Phase II Under Way
NIH on Track with IT Consolidation

The information technology staff at your institute or center share a goal with CIT — all are committed to eliminating unnecessary duplication of functions and infrastructure and make IT consolidation at NIH as smooth and transparent as possible. Through collaboration, NIH successfully met the goals for phase I of the consolidation and has moved into phase II.

As proposed by the NIH administrative restructuring advisory committee (ARAC) — and agreed upon by NIH and the HHS Office of the Secretary — NIH must complete this phase by Oct. 31. Effective implementation of phase II will meet the expectations of the ARAC plan as well as those of the HHS enterprise IT strategic plan.

Areas of implementation in phase II include:

• Consolidate all NIH Active Directory user accounts into the single nih.gov domain;
• Consolidate network management and monitoring;
• Consolidate dial-up and virtual private network (VPN) remote access services;
• Provide NIH enterprise network infrastructure in new and renovated buildings in Montgomery County;
• Establish standards to govern future network equipment replacements and upgrades, leading to unification of network architecture;
• Restructure videoconferencing between CIT and ORS. CIT will provide technology and infrastructure support (design, acquisition, installation, maintenance). ORS will provide event planning, operational support and content capture.

How Will Phase II Affect Me?

Phase II deals primarily with underlying IT infrastructure. Therefore, most changes will involve interaction between CIT staff and IT personnel within the ICs, and will have little direct effect on users. However, in some instances active directory users may need a new NIH Login ID. All users whose login IDs must change will receive separate and specific instructions.

When Will These Changes Take Place?

In some ICs certain areas of the consolidation have already been finalized. Major changes across all ICs are scheduled for completion by Oct. 31. NIH will continue to refine systems and processes after the deadline.

Further information is available on the web site http://ITConsolidation.nih.gov. If you have questions, contact your IC IT support staff or Susan Chaffee at (301) 594-9501 or Susan_Chaffee@nih.gov.