2020 census detailed operational plan for: 34. it ... · template. 2 v0.02 january 18, 2017 initial...

2020 Census Detailed Operational Plan for:

34. IT Infrastructure (ITIN) Operation

Issued: May 24, 2017

Version: 1.0

Prepared by: Decennial Census Management Division

Final


34. IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN)

Page ii

Version 1.0 May 24, 2017 Final

[Page intentionally left blank.]



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Approvals

This ITIN Detailed Operational Plan has been reviewed and approved for use.

Electronically Approved March 21, 2017

Daniel Lewis

IPT Lead

Date Signed

NA

Branch Chief

Date Signed

Electronically Approved March 21, 2017

Pete Boudriault

IPT Program Manager

Date Signed

Electronically Approved April 27, 2017

Deborah M. Stempowski

Chief, Decennial Census Management Division

Date Signed

Electronically Approved by Atri Kalluri May 22, 2017

Lisa M. Blumerman

Associate Director for Decennial Census Programs

Chair, Portfolio Management Governance Board

Date Signed



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Document Change History

Revision # Version Date Description

1 v0.01 December

23, 2016

Initial Shell Version from 2020 Census DOP

template.

2 v0.02 January 18,

2017 Initial DRAFT Version for ITIN DOP.

3 v0.03 February 3,

2017

Updated DRAFT Version based on initial review

comments.

4 V1.0 March 21,

2017

Updated DRAFT Version with final IDEF0 diagrams

and created final draft for executive review.

Note: Edit the fields below to update the Document Version, Date and Status in the Page Footers

throughout the document.

Document Footer Information Control Table

Field Name Version, Date and Status

DocVersion: Version 1.0

DocDate: May 24, 2017

DocStatus: Final



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Table of Contents

1. Document Purpose ............................................................................................. 1

2. Operational Overview ....................................................................................... 2

2.1 Operation Purpose ............................................................................................................ 2

2.2 Background ...................................................................................................................... 2

2.3 Detailed Operational Plan Scope...................................................................................... 2

2.3.1 ITIN Activity Areas .................................................................................................. 3

2.3.2 ITIN Operational Context ......................................................................................... 4

2.3.2.1 ITIN Operational Inputs .................................................................................... 7

2.3.2.2 ITIN Operational Controls................................................................................. 9

2.3.2.3 ITIN Operational Outputs ................................................................................ 10

2.3.2.4 ITIN Operational Mechanisms ........................................................................ 12

3. ITIN Operation Detailed Process Description ..............................................16

3.1 ITIN Activation Phase [ITIN 34-1] ................................................................................ 16

3.1.1 Production Readiness Process [ITIN 34-1.1] .......................................................... 18

3.1.2 eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration Process [ITIN 34-1.2]............................... 19

3.1.3 Release Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.3] .............................................................. 19

3.1.4 Capacity Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.4] ............................................................ 20

3.1.5 Qualification Process (Post Activation) [ITIN 34-1.5] ........................................... 21

3.2 ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase [ITIN 34-2] ....................................... 22

3.2.1 Continuous Monitoring Process [ITIN 34-2.1] ....................................................... 25

3.2.2 Daily Operational Management Process [ITIN 34-2.2] .......................................... 26

3.2.3 Incident Management & Escalation Process [ITIN 34-2.3].................................... 28

3.2.4 Backup and Recovery Process [ITIN 34-2.4] ......................................................... 29

3.2.5 Change Management Process [ITIN 34-2.5] .......................................................... 31

3.2.6 Configuration Management Process [ITIN 34-2.6] ................................................ 32

3.2.7 Scale-Up Process [ITIN 34-2.7] ............................................................................. 33

3.2.8 Scale-Down Process [ITIN 34-2.8]......................................................................... 35

3.2.9 Infrastructure Upgrade/Replacement Process (Hardware/Software) [ITIN 34-2.9] 36



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3.2.10 eSDLC Artifact/Document Maintenance Process [ITIN 34-2.10] ......................... 37

3.3 ITIN Disposition Phase [ITIN 34-3] .............................................................................. 37

3.3.1 Data Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.1] ................................................................. 39

3.3.2 Hardware Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.2] ......................................................... 40

3.3.3 Asset Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.3] ................................................................ 41

3.3.4 eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.4] .............................. 41

4. Cost Factors ......................................................................................................43

4.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 43

4.2 Cost Factors .................................................................................................................... 43

4.3 Relevant IDEF0 Mechanisms......................................................................................... 43

5. Measures of Success ........................................................................................45

Appendix A – Acronyms and Terminology .........................................................46

Appendix B – References .......................................................................................51

Appendix C – Activity Tree for IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN) ..............52

List of Figures

Figure 1: IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN) Context Diagram ..................................................... 6

Figure 2: ITIN Activation Phase [ITIN 3-1] Constituent Activities ............................................. 18

Figure 3: ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase [ITIN 3-2] Constituent Activities .... 24

Figure 4: ITIN Disposition Phase [ITIN 3-3] Constituent Activities ........................................... 39

List of Tables

Table 1: ITIN Operational Inputs ................................................................................................... 7

Table 2: ITIN Operational Controls ................................................................................................ 9

Table 3: ITIN Operational Outputs ............................................................................................... 11

Table 4: Staff Resources used within ITIN Operational Activities .............................................. 13

Table 5: Infrastructure Sites for ITIN Operational Activities ....................................................... 14



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Table 6: Systems used within ITIN Operational Activities .......................................................... 15

Table 7: Acronyms and Abbreviations List .................................................................................. 46

Table 8: Glossary of Terms........................................................................................................... 49



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1. Document Purpose

The 2020 Census Detailed Operational Plan for the Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure

Operation (ITIN) is intended for use by U.S. Census Bureau managers, staff, contractors, and other

internal and external stakeholders working on the 2020 Census. The document provides a high level

description of the production support processes for the 2020 Census ITIN Operation and includes a

summary of the operational processes involved, their inputs, outputs and controls, and the basic

mechanisms employed to conduct the operational work.

Anticipated uses of this document include the following:

Communication – Documents operational design details for internal and external stakeholders.

Planning – Documents planning assumptions and key milestones.

Staffing – Documents staffing needs and strategies.

This document complements the 2020 Census Operational Plan, which presents the 2020 Census

operational design and covers all operations required to execute the 2020 Census, starting with

precensus address and geographic feature updates and ending once census data products are

disseminated and coverage and quality are measured.

This document will be updated over time to reflect changes in strategies that result from 2020 Census

planning, research, and testing activities.



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2. Operational Overview

2.1 Operation Purpose

The purpose of the IT Infrastructure (ITIN) operation is to provide the IT-related infrastructure support

to the 2020 Census, including:

Enterprise systems and applications.

Decennial-specific systems, applications, and interfaces.

Field IT infrastructure (at National Processing Center (NPC), Regional Census Centers (RCC),

Area Census Offices (ACO), Paper Data Capture (PDC) centers, and Island Areas (IA) sites).

Mobile computing.

Cloud computing.

2.2 Background

For the 2010 Census, the Census IT infrastructure was distributed among separate IT installations,

which were specific to the data processing needs of contract service providers or Census Bureau

organizations. As a result, the management of the 2010 Census IT infrastructure was decentralized.

For the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau will be using an integrated IT environment with coordination

of IT management functions across the constituent IT installations which make up the 2020 Census IT

infrastructure.

Key innovations planned for the 2020 Census ITIN operation include:

Alignment to the Enterprise Architecture.

Early development of solutions architecture.

Use of enterprise solutions.

Iterative deployment of infrastructure aligned with and based on testing and the 2020 Census

Integration and Implementation Plan (IIP).

Use of workload demand models to size IT solutions appropriately.

Scalable solutions.

Agile development of applications (all systems supporting the 2020 Census).

Use of cloud computing.

2.3 Detailed Operational Plan Scope

This plan leverages the extensive body of research that exists on what constitutes IT operations

management. There are two major industry frameworks that provide a body of knowledge on IT

operational management: the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT)

and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) frameworks. These frameworks define

the typical scope and activity set for managing IT operations, as well as best practices on their conduct.



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COBIT focuses on four IT domains of activity – Plan and Organize, Acquire and Implement, Deliver

and Support, and Monitor and Evaluate – and the processes and controls an organization needs to

define to manage their IT environment within these domains. ITIL focuses on the services an IT

organization provides, and describes those activities needed to guarantee service availability,

efficiency, security, and quality.

The major activity areas defined below are an amalgam of these frameworks, tailored to Census’

existing operational environment and the Census Enterprise Architecture.

ITIN Operation Production support is responsible for:

Production IT Infrastructure for National Networked Census Operations.

o Networking (Core, Edge, Access Points).

o Processing Resources (Data Centers, Cloud, Capacity/Availability).

o Storage (Data Centers, Cloud, Capacity/Availability).

Edge device provisioning and disposition (Desktops, Laptops, Mobile devices/Device as a

Service (DaaS)).

Security and Resource access (VDI, VPN, SecureID, etc.).

User Identity and Access Management (IDAM).

Software Image maintenance, version control, patching, availability.

2.3.1 ITIN Activity Areas

The design of the ITIN Operation for the 2020 Census includes three major operational activity areas:

ITIN Activation Phase

ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase

ITIN Disposition Phase

Each of these major activity areas is summarized below. Together, these activities represent the

complete set of work that needs to be performed by operation during the conduct of the 2020 Census.

ITIN Activation Phase

Provides support processes for Phased Activation ("Go-Live") of the Production IT Infrastructure

for 2020 operations and user needs, including:

Maintaining an operationally ready national networked environment throughout all IT

transition processes

o From core data centers to edge users.

Providing phase-in of IT capabilities to production operation status at the right time with

the right capacity, based on the 2020 Census production operation schedule. Examples

include:



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o In-Office Address Canvassing operations begin very early in the 2020 Decennial,

but have ongoing production needs and capacity demands.

o In-Field Address Canvassing operations will impose additional capacity demands

when operation is fully active in the field.

o Update Enumerate (UE) and Nonresponse Followup (NRFU) operations will

impose still more in terms of capacity demands with a peak field load when these

operations are fully active.

ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase

Provides support processes for Operation and Maintenance of the production IT Infrastructure

throughout the "conduct" of the 2020 Census, including:

Provisioning new users (IDAM setup, password resets, etc.).

Providing capacity for peak user demand (Infield AdCan, UE/NRFU).

Managing backup, restore, recovery/Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP).

Managing software maintenance, patches, version control (Note: minimal changes are

expected to occur in the O&M phase, and those changes that are incorporated into the

baseline are not expected to impact operations).

ITIN Disposition Phase

Provides support processes for disposition of the Production IT Infrastructure as the Census

Operations close out, including:

Rollback of capacity based on changes to demand

Outprocessing of users and user devices, including:

o Recover mobile devices, decommission laptops/desktops/user accounts, etc.

Disposition of Data and Physical resources, including:

o Wipe devices, returns/disposal, etc.

Decommissioning of residual Production IT Infrastructure following operations closeout

The full hierarchy of activities for the ITIN Operation is provided in Appendix C in the form of an

Activity Tree. In the Activity Tree, each major operational activity area listed above is numbered and

then decomposed into a numbered set of subactivities, some of which are further decomposed into

more detailed numbered subactivities or steps.

For a full description of the operational subactivities that comprise the ITIN Operation, see the

Detailed Process Description discussions in Section 3 below.

2.3.2 ITIN Operational Context

The ITIN operational activities described above are conducted within the context of other 2020 Census

operations and other programs or data sources that are external to the 2020 Census Program. One way

to depict an operational context is by using a “Context Diagram,” which shows the boundary of the



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operational process, the operational activities it contains, and the information exchanged with its

neighbor operations (or other entities) as well as the resources (mechanisms) needed to conduct the

operational work.

Figure 1 is a top-level context diagram for the ITIN Operation represented as an Integrated Definition,

Level 0 (IDEF0) model. An IDEF0 model of a process (or operation) shows the Inputs, Controls,

Outputs and Mechanisms of the process. These IDEF0 model elements are summarized below and

described further in the sections that follow.

The yellow box in the center of the IDEF0 model lists the major operational activity areas for the

operation, numbered as given in the ITIN Operation Activity Tree in Appendix C. Specific Information

Exchanges (IE) are shown in different colored boxes to represent the Inputs (green boxes on left side),

Outputs (orange boxes on right side), Controls (purple boxes on top) and Mechanisms (blue boxes on

the bottom). Boxes to the left of the Inputs indicate the Provider of the inputs to the operation

(typically another 2020 Census operation or an external source). The Provider of the Controls is noted

in the box itself. Boxes to the right of the Outputs indicate the Receiver of the outputs (typically

another 2020 Census operation or external entity). Each Information Exchange has a name and a

unique number for identification purposes.



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Figure 1: IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN) Context Diagram

For the ITIN Operation, initial Inputs include requirements from PM/SEI, IT equipment and software

from IT vendors and mobile device kit related inputs from DLM and FLDI. Later in the ITIN

Operation, Inputs include support requests at Tier 2 and problem reports from DSC, FLDI and CQA as

well as COOP notifications from PM/SEI and security, privacy and confidentiality event info from

SPC. At the end of the ITIN Operation, Inputs are license and warranty/support expiry information

from IT Vendors and mobile device and Site IT installation returns from FLDI and DLM.

ITIN Operation Controls include basic program controls such as budget/schedule and SPC controls, as

well as kit specifications from DLM and processes/standards/plans/controls from the Census Bureau

and NIST.

Outputs for the ITIN Operation include problem/change status and deployment verification

information to PM/SEI as well as support request status/responses and general ITIN status information

to DSC, FLDI and CQA. Additional Outputs include mobile device kit and Site IT installation

shipments to FLDI and DLM and ITIN logs, events and monitoring data to SPC. At the end of the

2020 Census, ITIN inventory disposition is provided to Census Bureau Asset Management.

IE


34-1. ITIN Activation Phase

34-2. ITIN Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Phase

34-3. ITIN Disposition Phase

Staff: HQ Staff, TI Staff, NPC Staff, Field Staff, dDaaSContractor Staff

(3. SPC) IE484: Security, Privacy,

and Confidentiality Controls

(33. DLM) IE511: Mobile Device Kit

Specifications

(Census Bureau) COOP Plans, Asset

Management Controls

Sites: HQ, NPC, PDC Sites, CQA Sites, IA

Sites, FLD Sites (RCC, ACO), Data Centers

(BCC, TI, Cloud)

Systems: Decennial Systems, Enterprise

Systems, Field and IA Systems

1. PM, 2. SEI, Census DITD

Systems: Remedy, HP-ALM, ITIN Monitoring

Systems

Mechanisms: Resources Employed by Operation

Controls: Data to Guide Operation

Inputs: Data Consumed by Operation Outputs: Data Produced by Operation

2020 Census IT Users

(via 31. DSC)

NPC, RCC and ACO IT Staff

(via 32. FLDI)

• IE524: IT Support Requests (Tier 2)

• IE525: Problem Reports• IE526: Outage Reports

IT Vendors

• IE521: IT Equipment• IE522: Software Licenses and

License Expiry Info• IE523: Warranty/Support Expiry

Info

1. PM, 2. SEI

• IE546: ITIN Inventory Disposition

• IE542: Outage Notifications• IE543: COOP Notifications• IE544: ITIN Production Status

Info (incl. Problem Status)• IE545: IT Support Request

Status/Responses (Tier 2)

• IE536: Deployment Verification

• IE537: Change Status• IE538: Problem Status• IE539: Problem Escalations• IE540: Configuration Status• IE541: Architecture Artifacts

3. SPC• IE485: Security Incidents• IE486: Privacy/

Confidentiality Incidents

• IE471: Functional Requirements• IE472: Non-Functional

Requirements• IE473: COOP Notifications

(1. PM) Program Controls: incl.

Budget, Operational Plans and Schedule

(NIST) Special Publication

SP 800

Other: Networks, Mobile

Devices/dDaaS

Version v03 – 21 Mar 2017

Census Bureau Asset

Management

3. SPC• IE476: ITIN Logs• IE477: ITIN Events• IE478: ITIN Monitoring Data

(Census Bureau) eSDLC Process,EA Technology

Standards

2020 Census Respondents

(via 17. CQA)

• IE527: Problem Reports• IE528: Outage Reports

33. DLM

• IE512: Mobile Device Kit Documentation Content

• IE513: Site IT Installation Returns

2020 Census IT Users

(via 31. DSC)

NPC, RCC and ACO IT Staff (via 32. FLDI)

17. CQA

32. FLDI• IE357: Mobile Device Kit

Shipments

33. DLM

• IE501: Site IT Installation Shipments

• IE502: Site IT Readiness Notifications

32. FLDI

• IE370: Mobile Device Kit Needs by Role/Location

• IE371: Mobile Device Kit Shipping Addresses

• IE372: Mobile Device Returns



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Finally, ITIN Operation Mechanisms include the staff at various Census Bureau worksites, such as

Census Bureau Headquarters (HQ), and Technical Integrator (TI) sites, the National Processing Center

(NPC), Field Sites (RCCs, ACOs), and Data Centers as well as various systems and other IT

Infrastructure such as the Decennial/Enterprise/Field systems, ITIN Monitoring Systems and

Networks/Mobile Devices.

For detailed descriptions of the Inputs, Controls, Outputs and Mechanisms used by the ITIN Operation,

see the sections that follow.

2.3.2.1 ITIN Operational Inputs

Inputs are the data that are consumed by the operation. The inputs define the amount of operational

work that needs to be performed.

Table 1 lists the inputs to the ITIN Operation.

Table 1: ITIN Operational Inputs

Provider Information Exchange Description

External:

IT Vendors

• IE521: IT Equipment

• IE522: Software

Licenses and License

Expiry Info

• IE523:

Warranty/Support

Expiry Info

Vendor IT Equipment deliveries and

product licenses and warranty/support

expiration information for software and

equipment.

Used to inform ITIN operational

decisions regarding maintenance needs

during the O&M Phase and disposal

during the Disposition Phase.

2020 Census IT

Users

(via 31. DSC)

NPC, RCC and ACO

IT Staff

(via 32. FLDI)

• IE524: IT Support

Requests (Tier 2)

• IE525: Problem

Reports

• IE526: Outage Reports

•

Requests for IT Service and reports of IT

outages provided by Census IT users (to

DSC) or Site IT staff (FLDI), (e.g.

mobile device transmissions not

successful, Site IT network/router not

operational).

• Used during O&M Phase to inform

IT Management staff and plan for

needed actions.



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32. Field

Infrastructure

Operation (FLDI)

• IE370: Mobile Device

Kit Needs by

Role/Location


Kit Shipping Addreses


Returns

Identified needs for Mobile Device Kits

(kinds of kits, number of each kind

needed) by Role and Location.

Shipping Addresses for Mobile Device

Kits Shipments.

Returns of mobile devices after they are

no longer needed for 2020 Census

operations.

33. Decennial

Logistics

Management

Operation (DLM)


Kit Documentation

Content

• IE513: Site IT

Installation Returns

Documentation content needed to

produce DLM specified documentation

assets to be included in the mobile device

kits.

Returns of Site IT installation assets after

they are no longer need for 2020 Census

operations.

2020 Census

Respondents

(via 17. CQA)

• IE527: Problem

Reports

• IE528: Outage Reports

Reports of problems and apparent

outages provided by Census respondents

to CQA (e.g. Internet Self Response Web

site is not accessible).

• Used during O&M Phase to inform

IT Management staff and plan for

needed actions.

1. Program

Management

Operation (PM)

2. Systems

Engineering and

Integration Operation

(SEI)

• IE471: Functional

Requirements

• IE472: Non-Functional

Requirements

• IE473: COOP

Notifications

Functional and non-functional

requirements relating to ITIN operation.

Notification of COOP decisions from

2020 Census Program Management.

Used to identify required operational

behaviors and characteristics and plan for

COOP events.



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3. Security, Privacy,

and Confidentiality

Operation (SPC)

• IE485: Security

Incidents

• IE486: Privacy/

Confidentiality

Incidents

Notifications of ongoing Security

Incident or Privacy/Confidentiality

Incident status.

Used to inform IT Management staff of

ongoing conditions regarding Security

and Privacy/ Confidentiality.

2.3.2.2 ITIN Operational Controls

Controls are the data that guide the behavior of the operation. They are not consumed by the operation,

but rather they provide guidance, models, limits, criteria, cutoff dates, or other information that

controls the way in which the operational work is performed.

Table 2 lists the controls for the ITIN Operation.

Table 2: ITIN Operational Controls


1. Program

Management

Operation (PM)

Program Controls Program Control information including:

Budget

Operational Plans and Schedule

3. Security, Privacy

and Confidentiality

Operation (SPC)

• IE484: Security,

Privacy and

Confidentiality

Controls

Laws, policies, regulations, and

guidelines related to physical security, IT

security, data security and privacy and

confidentiality impacts, analyses, and

processes. These include but are not

limited to Title 13, Title 26, and other

laws and policies related to protection of

personally identifiable information.

33. Decennial

Logistics

Management

Operation (DLM)

IE511: Mobile Device Kit

Specifications

Approved specifications for mobile

device kits to be produced/distributed by

ITIN operation.



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Census Bureau eSDLC Process

EA Technology Standards

COOP Plans

Asset Management

Controls

Census Bureau Process, Standards,

Planning and Control Documentation.

Used to inform IT Management staff of

expected actions and behaviors and

provide information needed in the

formulation of IT Management

operational procedures.

National Institute of

Standards and

Technology (NIST)

NIST Special Publication

SP 800

NIST SP 800, Computer Security

Documentation Series (December 1990-

present):

NIST's primary mode of publishing

computer/cyber/information security

guidelines, recommendations and

reference materials

2.3.2.3 ITIN Operational Outputs

Outputs are the data produced by the operation. The outputs constitute the results of operational work

that has been performed. Outputs produced may be used as inputs or controls to other operations.

Table 3 lists the outputs from the ITIN Operation.



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Table 3: ITIN Operational Outputs

Consumer Information Exchange Description

1. Program

Management

Operation (PM)

2. Systems

Engineering and

Integration Operation

(SEI)

Decennial IT

Division (DITD)

• IE536: Deployment

Verification

• IE537: Change Status

• IE538: Problem Status

• IE539: Problem

Escalations

• IE540: Configuration

Status

• IE541: Architecture

Artifacts

Documentation provided by IT

Management staff to inform the 2020

Census Program (PM and SEI) and

Decennial IT Division (DITD) of routine

operations updates/changes and ITIN

problem/incident status.

2020 Census IT

Users

(via 31. DSC)

NPC, RCC and ACO

IT Staff

(via 32. FLDI)

17. CQA

• IE542: Outage

Notifications

• IE543: COOP

Notifications

• IE544: ITIN

Production Status Info

(incl. Problem Status)

• IE545: IT Support

Request Status/

Responses (Tier 2)

Notifications and status updates provided

by IT Management staff to inform the

2020 Census IT Users and Staff of

routine operations updates/changes and

ITIN problem/incident status (including

IT outages and COOP events).

Status and responses for Tier 2 IT

support requests from DSC, FLDI and

CQA.

32. Field

Infrastructure

Operation (FLDI)


Kit Shipments

Shipments of mobile device kits for use

by Field Staff.

33. Decennial

Logistics

Management

Operation (DLM)

• IE501: Site IT

Installation Shipments

• IE502: Site IT

Readiness Notifications

Shipments of Site IT installation assets to

RCCs and ACOs for subsequent

installation and activation.

Notifications of Site IT asset readiness at

RCCs and ACOs during and after

installation and activation.



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Consumer Information Exchange Description

3. Security, Privacy

and Confidentiality

Operation (SPC)

• IE476: ITIN Logs

• IE477: ITIN Events

• IE478: ITIN

Monitoring Data

Logs, events and monitoring data

provided to the SPC operation relating to

security, privacy and confidentiality

conditions within the IT Infrastructure

environment.

Census Bureau Asset

Management

• IE546: ITIN Inventory

Disposition

Inventory status and update information

provided to Census Bureau Asset

Management in support of ongoing ITIN

Infrastructure Environment Activation,

O&M and Disposition.

2.3.2.4 ITIN Operational Mechanisms

Mechanisms are the resources (persons, places and things) that are used to perform the operational

processes. They include Staff Resources, Infrastructure Sites, and Systems and other Technology

Infrastructure.



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Staff Resources

Table 4 identifies the Staff Resources employed for the ITIN Operation.

Table 4: Staff Resources used within ITIN Operational Activities

Staff Resources Description/Role

HQ Staff HQ Staff to manage overall ITIN Production operation and coordinate

activities with other sites for ITIN Activation, O&M and Disposition. HQ

Staff to conduct monitoring, analysis and ongoing IT O&M planning work.

TI Staff Technical Integrator (TI) Staff to manage and operate TI resources and assets

employed for 2020 ITIN Production work.

NPC Staff NPC Staff to manage and operate NPC resources and assets employed for

2020 ITIN Production work.

Field Staff Field Staff to manage ITIN Production operation within Field sites (RCCs

and ACOs) and coordinate activities with other sites for ITIN Activation,

O&M and Disposition. Field Staff to conduct monitoring, analysis and

ongoing IT O&M planning work.

dDaaS Contractor

Staff

dDaaS (Decennial Device as a Service) Contractor Staff to manage ITIN

Production operation activities related to preparation/distribution of mobile

device kits and replacement/disposition of mobile devices from Field users.

Infrastructure Sites

Table 5 identifies the Infrastructure Sites employed for the ITIN Operation.



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Table 5: Infrastructure Sites for ITIN Operational Activities

Infrastructure

Site

Description/Role

HQ HQ Sites for ITIN monitoring, analysis and planning work.

NPC National Processing Center site used for ITIN Production operation.

Paper Data

Capture (PDC)

Center Sites

PDC Center sites hosting Census IT assets used for ITIN Production

operation. Note: One of the PDC Center sites is located at the NPC.

Census

Questionnaire

Assistance (CQA)

Center Sites

CQA Center sites hosting Census IT assets used for ITIN Production

operation.

Island Areas (IA)

Sites

IA sites (e.g. IA ACOs) hosting Census IT assets used for ITIN Production

operation.

Field Sites

(Regional Census

Center (RCC),

Area Census

Office (ACO))

Field sites (RCCs and ACOs) hosting Census IT assets used for ITIN

Production operation.

Data Centers

(Bowie Computer

Center (BCC), TI,

Cloud)

Data Center sites hosting Census (BCC), TI or Cloud-based IT assets used

for ITIN Production operation.

Systems and other Technology Infrastructure

Table 6 identifies the Systems employed for the ITIN Operation.



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Table 6: Systems used within ITIN Operational Activities

System Description

Decennial Systems Decennial Systems in use for 2020 Census Production work

with IT Operations Management visibility and impact

Enterprise Systems Enterprise Systems in use for 2020 Census Production work

with IT Operations Management visibility and impact.

Field and IA Systems ITIN supported systems at Field sites (NPC, RCCs, ACOs,

Mobile Users) and Island Areas sites (IA ACOs) with IT

Operations Management visibility and impact.

Remedy Tool used for Service Request tracking and Trouble Ticketing

support.

Hewlett Packard Application

Lifecycle Management

(HP-ALM)

Tool used for management of IT related requirements and test

planning.

ITIN Monitoring Systems Systems employed by ITIN to monitor the ongoing operation,

health and status of the deployed 2020 Census Production IT

Infrastructure environment.

Other Technology Infrastructure employed for the ITIN Operation includes:

Networks

Mobile Devices/dDaaS



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3. ITIN Operation Detailed Process Description

The ITIN Operation [ITIN 34] is subdivided into the following constituent Activity Areas.

ITIN Activation Phase [ITIN 34-1].

ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase [ITIN 34-2].

ITIN Disposition Phase [ITIN 34-3].

The business processes for each of these ITIN Operation activity areas are discussed along with

their inputs and outputs in the following subsections.

3.1 ITIN Activation Phase [ITIN 34-1]

During the ITIN Activation phase, the various components of the 2020 Census Information

Technology and Infrastructure will be activated and instantiated immediately prior to the start of

the 2020 Census. This phase includes the activation of computer systems and networks used to

support the Decennial, as well as the activation of infrastructure components supporting these IT

elements.

The ITIN components will be activated according to the scheduled plans indicated in the

Decennial Architecture. Some components will be in continuous operation, such as background

investigations for new employees, fingerprinting, forms printing and distribution, and payroll.

Other components will be activated as they complete development and testing activities prior to

use on the 2020 Census, such as new features implemented in the PEGA environment (customer

engagement software platform). Still other components may be activated on an as needed basis

for use on the 2020 Census, such as existing applications that will be used to support only

specific Census operations. The types of capabilities included in the Activation Phase include the

following:

Enterprise Systems and Applications.

Decennial Specific Applications.

Field IT infrastructure (at National Processing Center (NPC), Regional Census Centers

(RCC), Area Census Offices (ACO), Paper Data Capture (PDC) centers, and Island Areas

(IA) sites).

Mobile Computing.

Cloud Computing.

Enterprise Systems and Applications include large-scale enterprise wide capabilities used to

support Census operations in general and the 2020 Census as well.

Decennial Specific Applications are capabilities that are intended for use on the 2020 Census in

particular. These may include custom applications, features added or extended to commercial of



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the shelf (COTS) platforms, or enterprise applications that are modified for 2020 Census specific

operations.

RCC and ACO IT Infrastructure includes all the information technology and facilities needed to

support field IT operations for the 2020 Census. This includes the Field IT computing

capabilities such as networks, servers, and workstations. Specifically, the ITIN operation is

responsible for providing and setting up the all of the cabling, printers and IT equipment at the

RCCs and the ACOs.

Mobile Computing includes portable computational devices intended for use by enumerators and

field supervisors during field operations such as In-Field Address Canvassing,

Update/Enumerate, Group Quarters, Nonresponse Followup, and Coverage Measurement.

Capabilities required to support mobile computing include the logistical chain necessary to

acquire, configure, ship, and manage large numbers of devices in the field. DLM is responsible

for approving kit specifications. ITIN produces the mobile device kits and ships to the Field Sites

and Field IT Users in accordance with dDaaS Contractor responsibilities under ITIN.

Cloud computing includes information technologies used to deploy applications and systems in a

virtualized and scalable environment, hosted and managed by a public or private cloud service

provider. Cloud services include Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service

(PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. Additionally, cloud computing includes the

capabilities and platforms used to manage any cloud-provisioned service for applications in the

2020 Census; for example, tools for deploying capacity would be included under the cloud

computing umbrella. Activation of cloud computing requires selection and acquisition of cloud

services from one or more commercial vendors capable of providing FedRamp certified

computing. The Census Bureau does not plan to acquire and operate a computing cloud for the

2020 Census, but rather intends to make use of approved commercial cloud vendors for this

purpose. Cloud services will be scalable, and as such will be acquired when necessary and

released when no longer needed in order to support 2020 Census operations during the course of

the decennial.

The ITIN Activation Phase activity area is subdivided into the following operational subactivities

(See Figure 2).

Production Readiness Process [ITIN 34-1.1]

eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration Process [ITIN 34-1.2]

Release Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.3]

Capacity Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.4]

Qualification Process (Post Activation) [ITIN 34-1.5]



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Figure 2: ITIN Activation Phase [ITIN 3-1] Constituent Activities

Subsequent sections describe the ITIN Activation Phase operational subactivities in detail.

3.1.1 Production Readiness Process [ITIN 34-1.1]

ITIN Activation serves as the transition of systems and applications from project design and

build to a production state. The Census Enterprise Systems Development Life-Cycle (eSDLC)

and PMO processes include phase gates to review the readiness of IT systems. These reviews, as

identified in the Census Bureau’s Systems Engineers Playbook, include:

Production Readiness Review.

Operational Readiness Review.

Production Readiness Review (PRR) – A PRR is a formal examination of a program to

determine if the design is ready for production and if the producer has accomplished adequate

production planning.

A PRR examines a program to determine if:

The design is ready for production.

The producer has accomplished adequate production planning and process – proofing.

The PRR attempts to verify that the production design and planning and the associated

preparations for producing the system have in fact progressed to the point where deployment to

the production environment can be made without incurring unacceptable risk of breaching the

34-1 ITIN Activation Phase

34-1.1 Production Readiness Process

34-1.2 eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration Process

34-1.3 Release Activation Process

34-1.4 Capacity Activation Process

34-1.5 Qualification Process (Post Activation)

2020 Census 34. IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN) Operational Activity Structure for 34-1 ITIN Activation Phase

Includes: Production Readiness Review (PRR) Operational Readiness Review (ORR)

Includes: Alignment of documentation with new

Activation Phase configurations as needed.

Includes: New Releases Release Upgrades

Includes: Sizing/Configuration Deployment/Activation.

Includes: Post Activation Operational Validation



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established thresholds of cost, schedule and performance or other criteria. As part of the ITIN

Activation phase, ITIN operations staff will participate in these review sessions to ensure that the

proposed ITIN components are available or there is a plan to acquire them, that they meet ITIN

standards, and that ITIN operations staff understand and approve of the activation schedule.

Designated ITIN personnel will be part of the PRR sign off and approval process.

Operational Readiness Review (ORR) – An ORR is a disciplined, systematic, documented,

performance based examination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and management

control systems to ensure that a facility will be operated safely within its approved safety

envelope as defined by the facility safety basis. The ORR scope is defined based on the specifics

of the facility and/or the reason for the shutdown as related to a minimum set of core

requirements. A graded approach will be used in defining the depth of the ORR based on these

core requirements.

3.1.2 eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration Process [ITIN 34-1.2]

The effective documentation of changes in a tightly coupled System of Systems (SoS) is critical.

Included in the documentation process is identification and review of existing relevant

documentation to ensure that each system in the SoS that is impacted by the change is “aware” of

the change.

An important part of the eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration process is to ensure that as

changes are made to operational eSDLC artifacts (chiefly software, but potentially hardware as

well), the associated documentation for these artifacts is updated as well. This ensures that the

physical baselines and the documentation baselines are in sync, and avoids unnecessary

confusion and delays on the part of system administrators, users, and maintainers.

3.1.3 Release Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.3]

The Release Activation Process is used to manage the activation of Site IT installations and

software releases used to support the 2020 Census. This process includes management for the

following:

New Releases.

Release Upgrades.

New Releases are introduced into the 2020 Census operational environment according to a

release plan. This plan follows the conventional practice for operational software releases,

including development on one environment, building and testing and integration on another

environment, and operations on a third environment. The process of release migration proceeds

by completing development on the development environment and successfully completing unit

and other tests. When a package of capabilities has been completed, the group of changes are



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merged into the baseline on the build-test-integration environment, and a complete end-to-end

regression test is performed to ensure that the releases have not impacted baseline functionality

adversely. Upon completion of the regression test, the new release is transferred over to the

operational environment, typically during a pre-planned maintenance window of time, and the

new release is subjected to an initial check-out test prior to usage by the user community. For

Field sites (RCCs and ACOs), New Release Activation would be proceeded by shipment and

installation of required Site IT Installation assets by ITIN staff.

Release Upgrades proceed in a similar fashion. The main difference between Release Upgrades

and New Releases is that in the former case, the new capability affects a portion of the overall

system capabilities, whereas the latter typically involves a much more extensive or even total

replacement of prior capabilities.

The details of the release activation process, including the release plans, are found in the System

Architecture document, the Systems Engineering Master Plan (SEMP), and in the Test

Engineering Master Plan (TEMP).

3.1.4 Capacity Activation Process [ITIN 34-1.4]

Capacity activation is the process of assigning infrastructure resources to support specific

applications or services. As more and more of the traditional technology stack is abstracted via

cloud into infrastructure or platform as a service offerings, the definition of “infrastructure” is

blurring. For the purposes of this plan, IT Infrastructure includes computing resources (in the

form of servers or virtual machines), storage, networking services, and any other data center or

cloud provided services including database as a service, storage as a service, middleware as a

service, and other commercially available platforms. Regardless of where the infrastructure is

deployed, capacity activation follows these basic steps. Details for specific steps will be provided

by the systems administration team of each platform. Capacity activation is different from that

described in Section 3.2.7 [ITIN 34-2.7 Scale Up], as it represents the initial provisioning and

deployment of ITIN resources into the system of systems environment.

1. Establish capacity sizing requirements. These requirements originate from the results

of performance tests, or from existing deployments of similar or related applications.

Sizing includes benchmarks on the compute, storage and networking capacity and/or

throughput needed for the platform being provisioned. Sizing requirements also identify

growth rates of transactional volume and storage, as well as key periods of performance

for the infrastructure.

2. Establish deployment strategy. This includes whether to deploy the application into a

cloud or managed data center environment, as well as the scaling needs of the

environment (auto-scaling vs. manual scaling, scheduled capacity increases vs. steady-

state capacity, etc.). In addition, the deployment strategy must consider regulations



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regarding the protection of Title 13 and Title 26 data sets, which may influence the

decision to host in the cloud or on a managed data center environment.

3. Review and establish Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) and COOP specifications.

These include key metrics of availability, recovery time objectives and recovery point

objectives for systems and network resources. COOP specifications are necessary to

determine how and where the infrastructure should be deployed.

4. Identify data sensitivity. The nature of data to be stored or processed on systems will be

identified per FIPS 199 and FIPS 200 standards.

5. Activate capacity. The strategy identified in steps 2 and 3 will be executed. Additionally,

operational documentation indicating what application(s) are deployed on specific

infrastructure will be completed to support Scale-Down or other impact analyses.

6. Configure monitors. Monitoring tools will be configured for the infrastructure to ensure

that relevant SLAs are being met. Details on monitoring processes can be found Section

3.2.1 [ITIN 34-2.1 Continuous Monitoring Process].

7. Configure backup/redundancy solutions. Backup and redundancy solutions include

replication, active-active clustering, active-passive clustering, transactional logging, and

full and incremental system backups. Specifics are available in Section 3.2.4 [ITIN 34-

2.4 Backup and Recovery Process].

8. Notify stakeholders. Stakeholders should be notified about critical capacity issues.

Stakeholders include application teams, other ITIN teams, and business stakeholders. In

particular, teams performing ITIN qualification process testing and verification will be

notified.

3.1.5 Qualification Process (Post Activation) [ITIN 34-1.5]

A Post Activation Qualification Process is used to ensure run-time readiness of newly deployed

operational IT assets and confirm that they are able to operate at a certain standard during

sustained operation.

Data covering critical process parameters must be recorded and analyzed to ensure critical

quality attributes can be guaranteed throughout operation. This may include testing equipment at

maximum operating capacity to show quantity demands can be met. It should be noted that

equally important as the qualifying of processes and equipment is the qualifying of software and

personnel. Well-trained staff and accurate, thorough records helps ensure ongoing protection

from process faults and quick recovery from otherwise costly process malfunctions.

In software development, user acceptance testing (UAT) - also called beta testing, application

testing, and end user testing - is a phase of software development in which the software is tested

in the "real world" by the intended audience. During the Post Activation Qualification Process,



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selected subsets of UAT functions may be exercised to ensure operational readiness of the

activated deployment.

Once all processes have been qualified, their IT assets should be placed under control of IT

management with a framework in place to routinely monitor operations. Only after the

qualification process has been completed can the process begin operation.

See the Operational Readiness Process for more details on surrounding processes.

3.2 ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase [ITIN 34-2]

The ITIN O&M process includes activities necessary to operate the various 2020 Census

capabilities, as well as to maintain these activities.

Operation includes the people, processes, and technologies needed to ensure that enterprise

capabilities are functioning as needed for the Census in general and the 2020 Census in

particular. These capabilities include activities such as 24/7 operations and routine monitoring of

systems to ensure normal functioning capabilities.

Maintenance includes activities required to upgrade the capabilities in response to routine

scheduled needs or in response to unexpected emergency situations. Examples of the former

include installing operating system patches and security virus definition files. Examples of the

latter include emergency patches or bug fixes in response to unexpected failures or system

degradation.

The ITIN O&M Phase subject areas include the following:





(IA) sites).

Mobile Computing.

Cloud Computing.

The O&M of Enterprise Systems and Applications will be handled using existing Census

business processes and life-cycle guidelines for enterprise capabilities to make sure that 2020

operations are not interrupted. This includes the use of formal change control processes,

architecture reviews, and integration and test processes before deployment.



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The O&M of Decennial Specific Applications will be handled similarly to enterprise systems

and applications. This involves the use of formal change control and architecture review

processes, as well as formal integration and test processes before deployment.

RCC and ACO O&M procedures will be standardized to ensure consistency across the field but

will typically be less formal and less extensive than the enterprise and application build

processes previously discussed. RCCs and ACOs are users of enterprise and decennial specific

capabilities but are not resourced to do maintenance activities for applications. The RCCs and

ACOs, however, are often the first to identify potential errors or bugs in applications, and as such

are a vital part of the overall O&M end-to-end process.

Mobile Computing O&M is centered around managing large numbers of small portable

computing devices for use in the field. Operations are focused on supporting the field users, and

ensuring that the devices are operating effectively to support often fast-paced field operations.

Maintenance is focused on the logistics of managing defective and replacement devices to and

from field users.

Cloud computing O&M is expected to be minimal, as this capability is expected to be provided

by a FedRamp certified cloud services provider. The operations capability is largely focused on

ensuring that the COTS vendor is providing the agreed-upon level of service. The maintenance

capabilities for the cloud computing capability will be entirely within the purview of the cloud

services provider.

The ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase activity area is subdivided into the

following operational subactivities (See Figure 3).

Continuous Monitoring Process [ITIN 34-2.1].

Daily Operational Management Process [ITIN 34-2.2].

Incident Management & Escalation Process [ITIN 34-2.3].

Backup and Recovery Process [ITIN 34-2.4].

Change Management Process [ITIN 34-2.5].

Configuration Management Process [ITIN 34-2.6].

Scale-Up Process [ITIN 34-2.7].

Scale-Down Process [ITIN 34-2.8].

Infrastructure Upgrade/Replacement Process (Hardware/Software) [ITIN 34-2.9].

eSDLC Artifact/Document Maintenance Process [ITIN 34-2.10].



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Figure 3: ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase [ITIN 3-2] Constituent Activities



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Subsequent sections describe the ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase operational

subactivities in detail.

3.2.1 Continuous Monitoring Process [ITIN 34-2.1]

The Continuous Monitoring Process is designed to provide ongoing, real-time assessments of

key system performance attributes. The intent is to provide constant updates on system status to

support routine monitoring and also to provide early warning of potentially disruptive trends in

system performance. By monitoring key performance attributes, system administrators and

engineers can quickly intervene if conditions are warranted. This process is also supported by

event management. Event Management, as defined by ITIL, is the process that monitors all

events that occur through the IT infrastructure. It allows for normal operation and also detects

and escalates exception conditions. An event can be defined as any detectable or discernible

occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT Infrastructure or the delivery of IT

service and evaluation of the impact a deviation might cause to the services. Events are typically

notifications created by an IT service, Configuration Item or monitoring tool.

Activity areas will include:

Network monitoring.

Utilization monitoring.

Storage monitoring.

Availability monitoring.

Security monitoring.

For Census managed datacenters, the activity areas will be monitored by Census. For cloud-

provided activities, they will be managed by SLAs.

Network monitoring is focused on continuous, real-time evaluations of the network traffic. This

includes measuring traffic flows at various points in the network, assessing the load, and taking

active steps to intervene if the load begins to exceed the acceptable performance thresholds.

Utilization monitoring is focused on managing the utilization rates of key system components.

These typically include CPU, memory, disk, network, and input/output utilization for computing,

network, and storage elements of the system. Utilization monitoring is typically supported by

one or more automated monitoring systems with user-definable alarm capabilities.

Storage monitoring is focused on actively managing the amount of storage space used by the

system. Typical tasks include measuring total space utilization, I/O rates, I/O attempts and

completions, I/O errors, and developing trend lines for space utilization over time.



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Availability monitoring is focused on measuring and managing the availability of the system.

Typical metrics for availability include number of sessions, uptime, downtime, MTBF, MTTR,

and other established measures of availability.

Security monitoring is concerned with managing the security access to the system. Typical

tasks include continuous, real-time threat detection monitoring such as virus/malware scanning,

login monitoring to ensure access is limited only to authorized users, and maintaining physical

security for system components.

3.2.2 Daily Operational Management Process [ITIN 34-2.2]

The objective of IT Operations Management is to monitor and control the IT services and IT

infrastructure. IT Operations Management executes day-to-day routine tasks related to the

operation of infrastructure components and applications and includes a daily/shift “stand up”

and/or NOC meeting to keep IT Operations Management staff appraised of current conditions

and any outstanding issued being worked.

Activity areas will include:

Database Administration.

Desktop and Mobile Support.

Directory Services Management.

Middleware Management.

Network Management.

Server Management and Support.

Storage Management and Archive Support.

Portal Support.

Infrastructure Environment Support.

Database Administration includes O&M activities related to Database Management Systems

(DBMS) which are in use to support applications. Monitoring of storage capacity in use,

efficiency of DBMS operation, distributed DBMS service operation, high-availability or

replication functions and routine updates to DBMS configurations and software are among the

tasks which will receive daily attention. Additionally, planned upgrades which may require

hardware and DBMS software maintenance functions with long lead times to ensure readiness

for Activation processes are supported as needed.

Desktop and Mobile Support is focused on providing ongoing user and device support for the

population of desktop computing and mobile device users. User requests and trouble reports are

entered in a ticketing system and managed through the designated Tier 1 IT Service Desk

support process under DSC. Tier 2 user requests and trouble reports relating to ITIN are routed



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from DSC to ITIN for subsequent action. Tier 2 responses are returned to DSC as appropriate.

Desktop and Mobile Support also includes processes for provisioning new devices and

supporting device upgrades as necessary. Software patching for user devices is supported

through automation and routine monitoring of software version compliance is also performed to

ensure user systems are compliant.

Directory Services Management includes O&M activities related to systems used to provision,

manage and control identity and access management systems. This includes Microsoft Active

Directory, Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services, Lightweight Directory Access

Protocol Services, and tools used to provision and de-provision user and group accounts in these

systems. On an ongoing basis, these systems must be checked to make sure that accounts are

provisioned via the least-privileged access principle; accounts should be provisioned with the

least access required. Random audits of accounts will be performed to ensure accounts match

business rules established for access. On a daily basis, de-provisioning logs should be reviewed

to ensure that separated or re-assigned employees lose all or unnecessary access to systems and

data. Emergency terminations and de-provisioning should be reviewed and documented as

needed.

Middleware management includes monitoring of the Enterprise Service Bus, Managed File

Transfer, Enterprise Transform and Load, Application Gateway, Application Message Queues

and other infrastructure that facilitates the exchange of information across system boundaries.

O&M activities to be performed include monitoring of transaction throughput against metrics,

dropped or held transactions, and daily “pings” of configured end-points to guarantee delivery of

transactions at run time. Additionally, security configuration of these platforms, including

backup and verification of security certificates and encryption keys, will be checked routinely.

Network Management is focused on maintaining the operation and performance of network

resources (routers, switches, links, etc.) to ensure continuous availability and adequate

performance under load. Capacity changes in response to changing traffic load profiles and

routine device and software updates will need to be performed on an ongoing basis during

production operations. Ensuring connectivity and adequate capacity during these upgrades is a

function of the Network Management operations staff. Handling of network outages and

recovery from unforeseen reductions in capacity is also a responsibility of this IT Operations

Management area.

Server Management and Support is focused on activities to ensure proper operation of

computer servers. This will include both software support such as routine operating system patch

management, security support such as virus/malware prevention, and routine O&M such as

application software patches and upgrades.



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Storage Management and Support is focused on activities to ensure proper operation of

computer storage devices. This will include management of physical storage arrays of disks,

such as routine systems administration and diagnostics, to ensure normal operations. This will

also include active management of disk utilization to ensure sufficient storage space is available

for normal operations to proceed without storage errors. For storage provided in non-physical

form such as via Cloud services, the Storage Management and Support effort is focused on

ensuring uninterrupted access to the cloud service provider assets. This will include monitoring

network access to cloud resources to ensure normal operations proceed without storage errors.

Portal Support is focused on activities to ensure proper operation of portal-based hardware and

software. This will include systems administration and hardware administration tasks for portal

hardware to ensure normal operations, as well as software administration to ensure portal

management software is functioning properly to support portal-based applications for operations.

Infrastructure Environment Support includes support for the O&M of the physical site

infrastructure which provides the operating environment (power; heating, ventilation, and air

conditioning (HVAC); physical perimeter; etc.) for the IT Infrastructure assets. Examples of

Infrastructure Environment support include:

Managing scheduled power outages.

Maintaining uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and HVAC installations.

Performing routine infrastructure health checks.

Performing application health checks.

Periodic review and exercise of startup and shut down procedures.

3.2.3 Incident Management & Escalation Process [ITIN 34-2.3]

Incident management is an IT service management (ITSM) process area. The first goal of the

incident management process is to restore a normal service operation as quickly as possible and

to minimize the impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of

service quality and availability are maintained. 'Normal service operation' is defined here as

service operation within SLA. It is one process area within the broader ITIL and International

Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20000 environment. Information from the Incident

Management and Escalation Process will be shared with other 2020 Census operations (PM/SEI,

FLDI, SPC, others) as appropriate to ensure timely distribution of information needed for these

operations to perform their functions.

Incident management includes:

Security Incident Management.

Unplanned Outage Management.



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Problem (Root Cause Analysis) Management.

Because of the tightly coupled nature of the Census Bureau’s IT infrastructure an incident

starting in one area can, and often does, impact other areas. As a result, incident management

processes and process artifacts must be closely coordinated across all areas. Currently, the

Census Bureau has at least 4 separate divisions or programs (e.g., DITD, American Community

Survey (ACS), Center for Enterprise Dissemination Services and Consumer Innovation

(CEDSCI), Geography) with similar but different processes for Planned Outages and 2 (DITD

and ACS) with similar but different processes for Unplanned Outages. This DOP will provide

the overall framework to facilitate the identification and coordination of all IT incident

management processes with the Census Bureau. The following is the ITIL incident management

process that will be used as a model:

Create an incident ticket and assign priority using Remedy.

Open Incident Management & Escalation process.

o Identify and create an Incident Management Report (IMR).

o Update record.

o Determine resolution plan.

o Execute resolution plan.

o Close incident.

o Update documentation.

o Capture metrics for SLA.

o Determine impact on Disaster Recovery (DR) processes.

3.2.4 Backup and Recovery Process [ITIN 34-2.4]

The Census Bureau defines non-functional requirements for systems in the 2020 Census

architecture and develops SLAs to achieve them. In particular, the amount of data that can be lost

and the amount of time allowed before a system must be returned to service are specified. These

metrics – recovery point objective and recovery time objective, directly relate to the IT

Infrastructure operation: procedures must be established for the infrastructure to make sure these

key metrics are met. Additionally, the ability of the infrastructure to meet these requirements also

factors into COOP planning, as any outage or data loss event that will exceed these requirements

may require the declaration of a COOP event. Census is developing a COOP plan, separate and

out of scope of this document, for each operation and system in scope for 2020; the backup and

recovery procedures must be coordinated with these plans.

Backup and restore procedures are designed to meet recovery point objective requirements.

Infrastructure operations for backup and restore provide protection against the failure of

components. A combination of techniques will be used.



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Full back up. Provides a comprehensive snapshot of the contents of a system, stored on

external media for Census managed datacenters and/or cloud provided backup services.

Backups are normally stored on different hardware or media, and replicated offsite to

provide recovery in the event of a disaster.

Incremental backup. Captures changes to the state of a system since the last backup.

Transactional logging. Each discrete transaction is stored and can be “replayed” to

restore a system to a pre-designated point in time.

Depending on the granularity of data recovery required, some or all of these techniques are

required. As an example, a database component of a system that needs to meet a one minute

recovery point objective may need a combination of full backups and transactional logging, as

snapshotting the entire database every minute may not be possible. It is also important to include

the time to restore from backup in the design of the backup process.

Disaster Recovery (DR) procedures are designed to meet recovery time objective requirements.

Deployment techniques including active-active, active-passive, or cold recovery are used as

disaster recovery procedures.

Active-active. Infrastructure is deployed in one or more locations and operated in

parallel. In this case, recovery from disaster is automatic: if a system component fails, the

remaining active node(s) assume processing. Replication of configuration and system

state is near-real-time. There is no “cut over” activity, but the system must be able to

detect failing nodes and redirect traffic to other active nodes to meet the recovery time

objective requirements.

Active-passive. Infrastructure is replicated in multiple location(s). If primary (active)

nodes fail, system load and processing are redirected to the passive nodes, which are

promoted to active status. Periodic replication of the configuration and state of active

nodes is replicated to the passive nodes. The time required to “cut over” must be

periodically tested to guarantee it can meet the recovery time objective.

Cold recovery. Infrastructure is available or easily provisioned, but the environment

must be re-built from backups or a re-deployment. The process must be periodically

tested to guarantee it can meet the recovery time objective.

The specific techniques used must be chosen based on the recovery time objective requirements

of the system in question. Additionally, the recovery time objective requirements will influence

how ITIN capacity is to be activated, and the deployment strategy for that capacity.

Choose deployment strategy. As an example, cloud service providers may not be able to

meet the recovery time objective or system availability requirement when infrastructure

is deployed in a single site or cloud designated availability zone. In some cases,



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infrastructure will require active-active deployment across two or more geographic

locations to meet the recovery time objective requirement above specific thresholds.

Assess infrastructure availability metrics. Appropriate and realistic availability metrics

are determined. Some hardware and software components are only certified to operate up

to specific availability metrics.

Configure monitoring. System health checks must be configured to assess ITIN

components at least as frequently as the recovery time objective minus any needed time

to recover to give ample time to perform restoration activities.

In addition to backup and disaster recovery services, ITIN will play a key role in COOP/Business

Continuity Planning (BCP) for many of the operations in scope for the 2020 Census.

Additionally, an ITIN failure can cause a COOP designation.

When a COOP/BCP event is declared, ITIN needs to assess the following:

Affected operations. Depending on the operational calendar, different business

operations are more critical at various points in time than others. A disaster may be wide

in scope (in the case of a data center or telecommunications outage that serves ITIN

components), or localized (in the case of a field location). ITIN operations must assess

the impact and what is needed to restore operations. As an example, if ACOs are taken

offline and a replacement site is stood up, ITIN may require network configuration to

provide access.

Time to restore. How long the event is expected to occur is another important factor. If

the event is expected not to last as long as restoration activities, then COOP activities

may not be performed.

Restoration priority. Depending on the operational calendar and non-functional

requirements, specific systems will be designated with a higher restoration priority than

others. These requirements will come from the overarching COOP plan for the 2020

Census Enterprise Architecture.

An important part of any ITIN COOP procedure is to restore to the initial state. This will include:

Validation of restoration of infrastructure.

Transfer of data and application state back to original infrastructure.

Wind down of COOP infrastructure. Data disposition may be required to make sure no

sensitive data remains.

3.2.5 Change Management Process [ITIN 34-2.5]

The Change Management Process encompasses the activities used to manage changes to the

2020 Census hardware, software, and business process baselines. This includes the management



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of proposed changes, as well as the actual implementation of such changes to the baselines.

During the 2020 Census, the intent is to minimize changes to operational capabilities in order to

maintain a stable hardware and software baseline. When changes are required, the formal

Change Management process will be used.

Change Management includes business processes to adjudicate and prioritize proposed changes

to the baseline. This process includes the use of formal Change Control Boards (CCBs), often

working closely with Architecture Review Board (ARB). The role of the ARB is to assess the

impact of proposed changes, but from a higher level of abstraction at the architectural level. The

ARB ensures that the proposed changes are consistent with the overall architectural design of the

system (and system of systems) in the overall architecture. Finally, the CCB plays the role of

business management, ensuring that the proposed change (which presumably has been approved

by the ARB) is financially achievable and fits within the scope of available delivery resources.

The two groups work together to ensure that changes are well considered and fit in the overall

direction of the program. For the 2020 Census, the objectives of the Change Management

Process will be defined by the Decennial Census Management Division, and the implementation

of the objectives will be achieved by the Information Technology Integration Contractor using

their tools and business practices.

In addition to managing the process of adjudicating proposed changes, the Change Management

process includes the actual activities involving people, processes, and technologies necessary to

implement the changes once they have been approved. Once changes are approved, the technical

aspects of change management come into play, such as various levels of unit, system and

integration testing. Additionally, the changes may require security review to obtain

Authorization to Operate in the production environment.

3.2.6 Configuration Management Process [ITIN 34-2.6]

The Configuration Management Process is a key component of the Change Management

Process, and defines the people, technology, and processes used to ensure that the configuration

of the 2020 Census baseline systems are effectively managed.

Configuration Management refers to the process of actively managing a technical baseline

through a series of incremental developments over the product life cycle. For the 2020 Census,

Configuration Management processes will be used to ensure that both enterprise and 2020

Census specific applications are developed and fielded in an orderly manner.

The specific configuration management processes may vary based on the application or hardware

configuration under consideration. The general process is to establish a fixed baseline with a

definite configuration (which may in turn include subcomponents each of which is also under

configuration management control), then increment the baseline as the result of successful



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completion of a pre-established test, integration and check-out process. This ensures that the

production baseline is clearly defined, and that subsequent changes to the production baseline

can be precisely tracked. In the event of an unexpected failure, the program management may

elect to “roll-back” to a prior baseline release number, and such a process is expedited by having

precise details of how each release was constructed. The configuration management process is

essential for this to be successful.

The actual configuration management processes used for specific applications, tools, and devices

will vary based on the contractor(s) managing these components and the configuration

management tools used to support their processes. Nevertheless, the general model for

configuration management conforms to the discussion above.

3.2.7 Scale-Up Process [ITIN 34-2.7]

Many systems in the 2020 architecture require the ITIN infrastructure to scale appropriately to

handle “spiky” system utilization. As an example, when heavy system utilization is expected or

measured, the ITIN operation may be expected to add additional compute, storage and/or

networking resources to handle the additional load.

There are two ways infrastructure may scale. In some cases, the system can be designed to scale

automatically to adapt to current conditions. In others, the system can be scaled manually to meet

anticipated demand or when automatic adaption isn’t possible. The procedure for each follows.

Auto-scaling

In an auto-scaling infrastructure environment, most of the procedures to follow are pre-scaling

procedures. The basic steps to support auto-scaling are:

Build scaling deployment units. In an auto-scaling environment, infrastructure is almost

always scaled horizontally, by adding additional nodes to a cluster of machines. These

scaling units may consist of a machine image pre-built to include all operating system

and application or platform components. Or they may consist of a deployment “recipe”

that can be executed to configure a virtual machine with the appropriate software.

Examples include the automated configuration management tools Puppet or Chef and

their ability to install software, run commands, and deploy code and updates from version

control repositories.

Decide on performance metrics. In an auto-scaling environment, infrastructure

administrators decide on what metrics or combinations of metrics are important when it

comes to scaling. Typically, these are based on one or more of virtual machine metrics,

including CPU utilization, memory utilization, disk utilization, or system response time,

measured via a synthetic transaction (e.g., a “health check”). Additional or more fine



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grained metrics may be used, but this is dependent on the application, platform and

operating system’s ability to provide them. As an example, some web application servers

can provide details on the number of user sessions. The specific metric(s) will be agreed

on based on the scaling needs of the system.

Establish metric monitors and thresholds. Based on the relevant performance metrics,

monitors will be established to check for the performance of the infrastructure against

specific thresholds that indicate the need to scale. These capabilities are typically services

provided by a cloud service provider. As an example, the Amazon Cloud Watch service

monitors various metrics across Amazon Web Services (AWS) platforms and can

produce logs, alerts and event triggers.

Configure auto-scaling. Based on the above steps, configure the environment to add

additional deployment units based on exceeding metric thresholds.

Notify of scaling event. Because auto-scaling is typically done in a cloud service

provider environment, it is important to notify relevant stakeholders of the need to scale.

Deploying additional cloud services incurs additional costs. Large increases in

infrastructure demand could indicate a security incident, such as a denial-of-service

attack, or a problem with application performance. The additional infrastructure must be

included in any other standard maintenance activities (e.g., backup and recovery,

intrusion detection, etc.). For these reasons, relevant stakeholders should be identified

and notified, at an appropriate frequency, of events that triggered ITIN auto-scaling.

Manual scaling

For systems that will not be deployed on infrastructure capable of auto-scaling, manual scaling

processes will be used. Manual scaling is similar to that of the initial Capacity Activation

process, except that capacity is being added to an existing environment. Manual scaling may be

done as part of a planned increase in capacity. For instance, the Response Processing operation

will mostly consist of nightly batch processing of response data received during the day.

Hypothetically, the Response Processing operation may want to scale up the infrastructure each

night to have the capacity needed to process the large data sets it will receive, but scale down at

the start of the business day to make resources available for other operations. Alternately, manual

scaling may be used to respond to capacity events similar to those of the auto-scaling process,

but on infrastructure platforms that cannot be scaled automatically. Finally, manual scaling may

be used for vertical scaling of an environment. Manual scaling follows these steps.

Establish scaling requirements. These requirements can originate from an established

scaling schedule derived from other operational plans that identify when and how much

capacity is required. Alternately, scaling requirements may come in the form of an ad hoc

request based on prior system performance.



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Assess scaling strategy and approach. Depending on the platform and requirements, the

infrastructure may use a horizontal or vertical scaling approach. As an example, a

database that is running out of storage may need to scale its storage vertically – adding

additional nodes to a cluster would not alleviate storage issues. In instances where

horizontal scaling will be used, the approach for how to add additional nodes needs to be

identified. Replicating an existing node or building a new node for a cluster are possible

approaches. Some platforms, such as the Oracle RAC distributed database platform,

provide tools to add capacity when infrastructure is made available. Regardless, the

approach for adding capacity should be established and agreed upon.

Identify needed outages. If scaling requires the environment to take an outage, ITIN

administrators need to work with stakeholders to identify the duration and ideal

window(s) for the outage.

Add capacity. The identified scaling strategy and approach will be executed.

Additionally, operational documentation indicating what application(s) are deployed on

specific infrastructure will be completed to support Scale-Down or other impact analyses.

Notify of scaling event. Just as in auto-scaling, if capacity has been added when not

previously planned for, stakeholders will be notified.

3.2.8 Scale-Down Process [ITIN 34-2.8]

The ITIN Operational Plan includes a Scale-Down Process that is similar to the Scale-Up

Process. As infrastructure is no longer required to meet capacity demands, resources should be

removed from the environment to contain costs – particularly in cloud service provider

environments - and reduce the scope and complexity of other operational processes (patching,

monitoring, etc.). However, there are additional factors to consider in scaling down.

First and foremost is the effect that removing infrastructure from the environment will have on

users or processes running on them. Applications that are stateful (user session activity is

preserved from one request or function to the next) or long running processes require careful

monitoring to determine when it is safe to remove capacity. As an example, if a user on a web

application is in the middle of a stateful session running on infrastructure that is removed before

the request is completed, the user’s session will be erroneously terminated. Depending on how

the application using the infrastructure is architected, this could result in data loss and a poor

user experience. Likewise, long-running processes that are terminated can result in data loss or

data errors.

For these reasons, it is critical to follow a specific sequence of events when removing capacity –

or “Scaling Down” – ITIN resources.



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Assess current infrastructure usage. At the desired time of removal, administrators

must understand what application functions and batch processes are running on the

infrastructure to avoid disruption to service. Ideally, some operational documentation was

completed during Capacity Activation or manual Scale-Up to allow administrators to

make these assessments. If not, process level examination will be performed to assess

what processes are running on infrastructure components and why before removing any

capacity from the environment.

Check health of other nodes if applicable. After all remaining nodes have assumed any

remaining user activity, their health will be assessed to make sure that they will be able to

continue to operate within operational thresholds.

Redirect user traffic and processes. This may include pausing or rescheduling

scheduled batch processes. Active user sessions/processes should either be allowed to

terminate naturally or transitioned to other nodes if possible (e.g., if a web application

server cluster supports session replication). New user sessions and processes will be

directed to other infrastructure nodes.

Stop/terminate infrastructure. This includes operating systems, applications, monitors,

back up processes, etc. The environment will be fully shut down before proceeding.

Remove infrastructure from application environment(s). As an example, if the

infrastructure is supporting a node in a cluster, the node needs to be removed from the

cluster so it is not restarted.

Release network resources. If the nodes are assigned static IP addresses or domain

name service names, these will be freed to avoid future collisions and to make available

for infrastructure.

Notify stakeholders. This may include internal IT teams including those who perform

configuration management, monitoring, security, networking, and backup. It may also

include external teams including application owners and business teams.

These processes may be implemented differently depending on the environment the

infrastructure is deployed in. Cloud environments may perform many of these steps

automatically, including releasing capacity, load balancing/clustering and networking

configurations, backup processes, and monitoring. In managed data centers, the degree to which

these processes require manual activities will depend on the sophistication of the tooling

available.

3.2.9 Infrastructure Upgrade/Replacement Process (Hardware/Software) [ITIN 34-2.9]

As previously discussed in Section 3.2.5, minimal changes are expected in the Census 2020

capabilities after 2018, and a key design goal of the Census Enterprise Architecture Transition

Plan is to minimize changes to the IT environment after the start of the 2018 End-to-End Census

Test. This test is designed to be a large scale test of all the operations and their supporting



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systems in their target state for the 2020 Census. To accomplish this, ITIN personnel are

expected to perform all needed and planned ITIN upgrades and replacements prior to the start of

the 2018 End-to-End Census Test that may be required until 2020 Census operations conclude.

It is unrealistic, however, to expect that an IT computing environment can be maintained in an

unchanged state for 3+ years. Therefore, ITIN upgrades and replacements will be required. The

operational procedures for the upgrade or replacement of infrastructural components are detailed

below. The two types of upgrade/replacement operations include:

Planned Replacement.

o Includes scheduled upgrades and hardware end-of-life contingency planning.

Emergency Replacement.

o Handles incidents from a component failure or emergency security fix.

Associated processes include:

Perform Infrastructure Change.

Verify Infrastructure Change.

Compare and synchronize infrastructure configuration.

Communicate with system and business owners.

3.2.10 eSDLC Artifact/Document Maintenance Process [ITIN 34-2.10]

In a tightly coupled environment such as a System of Systems that the Census Bureau is

developing, updating information artifacts upon completion of O&M changes is critical. A server

configuration change in one system could have a major impact on an up or down stream system.

Incident Management diagnosis relies heavily on accurate and current data.

The eSDLC Artifact/Document Maintenance Process is focused on ensuring that the eSDLC

artifacts (mostly software, but potentially hardware as well) are properly synchronized with the

associated documentation as changes are made during the O&M process. The purpose of this

process is to ensure that products and supporting documentation are aligned, avoiding confusion

and delays on the part of system administrators, users, and O&M staff.

3.3 ITIN Disposition Phase [ITIN 34-3]

The ITIN Disposition Phase includes activities required to terminate capabilities used for the

2020 Census. The two main parts of disposition include asset maintenance and information

persistence. Each of these will be addressed in the specifics below.

The Disposition Phase Subject Areas include the following:




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o Including potential for re-use for 2030 Census or ongoing operations



(IA) sites).

Mobile Computing.

Cloud Computing.

The Disposition Phase for Enterprise Systems and Applications will be largely managed and

implemented by the particular programs that provide the enterprise capabilities, and as such may

not be particularly aligned with 2020 Census schedule milestones. For example, the hardware

and software assets for an enterprise capability may have planned upgrades beyond the 2020

Census timeframe, in which case certain versions may support the 2020 Census, but later

versions will proceed independently from the 2020 Census. Disposition of the obsolete version is

solely the responsibility of the hosting program office. Similarly, the information persistence

requirements for data collected and processed by this enterprise capability are also the sole

responsibility of the hosting program office. Data required for National Archives and Record

Administration is handled by the Archiving Operation (ARC).

The Disposition Phase for Decennial Specific applications is similar to that for the Enterprise

Systems and Applications, however, in this case the Decennial specific program office is

responsible for disposition of hardware/software assets as well as information persistence.

Given the large investment in hardware, software, and other assets for the 2020 Census, it is

prudent to seek opportunities for re-use of these capabilities for ongoing operations and the 2030

decennial census. Planning for such potential reuse should occur prior to acquisitions for the

2020 Census, in that procurement decisions may be affected if there is a decision to invest for the

long-term as opposed to 2020 Census specific purposes. The actual engineering and architectural

decisions about reuse of 2020 Census specific applications and resources will be made by

architecture review boards (ARB) and other planning groups to ensure that such reuse is

technically viable and cost effective as well. It should be noted, however, that the rapid pace of

technological evolution may make hardware and software reuse ineffective. The potential for

cost savings should be carefully balanced against the potential for reduced productivity

experienced using systems beyond their operational effective life spans.

The Disposition Phase for RCC and ACO Sites is focused on the disposition of temporary assets

acquired by the Census Bureau to support the 2020 Census. Examples include disposition of

Census Bureau owned Site IT installation assets at RCCs and ACOs in coordination with the

FLDI and DLM operations. Disposition of information assets will be handled by the existing

enterprise and 2020 Census specific systems.



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The Disposition Phase for Mobile Computing is focused on effective stewardship of large

numbers of small mobile computing devices used by field workers during the 2020 Census.

The Disposition Phase for Cloud Computing is largely focused on how to manage information

disposition. As the cloud computing capability is expected to be provided by a FedRamp

certified COTS cloud vendor, the physical and virtual hardware will be managed by the cloud

vendor and as such is not in scope for Census disposition. The information stored in the cloud

environment, however, should be managed and disposed of appropriately, which will involve

extraction from the cloud environment to a long-term Census managed environment, and/or

submission of some or all data for archival purposes (done by the Archiving Operation) as

required by regulation and statutes. The ITIN Disposition Phase activity area is subdivided into

the following operational subactivities (See Figure 4).

Data Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.1].

Hardware Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.2].

Asset Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.3].

eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.4].

Figure 4: ITIN Disposition Phase [ITIN 3-3] Constituent Activities

Subsequent sections describe the ITIN Disposition Phase operational subactivities in detail.

3.3.1 Data Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.1]

Whenever hardware or virtual environments are decommissioned, care must be taken to make

sure that all sensitive data is disposed of properly in accordance with policies and procedures for

handling Title 13 and Title 26 data. Data should be categorized per the standards outlined in

FIPS 199 - Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information

34-3 ITIN Disposition Phase

34-3.1 Data Disposition Process

34-3.2 Hardware Disposition Process

34-3.3 Asset Disposition Process

34-3.4 eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process

2020 Census 34. IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN) Operational Activity Structure for 34-3 ITIN Disposition Phase

Includes: Sensitive Data Non-sensitive Data

Includes: Repurposing Retirement

Includes: Maintenance & Support Termination Asset Accounting

Includes: Final changes for Disposition Phase as

needed.



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Systems. FIPS 199 specifies data sensitivity across three dimensions: confidentiality, integrity

and availability. For the purposes of disposing of data, the confidentiality dimension is most

important.

Based on how confidential the data to be disposed of is, different controls are recommended. In

general, NIST 800-53 control baselines will be applied to appropriate levels of confidential data.

Additionally, an Information Owner, as defined by NIST 800-53 will be identified for data stored

on infrastructure, and relevant artifacts for the disposal of data must be completed by this

Information Owner. Additionally, NIST 800-53, section MP 6 Media Sanitization controls will

be established and followed pursuant to the degree of confidentiality of the data in question.

Finally, all data will be evaluated against whether or not it includes federal records that must be

retained before being disposed. The Archiving business operation will be included in the data

disposition process.

3.3.2 Hardware Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.2]

Hardware disposition refers to the removal of hardware or virtual compute resources

permanently from the ITIN environment. The mechanics are different depending on which

managed computing environment (cloud, data center, etc.) the ITIN resource is deployed in, but

the high level processes are the same. The removal activities of NIST 800-53, PE-16 Delivery

and Removal will be followed. Additionally, physical assets will be assessed for their re-use

potential. In this case, all steps except for decommissioning of physical equipment will be

followed.

Final backup. The hardware to be disposed of will have a final backup taken in case it

needs to be quickly restored or the hardware is being replaced with different hardware.

Data disposition. All relevant processes related to the disposal of data identified in 34-

3.1 will be performed.

Asset disposition. All relevant processes related to the disposal of capital assets

identified in 34-3.3 will be performed.

Remove administrative tools and accounts. All security, monitoring and administrative

tools will be removed. This includes administrator usernames/passwords, security

certificates, etc.

Complete removal artifacts. All relevant artifacts (equipment logs, etc.) will be

completed, per 3.3.4, eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process.

Decommission equipment. If physical compute resources, this includes the removal of

the hardware from the data center. If virtual, this includes removal of the virtual machine

from the virtualized environment.



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3.3.3 Asset Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.3]

Asset disposition refers to the removal of capital assets from the ITIN environment. It is largely

an accounting function, and its performance is critical to help reduce costs and complexity.

In particular, when ITIN Infrastructure is decommissioned, specific activities will be performed,

including:

Documenting end-of-service dates. In cases where hardware or equipment has an

ongoing cost from an accounting perspective (e.g., depreciation), tracking end-of-service

dates is vital.

Maintenance and Support Agreement termination. Equipment and software normally

have maintenance and support contracts. In cases where these contracts must be revised

periodically, or where equipment or software can be removed from a support contract,

tracking decommissioning allows Census to reduce costs.

License termination or transfer. Software licenses and subscriptions are normally paid

for on a per-processing-unit or per-user basis. Licenses are sometimes transferrable to

other hardware or users. The disposition process will include tracking of licensed

software to be decommissioned.

Cloud environments. Cloud-based ITIN resources are charged based on usage. Tracking

when services are decommissioned is necessary to audit and reconcile cloud services

billing.

3.3.4 eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process [ITIN 34-3.4]

The eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition process is focused on end-of-life activities for

eSDLC artifacts (mostly software, but potentially hardware or other equipment as well). The

process is intended to ensure proper disposition of assets is made, in accordance with policies

from Census Bureau and other applicable authorities.

It is important to ensure that all relevant documentation is updated to reflect the repurposing or

retirement of IT infrastructure items. This includes final changes for Disposition Phase as needed

for:

Inventories.

Architecture artifacts (System/Solution architecture diagrams, plans, etc.).

Inventories include physical assets used for operations as well as spare parts. Inventories also

include software assets such as COTS, government owner off-the-shelf products (GOTS), and/or

custom software applications developed to support operations. Disposition of hardware assets

can include outright disposal, or declaration as government surplus with associated transfer of

custody.



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Architecture artifacts include information technology assets such as system/solution architecture

diagrams, plans, database designs, record layouts, and so forth. Disposition of these assets can

include destruction, disposal, and/or archival for future reference.



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4. Cost Factors

4.1 Background

The investment in ITIN is projected to influence (reduce or increase ) the 2020 Census

overall costs in the following ways:

Leveraging enterprise solutions. ().

Leveraging cloud computing to address peak performance requirements. ().

4.2 Cost Factors

A list of major cost factors related to the ITIN Operation include the following:

Design, development and testing of 2020 Census software applications.

Design, implementation, and testing of 2020 Census information technology

infrastructure.

IT operations and maintenance.

This information is preliminary and will be updated as the 2020 Census Life-Cycle Cost

Estimate Model continues to mature.

4.3 Relevant IDEF0 Mechanisms

The following mechanisms from the IDEF0 Context Diagram represent the resources used to

support this operation and will therefore impact its cost:

Staff

HQ Staff.

TI Contractor Staff.

FLD Staff.

Sites

HQ.

NPC.

Paper Data Capture (PDC) Center Sites.

Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) Center Sites.

Island Area (IA) Sites.

FLD Sites (RCCs, ACOs).

Data Centers (BCC, TI, Cloud).



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Systems

Decennial Systems.

Enterprise Systems.

Field and IA Systems.

Remedy.

HP-ALM.

ITIN Monitoring Systems.

Other

Networks.

Mobile Devices/DaaS.



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5. Measures of Success

For the 2020 Census operations, the corresponding Measures of Success will be documented in

the operational assessment study plans and final reports. The operational assessment study plan

documents the criteria that will be used to define successful completion of the operation. The

operational assessment report will provide results on whether the criteria were met.

In general, operational assessments report on planned to actual variances in budget, schedules,

and production and training workloads. The corresponding Measures of Success (as documented

in the operational assessment study plan) include variances that exceed established thresholds.

See Content Guidelines for the 2020 Census Operational Assessments for the potential scope of

assessment.

Types of success measures include:

Process Measures that indicate how well the process works, typically including

measures related to completion dates, rates, and productivity rates.

Cost Measures that drive the cost of the operation and comparisons of actual costs to

planned budgets. Costs can include workload as well as different types of resource costs.

Measures of the Quality of the results of the operation, typically including things such

as rework rates, error rates, and coverage rates.

See the corresponding operational assessment study plan and report for the IT Infrastructure

Operation (ITIN) for details on the measures of success.



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Appendix A – Acronyms and Terminology

Table 7 lists the acronyms and abbreviations used within this Detailed Operational Plan

document.

Table 8 lists a Glossary of Terms used within this Detailed Operational Plan document.

Additional Decennial terminology can be found on the Census Intranet under the [TBD] portal.

Table 7: Acronyms and Abbreviations List

Acronym Meaning

ACO Area Census Office

ACS American Community Survey

ARB Architecture Review Board

ARC Archiving Operation

AWS Amazon Web Services

BCC Bowie Comoputer Center

BCP Business Continuity Planning

CCB Change Control Board

CEDSCI Center for Enterprise Dissemination Services and Consumer Innovation



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Acronym Meaning

COBIT Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies

COOP Continuity of Operations Planning

COTS Commercial Off-the-shelf Products

CQA Census Questionnaire Assistance

DBMS Database Manegement System

DITD Decennial Infromation Technology Division

DLM Decennial Logistics Management Operation

DOP Detailed Operational Plan

DSC Decennial Service Center

FIPS Federal Information and Information Systems

FLD Field

FLDI Field Infrastructure Operation

GOTS Government Owner Off-the-shelf Products

HP-ALM Hewlett Packard Application Lifecycle Management

HQ Headquarters

HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

IA Island Areas

IIP Integration and Implementation Plan

IMR Incident Management Report

IPT Integrated Product Team

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library



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Acronym Meaning

ITIN Information Technology Infrastructure

ITSM Information Technology Service Management

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NOC Network Operating Center

NPC National Processing Center

NRFU Non-Response Follow-up

ORR Opertional Readiness Review

PDC Paper Data Capture

PM Program Management

PMO Program Management Office

PRR Production Readiness Review

RCC Regional Census Centers

SEI Systems Engineering and Integration

SEMP Systems Engineering Master Plan

SLA Service Level Agreement

SPC Security, Privacy and Confidentiality Operation

TEMP Test Engineering Master Plan

TI Technical Integrator

UAT User Acceptance Test

UE Update Enumerate Operation

UPS Uninterruptable Power Supply



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Table 8: Glossary of Terms

Term Meaning

Business Continuity

Planning

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is the process of creating systems

of prevention and recovery to deal with potential threats to a company

or organization. Any event that could negatively impact operations is

included in the plan, such as supply chain interruption, loss of or

damage to critical infrastructure (major machinery or computing

/network resource). As such, BCP is a subset of risk management. In

the US, government entities refer to the process as continuity of

operations (COOP) planning.

Capacity Activation Capacity activation is the process of assigning infrastructure resources

to support specific capacity demands of applications or services. This

may include traditional or cloud-based capabilities.

Cloud Computing Cloud Computing is a collection of services for deploying systems,

infrastructure, or platforms via a shared pool of on-demand and elastic

computing resources. This includes three service models: Software-as-

a-Service, where the cloud provider provides the entire application;

Platform-as-a-Service, where the cloud provider provides platforms

used to run an application, such as a pre-configured database

environment; Infrastructure-as-a-Service, where the cloud provider

provides processing, storage, and network resources to run platforms

and applications on.



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Term Meaning

Continuity of

Operations

Continuity of Operations (COOP), as defined in the National

Continuity Policy Implementation Plan (NCPIP) and the National

Security Presidential Directive-51/Homeland Security Presidential

Directive-20 (NSPD-51/HSPD-20), is an effort within individual

executive departments and agencies to ensure that Primary Mission

Essential Functions (PMEFs) continue to be performed during a wide

range of emergencies, including localized acts of nature, accidents, and

technological or attack-related emergencies.

Decennial Device-

as-a-Service

Decennial Device-as-a-Service (dDaaS) is a Census Bureau acquisition

program approach. The dDaaS approach will be used to provide mobile

devices, accessories, cellular connectivity, and device provisioning for

each 2020 operation beginning with the 2018 End-to-End Census Test

through 2020 Coverage Measurement.

Disaster Recovery Disaster recovery (DR) involves a set of policies and procedures to

enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure

and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster

recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical

business functions, as opposed to business continuity, which involves

keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite

significant disruptive events. Disaster recovery is therefore a subset of

business continuity.

Portal A portal is a website considered as an entry point to other websites,

often by being or providing access to a search engine.

Recovery Point

Objective

A Recovery Point Objective is the maximum acceptable data loss a

system can sustain per business requirements. This implies that some

form of backup or replication of a system's data must occur at least as

frequently as the recovery point objective.

Recovery Time

Objective

A Recovery Time Objective is the maximum length of any outage a

system can sustain per business requirements. This describes the

maximum amount of time the business can accept to restore a system to

its operational state after an outage occurs.



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Term Meaning

Root Cause

Analysis

Root Cause Analysis is a problem solving method used to identify the

root causes of faults or problems. A factor is considered a root cause if

removal thereof from the problem-fault-sequence prevents the final

undesirable event from recurring; whereas a causal factor is one that

affects an event's outcome, but is not a root cause.

System of Systems A System of Systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated

systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a

new, more complex system which offers more functionality and

performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems.



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Appendix B – References

Appendix B lists the documents or other resources used during the development of this Detailed

Operational Plan document.

U.S. Census Bureau (2016), “2020 Census Operational Plan,” Version 2.0, October 28, 2016.

U.S. Census Bureau (2016), “Operational Assessment Content Guidelines for the 2018 End-to-

End Census Test and the 2020 Census,” Draft, May 10, 2016.



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Appendix C – Activity Tree for IT Infrastructure Operation (ITIN)

This appendix presents the Activity Tree for the ITIN Operation. An Activity Tree uses an

outline structure to reflect the decomposition of the major operational activities in the operation.

Each activity is numbered according to its position in the outline. For example, for the current

operation numbered “34”, the first activity would be numbered 34-1. Subactivities under this

activity would be numbered sequentially, starting again with the number one. For example, the

first subactivity under the first activity would be numbered 34-1.1 the second subactivity as 34-

1.2. The second activity would be numbered 34-2, and so on.

ITIN Activity Tree:

34-1 ITIN Activation Phase.

Activation Phase Subject Areas include:

o Enterprise Systems and Applications.

o Decennial Specific Applications.

o RCC and ACO IT Infrastructure.

o Mobile Computing.

o Cloud Computing.

34-1.1 Production Readiness Process.

34-1.2 eSDLC Artifact/Document Integration Process.

34-1.3 Release Activation Process.

34-1.4 Capacity Activation Process.

34-1.5 Qualification Process (Post Activation).

34-2 ITIN Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Phase.

O&M Phase Subject Areas include:




o Mobile Computing.

o Cloud Computing.

34-2.1 Continuous Monitoring Process.

34-2.2 Daily Operational Management Process.

34-2.3 Incident Management & Escalation Process.

34-2.4 Backup and Recovery Process.

34-2.5 Change Management Process.

34-2.6 Configuration Management Process.

34-2.7 Scale-Up Process.

34-2.8 Scale-Down Process.

34-2.9 Infrastructure Upgrade/Replacement Process (Hardware/Software).



(ITIN)

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34-2.10 eSDLC Artifact/Document Maintenance Process.

34-1 ITIN Disposition Phase.

Disposition Phase Subject Areas include:




o Mobile Computing.

o Cloud Computing.

34-3.1 Data Disposition Process.

34-3.2 Hardware Disposition Process.

34-3.3 Asset Disposition Process.

34-3.4 eSDLC Artifact/Document Disposition Process.