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State Data Center

CNIC Work Group Summary - June 2005
Overview - Detailed Design Service Management
Network Accounting
Server Human Resources
Mainframe Peer Communications
Storage Change Management
Security Previous Summaries
Overview - Detailed Design
This summary of CNIC work group activities for the period of June 2005 is provided by the CNIC Peer Communications Group. It is intended as a brief synopsis of the activities of various CNIC work groups. 
 
June 2005 was the second month of Stage Two of the CNIC project -- Detailed Design. This stage includes development of the overall consolidation strategy; an acquisition strategy/plan for hardware and software; a testing strategy (e.g. script development planning, mock cutover plan, etc.); a facility equipment layout plan; and a consolidation sequence for each participating agency.
 
Stage Two concludes July 31. Prior to the close of the stage, technical work groups will have carried their recommendations to the CNIC Steering Committee for review and final approval of Detailed Design.
 
Refer to the April 2005 Work Group Summary for Stage One, Technical Architecture, decisions.
Network
The Network group was involved in the following activities and deliverables:
  • Identification of requirements for internal data center firewall
  • Developing a recommendation on network management toolset
  • Developing a recommendation on network infrastructure services (DNS, WINS, DHCP, etc.)
  • Identification of the pros and cons of Microsoft vs. Cisco DNS solutions.
Server
During the month of June the Server Work Group continued to discuss and refine a final draft server Tools Matrix and State Data Center (SDC) floor plan. Additional work group activities included:
  • Reaching preliminary consensus on HP standard for "commodity" servers
  • Review of AIX and Solaris configurations
  • Drafting Detailed Design recommendations (to be finalized in July).
Mainframe
The Mainframe Work Group finalized specifications for the z990 series and the consolidated Mainframe Detailed Design.
Storage
The Storage Work Group continued work on several deliverables. Work included identification of requirements and solicitation of vendor information for the following:
  • Recommendation of data migration tools and processes
  • Recommendation of enterprise storage virtualization tools and technical specifications
  • Recommendation of backup, recovery and archive management tools and technical specifications
  • Recommendations of tape library tools and technical specifications.
Security
During the month of June the primary focus of the Security Work Group was on development of the SDC Security Architecture. This document underwent considerable review by various CNIC work groups, the state Information Security Council, and others closely tied to the state of Oregon security community. A component of the architecture is a proposed list of information security services to be provided by the SDC. The architecture also includes the processes, a basis for standards and policies around each service, organizational recommendations, and roles and responsibilities of the security staff.  Some of these services are planned to spread across the organization and some are planned for a security office within the SDC. The basis of the services recommendations were the ISO 17799, industry best practices, and the best security work being done within the agencies currently.
Service Management
The Service Management Work Group was involved in the following activities during the month of June:
  • Finalizing revised Services Descriptions
  • Reviewing updated Roles and Responsibilities Matrix Descriptions
  • Finalizing Service Level Metrics Summary Descriptions
  • Finalizing initial ITIL-based high-level process flow recommendations.
Additionally, the group presented its Service Catalog recommendations to the CNIC Steering Committee for preliminary review.
Accounting
The Accounting Work Group finalized its recommendation to and received the approval of the CNIC Steering Committee on the SDC Chargeback Model Framework. The group was also engaged in the following activities:
  • Reviewing the Services Catalog deliverable from the Service Management Work Group
  • Updating the Accounting Work Group work plan
  • Continuing work on 05-07 cash flow, chargeback and asset transfer via newly formed subcommittees.  
Human Resources
The Human Resources Work Group approved a revised work group charter and produced a detailed project plan to manage the recruiting efforts of the SDC. In addition, the group participated in the following activities to prepare for SDC recruitment:
  • Obtained and organized relevant position descriptions from CNIC participating agencies (to be used as samples for writing SDC position descriptions)
  • Interviewed select states regarding the human resources component of their data center consolidation projects.

Peer Communications
The Peer Communications Group continued their work to update the CNIC Web portal for state employees, respond to questions, concerns and rumors, and post project FAQs.
Change Management
The CNIC Steering Committee recently chartered a work group for Organizational/People Change Management. Change Management is like project management, but is the "people side" of a project. Change management is defined as proactively managing the people side of change to achieve the desired business results.
 
The work group will officially launch the first part of July. The primary purpose of the group is to address the people-centered challenges of bringing a large number of IT staff from separate agencies together to alter dramatically how IT infrastructure services are delivered to Oregon state government from a consolidated environment.
 
Initial work group activity will center on development of a detailed work plan, creation of a Web-based assessment tool, interviewing project team members for background and perspective on the project, and interviewing members of the CNIC Steering Committee related to their role as executive sponsors.
Previous Summaries
Work group summaries index
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Page updated: December 12, 2006