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Using the Cloud for NMSU’s Portal ( MyNMSU ) and Email

Learn about the reasons for migrating NMSU's portal and email to the cloud, the chosen solutions, and the unintended consequences. Find out the proposed timeline for the migration and the issues faced during the process.

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Using the Cloud for NMSU’s Portal ( MyNMSU ) and Email

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  1. Using the Cloud for NMSU’s Portal (MyNMSU) and Email Presented on June 8, 2011 Norma Grijalva, Deputy CIO New Mexico State University

  2. Why make the change? • SunguardLuminis portal not reliable • At least 30 restarts were required last year • Uses outdated software infrastructure components ( Unsupported SunONE messenger and LDAP) • Outdated functionality • Escalating costs • Existing Portal product not supported after June 2012 • Existing contract expires June 30, 2011

  3. Therefore So the Portal Engine had to Change, Either May 2011 or May 2012! • NMSU decided it would be May 2011 • NMSU chose the CAMPUS EAI solution

  4. Options • Different portal solutions • New Luminis product cost of $105k plus hardware • Sakai Portal cost of $120K plus hardware • Campus EAI cost of $60K no hardware • Hosted solution • No cost escalation for five years • 30 Luminis institutions have already moved

  5. Other Issues • Existing product had email bundled with it • The new portal solutions do not have bundled email including the new Luminis Portal • So we also have to implement a new email solution

  6. Email Solutions • In house Email • Could implement email and calendaring • High development, integration and hardware costs • Collaboration or mobile tools would be limited • High availability and disaster recovery are expensive • Very flexible helpdesk and administration options • No budget due to economic times • Cloud Email • Two Contenders • Google Apps • Microsoft live@edu

  7. Email Solutions Continued • Google Apps • Email, calendaring, collaboration and mobile tools • Disaster recovery built into the solution • High development and integration costs • Limited helpdesk and administration options ( This was a big deal) • Free software and an additional 60k annually for other components

  8. Email Solutions Continued • Microsoft Live@edu (chosen) • Email, calendaring, collaboration and mobile tools • Disaster recovery built into the solution • Smaller development and integration costs as we have MS expertise • Flexible set of helpdesk and administration options (big deal for us) • Free software, and an additional 30k annually for other components • Web Office Included (especially important for students)

  9. Email Choice • Chose Microsoft live@edu • For FERPA issues- In Google did not have way of hiding group members which also included address groups • Better helpdesk role granularity • Less ongoing costs • Web Office capability

  10. Proposed Timeline • September and October 2010 • Announce and present the proposed change and engage advisory teams • January and February 2011 • Run through new email/portal move tests with technical teams • March 2011 • Open email/portal move for NMSU community early adopters • May 2011 • Migrate all users (ended up doing portal migration in May 2011 and Doing email migration on June 13, 2011)

  11. Existing System Diagram

  12. What were the unintended consequences? • The SunguardLuminis product also provided single sign on • Had to figure out a way to solve this issue • Decided Microsoft FIM (Forefront Identity Manager) • Opted to keep existing LDAP and back feed it from active directory • This resulted in hardware purchases that were not initially in the budget

  13. Other Issues • Moving email to Microsoft site was slow • We had to request additional connections but resulted in delay of email go-live • Needed to sync LDAP and active directory passwords– these had previously not been synced • Used Yale Central Authentication Service (CAS) to interconnect to the portal

  14. New System Diagram

  15. Other Issues • Had to have Campus EAI (portal) use fall back authentication against either their active directory or current portal credentials • Our Microsoft skills were not as strong as we thought • Not many people have the ability to look at the big picture and understand the various inter-connections !

  16. Things to keep in Mind • Communication among team and the campus community is key • Keep the campus community informed • Provide a web page where people can find answers • During go live, have tier 1 and tier 2 personnel standing by to solve issues as trends are identified • Change is hard and people will complain

  17. Conclusion • Portal has gone live • Went well except for new password complexity • Issues syncing with ORACLE • Email goes live next Monday June 13, 2011- Wish us Luck • Questions or comments? • Thank You very much for your time!

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