IT infrastructure in the new space age

Rick Hohmann can't help but marvel at the coming new era of astronaut exploration. “The fact that NASA is going back to the Moon and that I'm going to see people walking on Mars during my lifetime is just amazing to me," he says.

When those boots do hit Moon and Martian dust, Hohmann will have more reason to marvel than most. That's because he'll know that he, as vice president and division manager of the NASA IT portfolio within the civil group at Leidos, and the people he works with will have contributed to those achievements. “We're transforming how NASA uses computers across the enterprise, at all levels," he explains.

Hohmann's work at Leidos is the culmination of a multi-generational journey. “I come from a long line of engineers, including my grandfather, uncle, sister, and even my brother-in-law," he says. “I've always been passionate about engineering and the impact it can have on society." That passion led him to a degree in biomedical engineering, after which he made the big leap to work on human space flight. He joined NASA not long before the first crew was scheduled to head to the International Space Station (ISS), helping to make it possible by designing ventilation systems and exercise equipment that proved critical to supporting the astronauts' health on the ISS.

Hohmann later went on to help transform major computer systems at the FBI and the U.K.'s air traffic control system. But he never lost touch with his interest in supporting space flight. “I've always been a big fan of NASA's mission and its benefits to the world," he says. “I'm really proud and excited to be back here as part of a team supporting that mission."

Any user, anywhere

The IT support Hohmann's team is providing NASA stands to be a critical enabler of the agency's grand new goals, he notes. “The power that IT can deliver today is beyond what we could have imagined during the original Moon missions," he says. “The new missions will be more reliant than ever on that technology, and we're committed to providing the innovative approaches that will meet those much bigger needs."

The two large-scale enterprise IT contracts that NASA awarded to Leidos make it clear that exploring space requires covering a lot of IT ground. One of the contracts is the NASA End-User Services & Technologies (NEST) contract, which focuses on all end-user IT activities at the agency. The other is the Advanced Enterprise Global Information Technology Solutions (AEGIS) contract, encompassing the agency's cloud-enabled data center and all the infrastructure and network facilities supporting NASA's enterprise IT organization.

“We're creating an environment that makes the network available to any authorized user at NASA, anywhere," says Hohmann. “Anything that a NASA mission operator, scientist, or engineer would do is most likely being accessed through a Leidos device or one that's managed and maintained through the Leidos-supported infrastructure."

Working with NASA isn't exactly like working with any customer, he notes. “NASA has built itself around disciplined process, protocols, and safety," he says. “We must make sure we're fully aligned with those processes as we deliver IT services and infrastructure. We're instituting the highest levels of quality assurance, backed by lots and lots of testing and validation before anything gets deployed in an operational environment."

Guardians of the data

Security is a major part of that assurance. While providing state-of-the-art IT security is a priority in working with any customer today, NASA's security must go above and beyond. After all, no one wants to let a hacker get a shot at the International Space Station—one of the nearly 20 NASA sites Leidos will protect under the contracts. “We've basically become the guardians of NASA data," says Hohmann. “That means there are a lot of zero-trust protocols that are being put into place throughout the infrastructure. We're in constant protection mode,"

Effective partnering and collaboration are critical success factors, contends Hohmann. “We maintain close relationships with all the top IT players in the industry, from Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to Dell, HP and Cisco, and many others," he says. “Our engineering teams work closely with their engineering teams to make sure we're able to leverage the best technology solutions from every vendor to meet NASA's needs."

He adds that getting key players from every team in the same room to talk face-to-face was critical in breaking down barriers and establishing close and effective collaboration. And he notes that he makes a point of involving all levels of his team in the collaboration. “I think a lot of people don't consider that some of your best ideas and quickest pathways to success are with the team members who are on the front lines," he says.

The Leidos team is already producing impressive results, insists Hohmann. “I'm proud to be in front of this team that's accomplishing so many amazing things," he says. “We're going to play our part in making sure NASA achieves its goals, and when it does, I want every one of our team members to feel the pride of knowing they helped us get to the Moon and Mars and whatever is beyond."

Hohmann is also mindful of continuing his family's tradition of inspiring the next generation of potential engineers. “I see the excitement my seven-year-old daughter gets from learning about space, and about NASA's projects," he says. “I want her to be proud of how we're helping NASA leave the world a little bit better off than when we started."

But he also concedes that doing meaningful work with NASA can sometimes lead to slightly unrealistic expectations. “My wife says to me, 'If you can help send stuff into space, you should be able to fix the dryer.'"

To learn more about the advantages of the NASA IT portfolio at Leidos, visit Leidos.com/NASA-IT