1. Review of NWS IT Consolidation Efforts For HIC Meeting July 2006 Tom Schwein Team Leader of Desktop Management Tiger Team SOD CRH

2. 2 HIC Meeting July 2006  Objectives: –Provide insight of the Corporate Board’s intent. –Review the activities of the various IT teams in particular the Desktop Initiatives. –Answer questions related to the process. –Understand some of the concerns.

3. 3 Background  NOAA’s ENTA (Enterprise Network Target Architecture) …. started in January 2005.  Statement of Need (SON) 05-056 identified areas for consolidation with a high potential for cost avoidance and more effective IT support: –Network Infrastructure –Network Management –Web Infrastructure –IT Security –Desktop Management –and Procurement

4. 4 From 2005 to Present  Creation of Six Tiger Teams to study the critical areas of IT.  The teams developed plans for concept of operations and presented business case analyses to Corporate Board.  In January 2006, NWS Corporate Board gave approval to proceed.

5. 5 Plans for Network Infrastructure and Management  Each office will receive a new router containing a firewall.  Migrating from a "spoke wheel" environment to a MPLS network. Benefits include: –direct contact from any office to any other office. –less expensive in the long term –ability to do video and voice transmission over the network  Single point of contact for all IT issues (national help desk).  Enhanced tools for managing and monitoring the network.

6. 6 Web Concepts   Standardize the web farms to 3 identical and mirrored farms.   Migrate to a content data driven network.   Manage fluctuations in bandwidth and future requirements.   Alleviate present slow downs.   24/7 Web support.

7. 7 IT Web Services Future Web Services

8. 8 IT Security Initiatives   Centralized scanning and patching.   Enterprise capability to update and verify virus definitions.   Coordinated IT Security Certification and Accreditation.   Reduce local office workload in the security arena such as patching and scanning.   Provide field office the flexibility to do their jobs and ensure agency IT meets DOC/NOAA security requirements.

9. 9 Desktop Management   Baseline configuration of desktops that will meet 80% of office requirements for – –Generic Users, Power Users, Generic Laptop   Standards for Print Servers and Domain Controllers.   Implement Active Directory to allow for: – –enterprise capability to manage system, security and user privilege settings. – –enterprise wide directory services for authentication, access control and resource location. – –enterprise wide scanning of desktop equipment for security verification, audit and equipment discovery.   Allow individual's desktop environment to be transferable and transparent across the domain.

10. 10 DESKTOP – Future State -Establish Nationally Managed NWS Wide Directory Services (Active Directory AD) and Schema - Regional Domains, Single NOAA Forest - Delegate Regional and Local Administrative Rights through hierarchical strategy - Build on SRH, NCEP and other Best Practice approaches - User policies, password and desktop security settings managed nationally, regionally and locally thru AD. - Exert desktop control at the most effective level -Will allow automatic deployment of security patches, updates and anti-virus updates from a single location. Will allow desktop security scans on almost all systems from one or more points - Increase security and decrease IT staff workload - Permits Enterprise Wide User Authentication and Access Portable Desktop Settings and Accessibility

11. 11 DESKTOP – Future State Distributed Desktop Support Enterprise Domain Authentication and Directory Services will be Provided via 25 Domain Authentication and Directory Servers located on NWSNET Enterprise Policy Orchestrator Servers Will Provide Virus Software Update Service Enterprise Secure Elements will provide Operating System and major application patch services Security Scanning Operations will be consolidated (TBD) User Policies, Network Access, User Accounts, Permissions, etc to be managed in a distributed fashion nationally, regionally and locally, using most effective approach.

12. 12 Procurement  Bulk Purchasing: –opportunity for discounts on desktop equipment. –include basic systems with some choices for add-ons.

13. 13 NOAA / NWS Goals  Free Up Resources – More Time for IT Staff  Provide More Reliable Delivery  Enhance System Flexibility and Responsiveness  Reduce Duplication of Effort  Reallocate Critical Resources to Critical Areas  Reduce Security Vulnerabilities  Provide 24/7 Staffing to Ensure Availability of Critical Expertise  Provide Robust, Redundant Systems  Ensure NWS IT Systems Evolve with Changing Technology  Improve Cost Effectiveness of Providing IT Services

14. 14 Smooth Transition Across IT IT Security IT Support Automated Tools WAN Applications Email/Messaging User Desktop Internet … crossing the boundaries From the user’s needs From the Corporate Side

15. 15 HIC Concerns about … NWS IT Consolidation  Victor Hom (NERFC) POC for RFC Desktop issues  Open Discussion

16. 16 NWS IT Consolidation Efforts THANKS! We can do it together … we need your support and help! … we need your support and help!