EMBRACING THE CLOUD NEW APPROACHES FOR DELIVERING CAMPUS

EMBRACING THE CLOUD: NEW APPROACHES FOR DELIVERING CAMPUS IT SERVICES New Jersey Institute of Technology David F. Ullman ullman@njit. edu Blake Haggerty haggerty@njit. edu 11/9/209

ABOUT NJIT • New Jersey’s science and technology university • Founded in 1881 • Located in Newark, New Jersey • One of three public research universities • 416 full-time faculty members • Undergraduate enrollment of 5, 924 • Graduate enrollment of 2, 916 • Bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees

A LOOSE CLOUD METAPHOR “Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them” - Wikipedia “The Network is the Computer” – Sun Microsystems It’s no longer about centralized, decentralized, or distributed

CLOUD RELATED CONCEPTS Includes the following concepts: Outsourcing or more appropriately, “Right Sourcing” • On-demand software • Saa. S - Software as a Service available from ASPs, and more recently: • Iaa. S – Infrastructure as a Service • Paa. S – Platform as a Service • Virtualization of disparate systems • Exploring open source alternatives • Commercial vendors supporting open source • Find the best of breed – wherever they are •

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE Just because you can doesn’t mean you should Move beyond desire to host everything internally • Choose where to be innovative and agile • Embracing hosted and open source solutions • Maintain realistic expectations Relinquish control in return for gaining flexibility Balance staff resources, budget and instructor needs • Align staff levels to workload •

“THE BOSS”

BE CAREFUL WHEN OFFERED KOOL-AID

AGENDA Disclaimer • Management Viewpoints on “cloud computing” • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. • Commoditized services - need only a utility provider Open source - as good as or better Go where the users are – why reinvent the wheel Just in time computing – agility for elastic needs Clouds can be local too – build your own clouds Niche critical applications – not payroll or registration, but still important Summary and Lessons Learned

CURRENT REALITY Support Staff is limited Alternative IT does not mean losing jobs • This is not a punishment or admonishment • Budgets continue to be squeezed There are more “mission critical” tools to support • “Mission critical” tools increasingly complex • Willing to outsource bookstore, dining services, cleaning, security – Why the reluctance with some aspects of IT

CLOUD PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS Local authentication and authorization Shibboleth-like authentication • Can be open source LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory • Allow for seamless and easy customer access (SSO) • Do not share passwords with cloud providers • Locally brand cloud applications • Branding disguises the true “host” of application A degree of Web Services expertise • From. csv extracts to XML APIs, ways to extract and share data among hosts

VIEW #1: COMMODITIZED SERVICES It doesn’t matter who does it or how it is done – just that it works! Some IT applications have evolved to the point where they have become commodities E-mail, mail hygiene (virus protection, spam filtering, etc. ) • Like gasoline, electricity, bandwidth, long distance service • Commodity providers today have an economy of scale we can not compete with

MAIL IS A COMMODITY Historically (2007) – NJIT used Sun Messaging Server (student and alumni) Old hardware • Low quotas • Poor administrative tools • Mail System Administrators advocated local-hosted Zimbra solution (Zimbra hosted model not yet available) Goggle and Microsoft solutions not taken seriously

COMMODITY WAKE-UP CALL Arizona State saves $500, 000 annually outsourcing e-mail to Google” The Chronicle of Higher Education – 1/11/2008 Microsoft Live@edu Value-add coupled tightly with other Microsoft offerings • Avoid getting too dependent on vendor • Only available to Windows users • Google Apps/Open Office possible alternative to some Office licensing

IMPLEMENTING GOOGLE APPS Google makes it “relatively” easy • • • Pilot tested for buy-in ($0 commitment) Local LDAP authentication Addresses remain the same: ucid@njit. edu Student notifications started 4 weeks out Detailed web site documentation Pre-defined Google mailboxes for existing students Sunday night “switch” - incoming mail goes to Google Migrated “old mail” to Google in batches over 2 week Remove access to “old” mailboxes

FACULTY/STAFF E-MAIL AND MAIL HYGIENE Currently Locally-hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007 Gmail has improved Outlook and mobile integration • Final legal/business issues may be more subjective • Postini provides mail hygiene Virus checking, spam filtering, DOS protection • Annual Fee - 2, 000 mailboxes at $4 per mailbox • Considering Postini for e-mail retention and e-Discovery • Will revisit outsourcing Faculty/Staff email before next Exchange Upgrade

ALUMNI E-MAIL Transition from “e-mail for life” to mail forwarding • Concerns: Maintaining 16, 000 mailboxes/accounts • Most alumni don’t want another email address • Privacy • If hosted - forwarded mail needs hygiene service ($4 head) • • Solution: Outsource alumni e-mail to Gmail (like students) • Alumni can choose to forward or discontinue service • Evaluate in 3 years •

VIEW #2: OPEN SOURCE - AS GOOD OR BETTER Old model: “Build or buy” New model: “Build, buy, befriend” • Open source can meet mission critical needs Not your father’s shareware • Lots of options not previously available • Introduce disruptive technologies more often and early • Vendors will support open source solutions • Red Hat Linux • Less strain on IT (don’t need to build it) • Different budgetary challenges • Scale IT and instructional needs over time •

THE NEED FOR AN ALTERNATIVE LMS Needed to replace Web. CT Campus Edition 4 (2006) Due Diligence – Explore open source while evaluating commercial alternatives • Evaluated Sakai and Moodle At the time Moodle was more mature and easier to manage/use • Early in both product’s life spans • Both pilots hosted at NJIT • Establish working groups • 28 instructors used Moodle over next year • Never planned on adopting open source as primary LMS •

THE NEED FOR AN ALTERNATIVE LMS Campus Edition 6 vs. Moodle (spring 2008) Moodle grew on people as it matured –in spite of open source hiccups • 1 st CE 6 pilot failed due to multiple reasons • For $3, 000 hired Moodle. Rooms to host pilot • • • Wanted hosting provider UIS didn’t have time to dedicate to pilot Possible solution to “open source dilemma” of support Wanted integration assistance NJIT would still manage course creation/customer support

MOVING TO MOODLE Results: CE 6 vs. Moodle • • • 2 nd CE 6 trial ran into numerous problems Faculty demanded a return to CE 4 from CE 6 Blackboard continued with new announcements (2008) Faculty intimidated by Black Board’s migration path Faculty, students and technical staff continued to provide positive Moodle feedback - no deal breakers Moodle. Rooms continued to host While waiting for clarity on Black. Board’s direction we committed to migration support for CE 4 to Moodle

MOVING TO MOODLE

MOODLE MADNESS Grass Roots Adoption • • • Unsolicited increase of 99 courses (fall 2008) Overwhelmingly positive input Stable product Pricing allowed for incremental growth (not FTE model) LDAP integration and add/drop handled with CSV file Blackboard “issues” continue (spring 2009) 100% license increase over next 3 years • Migration path still murky to us • Stability/support concerns •

OTHER OPEN SOURCE TOOLS Mahara (e. Portfoli) Bundled with Moodle. Rooms package • Functionality comparable to commercial packages • Word Press (Blogs) • Started with few users and moved to multi-user

OTHER OPEN SOURCE TOOLS Drupal (Content Management) Very early on with evaluation – how will it fit? • Used for courses, websites, video repository and groups • Drupal zealots still in disruptive phases • Open Course Ware • Extending concept to open education

VIEW #3: GO WHERE THE USERS ARE WRY@ • (Translation: Where are you at? ) i. Tunes, Facebook, You. Tube, Twitter Campus portals were initially seen as social network • How many students today view your portal as such? • • Why Reinvent Wheel? Leverage preexisting infrastructure • Adopt tools that customers are already using • • Extend brand while increasing your reach Gain global exposure while providing valuable contributions • Providing authentic content • Meet students needs/expectations for technological university •

NJIT ON ITUNES U What do your students use for music? Leverage i. Tunes infrastructure • Utilize Apple’s bandwidth and storage • i. Tunes’ familiar interface • Let students take lectures with them Eliminate streaming/buffering problems • Avoid paying Acacia surcharge • Open content to public or restrict use

NJIT ON ITUNES U Bring your content and brand to larger audiences First school in NJ with a private and public face • Greater exposure for NJIT and instructors • Increase visibility worldwide • 45, 229 hits for our “Wall Street Meltdown” series (6 videos) • “Mortgage Markets” - 16, 728 hits • “Lehman Brothers One Year Later” - 14, 535 hits • Content is reusable in multiple sites • You. Tube, http: //www. njit. edu, http: //www. njit. tv

SCHOOLS ON FACEBOOK Schools on Facebook (www. inigral. com ) Students and student groups build new NJIT connections and social networks within a separate, private, secure NJIT-only Facebook area • Leverage a “place” where students already ”hang out” and know how to navigate, and are comfortable • Pre-configure “groups” that students “opt-in” to join • courses, majors, residence hall floors, athletics, etc. • Private groups are not available to larger Facebook community • • Increase enrollment and retention by facilitating friendships and connections

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

VIEW #4: JUST IN TIME COMPUTING Old Model: Limited by resources, budget and space New Model: Limited by imagination • What was previously unrealistic or impossible in the classroom may now become easy and affordable Unlimited on demand computing power • A server for every student • Maintain and control IT costs • • Instructional needs are very elastic • • Expensive instructional resources can often sit idle Resources for distributed teams of students

AMAZON WEB SERVICES FOR EDUCATION • Unmetered instruction and research access: • Elastic Compute Cloud – requisition resizable compute capacity within the cloud on many O/S platforms • • Red. Hat Linux, Windows Server, Open. Solaris and more Simple Storage Service – store and retrieve large amounts of data Provide the same resources “just in time” for face-to-face and online/distance classes • Hands-on experience without campus security threats •

AMAZON WEB SERVICES FOR EDUCATION • Recent Example: Graduate course on distributed computing • 7 teams, 4 -5 students each • Face-to-face and distance learning class sections • Each team receives their own “cloud” with 2 Linux servers (an App Server and DB server) for development of three-tier applications • • Potential Senior project or “capstone” courses • Specialized need for theses and dissertations • Test research concepts •

AMAZON WEB SERVICES • Instruction no longer limited by computing infrastructure • • Amazon awards $100 per student per course Administrative Use • • • Only pay for what you use – easy to ramp up 8. 5 cents per hour $2. 04 a day $62. 05 per month $220. 00 per semester $744. 60 per year Serious Possibilities for Enterprise Business Contingency

VIEW #5: CLOUDS CAN BE LOCAL TOO Virtualization enables you to host “local clouds” Managing virtual machines saves staff time, energy and space Allocate resources on the fly • Enable IT staff to be more agile • Easier redundancy and disaster recovery • Lower long-term total cost of ownership •

VIRTUALIZATION OF APPLICATION SERVERS • Spring 2007: Hardware supporting critical systems aging • Machines acquired between 1996 and 2005 • 50+ servers at or near capacity – many without redundancy • Traditional approach to replacing with individual servers required immediate $540, 000 investment with $250, 000 investments annually for four years

VIRTUALIZATION OF APPLICATION SERVERS Virtual Solution included 2 “computational clouds • Cloud #1: computational complex of 3 Sun V 890’s Run Solaris zones for high transaction processing applications • Currently running 17 separate zones • • Cloud #2: cluster of Sun. Blade 8000’s running VMware to create virtual Windows or Linux machines • Currently running 73 separate virtual machines • • Summer 2008 Expansion for Banner ERP Added two additional Solaris complex’s for Banner ERP • One additional VMware cluster •

VIRTUALIZATION OF APPLICATION SERVERS • • Simplified infrastructure = reduced systems administration Redundancy and resiliency built into cluster designs Reduced power (25 k. W - 20% of room capacity) Reduced cooling requirements (7. 3 tons) Replacement cost reduced by $350, 000 (4 year financing) Significant spare capacity for growth Zones and virtual machines expand contract with application lifecycle Managing spare capacity more flexible within a single cloud than among 50 -70 individual machines

THIN CLIENTS CONNECTING TO A LOCAL CLOUD Next Logical Step: replace workstations with thin clients (where possible) • Banner ERP training facility has 36 thin clients which connect to two virtual Windows terminal servers. • Success will prove that desktop services can be delivered through a central cloud, reducing TCO for desk-top services.

VIEW #6: NICHE CRITICAL APPLICATIONS Emerging applications are often mission-critical in a certain niche, where usage patterns may vary • Example niche applications from cloud providers: • Emergency Notification – Federal Signal • Faculty Annual Report - Digital Measures • Employee Applicant Processing - People Admin • “Ask NJIT” Online Help – Intelliresponse • Easier to license a cloud service to meet these niche needs • All are branded and authenticated locally •

LESSONS LEARNED: IT MANAGEMENT Everything should be seamless Local authentication and authorization • Local branding • Web services for interoperability • Contingency planning Cloud providers can experience growing pains • Exit strategies • Open Source vendors live and die by their service • Risk tolerance varies, find what works “best” for you •

LESSONS LEARNED: INSTRUCTIONAL Introduce disruptive technologies early and often Look for new tools regardless of source • Use hosted pilots instead of waiting for internal support • Early pilots helps establish roots for later • Option of transitioning from disruptive to supported • Gradual migrations work well Communicate– let customers know how decisions are made and how changes impact them • Listen to faculty (think therapist) •

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