Thanks to all who completed their FY09Q1 Inventory Reports!
Introduction
The CIT architecture inventory is a listing of major technologies and architectural components that are being used in CIT. Information is provided by Architecture Inventory Representatives -- individuals identified by each division's CCDAT representative as being "technology owners" within that division. The Architecture Inventory Representatives are asked to provide a three year outlook/forecast on each of the technologies and/or architectural components they are responsible by classifying each -- on a quarterly basis -- into one of the following six categories:
Key |
Meaning |
|---|---|
R |
Research - Technology may be under evaluation and is not being used in production |
P |
Pilot - Technology approved for small-scale production use only. |
I |
Invest - Technology recommended for wide-spread deployment. |
M |
Maintain - New implementations are not encouraged. Existing systems may continue to rely upon these components and extend existing implementations. Product may be maintained but not planned for upgrades except bug fixes. |
D |
Disinvest - Technology is in the process of being phased out. |
U |
Unsupported - Technology is not advised for use in production systems. |
Previous Reports
The following reports have been presented to SRM:
Current Issues
When compiling each quarter's architecture report, each inventory report is checked for potential conflicts with other inventory reports. An example of a conflict would be if one inventory report states that service B will be unsupported in two years but a different inventory reports states that service C, which is dependent on service B, will be supported for all three years. A current list of all conflicts appears below. It is important to understand that most conflicts are simple misunderstandings and are readily resolved. However, if there are more deeply-rooted conflicts, a CPMM Issue Report is filed and a more formal procedure for resolving the conflict takes place. The table below lists all conflicts and what state they are in.
Quarter |
Title |
Description |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|
FY09Q1 |
ColdFusion 7 |
IS Infrastructure reports that ColdFusion 7 will be unsupported effective FY11Q1. The Cold Fusion applications group reports that they will be "maintaining" ColdFusion 7 based applications for all three fiscal years. |
Further investigation yielded information from Jon Atherton that the hosting group is planning on turning off support for ColdFusion 7 in FY10Q1 (September '09). I have not been able to contact Steve Lutter yet to make sure he is aware of this. |
FY09Q1 |
CUPeople |
IS Infrastructure reports that CUPeople is being "Maintained" all three fiscal years. There are known security issues with the current product and it is CCDAT's understanding that the current product is being phased out. |
In discussing this issue with Bob Carozzoni from IS, it appears that CUPeople will NOT be phased out, but the service as it exists today will be retired in favor of newer technologies that will not be subject to the security issues that are present today. The current production service depends on Kerberos 4 which Identity Management is targetting to turn off by the end of March, 2009. Bob believes that all existing CUPeople customers can be moved to a newer service by the same date. This situation should be monitored as there appears to be little room for slippage should there be any slippage in the schedule to move CUPeople customers. |
FY09Q1 |
KFront/MVS Dispatchers |
IS Infrastructure lists KFront and MVS Dispatchers as "Disinvest" for all three fiscal years. CCDAT believes that Identify Management is looking to "turn off" Kerberos 4 sometime during FY09Q3, and both KFront and the MVS Dispatchers depend on K4. |
Conversations with John Parker and Bob Carozzoni (IS) informed me that there are plans to maintain the MVS dispatchers and KFront, however they will be updated prior to Identity Managment turning off K4 next March. |
FY09Q1 |
cusspclient |
ATSUS Customer Service lists that they will be moving to "unsupported" status with respect to their use of cusspclient effective FY11Q3. This product depends on Kerberos 4 which Identity Management has being unsupported effective FY09Q3. |
JP Brannan (ATSUS) was unaware of cusspclient's dependency on Kerberos 4 and thus did not realize that the planned turn off of Kerberos 4 would affect his service. The Help Desk uses cusspclient in conjunction with their student scheduling software which is a mission-critical system for running the Help Desk. Discussions with Pete Bosanko (Identity Management) indicate that there is a command line utility that is part of the new CUWebLogin/CUWebAuth that can do many of the same functions as the old cusspclient, without the Kerberos 4 dependency. Pete will talk about this at the joint TSP/SecuritySIG meeting being held on November 20. JP will also get in touch with Steve Edgar to discuss this as well. |
FY09Q1 |
CUSSP |
Identity Management lists CUSSP (the libraries and/or protocol) as moving to an unsupported state as of FY11Q1. CUSSP has a dependency on Kerberos 4 (though it also supports Kerberos 5 in certain implementations) which they have listed as being unsupported effective FY09Q3. |
Pete Bosanko (Identity Management) believes that the date for CUSSP being moved into the "Unsupported" state should be the same date as the planned Kerberos 4 turnoff. Pete will speak with Steve Edgar (OIT/Security CCDAT representative) about this to make sure that there are no issues. |
Resolved Issues
Please consult the Resolved Issues Page for a listing of all previous issues that have been resolved.
Procedure
Every quarter, the appointed Architecture Inventory Representatives in each division should update the page (or pages) they are responsible for in the matrix below. The first time the page is updated, a full three year forecast must be entered, but subsequent quarters the pages will be modified to allow for the addition of one quarter to the existing forecast.
Reporting
Each quarter, ATA will aggregate the data in the architecture inventory into the quarterly Architecture Report. The Architecture Report looks at all data provided by the architecture inventory representatives and breaks it down in to lists of:
- fully invested technologies over the three year forecast
- fully maintained technologies over the three year forecast
- technologies being "phased in" over the three year forecast
- technologies being "phased out" over the three year forecast
In addition to these lists, the architecture report also identifies architecture-related issues that need to be looked at as well as an enumeration of the tasks the architecture committee hopes to accomplish in the next quarter. Architecture reports will be accessible from this page as well as the QBR pages. Users will be able to examine the individual input from each architecture inventory representative from the matrix above.