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

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

WSU Campus Locations Spokane Pullman Tri-Cities Vancouver

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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