One of the biggest change agents in the Federal environment over the last few years has been adoption of open source software. During this presentation, Kimberly will share the EEOC story about how to leverage open source for enterprise applications during these exciting, but uncertain, times in Federal Government.

1. Leveraging Open Source
Kimberly Hancher, Chief Information Officer (CIO)
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
January 2014

2. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Enforce laws against discrimination in the workplace.
ü 2,100+ employees at 53 field sites and HQ
ü 20,000+ new cases received every year
ü Annual appropriation = about $362 Million
ü IT budget = ranges between 4- 5% ($14-17 M)
ü IT staff = 52 Govt+ 23 contractors at HQ
ü Field IT staff = Touch support for break/fix
ü Data center @ DC HQ + LAN @ every field site

3. Challenges that led to
Consideration of Open Source
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Strategic Plan Priorities
Need for new functionality
Integration with mission applications
Decreasing IT budget
Need for Technology Refresh Infrastructure HW, SW, Telecom, People

4. Open Source based Myths
• Point 1 It is Free
• Point 2 Throw away
• Point 3 No Support
• Point 4 Building Open Source solutions is cheap
• Point 5 Lacks Maturity

5. Key Considerations
For Adoption of Open Source based Products
• Affordability
• Ease of implementation
• Cloud based or on-premises
• Technical Support
• Proven and Mature
Open Source does not mean Free Software

6. One Approach - Injection
Look for those opportunities to inject Open
Source into your Enterprise Architecture.
1. Field File/Print Servers - Microsoft Server or
SUSE Linux as LAN Operating System?
2. Application/Web Servers – Oracle Weblogic
or Red Hat Jboss Middleware
3. Mission System Next Gen – COTS or Java?
4. Digital File Management for Mission System
–Opentext Livelink vs Alfresco

7. EEOC Open Source Stack
Category
Product
Usage
Middleware
RedHat JBoss
SOA/Web Services,
Java Applications
Operating System
SUSE Linux
LAN OS
Reports
BIRT On Demand
Canned Reports for multiple
applications
Content Management
Alfresco
Integrated Document
Management
Development Tools
Selenium
jMeter
GIT
Regression Testing
Testing
Code Repository

8. Open Source vis-à-vis
Enterprise Architecture
Document Management Technology Component
Document management includes software systems that allow enterprises to store, retrieve, generate,
manage, and distribute electronic files, yielding greater efficiencies in the ability to reuse information and
to establish workflow constructs.
Architectural Guidance & Usage Scenarios
• OpenText is widely used to store documents from internal as well as external entities like OFO and Legal.
• Alfresco should be considered for scenarios and new projects where document management is integrated
within other application (or workflow) and does not require direct user access like OpenText (transparent
interaction with documents).
• Alfresco can run on the RedHat JBoss Application Server, which is owned by EEOC and installed at the
hosted site.
Tactical (0-2 years usage cycle)
Containment and Retirement
• OpenText ECM Suite 2010
• Network File Folders
• Network File Folders
Watch List/Emerging
Strategic
• Alfresco (Open Source)
• TBD

9. Recommendations:
ü Pick a business problem to solve
ü Create a pilot project for the solution
ü Be upfront with the Open Source vendor and ask for
a trial version but full Technical Support
ü Find the internal resource(s) and/or manager who
want to try new technologies
ü Evaluate the performance – benefits, issues
ü Develop the Open Source Adoption plan appropriate
to your agency
ü Incorporate the vision into your strategic plan
(enterprise architecture)

10. References
• DoD Open Source Software (OSS) FAQ
• http://dodcio.defense.gov/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.aspx
• Timeline of the major events, publications, and code releases in the
history of the US government
• http://gov-oss.org/
• GSA’s Open Government Initiatives
• http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/102007
• https://github.com/gsa
• Government Open Source Projects
• https://github.com/GSA/federal-open-source-repos

11. Questions?