Federal Student Aid Technical Architecture Initiatives

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Session 46

• Federal Student Aid Technical Architecture
  Initiatives
• Sandy England

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Objective - Key Target State Vision Enablers

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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Target State Vision
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TSV Architecture Overview

• Integrated Technical Architecture, Portal, ESB,
  Security Architecture, Gateway and internal
  applications are integrated within the enterprise
  target state vision

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Key Target State Vision Enablers

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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What is Integrated Technical Architecture?

• Common, shared, proven architecture using
  standardized tools, technology, and technical
  support services
• An effective technical architecture supports a
  business ability to deliver sufficient resources
  to users
• Provides strategic and economic benefits

Standardized Methods
Product Specialist Support
Standardized Technology

• Methods, standards, policies, and directives for
  maintaining an integrated environment
• Structured approach to evaluate/implement changes
  into the environment and support problem
  resolution

• Standardized configuration of hardware and
  software platforms
• Standardized messaging technology to support
  communications across varying hardware platforms,
  projects and locations

• Highly trained staff to manage resources and
  provide services
• Manage daily operations, controlled development
  environment, maintain software, and plan for
  future requirements

Improved Access
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Integrated Technical Architecture Benefits

• Leverage current investments and assets -
• Provides simplified, secure, and integrated
  access to Federal Student Aid services and
  resources
• Facilitates an enterprise-wide perspective to
  planning, developing, and delivering IT
  application systems and services
• Significant cost savings -
• Reduces hardware, software licensing, and support
  costs
• Ability to share highly skilled product
  specialists among multiple teams
• Improved application performance -
• Architecture can be easily scaled to meet
  capacity and performance requirements
• Increase productivity and efficiency -
• Applications get faster and smarter by
  implementing best practices, common services, and
  lessons learned from previous projects

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Integrated Technical Architecture
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Product Selection Approach
Investigate high-level functional and technical
capabilities of each product to create a short
list of vendors to evaluate
Research best practices and market research to
determine industry leaders of products
Determine business and technical architecture
requirements
Create extensive set of criteria to evaluate the
short list
Schedule technical briefings with each shortlist
vendor
Evaluate technical capabilities of the products
and ability to meet the evaluation criteria
Interview/talk with current customers that are
using products to assess support quality, etc.
Conduct Technical Proofs of Concept to determine
if products are technically compatible with
existing architecture and meet requirements
Determine which products best fit by evaluating
their ability to meet the detailed evaluation
criteria and understanding their key
differentiators
Provide product recommendation based on products
ability to meet the key selection criteria.
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Key Target State Vision Enablers

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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What is a Portal?

• An integrated and personalized access point to
  information, applications, and services
• Provides a single, secure, simplified, and
  personalized access point to business information
• Delivers integrated content and applications,
  within a unified, collaborative workplace

Interaction
Integration
Improved Access

• Improved internal use of information
• Secure data sharing with external organizations.

• Expand portfolio of online transactions
• Increase self-services user self-sufficiency
• Analyze "merged" information

• Simplified and standardized look and feel
• Customized information services to meet users
  needs
• Access content from multiple sources
• Secure Information

Improved Access
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Portal Benefits

• Leverage current investments and assets
• Increase productivity and efficiency
• Improve decision-making
• Strengthen constituent goodwill and trust
• Improved customer service and cost savings
• Standard look and feel

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Portal Framework
Framework provides a taxonomy for describing
portal capabilities
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Key Target State Vision Enable

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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What is a Enterprise Service Bus?

• Architecture and an infrastructure that unifies
  and connects services, applications, and
  resources within a business
• Provides the open, standards-based connectivity
  infrastructure for a service oriented
  architecture (SOA)
• Provides communication between systems through
  shared services

SOA Enabler
Integration
IT Benefits

• Standardize interfaces
• Integrate with all new and existing applications
• Leverages existing Security Architecture

• Quickly respond to changing business needs
• Leverage existing assets in new ways
• Reduce software development and maintenance cost
• Improve system security, scalability,
  availability and robustness

• Promotes reuse
• Foster interoperability
• Supports incremental implementation

Improved Access
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Enterprise Service Bus Benefits

• Provides the following Web services mediation
  capabilities -
• Centrally apply security (encryption,
  authentication, authorization) by leveraging
  Security Architecture
• Audit service requests/replies
• Data transformation
• Dynamic routing
• Invoke and reuse shared services across the
  enterprise -
• Business logic is accessible at an enterprise
  level, rather than just the application level
• Choreograph business flows across the enterprise
• Standards-based - vendor neutral

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Current State EAI

• EAI Core Capabilities -
• Assured Message Delivery
• Location Transparency
• Platform Independence
• Protocol Independence
• Single Multi-platform API
• Data Transformation
• Context-based Routing
• Publish-Subscribe
• High-speed Bulk Transfers(gt 100 MB)

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Transition State ESB
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Target State ESB
ESB Technologies
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Key Target State Vision Enablers

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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What is Security Architecture?

• Provides a single, integrated authentication, and
  authorization framework
• Enables consistent Authentication, Authorization,
  and Accountability
• Authentication Who are you?
• Authorization What are you allowed to do?
• Accountability What did you do?

Enterprise Security Management
Services
Consistent Security

• Single sign-on for web applications
• Simplified registration/approval processing
• Delegated administration

• Decrease security risks
• Improves maintainability of systems
• Offloads ADHOC application security from
  application teams

• Consolidated security views and reporting
• Flexibility to accommodate new or redeployed
  systems
• Lowers security development and operational costs

Improved Access
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Security Architecture Benefits

• Provides consistent security services
  configurations across Federal Student Aid systems
  -
• Decrease security risks
• Improves maintainability of systems
• Offloads ad-hoc application security from
  application teams
• Gives better service to our customers/partners -
• Simplified sign-on for web applications
• Simplified registration/approval processing
• Delegated administration
• Promote enterprise security management -
• Consolidated security views and reporting
• Flexibility to accommodate new or redeployed
  systems
• Lowers security development and operational costs

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Security Architecture
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Target State Security Architecture
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Key Target State Vision Enablers

• Integrated Technical Architecture
• Federal Student Aid Enterprise Portal
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Security Architecture (SA)
• Federal Student Aid Gateway

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What is Gateway?

• It is part of an organization's technical
  architecture that facilitates the communication
  between internal applications and external
  systems
• Provides separation and security between the
  outside world and an internal network
• Acts as a proxy to broker requests between
  external partners and Federal Student Aid systems

Business Objectives
Customer Benefits
IT Considerations

• Supports a wide range of transport protocols and
  industry data formats
• Improves visibility of transaction workflows with
  external partners
• Web services will be used to facilitate data
  exchange

• Standardizes external exchange of data through a
  single, virtual, secure gateway
• Enables access to key business services for the
  external community
• Right-time exchange of data with trading partners

• Simplifies trading partner data exchange
• Enables right-time data exchange
• Reduces the number of different data exchange
  formats
• Reduces effort required for integration within FSA

Improved Access
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Gateway Benefits

• Creates an enterprise view of external interface
  information exchanged with Federal Student Aid
• Enables centralized management of external
  interfaces
• Provides the capability for an external partner
  to upload and download files
• Provides a layer of security between Federal
  Student Aid and external partners
• Creates well defined procedures for integrating
  with Federal Student Aid services
• Validates and enforces the use of a standard data
  schema between systems and enables data
  consistency throughout data exchange process

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Current State

• Multiple communication channels and entry points
  into Federal Student Aid are not centrally
  tracked or managed
• No real-time data interchanges
• Security architecture is not being leveraged

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Target State Gateway Solution
TSV Gateway solution will be a single
communication channel between Federal Student
Aid, external partners and external service
providers
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Gateway Framework
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Contact Information

• I appreciate your feedback and comments. I can be
  reached at
• NameSandy England
• Phone[phone]
• EmailSandy.England_at_ed.gov

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Questions?