A perfect storm of disparate requirements, multi-location institutions, poor network links and DR needs led the UCA to a cloud based solution

1. Migra&ng
from
a
physical
to
a
hosted
Data
Centre-­‐
Experiences
of
a
small
University
Peter
Newton
–
UCA
Paul
Hopkins
–
HE-­‐Shared
Services

2. University
for
the
Crea&ve
Arts
Formed
in
2005
by
merging
2
colleges
of
Art
&
Design
in
Surrey
with
3
colleges
in
Kent.
7,000
students
spread
across
5
campuses
–
130
miles
apart
Turnover
£60million
p.a.
–
IT
Budget
(£4.5M)
Supported
by
an
IT
team
of
28
–
with
• Technical,
Applica&ons
Team
based
in
Maidstone
• Business
Development
and
Administra&on
in
Farnham
• 2nd
Line
Support
at
each
other
campus
Technically,
the
Kent
Campuses
are
connected
via
KPSN
and
the
Surrey
Campuses
linked
directly
to
JANET
…
but
all
with
minimal
network
resilience…

3. UCA
Campuses
2010
Maidstone
Farnham
Canterbury
Rochester
Epsom

4. UCA
Environment
-­‐
July
2010
Maidstone
Current
DC
Farnham
Canterbury
Rochester
Epsom
JANET
KentMAN
due
to
be
KPSN
in
2012

5. In
2011,
UCA
agreed
plans
to
vacate
the
Maidstone
campus
by
summer
2014.
Hence
a
need
to
examine
• where
the
Data
Centre
should
move
to;
• the
future
of
the
Technical
and
Applica&ons
teams;
and
• how
to
minimise
risk
to
UCA
during
this
transi&on
…whilst
there
are
seismic
changes
occurring
in
Higher
Educa&on,
IT
technologies
and
student
expecta&ons!
Maidstone
Closure
–
Announced
2011

6. What
choices
are
realis&c?
And
what
do
we
need
to
do
about
our
network?
• Build
a
new
DC
/
DR
at
Campus
• Implement
Cloud
as
a
solu&on
• Commercial
Datacentre
Solu&on
• H.E.
Datacentre
Solu&on

7. Technical
Considera&ons
There
was
a
possible
DR
or
DC
loca&on
in
EPSOM
Issue
1
:
Weak
DR
Environment
Issue
2:
No
space
for
a
Data
Centre
Issue
3:
Hidden
higher
expenditure
in
the
Opera&ng
Costs
Build
a
new
Datacentre
on
another
campus
Issue
1:
Disadvantages
at
all
other
sites
Issue
2:
In
a
rapidly
changing
HE
environment,
would
a
future
merger
or
reduc&on
of
another
campus
happen
within
10
years?
Rent
space
in
a
commercial
or
another
university
data
centre?
Issue
1:
Finding
a
cost-­‐effec&ve
data
centre
provider
Issue
2:
What
would
the
ideal
solu&on
be
for
a
DR
centre
–
in-­‐house
or
not?
Cloud
Issue
1:
A
DC
s&ll
required
at
our
Root
Technical
Level
Issue
2:
Timescales
dependent
on
expenditure
…
and
how
do
you
develop
a
low-­‐risk
plan
to
move
everything
from
in-­‐house
to
out-­‐of-­‐house?

8. Management
Considera&ons
• Moving
away
from
Kent
increases
likelihood
of
losing
key
technical
staff
• Are
we
looking
at
fully
hosted,
IaaS,
PaaS
or
a
mix?
Or
is
there
a
migra&on
route?
• How
do
you
find
a
commercial
vendor
who
understands
the
HE
culture?
• If
staying
in
HE
sector,
how
do
you
get
a
good
service?
• How
do
we
get
our
Board
of
Governors
and
Exec
Board
to
agree
to
our
chosen
route?

9. Our
solu&on
and
route-­‐map
1. Standardize
applica&ons
to
support
virtualisa&on
backup,
removing
hardware
dependence.
2. Re-­‐design
the
data
network
so
that
there
is
sufficient
bandwidth
and
diverse
rou&ngs
into
each
campus
3. Iden&fy
possible
Commercial
and
in-­‐sector
service
suppliers
4. Brief
Execu&ve
and
also
Governors
early
to
get
their
advice
and
commitment
to
the
route
forward
5. Prepare
an
environment
to
ENABLE
a
route
map
that
moves
from
the
historic
physical
applica&on/server
environment;
using
virtualisa&on
prepare
capability
for
migra&on
to
external
IaaS,
to
PaaS
and
even
to
SaaS

10. UCA
Planned
IT
Provision
-­‐
July
2014
Maidstone
Studios
Disaster
Recovery
KPSN
JANET
Farnham
Canterbury
Rochester
Epsom
ULCC
Datacentre

11. From
Physical
through
to
SaaS…
Any-­‐Shore
Virtualiza&on
Unlinks
Hosted
Racks
Located
in
Vendor
DC
Near-­‐Shore
Applica&on
in
Vender
Server
&
DC
Far-­‐Shore
Our
Loca&on,
Rack,
Server,
Applica&on

12. Progress
to
date
1. Exec
Board
and
Governors
are
fully
on
board
with
the
route
forward
2. We
have
virtualised
90%
of
our
applica&ons
–
except
for
Agresso
and
Blackboard–
because
these
vendors
have
not
yet
agreed
that
they
can
support
fully
virtualised
applica&ons
3. We
have
developed
a
detailed
plan
–
and
contracted
with
ULCC
for
the
hosted
Data
Centre
and
Maidstone
Studios
for
the
DR
centre
4.
We
have
worked
with
JANET
to
ensure
that
ALL
of
our
network
connec&ons
and
upgrades
will
be
available
on
&me
5.
We
are
working
with
HP
to
deliver
the
required
HP
hardware
…
and
are
busy
execu&ng
the
plan
…
So
how
did
we
select
our
partners?
What
is
our
view
of
the
state
of
the
market?

13. Finding
an
In-­‐sector
Hos&ng
partner
1. We
wrote
to
all
UCISA
Directors
in
November
2012
to
ask
who
had
recently
built
a
Data
Centre,
who
was
planning
to
do
so?
2.
We
found
several
HEIs
who
were
keen
to
discuss
whether
we
would
hire
racks
in
their
exis&ng
Data
Centres
3. We
discussed
some
anrac&ve
prices
(under
£12k
per
rack
per
year)
but
we
were
worried
about
their
experience
of
providing
a
hosted
service
etc.
5.
We
looked
at
ULCC
–
and
were
very
impressed
by
their
set-­‐up.
They
•
Matched
commercial
vendors
in
environment
•
Understood
the
HE
culture
•
Very
cost-­‐efficient
•
Future
benefits
for
IaaS,
PaaS
•
Poten&al
for
managed
services
(Unit4
Finances,
Moodle
etc.)

14. Finding
a
Commercial
Hos&ng
partner
1. We
did
not
wish
to
write
or
conduct
a
full
OJEU
Tender
–
hence
we
were
restricted
to
using
Government
frameworks
or
the
JANET
Brokerage
framework
if
we
wanted
a
full
Data
Centre,
mul&-­‐year
Agreement
2.
The
G-­‐Cloud
had
very
many
poten&al
vendors
but
the
focus
was
on
virtualiza&on
but
our
priority
was
having
no
physical
hardware
at
Maidstone
by
July
2014.
3.
We
began
discussions
with
a
company
on
the
JANET
Brokerage
but
found
that
their
costs
were
way
in
excess
of
what
we
could
afford
(>£20k/year
per
rack)
Overall,
we
were
not
happy
with
the
choice
of
Commercial
vendors
–
and
felt
that
we
did
not
have
the
experience
(or
inclina&on!)
to
teach
them
how
to
work
within
HE
4. Finally
we
found
a
poten&al
vendor
(Maidstone
Studios)
close
to
our
home,
who
•
already
had
a
business
rela&onship
with
UCA
–
•
have
an
Award
wining
Data
Centre
•
Understood
the
HE
culture
(-­‐
already
hos&ng
UCA
Broadcast
Media
Courses)
•
are
very
cost-­‐efficient

15. So…
Who
did
we
choose…
and
why?
1. JANET
to
provide
our
Data
Network
–
cost
effec&ve
and
responsive
2.
HP
to
provide
the
servers
for
our
DR
site
–
they
already
provide
the
servers
for
our
current
environment,
worked
closely
with
us
reviewing
our
server
and
SAN
technical
solu&on
and
offering
to
support
during
installa&on.
3.
Maidstone
Studios
to
provide
our
DR
environment
4.
ULCC
to
provide
us
with
a
cost-­‐effec&ve
Data
Centre
racks
(5+
racks)
5.
SYSPRO
to
support
and
implement
the
sorware
DR
solu&on
6.
Addi&onal
contractors
to
backfill
2
technical
roles
so
that
we
can
dedicate
our
key
technical
staff
to
focus
almost
solely
on
this
project
We
have
kept
our
contracts
to
no
more
than
2
years
because
we
that
technology
is
changing
con&nually.
There
could
be
alterna&ves
in
the
near
future
and….
we
might
want
to
move
from
IaaS
to
PaaS
(and
SaaS)
within
the
next
2-­‐3
years…

16. So…How
are
we
doing
it?
1. Upgrade
our
network
environment
&
implement
resilient
routes
for
all
campuses
2. Setup
HP
3PAR
SAN
&
Server
in
ULCC
(-­‐
Downsizing
to
an
es&mated
3
Racks)
3. Move
virtualised
systems
to
ULCC
shutng
down
Maidstone
servers
as
we
migrate
4. We
will
install
the
DR
facility
in
Maidstone
Studios
and
test
thoroughly
5. We
will
select
a
‘long
weekend’
and
fail
over
DR
6. We
will
physically
transport
our
remaining
servers
up
to
ULCC
(the
new
Data
Centre),
bed
them
in
and
test
thoroughly
5.
We
will
‘fail
back’
our
services
from
DR
(Maidstone
Studios)
to
produc&on
(ULCC)
6.
We
will
setup
a
de-­‐duplica&on
environment
at
Epsom
using
Tape
and
Cloud
as
Backup
Cri&cally
we
have,
from
the
start,
involved
our
Execu&ve
Team,
Heads
of
Schools
and
Deptment
Heads
to
understand
and
manage
their
expecta&ons
on
&me
to
restore,
data
recovery,
data
reten&on
and
all
things
OLAs
(SLAs)

17. Cloud
Applica&on
as
Service
/
Infrastructure
Cloud
Backup
UCA
Poten&al
IT
Progress
Post
2014
JANET
Maidstone
Studios
Disaster
Recovery
ULCC
Datacentre
Core
Epsom
Tape
Management

18. Cloud
Applica&on
as
Service
/
Infrastructure
Cloud
Backup
UCA
Cost
Reduc&on
Downsizing
ULCC
Datacentre
Core
Epsom
Tape
Management
On-­‐going
Cost
Analysis
into
Migra&on
Reduce
tape
management

19. Any
Ques&ons?