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PRIORITIES

The majority of the mainframe applications used by the RTC and FDIC were located at the Virginia location in Rosslyn, VA, and required 3270 emulation for host access. The RTC network was independent from the FDIC network, to begin with, but there were certain priorities to consider to bring them together.

As these are government institutions dealing with assets of failed banks, network security was a priority. The original decision to go with Banyan was based in part on its WAN capabilities and the tight security design of the user log- in process. Each time a user logged in, his or her unique network ID was time and date stamped to prevent unauthorized access by a computer hacker. The flexibility to log in anywhere in the network and still maintain a high level of security was key to the way the RTC did business.

A requirement of the new version of the network operating system was that it support all existing off-the-shelf software. All standard applications, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and E-mail were provided on the local Banyan servers. The current suite of standard software packages that the RTC supported included WordPerfect 5.1, Lotus 2.4, and Paradox 3.5. All workstations ran either DOS 5.0, which was preferable, or DOS 3.3 with 386 Max version 5.0 as the memory manager. Saber, a software package, was used for the menuing front-end for all users to access all applications. All the applications were to be compatible with the Vines 5.52(5) upgrade.

ELEMENTS TARGETED FOR CHANGE

All applications in use at the RTC when the project began needed testing in a lab environment before delivery into the production environment. Preliminary testing showed complete compatibility across all applications with the Vines 5.52(5) upgrade.

The workstations in the field were configured with only 2M bytes of random access memory (RAM). RAM requirements of the new operating system shell, as well as the applications to be run for daily applications, had to fit in the 2M bytes of memory. There were no plans or budget to upgrade RAM in field workstations.

Each of the two styles of Banyan server (the RTCs and the FDICs) required identical configuration in naming conventions of groups, file services, print services, 3270 services, E-mail naming standards, amount of disk space, memory configurations, server names, network interface card (NIC) settings, and cabling specifications for connectivity.

Several Banyan servers also required hardware upgrades before the new operating system could be installed. Banyan server hardware upgrades included faster processors (i.e., Intel 486 chips), larger server hard drives, and faster NIC cards, when feasible.

The Cisco routers used to connect each office to the WAN also required an upgrade, as they supported only Vines 4.11(5) IP protocol stack. The revision of the routing software in the Cisco routers was 9.x, and the RTC needed a 10.x revision.

UPGRADE COSTS

An upgrade server key option had to be purchased for each RTC server — a $5,000 option for each server. Because RTC servers needing the upgrade numbered 329, the cost totaled $1,645,000.

Each Corporate Network Server (CNS) required one 1.3G byte hard drive per server before the upgrade could take place. Each CNS server also required a drive 0 larger than the existing 80M byte drive. The upgrade process required that each CNS have a 330M byte drive in slot 0, a 330M byte in slot 1, and the 1.3G byte drive in slot 3. The larger drive 0 would accommodate the new operating system requirements. The actual number of CNS Banyan servers was not known but was estimated at 40% of the total 329 Banyan servers, for a total of 132 CNS servers to be upgraded. Each 1.3G byte upgrade drive was valued at $5,400, for a total of $712,800 to upgrade all CNS servers. The Compaq SystemPro accounted for the balance of the RTC 329 servers, or about 197 servers. Of the 197 SystemPros, roughly 50% needed hard drive upgrades, roughly 30% needed CPU upgrades, and approximately 40% needed to upgrade to 32-bit NIC cards (either Token Ring or Ethernet). Hard drive upgrades (and controllers) cost approximately $4,500 each, for a total of $445,500. CPU upgrades and system PROMS cost approximately $1,900 for each of 59 servers, or $47,400.

The hardware upgrades for the servers were required only for drive 0 of the CNS. The hardware upgrades for the other servers were done in conjunction with the Vines 5.52(5) upgrade for two reasons. First, the hardware upgrades had already been planned for and budgeted before the Vines upgrade. The existing server hardware was two to four years old at the time of the project and required upgrading because hardware failures were occurring more frequently. Second, because the servers needed to be rebuilt from scratch, it made economic sense to do the hardware upgrades just before laying down the operating system and files. This would save overtime costs that would be incurred if the servers were refurbished after upgrading the operating system.

Router Upgrades. The last items to be upgraded in the network were the Cisco AGS and AGS+ routers, which were scheduled for upgrade after the servers were completed. The Ciscos were running the 9.4.0 software version, which did not fully support Vines 5.52(5). Full functionality for Vines 5.52(5) was promised if RTC upgraded the hardware and software. Additional memory was required to run the software update 10.0.4. The total number of Cisco routers that needed an upgrade was 30. (Some of the 3000 series did not need the hardware upgrades but did need the software.) The hardware upgrades were approximately $1,500 each, and the software upgrades were $3,000 each, for a total of $45,000 and $90,000, respectively.

Exhibit 1. Total Estimated RTC Upgrade Costs, Per Component

Banyan Server Upgrades $1,645,000
CNS Server Upgrades $712,800
SystemPro CPU Upgrades $112,100
SystemPro Hard Drive Upgrades $445,500
SystemPro NIC Card Upgrades $47,400
Cisco Hardware Upgrades $45,000
Cisco Software Upgrades $90,000
Upgrade Labor Costs (OT only) $55,000
Total (Estimated) $3,153,730


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