Golden Gate Universitys Winning Consolidation Effort

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Golden Gate Universitys Winning Consolidation
Effort

• A Case Study
• Keith RajeckiIT Infrastructure Manager
• Golden Gate University

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Agenda

• Situation analysis
• The business case
• The environment assessment
• The architecture
• The solution infrastructure
• Post-implementation management

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Enterprise Context

• GGU is a private university with undergraduate
  and graduate programs in Business, Law,
  Technology and Tax
• 5,500 students, 1,000 staff and faculty, 50,000
  alumni
• IT department 28 full-time employees and 10
  part-time
• Based in downtown San Francisco with 7 regional
  locations in California and Seattle
• GGU caters primarily to the adult student seeking
  a professionally-oriented education and the Law
  Student

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Business Situation

• Facing competitive and revenue pressures, GGU
  leadership created
• A new administration business imperative that
  mandated an e-business transformation of the
  university
• Move all business transactions to the Web, 24x7.
• Deliver an online component to ALL educational
  programs.
• Improve service levels and integrate services
  across the enterprise.
• New expectations for services. Conducting
  business and academic teaching and learning
  online is now expected.
• Self-service applications - key concept for
  improving accessibility and reducing cost of
  delivery.

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GGUs Technology Environment

• Meeting the business mandates required a new
  technology architecture
• GGU was behind the technology curve
• Aging legacy applications with no tiered
  architecture and poor integration across
  databases or workflows
• Data center server and tools proliferation
  without a consistent architecture
• Inconsistent customer experience across
  applications and Web sites
• Lack of a process skills base to support 24x7
  services and new technologies
• Outcome of a decade of an ad-hoc approach to IT
  with no overriding architecture or business
  alignment

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GGU Architecture

• Stand-alone systems with no common platforms,
  data, code or customer experience.
• Limited ability to scale without continuous
  reinvestment in basic infrastructure.
• Limited flexibility, making simple projects
  complex and costly.
• Limited reliability and availability, with risk
  to the business.
• Inefficient manageability maintainability.
• No consistent customer experience. Negatively
  affecting usability, customer satisfaction and
  our brand.

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GGU Legacy Environment

• Operating systems Solaris, Windows, MPE/ix,
  Netware, Mac OS, Digital Unix
• Hardware platforms SUN (Sparc), Dell (Intel), HP
  3000, Macintosh, DEC Alpha
• Databases Oracle, SQL Server, Unidata, Access,
  FoxPro, HP Image
• Development Coldfusion, HTML, Javascript,
  UniBasic (no core language capability)
• Network Collaboration Novell Netware 5x and
  Groupwise 5x
• No common code, data, OS, management process,
  customer experience

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The Technology StrategySupport the Business
Mandate by

• Designing an enterprise architecture and IT
  delivery model that would allow us to
• Consolidate the data center (servers, OS, DB)
• Redesign and rebuild our online services (Web)
• Deploy a new, integrated ERP suite
• Improve IT service levels, security, operational
  maturity across the board
• Transform a legacy IT shop into a team capable of
  24x7 e-business
• Required a change in culture, consolidation of
  systems, and outsourcing critical, complex
  infrastructure
• Created a new services and project delivery model
  with horizontal teams aligned around the
  enterprise architecture, integrated via a matrix
  project management and operational model

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Technology Strategy How GGU is Addressing the
Challenge

• Invested in a new enterprise architecture
• Create and integrate a consolidation strategy for
  each layer of the enterprise architectural stack
• Storage layer
• Server layer
• OS layer
• Database and directory layer
• Application tier
• Integrated core application ERP suite
• Reorganized the IT department
• Leverage IT delivery to extend GGUs capabilities
  through key outsourcing partners

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Transformation Constraints

• Willing to make capital investments, but
  operating cost must stay level. Cannot make it
  more expensive to run IT.
• Every investment needed an offsetting savings.
• Economies of scale and both technical and
  staffing leverage became paramount.
• New capabilities improved service levels were
  the initial motivators cost savings pressure
  will increase over time.
• Need to be positioned to drive out cost.

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Consolidation Key Initiatives

• Invested in a new enterprise architecture based
  on the Oracle 9i stack, Oracle 11i application
  suite, Linux, Dell, Novell
• Database consolidation (Oracle 9i)
• Directory LDAP layer
• Treated as a layer, not as a product. More than
  one vendor product required to complete the
  enterprise directory integration
• Application data
• DB management tools

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Consolidation Key Initiatives (contd.)

• Data center infrastructure
• Servers
• Storage
• Operating system
• Security architecture
• Supporting infrastructure
• Systems monitoring
• Backup/recovery

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Consolidation Key Initiatives (Contd.)

• Application consolidation and integration
• Chose the ERP suite approach, as opposed to
  maintaining legacy and focusing on EAI.
  Single-instance architecture based on Oracle 11i.
• New suite, focused on maintenance of enterprise
  architecture.
• New Web site(s)
• Same application architecture as ERP suite.
• New online capabilities, services, functionality.
• Interface aggregation and portal.
• Media Streaming servers based on Linux with Real
  Helix

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Goals and Objectives

• Improved reliability
• Increased availability
• Serviceable technology infrastructure
• Reduced costs
• Implement best practices
• Minimized complexity
• Establish technology standards
• Establish service level

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AAIM Methodology

• Assess
• Architect
• Implement
• Manage

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Assessment Phase

• Staff
• Server
• Storage/data
• Application
• Workstation
• Network
• Telecommunications
• IT security

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Staff

• Skills assessment
• Identify skills gap
• Training plan
• Employee involvement
• Continuous review
• Career development plan (CDP)
• Identify current skills
• Future goals

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Solution Infrastructure

• Revisit your goals and objectives
• Identify specific actions from assessment that
  allow you to develop the solution infrastructure
  
• Solution infrastructure encompasses the entire
  enterprise technology from the desktop to the
  database
• Staged approach provides for the least amount of
  disruption, as well as an increased probability
  of being successful
• Select hardware vendor(s)

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Best Practices Standards

• Dont reinvent the wheel
• Establish best practices and standard operating
  procedures
• Systems administration procedures
• Set expectations
• Change management
• Problem management procedures
• Implement an asset management framework
• Implementation of service levels
• Service management practices

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New Enterprise Architecture
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Implementation

• Due diligence during the assessment, the
  implementation should be flawless
• Primary considerations for implementation
• Installing/migrating applications
• Testing configurations
• Tuning configurations
• Documenting configurations
• Training administrative staff

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Consolidation Benefits Achieved

• Leveraged technology investments.
• No new core technologies are needed
• Faster deployment cycles
• Staffing leverage same skills deploy across the
  enterprise.
• Fewer management consoles, monitoring systems,
  maintenance contracts, etc.
• Positioned to outsource technology management.

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Consolidation Key Points

• Consolidation at EVERY layer
• Key point, not just an OS consolidation
• OS consolidation, by itself, do not accomplish
  much from a business perspective
• Reduces costs somewhat, but only after new
  investment
• May be difficult or impossible to complete the OS
  consolidation unless the other layers are
  addressed too

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Directory Layer Flow Diagram
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New Enterprise Architecture
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Oracle 9i and 11i on Linux

• Oracle has done a very good job of deploying and
  supporting its products on Linux
• Linux has been a non-issue relative to Oracle
• 9i installed on a pair of Dell 2650s utilizing
  9is Logical Data Guard for failover
• Goal is to move to RAC next
• 11i installed on a Dell/Linux Network
  Appliance infrastructure at Oracles Data Center
  in Austin, TX
• Networked to GGU via a VPN

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Outsourced Enterprise Model
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IT Security Architecture and Linux

• Opportunities to consolidate and simplify IT
  security around the Linux platform
• Moved 2 Nokia IP440 firewall appliances to
  Checkpoint NG running on Linux (Dell)
• Moved 2 Nokia IP330 intrusion detection
  appliances to IIS Real-Secure running on Linux
  (Dell)
• Ability to run open-source security tools like
  Tripwire for file-level change auditing

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Storage Layer Consolidation

• Based around a 2.5 TB Network Appliance Filer
  F825 NAS.
• Will host files storage, Oracle 9i, Novell
  messaging, and all other storage requirements.
• Made redundant by consolidating previous Netware
  servers, rebuilt with Linux, into a large JBOD
  (just a bunch of disks) storage server cluster.
  Relatively inexpensive.

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LAN/WAN Linux Opportunity

• Novells Linux product strategy has created a new
  opportunity for companies consolidating around
  Linux
• Creating the ability to consolidate the LAN/WAN
  environments and tools on top of Linux
• Enterprise-class vendor and tools suite for
  networking on Linux
• Enterprise collaboration and desktop management
  platform on Linux (Groupwise and Zenworks)
• New enterprise network platform alternative to
  Windows, leveraging the Linux consolidation
  opportunity
• GGU will stay on Novell and end up fully
  consolidated around Linux

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New Enterprise Architecture
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Netware to Linux Migration
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Linux and Consolidation Futures

• Looking to gain maximum leverage from
  consolidation
• GGU is not planning a Desktop Linux migration at
  this time
• Low cost of MS products in higher-education
• Transient student population could have adoption
  issues on the Linux desktop
• Certain vertical applications need to remain on
  Windows, with the database on Oracle/Linux
• Potential for the Oracle Collaboration suite

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Post-Implementation Management

• Multiple applications running on the same system
  require aggressive management
• Potential for availability problems as a result
  of shared resources
• Clear understanding of the problems and the
  underlying technologies to effectively manage a
  consolidated environment
• While adding additional hardware is always an
  option, remember that thinking is what got you
  were you were to begin with
• The best course of action is try not to deviate
  from the infrastructure design and remember this
  is a never ending process

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Thank You

• Keith Rajecki
• IT Infrastructure Manager
• Golden Gate University