Cost-Effective, Secure Virtual Teamwork: Use of “Google Apps” for Rapid Collaboration

1. Cost-Effective, Secure Virtual Teamwork: Use of “Google Apps” for Rapid Collaboration Shanna S. Leonard, James C. Roebuck, Ph.D., Kushal M. Aurangabadkar, David M. Spies, Alexandra M. Armenta, Debra A. Stern, John Gross, Elizabeth Beckett-Firmage, Francisco A. Garcia, Mari S. Wilhelm, Ph.D., and Fernando D. Martinez, Ph.D. • BACKGROUND • The Arizona NCS is a coordinated effort between University of Arizona, Battelle and subcontracted field staff. The University of Arizona provides research design and management of data, and is responsible for all aspects of the Information Management System including the data model, application development and support of all computing infrastructure and field collection units. Battelle provides recruitment and supervision of subcontracted field staff. • PROBLEM OVERVIEW • Organizational complexity and geographic distance within Arizona NCS operations caused challenges to effective and timely communications. • To facilitate improved communication while reducingexpense and travel time, the Arizona Study Center decided to implement a common platform -- a “virtual team” solution which would make a large range of collaboration features available at a low cost to all Study Center Staff, without increasing burdens on already taxed Systems administration personnel. • SELECTION PROCESS • Requirements included: email lists; shared calendaring ; document storage; ease of implementation; short learning curve; flexible cost structure and secure environment. Based on our familiarity with Google Apps for Education at the University of Arizona, and knowledge of its full feature set, we researched benchmark implementations which required a secure environment and found that Google Apps has been deployed at the US Treasury department using Google Sites for a IT security information sharing portal, and by 11,000 users at USAID for email and document storage, as well as at LBL and GSA. • After testing and using Google Apps for Business for 4 months, we have found it an easy-to-use platform which supports both distance and in-person teamwork. It has rapidly become indispensable for documentation and collaboration activities. • SOLUTION AND FEATURES • Setup and Implementation: Setup of the Google apps domain was simple and was accomplished in approximately two days. Administrative management of various features can be delegated based on role responsibilities. • Document editing and secure storage: In meetings and conference calls we can co-create documents such as spreadsheets, planning documents and meeting notes in real time with multiple authors. Instead of emailing documents via insecure channels, links are accessible with authenticated, encrypted access. Access is fine-grained and users can be restricted from sharing outside of the NCS Google domain. • IT and IMS field support: Support email is routed to a group mailing list so that the appropriate person can respond.  Google voice allows us to provide an internal “virtual hotline” to allow us to easily triage and route IT support calls without the additional expense, complication or staff overhead of a dedicated help desk phone. • It also provides: • An auditable, “authoritative” email domain for all NCS staff, regardless of organizational affiliation. (ncs.arizona.edu); • Internal shared scheduling and calendaring; • Document repository for business continuity; • Restricted-access Web-based FAQ. • FUTURE DIRECTIONS • Implement Added Features: Google Apps includes video and audio conferencing features. • Evaluate Security for Enhanced Use: Google Apps has passed a FISMA Certification & Accreditation process at Federal agencies and is currently employed for internal use by the Government Services Administration and Laurence Berkeley Labs. The Arizona Study center is not currently using Google Apps for Personally Identifiable Information or Study Data, but capabilities exist to allow secure data transfer. We are currently evaluating add-on apps which provide enhanced auditing and archival of doucments (e.g. Cloudlock.) • The possibility of increasing our deployed feature set holds interest since cloud services provide attractive capabilities, like redundancy, reliability in case of disaster and ease of administration. However we are approaching this increased use with caution since risk assessment, selection and implementation of approved controls would be needed before expanding the types of data permitted. • CONCLUSIONS: • Google Apps allows coordinated effort, secure remote access and is an easy to use, effective management tool. Figure 1. NCS.ARIZONA.EDU Secure Gmail login Figure 2. Management Interface The University of Arizona – NCS Study Center 1657 East Helen Street, Tucson, AZ - support@ncs.arizona.edu