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CANHEIT 2012

CANHEIT 2012. Building the Digital University. Disaster Recovery Through Cooperation. Disaster Recovery Through Cooperation. We had a Dream - also a Nightmare Where we have been Where we are today Challenges Where we are going. Who We Are. St. Thomas University in Fredericton

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CANHEIT 2012

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  1. CANHEIT 2012 Building the Digital University

  2. Disaster Recovery Through Cooperation

  3. Disaster Recovery Through Cooperation We had a Dream - also a Nightmare • Where we have been • Where we are today • Challenges • Where we are going

  4. Who We Are • St. Thomas University in Fredericton • Mount Allison University in Sackville • Université de Moncton in Moncton

  5. We had a Dream... Or Nightmare • How would we cope? • How would we get there? • Who would pay for it? • Who would join us

  6. Where We Have Been • ECN • Datatel cooperation • Virtualized servers at one datacentre

  7. The ECN • The NB/PEI Educational Computer Network • Forty Years (!) of cooperation - Yes... There were data networks 40 years ago... Maybe smoke signals??? • Great Organizational model • Great Financial Model • Network, Spam filtering, software licensing etc.

  8. ECN Network Université de Moncton at Moncton Fredericton to Sackville: 250km or < 10ms Mount Allison at Sackville St. Thomas at Fredericton

  9. Datatel Cooperation • MUSIC Consortium from 15 years ago • Workorder system run from MTA • MTA makes customizations etc. • STU has provided analyst expertise • Single team - lots of savings

  10. VMs at one site • MTA early adopter of VM technology • STU brought capital to the table • MTA built datacentre, has staff • Two Universities (120 VMs) in a rack • Great efficiencies

  11. Where We Were 2010 • Virtualized Servers working very well • Current agreement works and is model for small university cooperation • Very productive, staff train and work together • Huge positive environmental impact • Management shares common vision

  12. Timeline to 2010 Shared Datacentre Datatel ECN Network 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

  13. Challenges • NO credible disaster recovery capability • Rapidly growing storage requirements (memory and disk) • Server Hosting/Maintenance Agreement ending 2012 • Current Infrastructure EOL in 2012

  14. Where are we going? • Original agreement set to expire in 2012 • Refresh of current infrastructure (with NO DR capability) would cost about $250,000.00 • Background of rapid growth in storage and to a lesser extent RAM requirements

  15. KIP Funds • STU Applied for KIP funds for several IT projects • Received 485K • Gave us funds to BOTH refresh datacentre AND establish DR facility

  16. DR Site • Looked at several options • STU - didn’t want to build a machine room • MTA - didn’t want to expand a machine room • UNB - in the process of gutting a machine room • Private rackspace vendors - problem was getting data to them (cost of bandwidth) • Best solution - a University on the ECN network • Ended up at Université de Moncton.

  17. D/R Process • Technical Staff did considerable research framing the problem and looking for a solution • We issued an RFI - received 5 responses • Pursued discussions with one respondent to further define plans • Issued an RFQ to finalize numbers • Bulletproof was chosen as the partner

  18. Adopted Solution MTA - Refresh UdeM - New Servers Storage Automatic Replicationover ECN Network (magic)

  19. Engaging UdeM • We are excited about engaging another partner, in this case to house equipment • Offer on the table for UdeM to put a rack at MTA • Leverages ECN investments • $500/month + Power

  20. Dell Equallogic • Sticker Shock - but it’s “ALL IN” and easy to manage... • Atomic Unit is the SAN • Simple and powerful • Replication is part of the package • Peace of Mind (priceless)

  21. Key Points • New data centre infrastructure PLUS DR site • Five years maintenance up front • Retain leadership position in IT • New partner U de M, more welcome • We sleep better now - much better!

  22. ... But there’s more • We’ve been approached by two other institutions, both wish to eliminate data centres, both have received quotes from commercial providers. • Our costs are about 1/2 the commercial providers • We must be doing something right!

  23. New Timeline New Partners Datacentre + D/R Shared Datacentre Datatel ECN Network 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2015

  24. The Future • (1 year) We hope to be hosting servers for at least four institutions - Huge win financially, environmentally and politically. • (1 year) ECN plans to conduct a review to explore further cooperation/consolidation • (3-4 years) be positioned to take advantage of what options exist - ECN Datacentre? Commercial providers? Rebuild of current sites? "the cloud"... Who knows.

  25. Further out... Forecast is cloudy.... But we will be ready for it.

  26. Dilbert • ...of course there's a relevant Dilbert... • We are too cheap to pay $45 to show you the cartoon, so see cartoon for 25/May/2012 at http://www.dilbert.com

  27. CANHEIT 2010

  28. 2010... Nearby...

  29. Questions ? ? ? ?

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