Golden Gate University’s Winning Consolidation Effort

A Case Study

Keith RajeckiIT Infrastructure ManagerGolden Gate University

Agenda

Situation analysisThe business caseThe environment assessmentThe architectureThe solution infrastructurePost-implementation

management

2

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

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.

GGU’s Technology EnvironmentMeeting 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

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.

GGU Legacy EnvironmentOperating 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

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

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 departmentLeverage IT delivery to extend GGU’s capabilities

through key outsourcing partners

Transformation: ConstraintsWilling 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.

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

Consolidation Key Initiatives (cont’d.)

Data center infrastructure

• Servers

• Storage

• Operating system

• Security architecture

• Supporting infrastructure

• Systems monitoring

• Backup/recovery

Consolidation Key Initiatives (Cont’d.)

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

Goals and Objectives

Improved reliability

Increased availability

Serviceable technology infrastructure

Reduced costs

Implement best practices

Minimized complexity

Establish technology standards

Establish service level

AAIM Methodology

Assess

Architect

Implement

Manage

Assessment PhaseStaff

Server

Storage/data

Application

Workstation

Network

Telecommunications

IT security

Staff

Skills assessment

• Identify skills gap

Training plan

• Employee involvement

Continuous review

Career development plan (CDP)

• Identify current skills

• Future goals

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)

Best Practices & StandardsDon’t 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

New Enterprise Architecture

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

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.

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

Directory Layer Flow DiagramDirectory Layer Flow Diagram

StudentInformation

System

FinancialSystem

HumanResourceSystem

info

rmat

ions

informations

informations

Novell Directoryduplicated

OtherSystems

inform

ation

s

IdentityManagementRepository

(OID)

New Enterprise Architecture

Oracle 9i and 11i on LinuxOracle 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 2650’s utilizing 9i’s Logical Data Guard for failover• Goal is to move to RAC next

11i – installed on a Dell/Linux & Network Appliance infrastructure at Oracle’s Data Center in Austin, TX • Networked to GGU via a VPN

Outsourced Enterprise Model

Walnut Creek Sacramento San JoseMonterey Seattle Los Angelas

San Francisco

Internet - VPNGGU

Internet(VPN)

Broadwing

OracleOutsourcing

Austin, TX

Remote User

Internet

eCollegeDenver, CO

Self Service Apps

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

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.

LAN/WAN & Linux OpportunityNovell’s 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

New Enterprise Architecture

Netware to Linux Migration

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

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

Keith Rajecki

IT Infrastructure Manager

Golden Gate University

Thank You