Seneca ITS Cloud Strategy 2017‐19 Document Owner Information Technology Services Creation Date 01/10/2017 Last Updated Feb/2017 Version 1.0 Revision History Version # Change Description / Reason Author / Revised By 01/10/2017 Radha Krishnan 0.1 Initial ITS Draft 1.0 Final Version 02/08/2017 Radha Krishnan Date Revised (MM/DD/YY) Table of Contents
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................ 4 DRIVERS FOR ADOPTING CLOUD ............................................................................................................ 4 UNDERSTANDING CLOUD SERVICES ..................................................................................................... 4 DEFINITION OF ITS SERVICES .................................................................................................................. 5 ACQUIRING NEW SERVICES - THE CLOUD FIRST APPROACH ........................................................... 6 MOVING EXISTING SERVICES TO CLOUD............................................................................................... 7 INFRASTRUCTURE IMPLICATION ............................................................................................................ 8 3-YEAR PLAN FOR MOVING TO CLOUD .................................................................................................. 8 CURRENT FISCAL YEAR 2016-17 .................................................................................................................................. 9 2017-18 ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2018-19 ................................................................................................................................................................... 10 2019-20 ................................................................................................................................................................... 10 UNDERSTANDING CLOUD SERVICES ................................................................................................... 11 DEFINITIONS OF CLOUD COMPUTING ............................................................................................................................11 CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING ................................................................................................................... 11 CLOUD SERVICE MODELS ........................................................................................................................................... 11 ILLUSTRATED EXAMPLES OF CLOUD SERVICE ................................................................................................................ 13 CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS .................................................................................................................................... 14 BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING ................................................................................................................................ 14 Seneca ITS Cloud Strategy 2017‐19 Background The Information Technology landscape is ever changing with new technologies being utilized in new ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Cloud computing is a relatively recent technology advancement that provides the ability to utilize remote computing services to supplement the traditional on‐premises Data Centres that Seneca maintains. In the past one year, the maturity and adoption rate of cloud computing has significant momentum increased and has reached infection point. The objective of this document is to provide strategic direction on how Seneca can take advantage of cloud computing. This strategy document is a “rolling plan” that will be reviewed and updated once per year. Drivers for adopting Cloud The focus will be on risk mitigation and improving ITS service delivery without significantly increasing total cost of ownership. Leveraging cloud technology will allow ITS to improve on its service level to stakeholders by overcoming challenges like technology obsolesce, high maintenance, capacity management, availability and infrastructure issues beyond its control. At the same time, not every service from our data center requires to be moved to the cloud. The criteria for moving to cloud is detailed under section ‘Moving existing Services to Cloud’. The intention of adopting a cloud strategy is not to achieve headcount reduction or achieve significant cost savings. Understanding Cloud Services The term Cloud Services is generally defined as a service that is made available to clients that run in an off‐site Internet‐based environment. This differs from traditional “on premise” IT services that are normally housed on‐site in a secure Data Centre. The three main types of cloud services are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). A similar type of service called “Managed Hosting” is not strictly a cloud service but for the purposes of this document, we will consider Managed Hosting as a Cloud Service as it provides similar benefits. In broad terms, cloud vendors can be categorized into two buckets as Solution based cloud providers and Platform service providers. 
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Solution based cloud providers who specialize in providing cloud services for their proprietary products. Example: Microsoft and Oracle. Solution based cloud providers generally specialize in Software as a Service (SaaS). Microsoft is the leading cloud vendor for hosting Office 365, Email and SharePoint. Similarly, Oracle specializes in hosting PeopleSoft and other Oracle specific products. Platform service cloud providers specialize in providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Example: Amazon Web Services. Many large enterprise customers consider Amazon as replacement to their data centers. For a detailed understanding of each type of cloud service, please refer to Appendix‐A Definition of ITS Services Seneca College currently has two major Data Centres located at the Newnham and Seneca@York campuses. These Data Centres house the production and development environments for most of the major enterprise systems including i3 systems such as Student, HR and Finance and other systems such as My.Seneca, and other smaller web applications. ITS Services can be broadly classified into 4 types as below. Service Name Description of Service External Systems Integrated third party vendor provided systems like Seneca Works (Orbis), Ex Libris Alma, Lynda.com, Accommodate, Adobe eSign, etc. Typically, these systems are ideal candidates to be hosted as Software as a Service (SaaS) or for Managed hosting. Web Applications Home grown ITS developed applications for managing important business operations like Continuing Education Web Site, International Applications Web Site, Locker rental, etc. Home grown applications may continue to be served from in‐house data center or depending on their criticality may qualify to be hosted as Platform as a Service (PaaS) depending on the criticality. Enterprise Systems Mission critical enterprise systems like My.Seneca, Email, ERP, etc. Of all the services, Enterprise systems will undergo most scrutiny. Clear business benefits need to be established before moving these services to the cloud. Enterprise systems are typical candidates to be hosted with a solution based cloud provider. Infrastructure Covers Servers, Storage, and internal Data Centre network, Internet, Load balancers, Routers, Firewall Most infrastructure services are typically local to a data center except for Storage and Servers. Platform service cloud providers are good candidates for moving our Servers and Storage. Departmental Systems Departmental subscriptions for academic or administrative purposes like Workday, OscarEMR (Health Centre), Matrix, Warp, Zenith, etc. These services are generic and may be moved to either Solution based or Platform service cloud providers. Traditionally, ITS has been the manager or provider for all of the above business requirements. With the adoption of cloud, ITS role may include to be an advisor of solutions as explained in later sections under the column ‘ITS Role’. This document covers the ITS cloud strategy for both acquiring new services and moving existing services to cloud. Acquiring New Services ‐ The Cloud First Approach As part of the Seneca ITS Cloud Strategy, ITS will be ensuring that all new services utilize Cloud Services where available and appropriate. Since cloud services are provided by vendors at various levels, depending on the solution, ITS will follow the hosting preference in order for new solutions as follows. Preference 1 Service Name Software as a Service (SaaS) ITS Role 
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As an Advisor, ITS will assist the user department in setting up and getting the services up and running. ITS will provide integration support to Enterprise data where needed including authentication support for single‐sign on. The user department will maintain the operational duties of the system with ITS providing technical support when required liaising with the vendor for technical matters and issues ITS will provide centralized contract management and budgeting support for long term subscriptions ITS will ensure that new SaaS vendors go through a rigorous screening process on behalf of the college 2 Managed Hosting 
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All services as listed under SaaS In addition, ITS will ensure that the data centre is built as a Tier 3 Data Centre or above. ITS will review and approve co‐location services for performance, backup, exit strategy, data ownership and other risks 3 Platform as a Service (PaaS) 
/ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 
As manager of the service, ITS will configure and administer the service from a technical standpoint including integration support and single sign‐on. ITS will assist in the design and architecture of the solution to ensure there are appropriate resources available for the scale of use ITS will maintain the operational duties of the system with ITS providing technical support when required liaising with the vendor for technical matters and issues ITS will ensure that these solutions are deployed in approved cloud services 
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4 On‐premise hosting 
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As Provider and manager of the service, ITS will configure and administer the service from a technical standpoint including integration support and single sign‐on. ITS will help acquire and create the appropriate computing resources required for the solution. ITS will further configure and administer the service from a technical standpoint. ITS will maintain appropriate resources and perform regular maintenance duties and ensure that performance remains acceptable When new services are being planned and considered for use, ITS will assist in the selection process with the client department, to ensure that the college can support the service with any integrations to enterprise data and ensure that there is a smooth launch and support plan. In 2016, the following services were acquired using cloud first approach: BoardEffect, Adobe eSign, Qualtrics Survey software, etc. Moving Existing Services to Cloud Moving forward with this Cloud strategy, ITS is reviewing all ITS services for cloud readiness by applying following criteria for moving to cloud. The services likely to get most benefit from the migration will be given the preference. Criteria Services requiring constant up keeping Description Example: Seneca Works (Orbis) which requires monthly updating of software releases in multiple environments Services requiring agility and elasticity Some services are used heavily at certain times of the year and not as much for the remainder of the year. Services like this will be identified and reviewed. Example: Number of servers required for Blackboard can be reduced by 50% during the summer term. Critical Student facing enterprise services which Example: My.Seneca (Blackboard) need to be available on 24x7 basis Cost Services where the cost of maintaining on cloud is approximately the same as maintaining on‐premises Technology obsolescence As existing vendors provide cloud based alternatives, ITS will review these with the user department. Since cloud services operate on a subscription model, it is assumed that increased adoption of cloud services will result in transitioning from a CapEx to OpEx driven funding model as explained below 
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The traditional Data Centre incurs initial capital spending for the infrastructure and software needed to be put in place to run IT services. This capital spending is depreciated in the accounting books over a period of time. We also pay a pre‐define maintenance fee during the life of the equipment. All infrastructure items have a pre‐defined end‐of‐life when equipment needs to be replaced because it is no longer supported. The hardware then needs to be refreshed requiring fresh capital spending. By moving to cloud based service, Seneca will be subscribing to service that include infrastructure already established by the vendor. This subscription will be a fixed ongoing fee. As more services move to cloud, Seneca will be spending less in the form of initial capital spending. 
Through careful analysis and justification, ITS will have to ensure the total cost of ownership continues to remain the same or lower. However, there will be marginal differences in overall financial impact to the college. ITS will establish a baseline operational cost of running the services from on‐premises data center which will assist in the decision to move a service to the cloud. Applying the above criteria, the following services are already moved to the cloud Service Name Reason for moving to cloud Type of Cloud Office 365 Critical Enterprise Service Software as a Service eMail Critical Enterprise Service, Services requiring elasticity Software as a Service SharePoint Critical Enterprise Service, Services requiring elasticity Software as a Service Identify Services Critical Enterprise Service Software as a Service Board Effect Services requiring high maintenance Software as a Service Adobe e‐Sign Services requiring high maintenance Software as a Service Oracle Marketing Cloud (CRM Email Campaigns) Critical Enterprise Service Software as a Service Infrastructure Implication As we move services to the cloud, the demand on our network and internet is expected to significantly increase. For the past 3 years, ITS has been working to revamp and upgrade our network infrastructure. This project is now 90% complete. This transformation will be complete by summer of 2017. When completed, the network will have full redundancy and accommodate for surge in traffic due to cloud adoption. ITS recently increased our internet capacity by 5 times. In early 2016, we had 2 Gb of internet capacity split between different campuses. The capacity has now increased to 11 Gb and is also consolidated through a single gateway, with a fully redundant path through alternate campus, to provide improved internet experience. As we move more services to the cloud, ITS will continue to evaluate and implement additional measures to ensure our network and internet capacity keep up with the demand. 3‐Year Plan for moving to Cloud Detailed below is the yearly plan for the next 3 years for moving existing services to cloud. The accuracy of this plan will be 90% for the first year of implementation and will reduce by 20 to 30% for each following year due to cloud based services continuing to evolve. Current Fiscal Year 2016-17
In 2016‐17, the following services are prime candidates for moving to cloud Service Name Reason for moving to cloud Type of Cloud Timeline Blackboard (My Seneca) Pilot Critical student facing service. The move will improve system availability and help keeping the system current. Managed Hosting Q4 2016‐17 Exlibris Alma Replacing Voyager system for Library Managed Hosting Q4 2016‐17 SaaS Q4 2016‐17 Security & Event Services requiring high Management maintenance Services (Sumologic) (Proof of Concept) 2017-18
In 2017‐18, the following services are prime candidates for moving to cloud Service Name Reason for moving to cloud Type of Cloud Timeline Managed Hosting Q2 2017‐18 Academic Services Critical Student facing services (Matrix, Warp, Zenith) IaaS/PaaS Q1 2017‐18 Security & Event Service requiring high Management Services maintenance (Sumologic) SaaS Q1 2017‐18 i3 Erp Development Systems Services requiring high maintenance Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q3 2017‐18 I3 Erp Test and User Acceptance systems Services requiring high maintenance Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q3 2017‐18 Oracle Business Intelligence Systems Service requiring high maintenance Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q4 2017‐18 School of Fashion – Catalog service (Omeka) Critical Student facing service SaaS Q2 2017‐18 Blackboard BI Analytics Service Service requiring high maintenance Managed Hosting Q4 2017‐18 My Photo Critical Student facing service Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q2 2017‐18 Blackboard (My Seneca) Critical student facing service. The move will improve system availability and help keeping the system current. (Proof of Concept) Library System Proxy Service (EZProxy) Critical Student facing service SaaS Q3 2017‐18 SenecaWorks (Orbis) Service requires high maintenance Managed hosting Q4 2016‐17 2018-19
In 2018‐9, the following services are prime candidates for moving to cloud Service Name Reason for moving to cloud Type of Cloud Timeline Oracle Business Intelligence Systems Service requiring high maintenance Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q2 2018‐19 I3 ERP Production Systems Services requiring high maintenance Q2 2018‐19 Platform as a Service (PaaS) (Proof of Concept) 2019-20
In 2018‐9, the following services are prime candidates for moving to cloud Service Name Reason for moving to cloud Timeline I3 ERP Production Systems Services requiring high maintenance Platform as a Service (PaaS) Q2 2019‐20 Hyperion Planning System Services requiring high maintenance Software as a Service (SaaS) Q1 2019‐20 Type of Cloud Appendix‐A Understanding Cloud Services Definitions of Cloud Computing
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A model of computer use in which services stored on the internet are provided to users on a temporary basis (Collins English Dictionary) •
In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive or corporate servers (PC Magazine) •
Cloud computing, aka 'on‐demand computing', is a kind of Internet‐based computing, where shared resources, data and information are provided to computers and other devices on‐demand (Wikipedia) •
It is the business of renting time on computer to others Characteristics of Cloud Computing
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On‐demand Self‐service Consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities as needed automatically without requiring human interaction Broad Network Access Capabilities are available over the network and accessed mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations Resource Pooling Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi‐tenant model, where resources are assigned and reassigned per consumer demand Rapid Elasticity Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited Measured Service Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service. Cloud Service Models
As described in the main document, there are 3 types of cloud computing as 
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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Software as a Service (SaaS) The definition and purpose of the 3 types of cloud computing are as explained below 
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) An IaaS based cloud service is where the vendor provides raw network, storage and compute resources and ITS installs the operating system and application software on top of this off‐site environment and configures the services from the ground up. The vendor provides support on the hardware and network service and ITS provides support for the application. At present, ITS is also using IaaS for provisioning some of the academic use servers for students via Microsoft Cloud Services. 
Software as a Service (SaaS) A SaaS based cloud service is run by the vendor or cloud service provider and clients access the service as an individual user. The hardware and software are maintained off‐site by the vendor and include updates as required. Service owners may do some minor software configuration. For central services, the service owner may be ITS. A good example of this is Office365. There is minor configuration done by ITS but the service is entirely run and maintained by Microsoft. 
Platform as a Service (PaaS) A PaaS based cloud service is run by the vendor or cloud service provider but configured and maintained by both the vendor and the service owner to varying degrees. The hardware is provisioned and maintained by the vendor and the base application software (platform) is installed by the vendor but the service owner can choose when software upgrades occur and handle all aspects of configuration. Seneca is using PaaS for provisioning some of the academic use environments for students via Microsoft Cloud Services. 
Managed Hosting Managed Hosting is not technically defined as a cloud based service but it is an Internet based service that hosts our software at a remote site that is managed by a vendor. They provide the hardware resources and the management of the application, including support and maintenance but Seneca retains the license agreement and can choose to switch Managed Hosting providers or manage the host on‐site. Seneca is working with Blackboard to move hosting from our Data Centre to Blackboard’s Managed Hosting service. Illustrated examples of Cloud Service
The following explains the different cloud service options from a layman’s perspective taking Pizza delivery as an example. The following illustration is color coded for easy understanding. Now, the following illustration applies the same analogy to an IT service. As you see in the diagram, the “on premises” option is the equivalent of ITS managing everything from infrastructure to the software solution. As you progress through each type of cloud service, the role of ITS changes from managing a service to be an advisor of selecting the appropriate service. Cloud Deployment Models
Similar to the different type of cloud service, there are different types of deployment options as Private, Public and Hybrid. Large enterprises typically choose the private cloud option. However, public cloud is most popular among small to medium sized organizations. In addition, public cloud is popular with large enterprise solutions like Office 365, SalesForce, etc. Hypbrid cloud option selectively implements best of both worlds. Benefits of Cloud Computing
If implemented correctly, cloud computing has the potential to deliver significant operational and business benefits to the organization. Some of the benefits are as mentioned below