A Model For Centralized Network Support On The Campus

1. A Model For Centralized Network Support On The Campus Basil Irwin Senior Network Engineer June 8, 1999 National Center for Atmospheric Research

2. Shouldn’t Campus LANs Be Treated Like A Utility Service? Basil Irwin Senior Network Engineer June 8, 1999 National Center for Atmospheric Research

3. Examples of Utility Services • Examples of utility services • Electricity distribution • Telephone service • Potable water supply • Waste-water removal • Natural gas distribution National Center for Atmospheric Research

4. Utility Service Attributes • Attributes of a utility service • Provides an essential and/or indispensable service • Universal service is required • Universal interoperability standards required • Universal service delivery standards required • Operated by a central support organization • Hierarchically architected with tiered service levels • Universal and fair pricing required National Center for Atmospheric Research

5. Campus LAN Attributes • Attributes of today’s Campus LAN service • Provides an essential and/or indispensable service • Universal service is required • Universal interoperability standards required • Desirable attributes of Campus LAN service • Universal service delivery standards required • Operated by a central support organization • Hierarchically architected with tiered service levels • Universal and fair pricing National Center for Atmospheric Research

6. Campus LAN Attributes • Based on these attributes, it looks to me like the Campus LAN is a service utility • Therefore, shouldn’t Campus LANs be funded and operated like other Campus service utilities? • UCAR thinks so, and that’s the way we operate our networks as one of our utility services National Center for Atmospheric Research

7. The UCAR LAN Utility National Center for Atmospheric Research

8. UCAR’s Budgetary & Political Context • UCAR serves, collaborates, and is governed by its 63 member universities (R1 universities) • UCAR consists of ~20 Department-sized internal subdivisions that are semi-autonomous • ~1,200 UCAR employees • About $150,000,00 total funding for FY1999 • UCAR funding is a mixture of direct NSF funding and grant funding • About 2/3 direct and 1/3 grant National Center for Atmospheric Research

9. UCAR’s Networking Context • 9 buildings at 4 county-area sites • ~1,200 local users • ~2,500 local networked devices • ~2,400 “standard” telecommunications outlets • ~110 local subnetworks • ~100 (intelligent) network switches, routers, etc. • ~100 dial-in ports • ~1,200 users at UCAR’s 63 R1 universities • Connected via vBNS/Abilene/Commodity Internets National Center for Atmospheric Research

10. Service Model For The UCARLAN Utility National Center for Atmospheric Research

11. Customer-Operated • UCAR LAN Utility is advised by a standing advisory board of technical representatives from all major UCAR Departments • This is the “PUC” of the UCAR LAN Utility • Advisory board extremely valuable asset! • Unloads spending priorities from the support group • Develops consensus clout with higher management • Regarding requests for spending • Regarding technology deployment decisions • Strong upper-management support! National Center for Atmospheric Research

12. Services Provided • All Layer1, Layer2, and Layer3 services • Layer1: All physical cabling plant • Layer2: All logical networking - VLANs/ELANs • Layer3: All routing (99.9% IP) • Layer4: Some host-configuration/performance consulting • All LAN, MAN, and WAN services • Campus LANs • Intersite MAN connections • vBNS/Abilene/Commodity WAN connects National Center for Atmospheric Research

13. Service Categories • Standard Services • “Free”: no chargebacks • Premium Services • Fixed chargebacks • Special Services • Negotiable: basically time and materials • Department Services • Internal Departmental support personnel National Center for Atmospheric Research

14. Standard Services • Includes all LAN, MAN, and WAN Layer1, Layer2, and Layer3 networking necessary for, and benefiting, UCAR as a whole • Each office has a telecommunications outlet (“TO” or ”wallplate”) with: • 2 pairs of terminated MM fiber cables • 4 terminated Cat5 cables • 2 terminated Cat3 cables (for telephones) • Each office has one or more dedicated 10Base and/or 100Base switch ports National Center for Atmospheric Research

15. Standard Services (cont.) • The LAN Utility responsibility ends at the wallplate (almost) • Departments free to attach what they want to the wallplates, including network equipment at their own risk National Center for Atmospheric Research

16. Premium Services • Things like FDDI, OC-3, OC-12 or GigE to the desktop • Standard chargebacks for such services National Center for Atmospheric Research

17. Special Services • Anything else anybody wants. Prices are negotiable • Includes “Emergency” (instant) service National Center for Atmospheric Research

18. Services Not Provided • System administration of PCs, Unix, etc. • Completely distributed service model • DNS • Receives some central funding; ought to be part of LAN Utility service • Email • Receives some central funding • Web • Receives some central funding National Center for Atmospheric Research

19. Services Not Provided (cont.) • Security • This was set up as a Security Utility based on the LAN Utility model • Telephones and PBXes (except for the cabling infrastructure, which is part of the LAN Utility) • Receives central funding, should be part of LAN Utility • Problems on the “other” side of the wallplate National Center for Atmospheric Research

20. Service Resources National Center for Atmospheric Research

21. Service Resources • ~$2,400,000 FY1999 networking budget • Total staff: 12 people • Type of Staff • 6 Network Engineers • Perform design, operation, tuning, trouble-shooting, etc. • 4 Network Technicians • Mainly Layer1 (cabling) construction • 2 Administrative/Support Staff National Center for Atmospheric Research

22. Funding Model National Center for Atmospheric Research

23. Typical Utility Funding Models • Usage Based • Example: Long distance telephone service • Fees based on minutes of service • Flat Fee • Example: Local telephone service • Fees based on number of end-points installed National Center for Atmospheric Research

24. UCAR Funding Model • UCAR has an occupancy cost tax based on square footage of space occupied • This tax is levied to fund all service functions • For FY2000 this will be $12.51/SF on 543,679 SF for a total of $12.2 million. • Networking gets $2.9 million, or 24% of the tax • Networking is approximately 2% of the total FY2000 UCAR budget National Center for Atmospheric Research

25. How Do UCAR’s Costs Compare? • In 1996, Gartner Group estimated annual average corporate networking support costs $3,270/desktop • In 1996, Forrester Research, Inc. estimated each networked desktop cost $8,000/year to maintain • UCAR’s networking cost is $1,200/device/year or $2,200/employee/year National Center for Atmospheric Research

26. More Information About The UCAR Model • “A Strategic Plan for UCAR Networking: Welcome to the 21st Century” • www.scd.ucar.edu/nets/Documents/strategy.html National Center for Atmospheric Research

27. Conclusion National Center for Atmospheric Research

28. Conclusion • It wouldn’t be very effective or efficient if each Campus Department or Project operated their own water, electricity, or sewer systems, so why does it make sense for them to fund and operate their own LANs? National Center for Atmospheric Research

29. The End! National Center for Atmospheric Research