Open System Coming Soon to the NIH Computer Center
In 1994 when DCRT was celebrating its previous 30 years, the Computing Facilities Branch (CFB) began a systematic look toward the future with several initiatives vital to the evolution and growth of the NIH Computer Center. The desire was driven, in part, by the accelerating pace of technological innovations and, in part, by the desire to help the NIH face the challenges and choices growing out of those innovations.
DCRT reorganized itself, established strategic goals consistent with the division's goals—including open systems—and developed tactical goals for the remaining years of this century. Simultaneously with these strategic initiatives, DCRT has been working on its major new procurement, CERTAN (Computer Equipment, Resources, and Technology Acquisition for NIH), which includes an open system. The specific CERTAN contract that includes the open system will be awarded early in FY97—resulting in delivery of hardware and software early in calendar year 1997.
DCRT will make development of the open system a high priority and expects it to be available for use during 1997. The initial offering will be just the beginning—it will be enhanced through subsequent upgrades until all of the characteristics described below have been addressed. CFB is excited about the opportunity to work with its user community to develop a responsive, productive, new computing environment.
Applications running on the MVS system maintain and use large amounts of data critical to agency business. New applications that are implemented on the open system will need ready access to these data. Even existing MVS applications that are reengineered to run entirely on the open system will need to access MVS data while they are being developed and tested.
An accepted "rule of efficiency" in today's computing environment is that it is better to buy a software product instead of developing it yourself. An advantage of open systems is the wealth of such products that are available—it is usually possible to find and purchase a product for almost any common function.
When COTS products do not adequately address a computing requirement, application development becomes necessary. The availability of a complete set of programming, data management, and testing "tools" can optimize the effort when local development must be done.
Numerous vendors make open systems hardware, resulting in highly competitive pricing and driving down costs to user organizations. Similarly, since software for open systems is widely used, it is typically relatively inexpensive since the vendor's development and support costs are spread over a large customer base. This high volume usually results in lower individual costs. Since the NIH Computer Center operates on a strict cost-recovery basis, these savings will be directly reflected in the charging structure used.
Since agency-wide activities often rely upon immediate access to computing applications, the open system must provide dependable service with a high level of availability. CFB will use its existing operational structure to monitor, run, and maintain the open system.
NIH Computer Center services such as consulting, training, documentation, and thorough testing of system upgrades should extend to the open system. These "value added services" ensure a stable environment that can be relied on for critical production applications.
If an agency or department requires a computer application for critical business functions, then the application should have a contingency plan to provide for disaster recovery. CFB currently works with those responsible for several critical applications that run in the MVS environment to provide for disaster recovery. (This service will be extended to other critical MVS-based applications in the future.) Provisions for a parallel disaster recovery capability must be developed for applications that run on the open system if it is to be used for critical applications.
Many administrative and management applications deal with financial, personnel, or other sensitive data. Applications of this nature must have facilities available to provide an appropriate level of security. Such facilities will become available on the open system when it becomes suitable for these applications.
Interface 196 (June 15, 1996)