Information Technology Challenges at NASA, Michael Bolger, CIO, Kennedy Space Center, NASA

Created by Lida L. Larsen (EDUCAUSE) on June 5, 2008

Information Technology Challenges at NASA
Michael Bolger, CIO
NASA Kennedy Space Center

Opening General Session

2008 Southeast Regional Conference
Jacksonville, FL
2 June 2008

This keynote presentation discussed the current IT environment at NASA and the IT challenges that the agency faces as it moves into a new era of space exploration. The CIO from the Kennedy Space Center discussed new strategic directions and supporting initiatives being implemented across the agency to enable future mission success.

NOTES

Michael Bolger began his comments by noting that he had visited the EDUCAUSE website and had seen from the 2008 Current IT Issues Survey that Higher Education and NASA have very similar issues and challenges. NASA has had a long affiliation with universities and colleges and there is a core alliance with university researchers.

NASA itself is quite complex. Bolger has been with NASA since he was a coop student. NASA started naming CIOs about the same time that Higher Education began to do so. His office is now staffed with 140 civil servants plus 500 contractors.

It takes too many resources to send each person into space now. Earth is the most suitable planet in the solar system for humans. Bolger quoted Stephen Hawking who said he didn't "think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."

About NASA

The current mission of NASA includes

Space Shuttle - Only 10 missions left for the shuttle
Complete the international space station.
Develop balance over the program of science exploration and aeronautics
Crew exploration vehicle
Encourage appropriate partnerships for continued work
Establish lunar return program having the maximum possible utility for later missions to Mars and other destinations

NASA has four directorates:

Space operations
Aeronautics research
Science
Exploration systems

While there is one NASA it is made up of a number of key centers including

Johnson Space Center in Texas
Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
Jet Propulsion Lab [JPL] in California

All are spending more time on exploration.

Kennedy sits on a wildlife preserve with a 3 mile long runway and it supports 4 missions with 1500 people - only 2000 of whom are civil servants. Cape Canaveral rocket row is adjacent to KSC. Being on a wildlife preserve has its own set of issues.

Space Shuttle
International Space Station
Launch Services - for non-NASA flights
Constellations supports manned space flight

KSC's economic impact = $1.7 billion injected into Florida

Bolger showed us photos of the Space Shuttle, Delta2, Atlas5, and Delta4 heavy rockets, and the lab for the Space Shuttle.
KSC processes payloads from all over the world.
They also support airshows by the Air Force Thunderbirds.
He talked briefly about the Phoenix mission, the discovery of what looks like ice under dirt, and mentioned that there was surprise at the hilliness of the Mars terrain.

Transforming IT to enable NASA's Mission

Bolger remarked again of the parallels in mission and challenges in our missions and his.
We both provide the computer and infrastructure for others to do their work and we have a similar set of challenges.

NASA is a complex organization. Across NASA there are 18K civil servants and 44K contractors
They have a budget of $2.2 billion annually which is 13% of NASA's budget
There are 8 thousand websites ~4 thousand are public & ~4 thousand are internal
For the first time they are moving towards a centralized email system which will need to handle 530 thousand messages per day to 38 thousand accounts.

Each center has an IT unit and many of the individual projects do as well. Most of the project IT units have their own CIO.

There are 80K desktops, 3 WAN with 6 million IP addresses, 80 connections to different ISPs, and 200 connections to universities and partners

Budget

NASA gives the IT units 13% of the budget compared to a 7-0% average for other federal government units. Aerospace and defense units typically receive 3.5-4.5%.

While complexity of IT has grown over 40 years there were no CIOs until 10 years ago. These CIOs support

Institutional IT
Program IT
Mission directorate

They have not had enterprise-wide IT. Enterprise architecture is not optional of course, every enterprise has one. However, some were planned and others just happened.

Issues/challenges

Security vulnerabilities
Infrastructure inhibits cross-center collaboration and it doesn't integrate well
Significant proliferation of tools and a lack of standards to enable integration
Lack of visibility into NASA IT investments, and inadequate controls on IT spending
Inconsistent understanding of how IT is managed at NASA , ie, what is the role of the CIO

Key principles that they work by are

IT serves the NASA mission
Buy what they can - business/mission processes and information across organizational boundaries
Implement technology to achieve efficiencies and ensure they are efficiently implemented
Security IT solutions

They have set up strategic teams to make decisions about

CIO role - the overall role within the organization
Finance - increased visibility and controls
Infrastructure - consolidation wherever possible
Governance - they need a process to make decisions

[They are currently running over 2500 applications across the organization]

Role of CIO has been decided to be compliance, alignment, and service delivery
Highly specialized IT for mission (program specific things) are not on the list of responsibilities. Applications belong to science and engineering, project management, business management, in other words, the CIOs won't tell the CFOs to use SAP or not.

The CIOs are responsible for data centers, communications, infrastructure applications, and end user integration. Their core is comprised of overall governance & policy, enterprise architecture, IT security, relationship management, resources management, innovation management, service management & delivery (ops), project management (development), and performance management.

NASA's IT is a service provider who handles governance structure and priorities.

They have a Strategy and Investment Board which is director level with senior stakeholders and this is the board that makes decisions regarding investment priorities and selection (security, standardization of & security of end user devices, consolidation of security operations and incident response, consolidation of applications, consolidation of data centers & strong authentication for systems which will be a part of the common smart card/badge to be implemented across the federal government. Bolger noted that there are 34 data centers now and the goal will be to reduce that number to one per center.

They also have a Program Management Board who makes decisions regarding application and infrastructure and keep the project on track through design and implementation.

The Management Board makes decisions regarding operations. If I caught it correctly there is a decision to consolidate communications. Currently the networks are managed as independent services and the move will be to move to zones by centers.

Bolger noted that there is no overarching IT integration across NASA at this time. Under this new organizational structure they will first look to see what they actually have and see where they can consolidate in the areas of:

Business standards
Architecture
Performance goals
Investment planning

They plan to move funding into directorates for baseline core services. There will be a charge-back if more is needed for a program within that directorate.

Bolger believes that success will be:

Seamless and secure
Investing in the right solutions
Accessible, integrated, actionable
Reliable, efficient, and well managed
Credible

In summary, Bolger says that significant transformation of IT management and infrastructure is underway.

As an aside he indicated that many people say "phoohey" on space exploration wondering "what's it ever done for me?" NASA's budget is less than 1% of the federal budget and they continually innovate and invent new products that we use in our daily lives. He did not mention the long heralded Tang but did list

Radiation blocking lenses
Hearing aid and battery technology
Fire resistant insulating fabric
Lightweight composite hip replacement
Velcro
Digital cell phone technology
Programmable pacemakers
Advances in heart pumps

Audience questions and responses:

Q Who plays Solomon when they sort through the 2500 applications that they want to consolidate?
Bolger said they have categorized them into 4 groups and put a responsible adult in charge. (office of the chief engineer) They are focusing on applications for the Exploration Program now. He said it's not worth switching out the old applications for old programs that will soon be gone.

Q Who manages the compatibility?
Bolger indicated that this was a huge question. There was a first meeting at Marshall with all chief engineers, program managers, CIOs and more will follow. The Agency CIO is in DC and has the role of a visionary. Each center will have a CIO. Because many programs also had CIOs it has been confusing. The decision has been made that program CIOs will have a title change. All IT decisions were made at the lowest level in the past with focus on the project.

Q In regard to enterprise architecture, Bolger indicated that they are planning where they are going - it is a process.

Q How do you decide what to keep/archive with the all of the data that NASA has?
Bolger indicated that there are many rules on records management. There is a formal program that imposes requirements and guidelines across programs.

Q An IT audit of a university system showed a need for internal IT auditors. What is the situation at NASA?
NASA does not have internal audit but rather one from the Inspection General and fairly frequently. They are also complying with OMB and other rules for systems, infrastructure etc - about 150 per systems. They have to decide if they could meet it or accept risk. GAO also comes in occasionally.

Q What top three keep you awake at night?
1) Infrastructure consolidation initiative because systems are now fragmented
2) Security - highest level of attention
3) Funding - still have to do the shuttle for 2 more years which means that they do not have enough to do the new Exploration Program appropriately yet.
4) Safety is always the top priority

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		Information Technology Challenges at NASA, Michael Bolger, CIO, Kennedy Space Center, NASA Created by Lida L. Larsen (EDUCAUSE) on June 5, 2008 Information Technology Challenges at NASA Michael Bolger, CIO NASA Kennedy Space Center Opening General Session 2008 Southeast Regional Conference Jacksonville, FL 2 June 2008 This keynote presentation discussed the current IT environment at NASA and the IT challenges that the agency faces as it moves into a new era of space exploration. The CIO from the Kennedy Space Center discussed new strategic directions and supporting initiatives being implemented across the agency to enable future mission success. NOTES Michael Bolger began his comments by noting that he had visited the EDUCAUSE website and had seen from the 2008 Current IT Issues Survey that Higher Education and NASA have very similar issues and challenges. NASA has had a long affiliation with universities and colleges and there is a core alliance with university researchers. NASA itself is quite complex. Bolger has been with NASA since he was a coop student. NASA started naming CIOs about the same time that Higher Education began to do so. His office is now staffed with 140 civil servants plus 500 contractors. It takes too many resources to send each person into space now. Earth is the most suitable planet in the solar system for humans. Bolger quoted Stephen Hawking who said he didn't "think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." About NASA The current mission of NASA includes Space Shuttle - Only 10 missions left for the shuttle Complete the international space station. Develop balance over the program of science exploration and aeronautics Crew exploration vehicle Encourage appropriate partnerships for continued work Establish lunar return program having the maximum possible utility for later missions to Mars and other destinations NASA has four directorates: Space operations Aeronautics research Science Exploration systems While there is one NASA it is made up of a number of key centers including Johnson Space Center in Texas Kennedy Space Center in Florida Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama Jet Propulsion Lab [JPL] in California All are spending more time on exploration. Kennedy sits on a wildlife preserve with a 3 mile long runway and it supports 4 missions with 1500 people - only 2000 of whom are civil servants. Cape Canaveral rocket row is adjacent to KSC. Being on a wildlife preserve has its own set of issues. Space Shuttle International Space Station Launch Services - for non-NASA flights Constellations supports manned space flight KSC's economic impact = $1.7 billion injected into Florida Bolger showed us photos of the Space Shuttle, Delta2, Atlas5, and Delta4 heavy rockets, and the lab for the Space Shuttle. KSC processes payloads from all over the world. They also support airshows by the Air Force Thunderbirds. He talked briefly about the Phoenix mission, the discovery of what looks like ice under dirt, and mentioned that there was surprise at the hilliness of the Mars terrain. Transforming IT to enable NASA's Mission Bolger remarked again of the parallels in mission and challenges in our missions and his. We both provide the computer and infrastructure for others to do their work and we have a similar set of challenges. NASA is a complex organization. Across NASA there are 18K civil servants and 44K contractors They have a budget of $2.2 billion annually which is 13% of NASA's budget There are 8 thousand websites ~4 thousand are public & ~4 thousand are internal For the first time they are moving towards a centralized email system which will need to handle 530 thousand messages per day to 38 thousand accounts. Each center has an IT unit and many of the individual projects do as well. Most of the project IT units have their own CIO. There are 80K desktops, 3 WAN with 6 million IP addresses, 80 connections to different ISPs, and 200 connections to universities and partners Budget NASA gives the IT units 13% of the budget compared to a 7-0% average for other federal government units. Aerospace and defense units typically receive 3.5-4.5%. While complexity of IT has grown over 40 years there were no CIOs until 10 years ago. These CIOs support Institutional IT Program IT Mission directorate They have not had enterprise-wide IT. Enterprise architecture is not optional of course, every enterprise has one. However, some were planned and others just happened. Issues/challenges Security vulnerabilities Infrastructure inhibits cross-center collaboration and it doesn't integrate well Significant proliferation of tools and a lack of standards to enable integration Lack of visibility into NASA IT investments, and inadequate controls on IT spending Inconsistent understanding of how IT is managed at NASA , ie, what is the role of the CIO Key principles that they work by are IT serves the NASA mission Buy what they can - business/mission processes and information across organizational boundaries Implement technology to achieve efficiencies and ensure they are efficiently implemented Security IT solutions They have set up strategic teams to make decisions about CIO role - the overall role within the organization Finance - increased visibility and controls Infrastructure - consolidation wherever possible Governance - they need a process to make decisions [They are currently running over 2500 applications across the organization] Role of CIO has been decided to be compliance, alignment, and service delivery Highly specialized IT for mission (program specific things) are not on the list of responsibilities. Applications belong to science and engineering, project management, business management, in other words, the CIOs won't tell the CFOs to use SAP or not. The CIOs are responsible for data centers, communications, infrastructure applications, and end user integration. Their core is comprised of overall governance & policy, enterprise architecture, IT security, relationship management, resources management, innovation management, service management & delivery (ops), project management (development), and performance management. NASA's IT is a service provider who handles governance structure and priorities. They have a Strategy and Investment Board which is director level with senior stakeholders and this is the board that makes decisions regarding investment priorities and selection (security, standardization of & security of end user devices, consolidation of security operations and incident response, consolidation of applications, consolidation of data centers & strong authentication for systems which will be a part of the common smart card/badge to be implemented across the federal government. Bolger noted that there are 34 data centers now and the goal will be to reduce that number to one per center. They also have a Program Management Board who makes decisions regarding application and infrastructure and keep the project on track through design and implementation. The Management Board makes decisions regarding operations. If I caught it correctly there is a decision to consolidate communications. Currently the networks are managed as independent services and the move will be to move to zones by centers. Bolger noted that there is no overarching IT integration across NASA at this time. Under this new organizational structure they will first look to see what they actually have and see where they can consolidate in the areas of: Business standards Architecture Performance goals Investment planning They plan to move funding into directorates for baseline core services. There will be a charge-back if more is needed for a program within that directorate. Bolger believes that success will be: Seamless and secure Investing in the right solutions Accessible, integrated, actionable Reliable, efficient, and well managed Credible In summary, Bolger says that significant transformation of IT management and infrastructure is underway. As an aside he indicated that many people say "phoohey" on space exploration wondering "what's it ever done for me?" NASA's budget is less than 1% of the federal budget and they continually innovate and invent new products that we use in our daily lives. He did not mention the long heralded Tang but did list Radiation blocking lenses Hearing aid and battery technology Fire resistant insulating fabric Lightweight composite hip replacement Velcro Digital cell phone technology Programmable pacemakers Advances in heart pumps Audience questions and responses: Q Who plays Solomon when they sort through the 2500 applications that they want to consolidate? Bolger said they have categorized them into 4 groups and put a responsible adult in charge. (office of the chief engineer) They are focusing on applications for the Exploration Program now. He said it's not worth switching out the old applications for old programs that will soon be gone. Q Who manages the compatibility? Bolger indicated that this was a huge question. There was a first meeting at Marshall with all chief engineers, program managers, CIOs and more will follow. The Agency CIO is in DC and has the role of a visionary. Each center will have a CIO. Because many programs also had CIOs it has been confusing. The decision has been made that program CIOs will have a title change. All IT decisions were made at the lowest level in the past with focus on the project. Q In regard to enterprise architecture, Bolger indicated that they are planning where they are going - it is a process. Q How do you decide what to keep/archive with the all of the data that NASA has? Bolger indicated that there are many rules on records management. There is a formal program that imposes requirements and guidelines across programs. Q An IT audit of a university system showed a need for internal IT auditors. What is the situation at NASA? NASA does not have internal audit but rather one from the Inspection General and fairly frequently. They are also complying with OMB and other rules for systems, infrastructure etc - about 150 per systems. They have to decide if they could meet it or accept risk. GAO also comes in occasionally. Q What top three keep you awake at night? 1) Infrastructure consolidation initiative because systems are now fragmented 2) Security - highest level of attention 3) Funding - still have to do the shuttle for 2 more years which means that they do not have enough to do the new Exploration Program appropriately yet. 4) Safety is always the top priority CIO role \| EDUCAUSE_SERC08 \| IT Governance \| Kennedy Space Center \| nasa Lida's blog Login or register to post comments 1066 reads
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