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Never Say Never: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy

Never Say Never: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy. Donovan Follette Washington State University. Overview of WSU. Land-grant University (1892) Carnegie Research I University 21,000 Students Four Campuses Multiple Learning Centers Distance Education Program. WSU Campus Locations. Spokane.

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Never Say Never: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy

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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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