Office of the Chief Information Officer &
High Performance Computing and Communications
CIO Functions
The NOAA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is responsible to ensure NOAA's programs make full and appropriate use of information technology. The NOAA OCIO oversees the expenditure of approximately $600 million each year in information technology (IT) spending alone - computer hardware, software, services, networking, and telecommunications. This is accomplished by the development of centralized policies and guidance, which are implemented across NOAA. The OCIO works closely with business partners throughout NOAA and the Department of Commerce (DOC) to ensure the use of leading edge technology that will better enable the NOAA mission. The NOAA OCIO implements the following services and program elements:
IT Policy and
Legislation
The NOAA OCIO supports the following legislation with
policies and guidance:
- Clinger-Cohen Act - defining extensive standards for IT governance processes, IT Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC), Enterprise Architecture (EA), and Program Management
- Government Performance and Results Act - integrating guidance for performance with CPIC and EA standards
- E-Government Act - consolidating across governmental functions into common, shared "Line of Business" models
- Federal Information Security and Management Act - setting standard processes for IT Security
- Privacy Act
- Information Quality Act
- Federal Records Act
- Rehabilitation Act - Section 508
- Telecommunications Act
- Paperwork Reduction Act
- Government Paperwork Elimination Act
High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC)
The NOAA OCIO manages and integrates NOAA's HPCC infrastructure, including
advanced networking and applications, and serves as the project management
office for NOAA's R&D High Performance Computing Systems. It seeks
to modernize NOAA's computationally intensive services through the
use of evolving HPCC technologies. Short-term weather warnings, seasonal
forecasts, and regional and global climate predictions are heavily
dependent on major advances in high-end computing power, advanced
information technology, and the widespread availability of environmental
data and information.
Homeland Security Program
IT services and information delivery at NOAA must be resilient in the
face of catastrophic failures, or natural/man-made disasters. NOAA's
Homeland Security Program (HSP) ensures NOAA's continuity of operations
to support the nation's mission essential functions, and coordinates
all homeland security and response-related plans and policies to
provide an integrated effort across NOAA. Plan development, testing,
training and exercises ensure NOAA is ready to deliver vital services
when disaster strikes. HSP leads NOAA's Incident Coordination Center
to ensure a coordinated NOAA response to incidents and that products
to internal and external partners are available in time of urgent
need. HSP develops procedures to promote the safety and security
of NOAA's mission, people and facilities.
Policy, Planning and Analysis Office
The Policy, Planning and Analysis Office manages the development and review of policies, plans, and procedures for management and use of IT resources, including all computing, telecommunications, and associated resources. The Office administers NOAA's multi-year strategic information resources planning process, including developing and administering NOAA's Strategic IT Plan and Operational Plan. The Office manages the capital planning and investment control process within NOAA and coordinates the selection, control, and evaluation reviews of IT initiatives and other proposals, including support to the NOAA IT Review Board. It manages the agenda, minutes, and action items of the NOAA CIO Council. The office oversees and coordinates activities regarding the E-Government Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, Federal Information Quality Act, and the accessibility provisions of the Rehabilitation Act. The office is responsible for the development of NOAA-wide contractual arrangements that support acquisition of widely used computer and networking hardware, software, and services.
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IT Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC)
The NOAA Capital Planning and Investment Control program ensures NOAA uses IT to develop the best value, most useful, and most effective products and services to support its mission. This program ensures IT plans align with NOAA and the Department strategic visions and mission requirements, and that executives have accurate and meaningful information for IT decision-making. This includes critical information on a proposed IT investment's overall value to the organization, the return on the investment, measures of performance, and effective risk management plans. The NOAA IT Review Board, managed by the OCIO, serves as NOAA's authority to select, control, and evaluate IT capital investments through review of budget and IT investment authority requests, system/control reviews, and post-implementation reviews.
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Review of Information Collection Requests under the Paperwork Reduction Act
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 requires that agencies obtain Office of Management and Budget approval before requesting most types of information from the public. "Information collections" include forms, interviews, and recordkeeping requirements. NOAA primarily collects information in support of Fisheries and National Ocean Service programs. The NOAA OCIO is responsible for coordination and review of information collection requests from all line and staff offices, and for their submission to DOC and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a timely manner. Submissions include renewals and rule-related revisions of existing collections, as well as requests for new collections. Our role is to assist each program in submitting the best possible request for OMB approval, in terms of utility, quality and integrity of information.
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is both a process and a living document
providing a blueprint to guide the development and acquisition of
efficient and secure IT solutions to meet NOAA's mission and objectives.
The NOAA EA augments the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution
System (PPBES) function to enable analysis of IT alternatives to
close performance gaps, identification of redundant IT investments and
establishment of technical standards and architectural principles to maximize
sharing of data across programs and applications.
IT Security Program
Information is central to NOAA's mission; any amount of data loss,
network failures, or malicious intrusions can result in far-reaching
damage. Attacks on NOAA's systems are continuous and, given the sophistication
of attack tools, the threat is constantly increasing. The IT Security
program ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability
of NOAA's information resources is protected. The NOAA Computer Incident
Response Term (N-CIRT) coordinates incident responses and acts as
a source of expertise and information regarding vulnerabilities and
responses as it pertains to the NOAA environment.
Program Management
Effective program management of IT investments provides NOAA with the
timely delivery of new and existing services maximizing the value
of taxpayer dollars. The OCIO establishes guidelines, processes and procedures
for individual project managers and coordinates a program of continuous
process improvement in project execution through the use of project tracking,
periodic management reviews and detailed project audits. The NOAA OCIO
manages a project portfolio Website as a repository for project artifacts
to expedite review and approval of project documentation. In addition to
providing Project Management guidance, the OCIO supplies direct program
management for major projects which are deemed critical to NOAA's enterprise
infrastructure.
Messaging Operations Center
The Messaging Operations Center (MOC) provides the management of NOAA's
email, calendaring, Blackberry enterprise server and their supporting
directory infrastructure. The MOC also provides common and customized
services related to this infrastructure, as well as the helpdesk
for the email, directory, and LAN administrators in the fields who support
related services throughout NOAA.
Network Operations Center
The Network Operations Center (NOC) provides secure, high-speed access
to NOAA Headquarters' internal networks and the Internet and Internet2,
as well as management of NOAA's DC Metropolitan Area Network. The
NOC provides a single point of contact to resolve network-related
issues and manages network assets, cable utilization, Domain Name
Services and IP address use through configuration management. The
NOC produces and manages real-time statistics to address performance-related
issues across the network.
Web Operations Center
The Web Operations Center (WOC) is a unified web service used by all
organizational units in NOAA. The WOC acts as a data repository for
NOAA where public information can be posted to a secure and scalable
content server. Aside from content management and delivery, the WOC supports
protocols and applications for time server synchronization, network news,
data archiving, archived video streaming and collaboration services.
Administrative and Financial Systems Support
NOAA's administrative computing center provides IT oversight, systems
analysis, design, and programming support for NOAA's financial and
administrative applications. The full life-cycle management of these
systems ensures the delivery of efficient, effective, and accessible
solutions in compliance with procedures, policies and DOC and NOAA
the enterprise architectures. This support serves the NOAA financial and
administrative community, as well as users in the Commerce Bureau of Industry
and Security (BIS) and Economic Development Administration (EDA).
Helpdesk and Systems Support
Local area network and related computer hardware and software support
are provided by the OCIO for NOAA's corporate offices in the Washington
DC area and corporate field offices in Boulder, Kansas City, Norfolk
and Seattle. The OCIO provides life-cycle replacement and helpdesk
support for servers, desktops, laptops, PDAs, switches, routers, cabling,
printers, remote connection capabilities and telecommunications.
IT Workforce Management and Development
Having a highly-skilled IT workforce is crucial to NOAA's ability to
meet mission goals. As NOAA continues to streamline IT resources,
resulting in more enterprise-wide programs, we must also ensure the
IT workforce is well versed in such areas as IT project and risk
management. The OCIO works in partnership with NOAA's Workforce
Management Office to develop, implement and communicate strategies
to recruit, retain and manage a fully trained and qualified IT workforce,
to meet current and future mission requirements.
OCIO Program Links