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_.~ _u_._.~_,______u_..'~ _,_ '" .----'......~"''''''"'''..._,~...~,,_____~___..."''.........,....~...." ._...r..-,'~_.""""'~.l"~"... ~::U'-'~'.""~_:~~~'-"."""';'1, ~ , 3456 3457 3458 3459 3460 346] 3462 3463 3464 3465 3466 3467 3468 3469 3470 3471 3472 3473 3474 3475 3476 3477 3478 3479 3480 348] 3482 3483 , 134 faster T] telecommunication line provided for a much more robust networking environment than that at the Bank of America Building, During the transition from GCES to GCMRC, then state-of the-art Pentium Pro systems were purchased for both the Bank of America building employees and USGS building employees. A Novell file server was also purchased for the USGS building employees. While this represented a considerable improvement in the GCMRC computing environment, the lack of dedicated local support and unreliable network infrastructure at the Bank of America building contributed to a difficult computing environment. The contracted remote computer support was expensive and often did not lend itself to timely correction of problems encountered in the everyday operation of the environment. In the summer of ]997, an Information Technology Program Manager was hired and, among other things, assumed responsibility for the administration of the GCMRC computing and networking environment. A plan was developed to improve the internal GCMRC computing environment and extend its capabilities to facilitate the AM process. A primary objective of the plan is to improve overall system performance, reliability and maintenance. The information technology program believes that this can best be achieved by having competent individuals in-house trained in the administration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of the computer system. However, computer administration comes at a high cost in terms of manpower and expertise. A brief analysis of the current GCMRC computer environment has identified that most problems occur at the application-operating system-local area network layer and that few problems occur at the wide area network, or Internet, layer. Internet connectivity infrastructure can be very expensive. Therefore, it makes fiscal sense that Internet connectivity and associated services such as DNS, mail, and news will continue to be administered by entities outside the GCMRC--most notably the USGS in the case of the Gemini office and U.S. Bureau of Rec]amation in the case of the Bank of America office. Computer hardware and operating systems at the GCMRC will largely be a combination of state-of-the-art Intel processors running Windows NT. Each workstation " '< ;~ ,.' ,.' -, :~ \,; t; ;., >. " i,:_~ ;.~ ,- ::{ ~:.,. :'4 November S, 1998 Second Draft - Do Not Cite, Photocopy. or Distribute