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Strategies to Leverage Your Legacy: WSU Overview

Discover how Washington State University creatively leverages its legacy systems to drive innovation and success in higher education. Gain insights into key strategies for identifying missing technologies, evaluating skills, and prioritizing projects. Explore practical examples of leveraging in-house technologies and controlling e-volution for sustainable growth. For further information, contact Donovan Follette at follette@wsu.edu or visit www.wsu.edu.

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Strategies to Leverage Your Legacy: WSU Overview

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  1. Never Say Never:Creatively Leverage Your Legacy Donovan Follette Washington State University

  2. Overview of WSU • Land-grant University (1892) • Carnegie Research I University • 21,000 Students • Four Campuses • Multiple Learning Centers • Distance Education Program

  3. WSU Campus Locations Spokane Pullman Tri-Cities Vancouver

  4. “Business needs drive innovation.” HTTPS://URL/cgi-bin/ Web Browser Client Software IBM OS/390 Mainframe Registrar (Home Grown) 7 1 Enterprise ServerMVS Secure Web Server MVS, CICS, COBOL, Natural, ADABAS Financial Aid (Home Grown) 6 DCE (RPC) WSU InfoNet Server Software C G I 5 4 Natural, COBOL Admissions (Home Grown) LegacyDataRepository (ADABAS) Encrypted Transaction 2 3 COBOL CICS Screens(Vendor) (VSAM) Authentication Server(Kerberos) Administrative Users WSU InfoNet Application Architecture 1992-2001 Legacy e-volution

  5. Building on the Infrastructure • Financial Aid Information • Web Registration • Student Academic Information • Student Accounts • From balances to payments via credit card • Undergraduate/Graduate Pre-admit Status • Student Elections • Address & Telephone Changes Student Information Center

  6. Four Strategies • Identify Missing ‘Key’ Technologies • Evaluate Available Skills • Creatively Leverage Your Legacy • Prioritize Projects For Success

  7. Strategy 1:Identify Missing ‘Key’ Technologies • If we only had… • Authentication?“Are you who you say you are?” • Authorization?“Are you allowed for this function?” • RPC Access to Legacy Environment? • Inventory in-house software • Consortium/vendor solution • Cash-free may not be possible… but be strategic

  8. Strategy 2:Evaluate Available Skills • Identify Required Implementation Skill Sets • Data administration • DBA • Application analyst/specialist • O/S, network infrastructure specialist • Select Key Participants • Visionary, capable, team-oriented • Expert user(s)

  9. Strategy 3:Creatively Leverage Your Legacy • Controlled e-volution • Use maintainable/sustainable technologies • Language environments, O/S’s, databases • Adhere to production policies and standards • Practical Examples • One-way data extracts (accessed via .cgi, .asp, etc.) • Relational to flat files FTP’ed to Web server -- Majors List • VSAM to relational database -- Transfer Courses

  10. Strategy 3:Creatively Leverage Your Legacy • Practical Examples (cont.) • Leverage in-house technologies • E-mail Services • Request collection via Web • Output delivery via e-mail (batch processing) • Unused technologies -- Cougar TraCS • Distribute electronic data • Re-think our age-old report distribution model • Supply data for desktop decision support tools

  11. Strategy 4:Prioritize Projects For Success • Applying a Bit of Objectivity... • Time estimate - S(1-3m), M(3-9m), L • Impact - S(? admin.), M(advising community), L(student population) • Cost (hardware, software licenses) • Quick Wins — SL or ML

  12. Conclusions Small incremental steps can produce large sustainable returns. There are ways to move our applications forward in support of e-services — be creative.

  13. For Further Information ... Donovan (Van) Follette follette@wsu.edu www.wsu.edu Creatively Leverage Your Legacy

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