Pre-Solicitation_Conference_PowerPoint_Presentation.pdf

Andrew Wandler U.S. Department of Education

June 4, 2018

Enterprise IT Architecture (EITA) Industry Day

AGENDA

• Background & Overview of EITA

• EITA Contract Scope & Organization / Services Provided / Middleware

• Support and Services within the Virtual Data Center (VDC) & Next Generation Data Center (NGDC)

• NGDC Migration Waves

• EITA Service Line Technical Overviews

• Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA)

• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

• Position in FSA / Historical Reference

• Note: Access and Identity Management System (AIMS) and Two Factor Authentication (TFA) will no longer be part of this EITA contract

• Enterprise Business Collaboration (EBC) used to be part of EITA (EBC=SharePoint/Microsoft-focused;

EITA=Java-focused)

• EITA Support

• Example Deliverables

• Contacts

EITA Review

• Acronyms

• EITA Enterprise IT Architecture

• ITA Integrated Technical Architecture

• ESB Enterprise Service Bus

• EBC Enterprise Business Collaboration

• EITA provides OPERATIONAL SUPPORT – i.e. tier-2 support (after you engage the Data Center) for issues in all environments

• EITA provides ARCHITECTURAL EXPERTISE AND ADVICE on a variety of FSA-hosted products (e.g.

IBM WebSphere App. Server, Google, Teamsite, Drupal, Apache, IBM WebSphere MQ, IBM Security Identity and Access Managers, etc.)

• EITA supports the above products and more, with installs, product-related patches and security updates, so APPLICATION TEAMS CAN FOCUS ON APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT!

Background & Overview of EITA

• EITA provides an enterprise-wide infrastructure solution enabling (“middleware”) technologies and architecture/engineering support services for FSA application teams to meet FSA business needs

• Reduces complexity and licensing costs by implementing a shared environment (40+ Information Systems currently hosted)

• Business owners and application teams are freed up from worrying about middleware configuration requirements and issues

• App teams can focus on implementing business requirements through development of the application’s business logic and look and feel

• Provides a High Availability solution

• Provides a Highly Scalable architecture

• Provides up-to-date technology via a regular evergreening cycle

• Provides Level 3 SME support for troubleshooting production issues

• Provides “reusable common services” to insulate application teams from vendor product changes

• Most of the COTS Products including Application Server, HTTP Server, Search, Content Management together comprise Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA)

• EITA provides an integration platform (ESB)

Background & Overview: EITA Service Lines

• Provides a common infrastructure and shared products for FSA applications

• Enables technologies for current and FSA future applications to quickly build and deploy new applications, reducing cost and time to market

Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA)

• Provides messaging and integration capabilities, data transformation services, and service oriented architecture (SOA) services

• ESB serves as the horizontal integration “glue” that allows systems running on disparate platforms to communicate and share data in platform independent manner

• ESB builds and provides standardized interfaces and web services to systems so applications do not have to interface in a point-to-point manner

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Background and Overview: EITA Key Technologies

Middleware Technology Evergreening (Upgrades)

Provide technical architectural strategy and guidance on EITA software and J2EE architecture; Develop and maintain the long-term upgrade schedule; Implement EITA technology upgrades/patches; Coordinate with impacted FSA application owners and teams; and provide upgrade assistance to application teams.

Technical Proofs of Concept (TPOCs)

Perform architectural analyses;

Develop functioning prototypes;

and Test out viability of emerging technologies at FSA.

Migrate New FSA Applications and Implement

New Products and Technologies

Define / design the technical architecture design for new FSA applications migrating to EITA.

Install, configure, and implement new technologies and capabilities.

Integrate with existing EITA products and FSA applications.

EITA Contract Scope: Services and Support

Super Subject Matter Expertise on FSA Products and J2EE Best Practices

Provide product specialty support and J2EE best practices and design review to app teams. Provide support for integration models during development phase.

Provide Technical and Architecture expertise across all FSA technologies.

Provide application and technical architectural recommendations.

Architecture Management / Deployment Support

Build and support EITA products in dev, test, and perf test environments. Configure and tune the EITA software in the pre-production environments. Document EITA software specifications and configuration guides. Engineer and deploy software releases. Support FSA Applications and NGDC teams in all application “promote-to-production” activities. Perform system integration testing after each update is applied.

Reusable Common Services (RCS) for ITA

Develop and maintain existing standard-based Java-based Reusable Common

Services (RCS). RCS services are provided and used by application teams to integrate different services like Email, Google Search etc. into their code to minimize development effort and increase standardization. RCS services also help to prevent or minimize re-coding when COTS products change by putting a service layer around the COTS product.

EITA Contract Scope: Services and Support (contd.)

Engineering Analysis Support

Analysis of severe incidents or events as needed by FSA, including the running and documenting of meetings and providing technical analyses and write-ups as directed. Review and analyze performance and operational metrics and proactively look for trends.

Support resolution of anomalies identified.

Incident Management and

Problem Resolution

Support the NGDC in troubleshooting incidents involving EITA technologies and support remediation. Escalate

COTS-related incidents, except for those COTS for which support is managed by FSA, e.g.

IBM WebSphere, to the relevant

COTS vendors. Provide feedback on the NGDC’s Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Report.

Provide support for trend analysis and incident clustering.

Capacity Planning, Utilization

Management, and Peak Period

Engineering Support

Provide guidance on sizing for technical architecture environments.

Support quarterly and on-demand capacity planning efforts. Help identify and tweak parameters and metrics for utilization and performance monitoring. Support additional planning, monitoring and incident support during FSA key application

“peak periods” for FAFSA.

IT Security Compliance Engineering

Analysis

Support security testing and evaluation of EITA applications, as well as handling and remediation of security vulnerabilities in EITA software.

Provide architectural strategy, guidance, and consultative advice on network and operating system security. Disaster Recovery: Develop scripts; After a disaster, deploy scripts, as appropriate, in support of recovery efforts.

EITA Contract Scope: Services and Support

EITA Contract Scope: EITA Services Delivery

Initiative Vision / Definition

Requirements

• Assess context with the Enterprise Solution

• Provide common

ITA environment and standard products such as web server, app server, load balancer, search engine, content management tools, business analytics, and reusable common services

• Architect systems based on FSA security standards / coordination with ISSO and ITRM

Development

Design Build & Unit Test

• Define application approach

• Provide ITA and ESB technical architecture and solution design support

• Define technical architecture specifications

• Provide expertise to help application teams troubleshoot application or architecture issues

• Install ITA and ESB products

• Configure & administer EITA products

• Build EITA pre-production environments to meet application requirements

• Assist application team by building and deploying application to pre-production environments

Test

Test

• Perform environment “smoke” testing to ensure environment readiness

• Support application testing

• Support Enterprise Performance Testing; Measure message response time

• Conduct Technical

Proofs of Concept to explore and test out new capabilities

Implementation

Deploy

• Coordinate EITA product upgrades and patches with application teams and NGDC

• Coordinate with NGDC in migration of code from Dev and Test environments to Production environment

• Support and perform Change, Release, and Deployment Management

Operations & Maintenance O&M Support

• Lead Architectural management and product evergreening

• Product experts are provided to support 24x7 troubleshooting of the most complex technical issues

• Peak period, capacity planning, and utilization management support

• Disaster Recovery support

• EITA Change Management Support

EITA Contract Scope: Roles and Responsibilities

Layer

Example Development Test

Performance Test Stage Production

FSA Applicat’n Software Business logic and user interfaces supporting a business function

FAFSA, Student Loans, NSLDS, Studentaid.gov, COD, Central Processing System, etc.

Individual Support Contractors

Individual Support

Contractors

Individual Support Contractors

Individual Support

Contractors

Individual Support

Contractors

Middleware Technical Architecture & Engineering Common Products and Capabilities used by FSA Applications

WebSphere MQ WebSphere Application Server (WAS), Google, InfoSphere, MicroStrategy, OpenText Teamsite, etc.

EITA Team EITA Team EITA Team (Handoff

Production Implementation to NGDC Vendor) ->

NGDC

Operations

NGDC

Operations

Infrastructure for Architecture and Applications

Servers, O/S, Database, Network, Routers, Firewall

NGDC Operations Vendor

NGDC

Operations

Vendor

NGDC Operations Vendor

NGDC

Operations

Vendor

NGDC

Operations

Vendor

Installation and configuration of EITA products and technologies in pre-production, designing, and implementing network-related changes (firewall, load balancer, DNS), making product fixes, conducting product upgrades, testing out and implementing new technologies, and providing SME engineering support for products and technologies.

HARDWARE

OPERATING SYSTEM

MIDDLEWARE

SOFTWARE

AND FRAMEWORKS

NETWORK/FIREWALLS

APPLICATIONS

Integrated Technical Architecture

(ITA)

ITA Architecture

ITA Key Technologies

• Web Servers

• IBM HTTP Server

• Apache (Used for ISE)

• J2EE Applications

• IBM WebSphere Application Server

• See slide notes for WAS details

• Content Management and Delivery

• OpenText Teamsite / Open Deploy

• Drupal (Used for ISE)

• Enterprise Search

• Google Search Appliance

• DigitalGov Search (external)

• Data Modeling

• ER Studio or equivalent

• Log Aggregation

• ELK Stack

• Business Intelligence and Reporting

• MicroStrategy or equivalent

• Data Extraction and Manipulation

• IBM InfoSphere

• Virtual Platform

• Mobile Platform

• Address Scrubbing Software

• Satori Infuse (Used by FAFSA)

ITA Reusable Common Services

J2EE

Applications

• The EITA team has developed Java-based Reusable Common Services (RCS) components that application groups use to lessen programming effort

• Use of common components enforces best practices

• EITA designs and develops RCS components to work efficiently within the FSA environments

ITA RCS provides a common interface to be used by all J2EE Applications

Enterprise Search

Other ITA Resources

ITA Reusable Common Services - Mapping

ITA 2018-19 Initiatives

• Product Evaluations

• Content Management Product re-evaluation

• ITA has initiated an evaluation of Content Management products to identify candidates to replace

OpenText TeamSite

• Targeting spring 2018 to complete evaluation

• ITA will perform analyses and provide results/recommendations of the evaluation to users

• Google Search Appliance (GSA) re-evaluation

• Google is phasing out their GSA offering in 2018- and recommending its customers migrate to the

Google Search Offering in the cloud

• Currently ISE uses an government supported (also “GSA” – General Services Agency) alternative offering based on Bing. Financial Aid Toolkit also uses this search solution

• ITA will perform analyses, invite interested parties (i.e., IFAP) and develop recommendations to our users and the Architecture team on a preferred search solution

• ER Studio re-evaluation

• BI Tool re-evaluation

Enterprise Service Bus

(ESB)

ESB Overview

• The ESB is FSA’s integration architecture

• What do we do?

• When applications need to interact, ESB handles all network, platform, and technology details

• Applications need only understand how to interact with ESB

• Whether an application has to interact with one or 10 other FSA applications, it can use the same standard ESB interface method for every interface

• Web service, real time messaging, and file transfers use the same programmatic format. E.g. – All FAFSA and PM interactions with CPS use the same API call

• What does that mean for FSA applications?

• Application teams do not need to employ integration specialists

• Applications do not need to spend time, effort, resources on developing integration solutions for multiple technologies

• Applications do not need to spend resources when integration requirements change. ESB handles this

• Applications can focus on delivery of business capabilities

ESB Business Architecture

ESB Business Architecture

• ESB provides the solution to integrate applications via Web Services, File Transfers, and Real-time messaging

• Web Services are proxied via ESB and protected via AIMS

• ESB supports multiple frameworks including session-based and token-based

• ESB Message Status Inquiry Tool (MSIT) provides application to view real-time and batch activity

• All ESB enabled traffic is tracked and reporting can be generated for capacity planning, performance testing, etc. (Improvement planned in new procurement)

• This is a web utility and is available to any authorized FSA stakeholder, application partner, and datacenter personnel

Operational ESB at a Glance

• ESB manages interfaces for 17 FSA systems both within the VDC, NGDC, and externally

• In 2017 ESB processed in excess of 7.5 million file transfers

• The common ESB managed file transfer infrastructure is designed to handle orders of magnitude more without requiring additional resources

• In 2017 ESB processed in excess of 280 million messages

• ESB relies on the mature, proven IBM WebSphere MQ middleware. This is in use at every Fortune

100 company and is de facto standard for assured delivery middleware in the financial industry

• In 2017 ESB processed in excess of 450 million web service calls

• These support interactions with AIMS, PAS, FAFSA, FSAIC, EDConnect, and other FSA systems.

This also includes interactions with external providers including DHS, SendGrid, and SumoText

• ESB handles more than 300 discrete interfaces

• These interfaces fall into less than a dozen interface patterns, meaning reuse is prolific. This translates into much faster delivery with reduced testing required

ESB Integrated Systems

• Central Processing System (CPS)

• Common Origination & Disbursement

(COD)

• e-Campus Based (eCB)

• Enterprise Complaint System (ECS)

• EDConnect

• eZ-Audit

• Financial Management System (FMS)

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) on the Web

• Message Status Inquiry Tool (MSIT)

• National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®)

• Person Authentication Service (PAS)

• Postsecondary Education Participants System

(PEPS)

• Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) Mailbox

• SAIG Enrollment

• PCA’s, NFP’s, GA’s

ESB Mediation Capabilities

• Generic Mediation

• Authentication

• Authorization

• Audit

• Encryption

• Protocol Switching

• XML Schema Validation

• XML Vulnerability Detection

• Service Specific Mediation

• XSLT

• Dynamic Routing

• Message Injection / Suppression

• Service Component Architecture

(SCA)

ESB 2018–19 Initiatives

• ESB 2.0 – modernization of ESB to incorporate modern application frameworks such as Node.js

• Components that run inside of IBM Integration Broker have been rewritten to run in Node.js, paving the way to eventually replace the COTS product. ESB 2.0 also includes a new service gateway in DataPower that acts as a policy enforcement point for applications that interact with web services that use REST patterns and JSON payloads.

• Phase 1

• Development of DataPower Service Gateway to support secure web service interactions for RESTful services using JSON.

This is interoperable with the new Node.js framework. Allows for interaction with legacy services using SOAP, MQ, and other protocols

• Development of Node.js integration fabric. Includes reusable modules to interact with Oracle and WebSphere MQ. Allows for the development of JavaScript based microservices

• Completed in February 2018

• Phase 2

• Development of Node.js hosted mediations to replace some that are currently implemented in IBM Integration Broker (IIB). May permit the eventual retirement of IIB. Includes:

– Email and SMS calls that support PAS

– Managed File Transfer and real time transaction status information

– Mediations for COD/FMS interaction

– ATF tracking data

• MQ Managed File Transfer (MFT)

• MFT is a replacement for the OpenText DataIntegrator product that formerly underpinned the ESB managed file transfer environment. The replacement was necessitated by DataIntegrator going out of support

• All systems with the exception of PEPS have now migrated to MFT and the product has been retired

• TLS/SHA Standards Update

• Coordinated work efforts with applications to implement and test the removal of TLS 1.0 to comply with department security standards

• NGDC Migration Tasks

• Completed implementation of the Foundation Wave servers. All servers and appliances were verified and COTS products tested

• Coordinated work efforts with VDC and NGDC vendors to design and implement a cross datacenter intercommunication strategy that will permit applications migrating in different waves to interact. This is critical to the success of the incremental migration approach

• Ongoing work includes subsequent wave configuration for applications

• Updates to CPS/DHS Web Services Interfaces

• Developed and updated mediation to implement new business rules to support the daily CPS/DHS interactions. A new DHS standard has been announced and ESB is working to analyze required changes

• FSAIC Integration with CPS

• Implemented web services to permit the FSAIC call center to interact with CPS. This required integration with the Oracle Service Cloud where FSAIC is implemented. The was a solution adopted to remove the need for representatives to use the CPS 3270 screens

• Annual cycle releases for COD, CPS, and other systems

• Working with Accenture, GDOS, and other application partners to implement new interfaces required by cycle specific and legislative requirements

• ESB implements new interfaces using existing patterns, fostering reuse and faster delivery

• MyStudentAid Interface at AWS

Notable EITA Changes

• Improved and Extended Security Support

• Findings review, classification, and coordination

• NGDC instead of VDC (different data center vendor)

• Improved Coordination with AIMS / PAS vendor

• Support for Cloud Applications

• Addition / Continuation of PEPS, eApp, and eZ-Audit

Expertise and Certifications

• Engineers certified in all ESB and ITA products, and associated skills, especially:

• WebSphere Application Server

• Websphere MQ

• Google Search

• Teamsite

• Node.js

• Drupal

• Java

• Microservices

• API management

• Server side JavaScript development

• JSON

• Restful services

• Web Services and associated security

Some Key EITA Deliverables

# Product Due Date 1 Contractor Program Management

Plan Within 30 days of Contract Award

2 Performance Measures Plan Within 60 days of Contract Award

3 Weekly Status Report (separated by service area if requested by

FSA)

Every Tuesday or day mutually agreeable

4 Current State Report 15th of every month

5 Project Management Report (PMR) 15th of every month

6 Build and Deploy Framework Guide Within 60 days of Contract Award; updated annually

7 Installation and Configuration Guide Per COTS upgrade/patch

8 Standard Operating Procedure As needed

9 Roles and Responsibilities Matrix Within 30 days of Contract Award

10 Transition Status Report Weekly during transition

11 Technical Proof Of Concept Report Per TPOC

12 Risk Management Plan and Risk Report 15th of every month

13 Requirements Specification

Per Release Cycle / For each enhancement / For each TPOC

Some Key EITA Deliverables (contd.)

# Product Due Date 14 System Security Plan For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

15 Contingency Plan For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

16 System Security Test and Evaluation Plan For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

17 System Vulnerability Assessment For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

18 Security Test Results For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

19 Security Remediation Report Weekly (as part of Weekly Status Report)

20 Authority To Operate Package For each update C&A/A&A Documentation

21 Thread Analysis Documentation If required, for each update of C&A/A&A Documentation

22 LMM Tailoring Plan For each major activity as needed

23 Program Assessment Annually

24 Operational Assessment Annually

25 SLA Report Coincident with Current State Report

26 Lessons Learned Coincident with Current State Report

FSA EITA Contacts

• FSA Acquisitions & EITA Administration

• Nicole Stevenson – FSA Contract Officer (CO)

• Paul Bean – FSA Contract Officer (CO)

• Marouf Shams – FSA Contract Specialist

• Yvette Bryant – EITA Contract Officer Representative (COR)

• Program Management

• Sandy England – EITA Business Owner and Director of Architecture

• Andrew Wandler – EAE Program Mgr.- (EITA; EA; & EPT)

• Michael Chin – System Security Officer (ISSO for ITA and ESB)

• Project Management

• EITA / ITA

• Rick Armwood – ITA Technical Lead

• Andrew Wandler – ITA Alternate Technical Lead

• EITA / ESB

• Kesavan Kannan – ESB Technical Lead

• Andrew Wandler – ESB Alternate Technical Lead

Sergio Perez

June 4, 2018

Enterprise Business Collaboration (EBC) Industry Day

Agenda

• Program Objectives

• Program History

• Services

• Overview

• Environment

• Service Areas

• Current Initiatives

• 2019 Initiatives

• Contacts

EBC Program Objectives

Provide a comprehensive, Department-wide, and user-driven capability to effectively, expeditiously and securely collaborate with and share information among employees and/or with partners.

Provide an entry level workflow solution for business process automation.

Enable fast collaboration solution implementations by users.

Provide a cost-effective development platform.

EBC Program History

• November 2011 – EBC Deployed

• March 2012 – Current EBC team was assembled with objective of improving operations and management to include scope definition, governance, operational support efforts, contract oversight, training, user adoption, and user support

• November 2013 – Completed platform stabilization and optimization

• March 2014 – Awarded new operational support contract

• April 2014 – connectED (Department intranet) migrated from legacy environment and hosted on Employee Enterprise Business Collaboration (EEBC) (SharePoint)

• July 2014 – Implemented first extranet solution on Partners Enterprise Business

Collaboration (PEBC)

• September 2016 – Upgraded EEBC to SharePoint 2013 Compatibility Mode

• September 2017 – Completed EEBC migration to SharePoint 2013 Native Mode

• April 2018 – Migrated EBC environment to Next Generation Data Center (NGDC)

EBC Services

• Collaboration and Communication Team Sites – share and manage information among co-workers Portals – share information with customers or partners MySites – personal employee workspaces

• Workflow and Application Development Platforms SharePoint Workflow Serena Business Manager

• Investment, Portfolio, Program, and Project Management

UMT 360

Microsoft Project Server

• Virtual Desktop Environment Virtual development platform for application developers

EBC Overview

• Acronyms EBC Enterprise Business Collaboration EEBC Employee Enterprise Business Collaboration PEBC Partners Enterprise Business Collaboration VDE Virtual Desktop Environment NGDC Next Generation Data Center

• EBC is comprised of EEBC (internal-facing sites), PEBC (external-facing sites), and VDE (outside of NGDC)

• EBC O&M Team supports the following environments:

VDE, Development, Test, Enterprise Performance Test (EPT) – EBC O&M

Primary/NGDC Staging, Production – NGDC Primary/EBC O&M

EBC Overview (continued)

• Web Applications Total Number: EEBC – 8, PEBC – 2

• Site Collections (includes MySites Collections) Total Number: EEBC – 2,679

• Sites Total Number: EEBC – 6,333

• Users \ MySites (EEBC) Total Number of Users: ~7,500 Total Number of MySites: 2,825 Maximum File Upload Size: 50MB Standard

• Documents (EEBC) Total Number of Documents: 8,632,146

EBC Environment: High-Level Architecture

EBC Environment: Components

EEBC

(Internal Facing)

PEBC

(External Facing)

MySites Team Sites

Organization Sites Organization Portals

Applications and Solutions:

Performance Awards Tracking System

(PATS)

Call Center Monitoring fsa.share.ed.gov connectEd

Educate Portal Educate Deliverables

Enterprise Performance Planning and Monitoring (EPPM)

FIMS

HOPS

Lessons Learned Data Base (LLDB) OCIO SharePoint Workflows and

InfoPath forms (12 solutions) OPE Portal OESE Portal

COD Service Desk Corinthian

ESCI Recorded Calls PCA Site

TOP Review Site

TPSOG

Organization Portals Extranets

Applications:

VDE

(Outside NGDC)

Virtual Desktops Shared Sandboxes

Applications:

Available to All Applications

Accessed via the Internet Hosted outside of the NGDC

Accessed via the Internal Department Network or Citrix

Accessed via the Internet Access Controlled by AIMS

EBC Environment: Servers

Environment Web Servers Application Servers

Database Servers

EEBC Test/Dev 2 4 2

EEBC EPT 4 6 1

EEBC Prod 4 9 4

PEBC Test/Dev 4 2 1

PEBC EPT 2 6 1

PEBC Prod 2 7 2

EBC Environment: Software

• Bamboo Solutions (Polling Web Part)

• Bamboo Solutions (List Rollup Web Part)

• Cryptzone Compliance Sherriff

• Metalogix Diagnostic Manager

• Metalogix ControlPoint

• Metalogix Migration Manager for SharePoint

• Microsoft FAST Search Server

(PEBC 2010 Only)

• Microsoft Project Server 2013

• Microsoft SharePoint Designer

• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

• Microsoft Office Web Apps 2013

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012

• Serena Business Manager (SBM)

• UMT 360 Project Essentials

• Team Improver

EBC Service Area: Management, Compliance, & Coordination Services

Set of general services that provide a common framework for program and technical management and support. These include:

• Management Services

• IT Compliance

• Architecture Management

• Disaster Recovery Support

• Release and Deployment

Management

• Platform Operation

• Development and execution of technology plans

• Technical Governance and Oversight

Support

• Performance Management

• Capacity Planning

• Development, Test, and EPT

Infrastructure Support

• Oversight of Operations

Routine Processing Monitoring Incident Management and Problem

Resolution Product Acquisition Third-party Vendor Interaction Provision

EBC Service Area: Operations, Maintenance, and Enhancement Services

Ensure that services, hardware and software are up-to-date, operate efficiently and effectively and are responsive to the needs of its client applications.

Services include:

• Operations

• Technology Refresh and Evergreening

• EBC Tools and Capabilities Development

• Release and Deployment Management

• Incident Management and Problem Resolution

• Change Management

• Capacity Planning and Capacity Management Support

• Testing and Test Support

EBC Service Area: Stakeholder Support Services

Encompasses planning and executing user and application developer outreach, technical support and informal training, and executing and enforcing EBC technical governance.

Services include:

• EBC Application Support

• EBC End-User Help Desk

• Interface with other Help Desks

• Interaction with NGDC

• Technical Governance

• Transition Plans

EBC Service Area: Virtual Desktop Environment

Provides EBC developers with a pre-development environment, which resides outside of the NGDC, and allows for full control of the environment.

VDE allows developers to:

• Custom configure their “desktops” with tools and software that may not be available in the NGDC Development environment

• Securely access the VDE from any location

• Test and document solutions prior to going to NGDC Development environment

• Create configuration documentation

• Develop deployment instructions used for NGDC environments

EBC Service Area: Security

Provides guidance and assistance to ensure best security practices are followed and security documentation is developed and complete.

Works in conjunction with EBC ISSO.

Scope includes:

• Assisting with the preparation of ATO Artifacts

System Authorization Boundary System of Record Notice (SORN)

SSP

ISCP

CMP

ST&EP

POA&M

• Maintain Security Documentation

EBC Current Initiatives

• Stabilize environment in NGDC

• Assess SharePoint Online capabilities for external sharing sites If capabilities meet requirements, migrate PEBC external sites to SharePoint

Online

• Upgrade PEBC from 2010 to 2013 (if needed)

• Deploy workflows and solutions

• Enable inbound email to SharePoint

• Plan migration to SharePoint Online

EBC 2019 Initiatives

• Increased Migration Efforts SharePoint Online SharePoint 2016

• On premises footprint reduction

• More workflow solutions deployments

• Increased focus on SharePoint adoption and utilization through training

• Governance plan refinement and implementation

EBC Contacts

Application Development Group (ADG) Director Monica Williams: 202-377-3922 / monica.williams@ed.gov

Program Manager/COR Sergio Perez: 202-377-3378 / sergio.perez@ed.gov

Technical Lead Stephen Heister: 202-377-4021 / stephen.heister@ed.gov

Communications, User Adoption, Governance Patrick Bradshaw: 202-377-3643 / patrick.bradshaw@ed.gov

Technical Liaison, Security, Testing Sharon Washington: 202-377-4549 / sharon.washington@ed.gov

Information System Security Officer (ISSO) David Petersen: 202-377-3970 / david.petersen@ed.gov mailto:monica.williams@ed.gov mailto:sergio.perez@ed.gov mailto:stephen.heister@ed.gov mailto:patrick.bradshaw@ed.gov mailto:sharon.washington@ed.gov mailto:david.petersen@ed.gov

Paul Bean

June 4, 2018

Pre-Solicitation Conference Questions and Answers

No. Question

1 How many users are in the environment?

2 How many physical locations/sites supported?

Has consideration ever been given in the past to supporting these taskings (EBC and EITA) under separate contracts? If yes, what prevented the separation of tasks?

What is the common thread or primary reason that led to both the EBC and EITA taskings to be offered as a single contract?

Has the current PM support structure ever been changed? If yes, why was the change made?

Associated Recommendation: Considering additions to the PM support structure to include\add the equivalent of a Quality Control Manager to provide\ensure continuity of service across the separate\different tasking of EBC and EITA ?

Clarification Request: Does the scope of this request include any level of support for the NGDC, along with support of the EBC and EITA tasking? It is stated that both EBC and EITA are implemented on the NGDC Infrastructure, which is managed by NGDC Staff with consultation from EBC and EITA Staff. Would this consultation include any technical tasking in this effort specific to the NGDC?

EBC and EITA Questions

EBC Questions

EBC ONLY QUESTIONS BELOW THIS POINT

No.

SSN

Page

SSN

Section

Question

7 2 Has there been any change to the key initiatives?

8 2 Did the EBC meet these objectives? Which objectives were most challenging?

9 6 2.2 How is InfoPath being used? How widespread is its usage? Are InfoPath forms being migrated to another COTS platform?

10 2.2 What is the size of the SharePoint 2013 farm. When was it last updated? What were the notable challenges with previous upgrades?

11 2.2 What is the average concurrent user usage on a day to day basis each for EEBC and PEBC? Combined? For SharePoint? K2? Serena?

12 2.2 Are any of the 17 technologies being sunsetted? And if so, what is the migration plan and target platform for migration?

13 8 3.1 What type and volume of work do Enhancement Services entail?

14 4 Will FSA provide access to all Directives listed in the applicable directives list for those that are not readily available online?

16 11 5.1 Is the contractor a member of the PMO? If so, is the PMO government-run with contractor assistance?

No.

SSN

Page

SSN

Section

Question

17 7.2 EBC Sr Tech Lead doesn't list SharePoint, K2 or Serena as a knowledge requirement. Since they are key components in the architecture, should the EBC technical lead have some experience with these COTS platforms?

18 28 9 For SharePoint, do you have an inventory of all the third-party webparts installed? Please provide a list if possible.

19 5.1.1 How many times per month will Project Managers present Project Plans and Schedules and briefings?

20 5.1.1

Please explain "Develop and provide technical requirements for acquisition" - typically technical requirement efforts are organized by the Project Manager, gathered by the Business Analyst and appropriate technical staff, and driven by stakeholders. Is that the appropriate scenario for the requirement?

21 14 5.1.6 Are all or some of the artifacts listed already created? (SDLC, QAP, QC, etc.)

22 5.2.2 Are all products in EBC currently at N-1? Will the contractor be expected to recover from a current deficit?

No.

SSN

Page

SSN

Section

Question

23 16 5.2.4 Regarding the following excerpt from the EBC PWS, "from the Contractor's failure to adequately coordinate these changes with the NGDC", how is contractor failure assessed and by whom?

24 18 5.2.6 How many change requests per year? How many emergencies requests per year?

25 5.2.6 What tools are utilized to support the FDA Enterprise Change Management processes?

26 5.2.6 Regarding "Respond to emergency change requests as needed," would this be 24/7 support for emergency issues?

27 5.2.8 Is a consistent set of test data provided in each environment below PROD?

28 5.3.2 What tools are currently used to log Incidents and Problems?