TIER Update- Marty Mark

Transcription

1 TIER Update- Marty Mark Aaron Howard introduced Marty Mark for an update on the TIER study. Marty provided a brief update on TIER. To recap, there are four business cases. The IT 01 business case was sent out for RFP. Marty and UNI has been putting together our own RFP. Important dates: RFP was released on Nov. 21 with due date on Dec. 12. UNI s response is due at the end of the month with proposal on Jan. 7th. The winning RFP will be selected on Jan. 9th selected. The timeframe is then from Feb. 1st to May 1st for a timeframe, which is a change from Deloitte s recommendation. On UNI s response, we re stating we ve already begun this process. We ve already realized savings through attrition currently. Because we re Internal, we know our requirements, and in some cases we re exceeding the requirements from the Board. Marty is following the submission guidelines for the RPF. For our methodology/action plan we re using a traditional project management approach. We re listing the activities we already started, forming a project team, going into a current state activity, and then looking forward to a future state. There s a component of this that is included as a communication plan. Costs and savings are being outlined as well, for example, the need for new office space required. The first draft is being reviewed by others currently. UNI s proposal also includes not just looking at IT 01 but looking at this holistically and not just the distributed side. IT 02, 03, 04 and being divided and conquered via ITS Directors. There won t be an RFP for those areas but will be reported on. Marty then opened up for questions. Todd T. commented that many cost savings might require spending money to achieve savings. Marty acknowledged that this would be needed, but it s currently uncertain where that funding might come from. This will come later as implementation becomes clearer. Aaron H. commented as an example that IT 04 was proposed as a way to pilot on a small scale and using costs savings as a way to fund future improvements.

2 Nevin N. asked about changes to jobs/departments. Marty said it s hard to know how jobs/departments created would be changed as a part of this, but that would be an outcome of the process. Nick P. asked about Deloitte s recommendations, wondering how has the timeline has changed. May 1st is the new timeline, which includes implementation (not just planning). TIER updates will be an on going item beyond the May 1 deadline. Todd T. asked how does the IT TIER impact other TIER implementations? While the impact is uncertain, Marty has commented on this in her draft, noting this should be considered since many other changes rely on IT to implement. Eric L. asked if cost savings aren t made via attrition, would people be let go? Marty didn t think so. Marty s not looking at this. Mark D. brought up that that VDI would only result in savings through letting staff go. Marty commented that right sizing desktops might make sense to tune up costs to realize some savings. Marty would like to be creative in the use and application of technology and our model. Mark also brought up that Deloitte s VDI included student tech fees. Marty reiterated that we d pilot for feasibility/cost savings first. Mark shared that end of year money was another factor causing difficulties with PC and general IT purchasing. Needing to spend money by the end of the year is a challenge, especially since there aren t desktop line items to identify savings. Nick P. shared a concern that the VDI projections didn t include future investments in that infrastructure would be replaced in the future, too. Marty agreed that this would need to be considered. Eric L. asked about paper savings many things require paper signatures. Marty saw this as a future opportunity. Q&A time concluded. Marty thanked everyone for their work. She identified that this has been a long process but has been really appreciative of all of the support so far. Student Storage- Seth B. & Aaron H. We currently have a storage server for students. It s been burdensome for Chris C. to maintain. Seth pointed out that Google Drive is unlimited now. There are also people that change between student to staff (and vice versa) that make things complicated to resolve.

3 Aaron H. shared some information. Currently there are 1,000 people with more than 1 Gig use, with 1 TB of use all together. Probably only 100 active users of the service, yet significant time is invested in student staff. The plan moving forward is to have colleges phase out the current student storage but continue providing it through viritualization. Aaron H. would see using a form to request access in classrooms that would trigger a shared workspace for classes. Ben said that the SCAC was happy to push to Google Drive, but documentation/marketing would be required prior to this happening. Jeffrey R. asked about how student storage is used currently (video editing?). Aaron and Seth acknowledged that how it s used is unknown. Aaron said they could work with groups that needed access. Eric L. pointed out that Google Drive seems to be throttled at 4 MB/second, which is handled by each tab/window as a way to restrict/limit abuse. Seth said that data migration wouldn t happen, but people could move it themselves as needed. Bret said that the CBA could probably migrate away. Jeffrey asked if technology was there to auto provision storage if needed. Seth said not currently because of cost. Aaron H. said that if the # of requests was small, that might be a possibility but for now they will come back with a process for requesting access. IT-04 Business Case Aaron H. said we need to analyze the model proposed by Deloitte. Deloitte suggested spending $600k on Deloitte consulting and $120k of initial VDI startup. Deloitte also suggested looking to to Iowa State for how they ve implemented. UNI will be looking at their model to see their costs. On the hardware side UNI is exploring emerging technology such as hybrid tech such as SSD + traditional drives to help with both performance and costs. Aaron H. said we need to identify what are we spending on workstations currently and in the future. Deloitte probably didn t get the full picture on the real costs since the PC line also included a variety of non IT things. Savings realized might come from Student Fee or left over year end money. We re working with Dell and Apple on those purchasing contracts. Object codes for PCs can currently include all sorts of things. Aaron also pointed out that laptops are expensive should we include that in our analysis for VDI? Aaron would like to form a sub group to think about areas to deploy VDI. Are there certain user groups that would be good to use? Scenarios where it would make sense?

4 Mark D. commented that the Library currently receives a variety of machines from other IT departments, which saves them money. If we move to VDI, the Library might need to start spending money to compensate. Aaron H. commented that we don t know Deloitte s math but, but those kinds of things might need to be kept track. Jeffrey R. asked if PCs sold to the auction could be asked about the age of the average PC to auction. The general comment was that it s likely around 7 years of age. Eric L. commented that Windows is running better and better on worse hardware. Eric said that many school districts might be on closer to a 10 year hardware replacement cycle now. Aaron H. said that it s really hard to tell how much we spend on PCs and track that over time. That alone may be a big win through this process. Mark D. commented about Dell s buy back program, where they would do some of the hard work we re doing now and maybe even get money back. Jeffrey R. asked about what happens to auction/tag sale. The current tag sale doesn t even break even. Nate K. said that UNI has a contract for PC disposal currently and we could use this, possibly, though it depends on the number of PCs we send away for how we make or lose money. Aaron H. said that the spirit of the IT 04 business case might identify other ways to save money, like partnering with Dell like Mark suggested. Ben A. said that Desktop Managers would be meeting later this week to hit the printing side of this topic. Jeff C. asked about where printer use is going. Jeff said that some assignments for classes might need to be printed for turn in, causing extra costs for UNI. Could this be handled electronically? Mark D. said they calculated the cost saving from a large printer for 100 users versus personal and estimated around $53k in savings. Many of the objections to removing personal printers can be eliminated by technology but often it is reduced to an argument of walking/convenience. Eric L. talked about a possibility of BYOP (Bring Your Own Printer). Others commented that supporting the variety would be challenging. Mark commented about how some areas control/ration consumables to keep costs down. Seth B. pointed out that there s an in between from giant printer versus personal (like workgroup printers) and it doesn t have to be one giant printer for all versus tons of small ones. Ben A. said the printing tickets account for a large % of support calls currently in ITS US. OBO is looking at outsourcing to reduce support staff burden. Nick P. noted that vendor quality can vary by vendor and response time and should be factored in.

5 OnBase- Lisa F. Upgrades to OnBase last Friday were successful (mostly). There have been problems with the configuration file error, which has been minor. Once the problem was identified, the new file was pushed out in 30 minutes. Lisa thanked everyone for their help supporting users and commented how OnBase is helping to eliminate printing. Desktop Managers -Ben A. Ben reiterated athat Destop Managers will be meeting about IT 04 this Friday. They will be going through the workstation hardening guidelines right for the Security working group, mostly on the Windows side (Apple later). The group is also looking at ways to share/collaborate, such as sharing packages. Ben said the group would welcome input/energy from anyone else able to help. Key Server -Aaron H. Aaron said it s been a year now since the key server was going to go away. Having the keyserver go away will cause the software needing it to no longer open. Mike W. said that Adobe Contribute isn t a part of the Creative Cloud, so that won t work in the future. Mike s faculty user is migrating to Drupal, so this problem will be fixed in the near future. Nessus Scans -Ken C. Scans are happening later this month, likely between Christmas and New Years. Network Maintenance -Corey C. Corey shared that this week ITS NS is finishing building dual connects. Next week Gilchrist Data Center will have some maintenance. Jan 7th there will be a core and DMZ outage from 5am 7am. Maintenance announcements sent later this week. Chili Cookoff -Mark D. There will be a second annual chili cookoff, which is opened up to all IT staff. This will happen Monday, Jan. 5th. In atrium in Sabin. Bring $1 to cover trophy cost. Feel free to bring things other than chili.