align IT resources 

with Agency missions, goals, 

programmatic priorities, and 

statutory requirements.

3. Provide more transparency of 

IT resources and 

4. Improve communications 

among and with the Center CIOs, 

OCIO staff, and our stakeholders. 

5. Continue to upgrade our 

cybersecurity arsenal by 

• updating existing, and 

implementing new, real-time 

monitoring capabilities;

• mitigating unprotected 

network access points;

• providing continuous 

employee cybersecurity training, to 

include anti-phishing exercises;

• adopting agency-wide 

security requirements for cloud 

computing; and

• increasing our level of focus 

on IT vulnerabilities.

It takes a team to accomplish these 

goals, but I know with your help we 

can get this done!

Happy New 

Year from the 

OCIO Family! 

Message from the NASA CIO 

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2016 3
NASA is on a journey to Mars and is 

turning science fiction into science 

fact. The Advanced Exploration 

Systems Program (AES) targets 

human exploration high priorities, 

including crew mobility, habitats, 

and vehicle systems. The AES 

Modular Systems Project aims to 

develop and demonstrate modular 

power design concepts for long 

term use in human exploration 

flight vehicles. Data on these and 

other programs and projects are 

chronicled in NASA’s TechPort.

TechPort is a Web-based 

software system serving as a 

comprehensive resource for 

locating information about NASA 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is really 

the collection of physical devices 

connected over the Internet. 

These devices can include routers, 

servers, applications, network 

devices, sensors, and gadgets 

that are connected to the Internet 

via specific application protocols 

and thus can be accessed and 

monitored from anywhere in the 

world. The terms Internet of Things, 

Internet of Everything, Machine-toMachine (M2M), Smart Systems,

etc. all refer to the idea that a device 

can be connected to the Web as 

well as to its user, thus increasing 

the capability of the device. This 

opens up new avenues of discovery 

for ways to use devices for realtime monitoring and response; 

innovations and improvements to 

sensors mean that future versions 

of such devices will adapt and 

respond to a user's needs.

A critical aspect of putting this 

technology in place is figuring out 

how to bring all of these devices 

together in a “log monitoring 

and analysis” platform, where 

organizations and users can 

efficiently use this data, analyze 

it, understand device activity, 

and produce insights and make 

decisions. The massive amount 

of machine data in the form of 

application logs, configuration files, 

message queues, log API, mail 

server/Web server logs, sshd events, 

SCADA data, syslog, etc., must 

be analyzed quickly and efficiently 

and take into consideration the 

issues of computer capabilities, 

rapid log synthesis/analysis, critical 

decision making, and storage.

So, what does this mean for IoT 

data management? One approach 

is to accept the diversity of data 

and develop an end-to-end IoT 

system monitoring framework that 

can leverage machine data. An 

integrated platform design (machineto-cloud-to-dashboard) based on 

such a framework would specifically 

focus on data from network 

hubs, routers, servers, and other 

geospatial sensor datasets and 

would use data mining, integration, 

search and discovery, analytics, 

and collaboration techniques. This 

type of platform can be deployed 

behind a firewall, in a private cloud, 

or in public cloud such as Amazon 

Web Services (AWS). The platform’s 

capability to work with a variety of 

Earth observations and other machine 

data makes it a leading-edge solution 

specifically catered toward efficient 

data filtering, tagging, machine 

data intelligence, log monitoring, 

and intelligent insights, all of which 

users can visualize in a dashboard.

Another possible solution is a 

streaming framework, which would be 

ideal for IoT applications where space 

and time are critical. Embedded 

devices emit streams of data either 

as time series measurements or as 

complex log entries, which include 

time and location. The streaming 

framework would receive and 

transform incoming readings in real 

time, potentially from thousands or 

millions of devices. The resulting 

data would be indexed and in the 

cloud and with free text. Using 

these processed data streams, 

it would be possible to do both 

interactive and programmatic 

data discovery and delivery.

technology development activities. 

TechPort contains a variety of useful 

information on these activities 

including technology descriptions, 

images, and the NASA Center 

or facility where work is being 

performed. The system provides 

advanced search capabilities 

to hone in on specific areas of 

development. Users can also 

export information and create 

customized reports on selected 

NASA Programs and Projects.

Within the past year a portion of 

TechPort data was made available 

to the public. Academic institutions, 

commercial ventures, and the general 

public can search TechPort to learn 

about game changing technology. 

As NASA develops new technologies 

and finds innovative solutions to 

challenges facing aeronautics, 

space exploration, and the greater 

scientific community, additional data 

will become available in TechPort. 

Currently TechPort contains data on 

more than 1,200 active technology 

development programs and 

projects, and thousands of historical 

records. TechPort influences 

NASA strategy, budget decisionmaking process, and technology 

roadmap development. To learn 

more, visit TechPort (http://techport.

nasa.gov) where NASA chronicles 

real Martian technologies.

4 www.nasa.gov

TechPort: Chronicling Real Martian Technologies

By Ann Whitener, JSC TechPort Representative

Demystifying Internet of Things (IoT) Data

By Sandeep D. Shetye, OCIO Technology & Innovation Division
The development of the hyperwall has a long and 

storied history at NASA. As early as 1984, the 

need to visualize data was key in the development 

of supercomputers at Ames Research Center. 

Hyperwalls were developed to allow engineers 

and scientists to view their results spatially and 

in ways that allowed for a greater understanding 

of the mechanisms at work in their designs. 

In 2002, NASA Advanced Supercomputing 

visualization experts developed a 49 LDC 

display system that allowed scientists to view 

complex datasets on a large, dynamic sevenby-seven screen array. Each screen had its own 

processing power, allowing each to display, 

process, and share datasets so that a single 

image could be displayed across all screens 

or configured so data could be displayed in 

“cells” like a giant visual spreadsheet. More 

recently, hyperwalls have been developed at 

other Centers, including Goddard Space Flight 

Center, where NASA’s Scientific Visualization 

Studio has created a “big beautiful wall of high 

definition screens” used to display NASA’s 

latest and greatest data visualizations, images, 

videos, and other presentation material, and 

acting as a primary outreach platform for NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate. The hyperwall is an 

invaluable tool to help explore themes in Earth science, 

heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics. 

After visiting the hyperwall at Goddard Space Flight 

Center, we were curious to see if we could build a 

similar hyperwall at the 1958 coworking space at 

Johnson Space Center. Less than two weeks later, and 

using existing hardware from around the office space, 

interns Donald Venus and Mackenzie Carlson were able 

to build a functional 12-screen hyperwall that allows 

for concurrent visualization of data. A first-person 

account of their work, spanning 2,000 Christmas songs 

and countless cups of coffee, is featured on the NASA 

Information Architecture and Data Management Web 

site at https://niam.nasa.gov/whats-all-the-hype-about.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2016 5

What’s All 

the Hype 

About?

By Nick Skytland, Data Management Analyst, 

OCIO Technology and Innovation
the exploratory prototypes and 

resulting technology infusions.

2007-2009: “Work with 

anyone from anywhere with 

any data at any time”.

• Enabled JPL to test and 

evolve Cloud Computing with 

missions and vendors such 

as Amazon and Microsoft.

• Led to Consumerization of 

IT and the adoption of consumer 

devices such as the iPhone, 

JPLTube, and a new customer 

board structure at JPL to help 

steer the IT path. This also led 

to the creation of the popular 

“Technology Petting Zoo”, where 

users could take new technologies 

and devices for a test spin.

2009-2011: “IT means 

Innovating Together”

• Led to a retooling to produce 

and deliver mobile Apps

• Began the exploration 

of Big Data, analytics, and the 

advent of the IT Data Scientist.

2012-2014: “Social, 

Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, 

Key disrupters (SMACK)”

• Led to Search and Analytics 

as key enablers of Big Data.

• Began the rapid push into 

wearable computing, augmented 

reality, and 3D printing.

Well, it’s time again to predict 

the Next IT Decade. The key 

driver this time is the tremendous 

PREDICTING 

THE NEXT 

IT DECADE

PREDICTING 

THE NEXT 

IT DECADE

PREDICTING 

THE NEXT 

IT DECADE

PREDICTING 

THE NEXT 

IT DECADE

Every three years, JPL IT predicts 

and socializes the key IT trends 

that will be relevant enablers in the 

coming IT Decade (the next three 

years). This strategy provides a 

good focus for the following three 

years and has proven exceptionally 

successful as it has enabled 

JPLers to take early advantage 

of emerging technologies to help 

fulfil NASA’s mission. JPL IT has 

prototyped the key disrupters 

together with the most interested 

end users and industry innovators 

and have been able to adopt those 

that would become relevant and 

discard the ones that would not. 

To demonstrate, here are the 

past JPL predicted IT Decades 

with just a few key results from 

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

Institute of Technology

6 www.nasa.gov
onslaught of innovations coming 

from consumer space, and 

the realization that they will 

penetrate the enterprise in a 

much bigger way than what we 

have seen before, whether we 

are ready or not. It goes way 

beyond new devices. Hence, 

the disruption. A key insight 

from these cycles of predicting, 

prototyping and infusing is: 

Technologies advance quickly, 

human behavior changes 

more gradually, and Enterprise 

adoption evolves the most 

slowest. But they all depend 

on and impact each other.

NASA and JPL employees are 

IT consumers and they will want 

what they see. And they will want 

it now. Although this is not news, 

what is new is the powerful and 

disruptive business models that 

come with it. Consider if the 

following were brought into JPL 

and NASA today and how the 

enterprise would respond. Could 

we share vehicles or equipment 

the way that ZipCar or Uber 

works? Could we share office 

space a la Airbnb? Would we 

host internal Hackathons and 

open development? How about 

using internal crowd-funding like 

Kickstarter of paying for projects 

with BitCoin? In the Next IT 

Decade, we may well need to.

2015-2017: Engage and Enable 

Everyone and Everything (E4)

Innovations from IT consumer 

space will evolve how we 

work with each other, with 

our environment, and with our 

tools. JPL IT will use E4 to ...

• Engage employees 

through internal social media, 

internal hackathons and 

other crowdsourcing events, 

gamifications, quick-surveys, etc. 

• Enable our employees 

through rapid prototyping facilities 

(both hardware and software), 

open development practices, 

advanced search capabilities, 

cloud computing on demand 

and from multiple clouds with 

unlimited compute power and 

storage capacity, ground-breaking 

3D printing capabilities, advanced 

immersive self-service analytics, 

consumer-driven business 

models and practices, reduced 

bureaucracy, and much more. 

• Everyone will be energized 

through rapid prototyping and 

crowd sourcing events, creative 

open facilities, seamless identity 

federations, new programming 

metaphors, startup-like 

environments inside NASA and JPL, 

extremely low-cost devices and 

computers, and a renewed focus 

on the individuals’ participation.

• Everything will be reachable 

and configurable because of rapid 

prototyping, Smart Data, adoption 

of the devices and business 

models from Internet of Things, 

and Software Defined Networking.

As we predict and prototype the 

E4 strategy in Next IT Decade, 

we hope that the results will aid 

JPL and NASA employees who 

directly and indirectly support 

the search for Earth 2.0, try to 

capture a boulder from an asteroid, 

search for signs of life on Mars 

and beyond, explore icy planets 

that may harbor life, help protect 

Mother Earth, share the wonders 

of space with the global citizenry, 

try to understand how the Universe 

was created and where it is going, 

and so much more. This is the 

reason we Innovate Together. 

Please join and help us rapidly 

chart and prototype this next 

phase of our exciting journey.

(Copyright 2015 California Institute 

of Technology. U.S. Government 

sponsorship acknowledged)

NASA OCIO NASA OCIO IT Talk IT Talk Jan - Mar 2016 Mar 2016 7
Congratulations to Deborah 

Diaz, NASA CTO for IT, for being 

the winner of the 2015 Digital 

Innovation Award. Diaz was 

presented with the award at 

FedScoop’s Digital Innovation 

Summit in Washington, DC, on 

October 14, 2015. Diaz was 

one out of 22 people nominated 

for the award. The nominated 

individuals were innovators 

from across the enterprise, 

who cut through Government 

red tape while leading the 

move toward new Federal 

digital standards, such as: 

• practicing open principles 

and transparency;

• championing the Digital 

Government Strategy and 

Digital Services Playbook;

• leveraging agile practices 

in product development 

and acquisition; and

• pioneering the move from 

legacy systems to new, 

modern technologies. 

The Digital Innovation Award is 

the first of its kind to celebrate 

By Tom Soderstrom, IT Chief 

Technology and Innovation 

Officer, Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory, California Institute 

of Technology

the digital disruptors leading 

Federal Government into the 

21st century. American citizens 

demand around-the-clock digital 

services in all 

walks of life, 

and these 

innovators 

recognize 

that Federal 

agencies 

must elevate 

their digital 

influence to 

better serve 

the public 

and achieve 

mission 

success.

8 www.nasa.gov

Deborah Diaz Named Winner of 

the 2015 Digital Innovation Award

How 

Can We 

Experience 

Tomorrow’s 

Innovations 

Today?

To that end, JPL IT has just 

created the “Innovation 

Experience Center”. This is an 

open development facility where we 

rapidly prototype new innovations 

and where users (IT and non-IT 

users) are encouraged to “come in 

and experience the future today”. 

We relocated a group of developers 

and parts of the JPL IT Petting Zoo 

into this open environment. We 

hold frequent open house events, 

immersion on selected experiences, 

development deep dives and 

hackathons, and discussions on 

how to evolve the network and cyber 

security to allow these experience to 

flourish. It’s also where many of the 

advanced cloud innovations occur.

Videos of these experiences 

are created and shared to allow 

people to interact with them on 

a Website from anywhere.

Experiences currently being 

prototyped include:

• Voice control through Amazon 

Echo’s Alexa interface (we 

have taught Alexa to speak 

“JPL”, send messages via 

Slack, drive a rover, scrape 

websites, and more).

• Touch Screen control 

and visualization through 

several devices.

• Internet of Things (through 

devices such as Philips Hue 

lights, Little bits prototyping, 

Raspberry PIs, switches 

and other controllers, 

SmartThings, WeMo, etc.)

• Cyber Security analytics

(involving a variety of 

dashboards, lights, and more)

• Immersive analytics that 

involve many senses (including 

displays, lights, sounds, 

speech, and voice control)

• Social Media analytics

• Collaborative multitouch virtual whiteboards 

coordinated with handheld 

devices from local and remote

• JPLVIEW (a virtual window 

to the outside enabled by a 

Raspberry Pi for buildings 

without windows)

• 3D printing and scanning

• Portable power

• Holographs

• ... and more is coming 

every day.

When we can show users a new 

prototype experiences, they will 

provide feedback and improve 

those experience extremely 

quickly. Next time you are at JPL, 

come in and experience the future 

today... and help us improve it. 

We’ll be listening and NASA and 

JPL employees will benefit.

((Copyright 2015 California Institute 

of Technology. U.S. Government 

sponsorship acknowledged)

Why do users sometimes 

not like the awesome IT we 

provide to them? We in JPL 

IT think the simple answer 

is that the user experience 

just wasn’t good enough. 

If the most important factor 

to user adoption is a positive 

user experience, we should pay 

more attention to it. Especially 

to new, unproven experiences 

or user interfaces. But how? 

One way could be to build a 

facility that’s customized to test 

new user experiences quickly, 

inexpensively, and ask the users 

to tell us what they think. 
Do you need to create a survey, 

questionnaire, form, application, 

Web survey, or report? Do you 

want to collect information from 

the public? Do you need to make 

modifications to a current form?

If you need to do any of these 

things, then you need to know 

more about the Paperwork 

Reduction Act (PRA)!

What Is the PRA? 

The PRA was created to minimize 

the public’s paperwork burden 

resulting from the collection 

of information by or for the 

Federal Government. The 

PRA is a response to public 

complaints about the burden 

of Federal paperwork. Each 

year, the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) tracks the 

total burden and sets goals for 

reducing the paperwork burden.

When Does the PRA 

apply?

In general, Federal agencies 

must obtain approval from the 

OMB before using identical 

questions to collect information 

from 10 or more members of 

the public within a 12-month 

period. “Information collection” 

includes Web surveys, reporting 

forms, or customer satisfaction 

surveys, just to name a few. 

OMB approvals for information 

collection expire after three years. 

Why Do I Need OMB 

Approval for My Survey/

Web Site/Form?

NASA needs to be in compliance 

with the PRA. If NASA has an 

active information collection 

that is covered by the PRA, 

but is not approved by OMB, 

it is considered a violation of 

the PRA. NASA is required 

to report to OMB annually 

on its PRA violations.

Doesn’t the PRA Just 

Create More Paperwork?

The PRA is intended to reduce 

the paperwork burden for the 

public; it is not intended to 

reduce the paperwork burden 

for Federal employees.

Are Contractors 

Considered Members 

of the Public Under the 

PRA?

Yes, contractors are considered 

members of the public.

How Long Does It Take 

To Go through the PRA 

Review Process?

The PRA review process can take 

from 6 to 9 months to complete. 

There is also a fast-track process 

that can be used in limited 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

Technology and Innovation 

(T&I) Labs is a program from 

the Technology and Innovation 

Division of NASA’s Office of the 

Chief Information Officer. It is an 

innovation incubator, soliciting 

ideas from NASA’s workforce and 

enabling their development as 

part of a rapid, low-cost, low-risk 

IT Labs 

Update

cases. Approved information 

collections must display an OMB 

control number, a PRA statement, 

and an expiration date.

What Must I Do Before 

My OMB PRA Number 

Expires?

An OMB approval only lasts for 

three years. If the collection is 

still necessary, the information 

collection must go through 

the review process before 

the information collection 

expires. If the collection is no 

longer needed, the information 

collection needs to go through 

the cancellation process.

Who Can Help Me with 

the PRA Process?

Please contact the NASA PRA 

Compliance Officer, Fran Teel, at 

Fran.Teel@nasa.gov or the NASA 

Business Manager, Tereda Frazier, 

at TeredaJ.Frazier@nasa.gov.

Where Can I Find More 

Information on the PRA 

Process at NASA?

Please visit: https://inside.

nasa.gov/ocio/capitalplanning-governance/

information-management/nasapaperwork-reduction-act.

process. We recently concluded the 

4th annual Innovation Challenge 

for FY15. Ten ideas were awarded 

funding of up to $30,000 each, 

including two Phase 2 returning 

projects and eight new innovations.

The T&I Labs 5th Annual Innovation 

Challenge will open January 4, 

2016, and will close on February 

8, 2016. If you have an idea or a 

concept you feel would enhance 

NASA’s mission, please visit our 

Web site to find information about 

submitting your innovation. 

T&I Labs highly encourages 

previously funded projects to 

apply for the next phase funding.

For more info on T&I Labs program 

and to submit your idea, visit 

https://labs.nasa.gov. You may 

also contact us directly by e-mail 

at HQ-TI-Labs@mail.nasa.gov or 

through Twitter at @NASA_TI_Labs.

NASA OCIO NASA OCIO IT Talk IT Talk Jan - Mar 2016 Mar 2016 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Service 

Office (CSO) 

The Communications Services 

Office (CSO) recently completed 

the final activity of the Corporate 

Route Symmetry (CRS) Project. 

The project created a symmetric 

routing path for Internet traffic for 

the Agency as well as enabling 

follow-on projects to provide 

Department of Homeland Security 

(DHS) Trusted Internet Connection 

(TIC) Compliance. TIC Compliance 

is a Government mandate that 

provides a means to monitor and 

protect Federal Government IT 

assets. The old method of CSO 

Internet routing utilized a “best 

path out” method of routing that 

often caused asymmetric traffic 

patterns. This did not interoperate 

well with security devices that must 

have visibility of both directions 

of traffic and a symmetrical 

flow. With the completion of the 

new routing infrastructure, the 

symmetrical routing allows for the 

insertion of security devices at the 

border of the network, creating an 

Agency-level security perimeter 

and making the NASA internal 

network a “trusted network”. The 

new infrastructure also modified 

NASA’s external network (access 

to the public Internet) to reside 

solely outside the new security 

perimeter, making it a “peering” or 

“untrusted network”. In addition 

to enabling the symmetrical 

routing within the CSO routing 

infrastructure, the project laid 

the groundwork of the provision 

of an overall Agency end-to-end 

Quality of Service architecture, 

extending the work into the NASA’s 

Center Local Area Networks. 

The Consolidated Network 

Operations Services (CNOS) 

project is nearing its completion 

date of March 2016. Over the last 

two years, the team has worked 

with each of the NASA Centers to 

consolidate day-to-day operations 

of NASA’s corporate network. 

The project was divided into 

four releases to address specific 

operations services for the purpose 

of accomplishing the changes 

to operations in a seamless 

manner that was non-intrusive 

to the end-user community. 

Consolidation of monitoring 

the network and managing the 

infrastructure components of 

firewall, VPN, wireless controllers 

and switches/routers has been 

completed, reducing the cost of 

these operations to NASA. The last 

release—underway at this time—

will be the consolidation of firewall 

rule implementation and DDI 

support. Consolidated enterprise 

operations provide the Agency 

with end-to-end management 

of its entire corporate network, 

standardizes the operations 

processes, and reduces the cost 

for the overall operations of the 

network providing assets and 

resources for other improvements 

to the communications 

service to the end user.

Computing Services 

Service Organization 

(CSSO) 

In anticipation of a rapid increase 

in Agency cloud usage, the 

Computing Services Service 

Office (CSSO) recently finished its 

initial integration with the NASA 

Enterprise Services Desk (ESD), 

enabling customers to request 

assistance by logging an ESD 

ticket. CSSO customers, using 

CSSO’s Amazon Web Services 

(AWS) Infrastructure-as-aService (IaaS) offering, can open 

a ticket today, with other cloud 

services planned for the future.

CSSO completed the acquisition 

of a Cloud Computing Cost 

Management package that will 

be used to reduce the burden 

and complexity associated with 

generating monthly cost reports 

for the growing customer base 

of IaaS customers. Customers 

will likely see revised-format 

standard reports in the future, 

along with planned abilities to 

view daily cloud spending and 

produce custom cost reports.

The CSSO now has the ability to 

provide customers with access 

to AWS Professional Services, 

offered by a member of the AWS 

Partner Network. This enables 

customers to acquire consulting, 

design, and configuration 

assistance when migrating 

existing applications or deploying 

new applications within AWS. 

In the area of cloud networking, 

CSSO, working closely with 

the Communications Service 

Office (CSO), has implemented 

redundant and resilient network 

connectivity between NASA 

and AWS regions within which 

NASA operates. Similarly, CSSO 

is teaming with CSO to ensure 

NASA connectivity to AWS is 

operated as an enterprise-class 

service, ensuring network capacity, 

performance, and availability 

are managed appropriately on 

behalf of the entire Agency.

Lastly, NASA employees are 

encouraged to sign up for the 

NASA Cloud Community of Interest 

(CCOI) email distribution list, 

to be notified of each month’s 

planned presentation. Cloud 

computing is proving to be a 

disruptive technology with many 

benefits, and it is changing the 

way NASA computes. The CCOI 

is a great place to keep informed 

of the activities of NASA’s cloud 

pioneers and developments in 

the fast moving cloud industry. 

Recent CCOI topics include “How 

Infrastructure-as-Code enables 

Continuous Software Delivery at 

Lightning Speed” and “Counting 

Trees from the Cloud: An Overview 

of GSFC’s Head-in-the-CloudsChallenge Project.” Send an 

email to: NASA-ADCC@mail.

nasa.gov to request being added 

to the CCOI distribution list.

10 www.nasa.gov
End-User Services Office 

(EUSO)

Computer Refreshes: ACES 

computer refreshes are now 

underway, with upgraded seat 

offerings that provide users 

with more lightweight laptop 

options, greater memory (RAM), 

and more choices to meet their 

computing needs. The timing 

for refresh is based on several 

factors, including the age of a 

user’s computer. Users will receive 

e-mail notifications prior to their 

refresh, which indicates the 

actions they must take to engage 

in the refresh process. During 

this refresh cycle, peripherals, 

such as monitor(s), mouse, and 

keyboard, will not be replaced 

unless there is a compatibility issue 

between old and new devices. 

This is part of NASA’s effort to 

“green” technology and is more 

environmentally friendly. Users are 

encouraged to study the available 

computer models. For more 

information refer to https://aces.

ndc.nasa.gov/subnav/seat.html.

Mobile Device Management 

(MDM): End users have until 

December 31, 2015, to enroll their 

current ACES-managed iPhones, 

Androids, and iPads in NASA’s 

Mobile Device Management (MDM) 

program. NASA is implementing 

MDM to better protect NASArelated information and assets 

and reduce the potential risk to 

NASA systems. Users receiving a 

new device will also be required to 

complete MDM enrollment upon 

receipt of the new device. For more 

information, go to: https://aces.

ndc.nasa.gov/subnav/mdm.html.

Important User Reminder: In 

order to receive security software 

upgrades each Tuesday night, 

ACES users need to leave 

their computers powered on, 

logged off (at the Windows login 

prompt), and connected to the 

NASA network. If you follow 

these steps your computer 

will be automatically updated 

and rebooted with no further 

interaction for most upgrades.

Enterprise Applications 

Service Office (EASO)

NEACC Release 16.1 was 

successfully completed, including 

fiscal year end close and start-up 

activities with limited end-user 

downtime experienced. Financial 

enhancements provided with 

this release included improved 

capabilities to establish and 

maintain NASA program/project 

structures along with improved 

Budget Execution capabilities to 

facilitate monthly planning and 

tracking. The Integrated Planning 

Tool will be the Agency’s official 

phasing plan system. This tool 

will be fully integrated with SAP 

and Business Warehouse (BW)/

BOBJ (new SAP BW Tool) to 

capture budget controls as well 

as reporting monthly actuals 

performance. Procurement 

enhancements included improved 

electronic signature capabilities 

and security alignment.

New Four Certificate Personal 

Identity Verification (PIV) 

Smartcard: All NASA PIV 

Smartcards must be upgraded 

to the latest version to remain in 

compliance with Federal policy. 

Badging Offices across the 

Agency will begin distributing 

the next-generation PIV 

Smartcard known as the Four 

Certificate (Four Cert) Smartcard 

beginning December 1, 2015.

The new Four Cert Smartcard 

provides a stronger identity 

assurance and can be used 

for physical access, desktop 

login (currently only available to 

Windows machines), as well as for 

signing and encrypting e-mails. 

NASA employees who already 

possess PIV Smartcards will 

receive notification to update to 

the Four Cert Smartcard when 

their current PIV Smartcard is 

ready to be upgraded. Instructions 

on desktop configuration 

for signing and encrypting 

e-mails will be provided to 

assist with the transition.

NASA employees acquiring the 

PIV Smartcard for the first time will 

receive the Four Cert Smartcard 

from their respective Badging 

Offices and provided desktop 

configuration instruction for 

signing and encrypting e-mails.

By the fall of 2016, all PIV 

Smartcard holders should be 

transitioned to the Four Cert 

Smartcard. Watch for further 

communications as to when your 

PIV badge will be upgraded.

Enterprise Service Desk 

(ESD) Notifications Tool 

Available

The ESD Notifications Tool has now 

migrated into ServiceNow within 

the ESD. NASA personnel are now 

able to post notifications and send 

e-mail notifications related to their 

services using ESD Tier 0. As an 

ESD end user, you have the ability to 

subscribe to a notification in order 

to receive all notifications related to 

that service. 

If users were previously subscribed 

to receive notifications from the 

ESD in one or more categories, 

it is necessary to come to ESD 

Tier 0 and re-subscribe to any 

notifications categories of interest. 

Subscription preferences will not 

be created in ServiceNow based 

on current settings so all interested 

users must come to ESD Tier 0 

and subscribe again to continue 

seeing posted notifications.

To view a quick tutorial, see 

Notifications Tool Training.

ESD Web Inquiries on the Rise

Since the October 5 migration to 

ESD’s ServiceNow, Tier 0 webinquiries have increased by twopercent. This illustrates end-users 

are comfortable using the web site 

to submit incident tickets requesting 

help to resolve issues. This allows 

Agents to respond during off-peak 

times, and end-users don't need 

to wait on the phone, on hold. 

ESD’s Customer Satisfaction Score, 

was 99.5 percent, for November 

2015, underscoring satisfaction 

with the quick turnaround received 

from ESD’s call-agents.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2016 11
IT Talk

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

At left: Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, 

John Sprague, and NASA Administrator 

Charles Bolden. John Sprague recieved the 

2015 NASA Honors Award for Mentoring.

Congratulations to John Sprague, Technology and Innovation 

Division Deputy in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, who received the Headquarters 2015 Mentoring Honor 

Award on December 8. The award recognizes employees who have demonstrated excellence in mentoring; effectiveness in transferring personal knowledge 

of meaningful advice, insight, and experience; and/or 

insight into unique mentoring needs. For the past three 

years, Sprague has been a part of the Headquarters 

nine-month Employees Mentoring Employees for Readiness, Growth and Excellence (eMERGE) Program.

Congratulations to OCIO team members John Walsh, Lori Parker 

and Dana Mellerio. The three received a team excellence award 

for outstanding contributions that made NASA's first FedStat 

meeting a success. In 2015, the Office of Management and 

Budget instituted a new meeting requirement for all agencies 

to provide strategic input into the FY2017 budget formulation 

process. Known as FedStat, this meeting was designed to 

replace several disparate reviews of agency performance 

into a single, holistic discussion. FedStat is an incredibly 

high visibility meeting between NASA, White House, and 

General Services Administration (GSA) senior leadership.

Mentoring 

Minds 

Headquarters 

Honor Awards