Wipro Technologies
Application Access Over The Internet
Cloud Computing Service For Higher Education
www.wipro.com
www.wipro.com
May 6, 2011
Andrey Zhulenev
Sawan Deswal
Client Partner
Cloud Computing Strategy and Incubation
Practice Manager
Cloud Computing Services and Solutions
Scope of the Research
Wipro completed a research project to understand how application and desktop virtualization technology can be best
harnessed for the needs of higher education and compare traditional systems integration implementation approach with a
cloud computing model. The team conducted in-depth interviews with a set of colleges and universities that are considering,
piloting or have already deployed such solutions. This document is a summary of the research findings and conclusions arrived
at from this analysis. It outlines the benefits to various user groups such as students, faculty and IT departments. A detailed
financial analysis is provided, explaining the operational cost model, investments required and budgeting considerations. A
separate section provides an analysis of a cloud computing service model and how it can ease the adoption of the application
and desktop virtualization technologies in the higher education.
Authors
Andrey Zhulenev, Client Partner – Cloud Computing Strategy and Incubation
[email protected]
Andrey Zhulenev has 20 years of experience in management consulting and IT Services. Over the past eight years with Wipro
Technologies, he has worked with customers in different industries, including Education, Banking, Financial Services,
Manufacturing, Aerospace, Retail and Healthcare. Andrey brings a deep understanding of technology and practical expertise in
IT services, BPO and Product Engineering. He is an expert in advanced delivery models and quality systems such as Lean and
Six Sigma.
Andrey is responsible for identifying and incubating next generation Wipro cloud solutions. The conceptualization of the cloud
solutions starts with understanding of the industry needs, identifying core and non-core business processes, analyzing the most
recent technology trends and studying the IT ecosystem of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and cloud providers. Such
analysis covers the business value and ROI aspects of potential solutions. Prior to Wipro, Andrey worked in a variety of roles
with an IT services provider LUXOFT, AIG private equity fund and AT Kearney management consulting. He is based in Seattle,
WA.
Sawan Deswal, Practice Manager – Cloud Computing Services and Solutions
[email protected]
Sawan Deswal has 10 years of cross-functional experience in the Software and IT Services industry. In his current role at
Wipro, he is responsible for Product Marketing, Sales and Business Development, focused on cloud services and solutions.
Sawan is an integral member of the team responsible for incubating next generation cloud solutions, supporting market analysis
and defining product marketing and demand generation needs.
Sawan has worked in Program Management, Product Marketing and Management, Sales and Business Development functions
at both enterprises and start-ups. In his previous role as a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, he was responsible for the
market launch of the latest technologies for Microsoft’s advertising platform adCenter and Bing. Prior to Microsoft, he was the
Director of Product Development Services division for AskMe Corporation and helped bootstrap the services business. Earlier
in his career, he worked for a VeriSign affiliate, Sify Limited, as a Sales Manager. He is based in Seattle, WA.
Application Access Over The Internet
2
Cloud computing delivers all
the benefits of desktop and
application virtualization, helps
further reduce the cost,
eliminates the need for
investments to deploy the
technology and shortens the
implementation timeline.
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Application Use in Higher Education ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Applications ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Users ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Application Access Over Internet ................................................................................................................................ 5
User Experience ................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Benefits to User Groups ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Students ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Faculty ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
IT Department .................................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Implementation Options ................................................................................................................................................................ 9
Reference Case ................................................................................................................................................................... 9
System Integration ............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Cloud computing ............................................................................................................................................................................. 10
System Integration ............................................................................................................................................................... 11
Contents
Application Licensing ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Project Plan ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Total Cost of Ownership ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Investments ........................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Cloud Computing .................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Project Plan .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Total Cost of Ownership ................................................................................................................................................ 17
Investments
........................................................................................................................................................................ 18
Application Access Over The Internet
3
Introduction
Academic institutions are increasingly using technology to support the learning process and make it more efficient. Desktop
applications are an integral part of the curriculum in the Higher Education.
Computer Labs
Application Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Computer labs used to be the only way for students to get access to computer-based training. Today, students have personal
computers with access to the Internet at home, and many possess a personal laptop that they bring to campus.
Application and desktop virtualization technology enables remote access to desktop applications over the Internet. There is
great value for students to be able to access applications anytime, anywhere and from any device. This technology significantly
reduces the cost of providing application access to students as compared to traditional computer labs.
There are a number of successful implementations of this technology by colleges, but these deployments require complex IT
system integration work. This is an obstacle for a broader adoption of this technology in the Higher Education.
Cloud computing delivers all the benefits of desktop and application virtualization and helps further reduce the cost, eliminates
the need for investments to deploy the technology and shortens implementation timeline.
Key Metrics
Computer Labs
Application
Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Annual cost per seat
$500
$250
$225
Investment per seat
$1000
$500
No Investment
Implementation time
Existing
18 months
3 months
Annual cost – In traditional computer labs, the total cost of ownership (TCO) per seat is about $500 per year. Application
virtualization deployed through an in-house implementation project reduces the cost per seat to about $250 per year. With
cloud computing, these costs are further reduced to about $225.
Investment – With cloud computing, there is no need to allocate investment budget for technology adoption since the service
can be procured on a subscription basis. In-house implementations, though, require about $500 investment per seat.
Implementation time – An in-house executed project typically requires about 18 months in implementation time. Colleges
can procure the required seat capacity from a cloud services provider almost instantly and increase it over time as the user
demand increases.
A cloud computing service provider can deliver an application virtualization solution at a lower cost while offering more
sophisticated functionality, enhanced performance and increased reliability.
Application Access Over The Internet
4
Application use in Higher Education
Applications
The use of applications for study purposes in a college depends, to a great extent, on
the curriculum. For example, Computer Information Systems (CIS), Engineering, and
Design make extensive use of computers and applications. In CIS courses that teach
programming, students require access not only to applications, but also to a full
development environment where they can write code, build, deploy, test and debug
their projects. In courses like natural science, geography and literature, software
applications are a complementary tool to the study process.
The following applications are most commonly used by colleges for educational purposes. These applications have traditionally
been provided to students in computer labs and are now being offered via virtualization technology (this is a sample list and
not a complete holistic list of applications used today).
Document Editing
Microsoft Office Suite:
Access
Excel
InfoPath
PowerPoint
PowerPoint Viewer
Project
Visio
Word
Mathematics
Math11
Worksheet
Math Type
Mathematica Player
MATLAB
Sketchpad
Design
Adobe Acrobat Suite:
Acrobat Professional
Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Flash
Illustrator
InDesign
Photoshop
Technology
Eclipse
FileZilla
MySQL
Notepad++
SQL Management
SQL Plus
Visual Studio
VS CMD
XML Notepad
Faculty
Micrograde
Test Gen
Other
Learning
Filemaker Pro
Learning Management System
Grammar Test Tools
(like Blackboard)
Oracle
Student Information Systems
Web Browsers
and reporting
Windows Explorer
General
Adobe Reader
Calculator
Notepad
WordPad
Paint
Photo Editor
Windows Media Player
VLC media player
Content management systems and eLearning systems are often also virtualized and delivered through the same user portal.
Though some of these are web applications, there is still a value in providing access to students and teachers through the same
interface as the other desktop and client-server applications.
Users
Students are the larger user group and their focus is primarily on accessing applications for study purposes. The faculty as a
user group is primarily leveraging applications for teaching purposes.
Application access over the Internet
User Experience
With application virtualization, students now have an option of accessing applications remotely over the Internet. The faculty
can also use the same solution to access the needed applications, teach in classes or review student homework.
Application Access Over The Internet
5
Application
access over the
Internet
Student
Faculty
In order to access applications, users go to a specified URL and install a receiver plug-in. Then, they use a Web browser to
login to the portal, select the needed application from the list and launch it. The access to the portal is controlled by a
username and password based authentication mechanism.
Standard Citrix Login Screen
After successful login to the portal, the user is shown the icons of relevant applications in the browser window. An example
in the figure below shows Microsoft Office and other general purpose applications grouped in one folder. The portal provides
access control mechanisms to enable access only to the applications which are approved for that specific user.
Standard Citrix Application Window
The user clicks on one of these icons and an application opens up in a separate window; he or she then interacts with the
application through the keyboard and mouse. The receiver plugin installed on the client device transfers the keyboard and
mouse commands over the Internet to the application running on the server. The user interface screenshots from the
application are then transferred over the Internet and displayed on the end user’s computer. Under optimal network
conditions, the user looks at the graphical interface and may not even notice any difference as compared to an application that
is physically installed on the client device.
Application Access Over The Internet
6
The student can work with the application, create an output file and save it to a shared
folder located in the datacenter. The teaching professor can use the same access to the
application, select the same file from the shared folder, open it, review the work done by
the student and make any necessary changes.
Apart from applications, students also have access to a Windows Explorer utility which lets
users access their files in “My Documents” folder and move files between the folders. A
typical use-case for assignment submission is a shared folder, where students and faculty
can submit and view all the assignments. Students are also able to download the files to
their computer or email files from the shared folder.
Application Licensing
Today, most software applications are licensed on a ‘per user’ or ‘per device’ model. With application virtualization, there is a
need to change licensing agreements to a concurrent user-based pricing model. This requires colleges to get in touch with the
application vendors and amend the licensing agreements.
Most Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are accepting the concurrent user-based pricing model at the same price level.
Typically, the planned number of concurrent users per application stays the same as the number of applications previously
installed in the computer labs. For some applications, the number of licenses may increase, and for other applications, the
deployed count is reduced according to demand. Accordingly, the cost of application licensing typically remains the same after
application virtualization is implemented.
Benefits to User Groups
Students
Access anytime – Traditionally, students could access the software applications only in the
computer labs on campus. Though colleges try to make these computer labs available from early
mornings until late evenings, it is still limited to lab administrators’ availability to open and close the
lab. Now, students can access their applications 24x7 - any time of the day, any day of the week.
Access from anywhere – Students were required to go to campus to access the software
applications, even if they needed to do a minor change or modification to the file. Now, students
can work remotely from home or in cafés via Wi-Fi hotspots.
Application Access Over The Internet
7
Device independent – Students are able to use almost any device to access applications. It can be a desktop, laptop, tablet, or
even a smartphone. Application virtualization also allows running Windows applications on the Macintosh end user devices.
Cost of buying applications – To complete their homework, traditionally, students would have to buy some software to work
on their own computer at home. Now, students can work with applications from home without the need to buy them. The
cost of software applications with a student discount is in the range of $50-$100 or even higher. If the application is used only
for one course or to gain a basic understanding of its capabilities, there is no practical reason for the students to buy an
application.
Improved file management – With an integrated central storage system, students can access their files centrally through the
same system that enables application virtualization. Faculty members get remote access to the same files in the shared folders
and can review the homework without any hassle of managing files across different devices.
Faculty
Easier access to student’s assignments – With online resources centrally located, students are able
to submit their assignments online. In turn, this helps the faculty to manage these submissions. The
faculty also benefits from being able to access applications and files from anywhere and at anytime.
Digital classroom – Computer labs are used either for teaching or self-study purposes. Certain
courses require each student to work on an individual computer in the classroom during the class.
Given that more and more students have a personal laptop and bring it to campus, the need for
classic computer labs with pre-installed applications is diminishing. For certain courses, it is even
mandatory for students to have a personal laptop. Computer labs are then converted to a
classroom where students can connect their laptops to power and access applications.
Online curriculum with online applications – Teachers are now able to use desktop applications which were previously not
accessible remotely to students, improving the teaching methodology and its effectiveness.
Speed of adding new applications – Traditionally, the faculty was dependent on the IT staff to install applications in computer
labs. This required significant management efforts and was a challenge. Now, as applications are centrally installed and delivered
via virtualization, requests for additional applications are implemented and rolled out to users in no time.
Reputation gain – The colleges have seen significant gain in their reputation as an institution that cares for the students and
uses technology to improve the education experience overall.
IT Department
Reduced desktop administration cost – Because of central install and management of the OS,
there is a significant reduction in PC administration effort.
Reduced application management overhead – Application virtualization technology eliminates
the need to install and manage applications on multiple computers, a task that can be very
complex and time consuming.
Efficient use of application budget – An application virtualization solution gives exact reporting
on application usage. Colleges can now rearrange budgets to procure more licenses for
applications that are widely used and reduce licensing spend on less frequently used applications.
Application Access Over The Internet
8
Reduced PC hardware requirements – When most students bring their own laptops or are able to access applications from
a home computer, the number of PCs in computer labs can be significantly reduced.
Extended PC refresh cycle – The older Lab PCs can be re-used as thin client devices in combination with application and
desktop virtualization.
Low cost Thin Client devices – There are cases when computer labs are still required, for example when students don’t have
laptops and must rely on the college-provided infrastructure. Given that most applications are virtualized and delivered over
the network, there is no need to have a full scale desktop with pre-installed applications anymore. A cheaper category of Thin
Client devices can be used.
Reduced power consumption – Reducing the number of desktops reduces power consumption, especially with the usage of
Thin Clients in the labs to replace remaining desktops. Some colleges reported up to 80% cost savings towards energy bills.
Faster implementation of new applications – A centralized implementation methodology enables IT teams to deploy the new
applications much faster and make them available to faculty and students in just a few days.
Optimal utilization of software licenses – IT teams are able to monitor the usage pattern of applications and optimize the
number of software licenses procured.
Secure computing environment – Application virtualization technology provides complete isolation of client devices from
applications and data, providing increased security while enabling wider collaboration.
Improved data backup and disaster recovery – With a central storage solution along with application virtualization, the IT
team is able to establish better backup and disaster recovery policies and procedures.
Implementation Options
Reference Case
The Wipro research team created a reference case based on information collected from multiple colleges with an objective
to represent the most typical in-house implementation experience. In this reference case, a college has about 10,000 students,
2,500 faculty and college administration staff, and originally has about 500 desktops in computer labs. About 100 applications
are provided to students for study purposes. The implemented application virtualization solution is able to support up to 700
concurrent users and the computer labs can be downsized to 100 desktops, offering a total of 800 seats.
System Integration
The traditional way of deploying application and desktop virtualization solution is to execute an in-house system integration
project. In this case, the college IT team takes responsibility for defining scope, creating the overall project plan, doing a cost
estimate, identifying and securing the required budget, executing the project and rolling out the solution to the user base. This
is how traditionally most of the IT projects have been done in the IT industry.
Though both application and desktop virtualization technology have matured substantially over time, the road to a successful
implementation is a complex task. Colleges, generally, need a System Integration partner who can guide them through the
various phases of planning and execution.
Application Access Over The Internet
9
For a successful implementation, the implementation team needs to be familiar with the latest technology across several
disciplines:
Server, storage, and network hardware
Network configuration and monitoring
Server virtualization software and operating systems
Application and desktop virtualization software stack
Infrastructure management software
Application virtualization testing tools
Client devices
The various dynamics between hardware, software, networking, storage, web portal, and other components create a complex
environment to design, deploy and manage. One of the most important elements of the overall system design is to create the
right balance between the application workload and compute power for the planned number of concurrent users. There are
best practices and reference architectures to deploy these solutions, but the technology is quickly evolving, so the older
reference designs become sub-optimal within a short period of time.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a big driving force in the IT industry today. Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the cloud models when
software is provided as an online service over the Internet in a scalable fashion. There is no need to maintain an in-house
infrastructure with servers, storage, and network elements, and there is no need of an upfront investment.
Home
Campus
Internet
Appliance
Datacenter
User access to applications over the Internet can be enabled from a service provider datacenter. Colleges will need to bring
their application licenses, while the solution overall will be offered as a service. Students will have a portal to access applications.
After logging in, students will get access to the applications that are registered with the service for that specific college. The
service can be sized based on the number of seats required; in essence, the maximum number of concurrent users.
Additionally to the data center, an appliance can be located on campus and connected directly to the Local Area Network
(LAN). The appliance will include all the necessary hardware, software and applications, and will be managed remotely by the
cloud service provider. It can deliver certain application and desktop virtualization technology on premises.
An appliance can be used for multiple purposes:
Integration point with the college Active Directory and Student Information Systems (SIS)
Wide Area Network (WAN) acceleration
Disaster recovery and backup
Application Access Over The Internet
10
System Integration
Project Plan
This section describes the project plan for implementing the “Application access over the Internet” solution in-house. The
approach outlined below is a System Integration (SI) effort by a college IT department, in partnership with a specialist vendor.
In most cases, such a partnership is a pre-requisite due to high complexity of the technology stack overall and required
experience in architecting, configuring, and tuning the application and desktop virtualization solution.
Typically these implementations have two tracks of activities and are done in a phased manner.
Program Management: IT departments invest time for planning and the overall coordination. Over time, the focus
changes to User Education.
Technology Deployment: Work starts with Proof of Concept (POC), followed by Pilot Implementation that is exposed
to a small user group and then Full Scale Deployment for the targeted user groups.
Program
Management
Planning
Technology
Deployment
User Education
POC
Pilot
Full Scale
Planning
The planning phase is focused on developing the overall business case and implementation plan. Funding sources need to be
identified. Reaching out to different software vendors to amend the licensing terms is a time consuming exercise. The planning
phase extends until completion of the POC and a “go ahead” decision to do a pilot implementation.
Planning
Develop the business case
Identify budget sources
Amend licensing agreements with application vendors
6 to 9 months
Proof of Concept
The IT team needs to identify an SI partner with competency in application virtualization, evaluate alternatives, select the
application virtualization technology, and then establish contractual relationship with the virtualization technology vendor. An
evaluation of technology options during the POC is in itself a project with full life cycle from hardware procurement,
installation of software to testing and analysis. Procurement of hardware alone often takes several months.
POC
Identify use cases
Study technology options
Identify a System Integrator
Establish relationship with technology providers
Procure hardware and setup the infrastructure
Implement the solution
Run User Acceptance Tests
Application Access Over The Internet
3 to 6 months
11
Pilot deployment
The goal of the pilot phase is to design a technical solution and roll it out to an initial group of about 100 users. The objective
is to gather experience with running a production environment and understand user behavior. Only a subset of applications is
rolled out during the pilot. Creating solution architecture is a highly skilled and very critical activity that requires a combination
of hardware architecture knowledge and familiarity with the latest server, storage and networking technologies. In depth
knowledge of virtualization software is essential for proper performance tuning of the solution.
Pilot
Develop solution architecture
Procure hardware
Deploy the solution
Run user acceptance tests
3 to 6 months
Full scale deployment
Full scale deployment is focused on scaling the application virtualization solution up to the targeted number of concurrent
users. While technically the solution has been proven during the pilot, it is still a separate project that needs to be executed
through all its life-cycle steps.
Full scale deployment
Procure additional hardware
Deploy the overall solution
Execute scalability and performance tests
Execute network performance tests
Run user acceptance tests
3 to 6 months
User education
User education starts with the pilot deployment, working with the pilot user group. After the full scale deployment is complete,
the focus changes to driving broader user adoption. It takes a lot of marketing and user training effort to deliver information
to students and to educate a broader population of students.
User education
Drive marketing initiatives
Train the trainer sessions with the faculty
Training sessions in classes
9 to 12 months
Achieving user adoption is not an easy task. This can fail on minor technology issues, incomplete solutions, or performance
challenges with the solution. The best practices in user education include brown bag sessions, announcements in computer
labs, converting computer labs to the new way of accessing applications, awards to pilot users, and train the trainer sessions
with teachers.
Number
of users
Planning
User Education
POC
Year 1
Application Access Over The Internet
Pilot
Full Scale
Year 2
Time
12
The overall speed at which the application and desktop virtualization technology deployment happens depends on several
factors. In many cases, the timeline is determined by the iterative nature of learning the technology, exposing it to users and
making modifications to the solution based on user feedback. Another driving factor in this process is the budgeting cycle, since
funding for deploying the full capacity is often spread out over several years.
Total Cost of Ownership
In our reference case, the total cost of providing applications to students through computer labs is approximately $250,000
per year. The main cost items associated with application virtualization are computer administration, hardware and software
costs and electric power. With application virtualization, the total cost can be reduced to about $200,000 per year, while the
number of seats can be increased from 500 to over 800.
A detailed analysis of the annual operational cost (in our reference case) between traditional computer labs infrastructure and
application virtualization solution is provided below.
Hardware and Software – Most students can now access applications using their own laptops, so the number of desktops in
computer labs is reduced from 500 to 100. Another element of savings is that the remaining desktops are used primarily as
thin client display devices and their life span is expanded from four years to eight years. In our reference case, a server solution
with application virtualization and sufficient storage capacity is created. Application virtualization and management software is
an additional cost component.
Computer Administration – There are 3 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) computer administrators required to service 500
desktops in computer labs and installed applications. After application virtualization is implemented, the total effort of
maintaining applications and managing the desktops reduces to only 0.5 FTE. There is an additional effort of 0.5 FTE to manage
the new server infrastructure. Savings through application virtualization provide funding for technology upgrades in other areas
and, hence, freed up FTEs can be allocated to those strategic projects.
Metric
Computer Labs
Hardware and Software
Desktops
Computer Lab Desktops
Desktop Cost
Desktop Depreciation Time
$/Year
100,000
$/Year
Count
$
Years
100,000
500
800
4
Servers
Server, Network, Storage
Server Depreciation Time
Application
Virtualization
Change
120,000
10,000
100
800
8
20,000
-90,000
$/Year
$
Years
60,000
180,000
3
60,000
Software
Number of concurrent users
$/Year
Count
50,000
700
50,000
Computer Administration
Desktops
Administrators
$/Year
$/Year
FTE
75,000
35,000
0.5
-65,000
-105,000
Servers
Administrators
$/Year
FTE
40,000
0.5
40,000
Power Cost
$/Year
10,000
5,000
-5,000
Total Cost of Ownership
$/Year
250,000
200,000
-50,000
Application Access Over The Internet
140,000
140,000
3
13
Power – A typical desktop and monitor together consume about 100 Watt of electric power. Reducing the number of
desktops in computer labs leads to a sizeable reduction in power consumption. For accurate accounting, we need to consider
additional power consumption by the server solution and an increased number of students with laptops on campus. Overall,
the power consumption can be reduced by half, leading to additional savings.
With 500 desktops in traditional computer labs and the overall cost of $250,000, the cost per seat is about $500 per year.
These costs include desktop hardware depreciation, computer administration and electric power. With application
virtualization, the total number of seats implemented is typically higher than the eliminated seats in computer labs in order to
provide students more flexibility and allow faculty users to use the same solution. In this reference case there are 800 seats.
The overall annual cost is $200,000 and accordingly, the cost per seat is coming to $250 per year - an overall 50% reduction.
Metric Computer Labs
Application
Change
Virtualization
Total cost of ownership
$/Year
250,000
200,000
Number of seats
Count
500
800
Cost per seat
$/Year
500
250
-250
There are several fundamental reasons why the seat cost with application virtualization is becoming substantially lower:
Students are using their own personal laptops and the college doesn’t need to provide any end user computing devices.
An application hosting solution is replacing the traditional computer labs.
The central server that replaces the individual desktops offers the computing power that is shared in a better way and
can service more end users.
By moving applications to a centrally managed server solution, there is no need for administrators to install, upgrade,
and apply patches to multiple desktops across the campus one at a time. These changes are made to only one instance
of the “golden image”, leading to a substantial reduction in the desktop administration effort.
Investments
The investment required to create an application virtualization solution in our reference case is in the range of $400,000. This
includes two main cost items:
Hardware and software: An application virtualization solution requires a server infrastructure, high performing storage
and networking components, with the overall cost of about $200,000.
Consulting and FTE cost: It takes a few years to implement the solution and reach the targeted levels of user adoption.
External consulting is required due to complexity of the solution overall. An IT department typically invests several
person years into implementation and user education. These costs all together can easily account to an additional
$200,000.
Given that the overall number of seats is about 800, the investment to implement application virtualization is about $500 per
seat, which is half of the per seat investment in physical computer labs.
Investment
Number of seats
Investment per seat
Application Access Over The Internet
Application
Change
Virtualization
Metric
Computer Labs
$
500,000
400,000
Count
500
800
$
1000
500
-500
14
While the investment to implement application virtualization is large, colleges may not always require the full amount in form
of additional funding. With the reduction in the number of desktops and increased life expectancy of the existing desktops, a
large portion of the desktop refresh budget can be redirected towards the server solution. Reduction in computer
administration efforts gives bandwidth to the existing staff for managing and implementing the application virtualization
solution.
Cloud Computing
Project Plan
This section describes the project plan for the “Application access over the Internet” solution implemented leveraging a cloud
computing model.
There are two main tracks of activities:
Program Management: The college IT team is responsible for Planning and User Education
Technology Deployment: Since the technology solution is the responsibility of the cloud service provider, the scope of
activities for the IT team here is mainly in testing and optional integration with the college infrastructure.
Program
Management
Technology
Deployment
Planning
Testing
User Education
Integration
Planning
The planning phase is focused on developing the overall business case and work plan. Funding sources also need to be
identified. The overall duration of the planning phase can be substantially shorter, since there is no need to wait for results of
the POC on technology evaluation. Piloting with a small user group can start from day one and, given that the service has been
fine tuned based on feedback from other customers, it shall be a much smoother overall experience.
Planning
Develop the business case
Identify budget sources
3 months
Testing
The IT team needs to test the performance of the service on the campus network and run general user acceptance tests. The
objective is to make sure that there are no technical obstacles in delivering the service on campus and to students over the
Internet.
Planning
Execute network performance tests
Run user acceptance tests
Amend licensing agreements with application vendors
Application Access Over The Internet
3 months
15
Integration
While for basic use of the service, no technology integration is required, a larger college may step onto a path of integrating
their Student Information System to address more advanced requirements on user access rights and automation of the overall
administration. To optimize network performance, colleges may also choose to deploy WAN acceleration, a technical solution
focused on reducing latency between the service provider datacenter and the on-campus network.
Integration
Setup the infrastructure
Implement integration
1 month
User Education
The college IT team can dedicate more time to user education and leverage materials and methodology from the cloud
services provider to roll out the technology across the student population.
User Education
Drive marketing initiatives
Train the trainer with faculty
Training sessions in classes
3 to 6 months
Overall, the timeline of introducing a Cloud Computing Service to students and reaching the targeted level of user adoption
can be much shorter than in a customized System Integration approach.
Number
of users
Cloud Computing
Planning
System Integration
User Education
Year 1
Year 2
Time
Colleges can start offering the service in a matter of 3 months. The overall adoption time frame can be reduced to about six
months. The only remaining time-consuming activity is amending the licensing agreements with application vendors.
Application Access Over The Internet
16
Total Cost of Ownership
In our reference case, the annual operational cost of providing applications to students through computer labs is approximately
$250,000 per year and with an application virtualization solution, it will be about $200,000. In a cloud computing service model,
these costs can be further reduced to about $180,000 per year.
Total Cost of Ownership
$250,000
$10,000
$200,000
$100,000
$5,000
$180,000
$5,000
$120,000
$108,000
$140,000
Electric Power
$75,000
$67,000
Hardware and Software
Computer Administration
Computer Labs
Application Virtualization
Cloud Computing
The analysis of the total cost of ownership in our reference case of an application virtualization solution implemented in-house
and cloud computing service is provided above.
Hardware and Software – The server solution, being located in a central data center, can achieve better utilization levels and
hence the cost of hardware per user is reduced from $120,000 to $108,000.
A cloud solution requires a customer portal for user account management, billing, reporting and other functions and it comes
as an additional item in the cost structure of the cloud service provider.
Computer Administration – In the cloud solution, most server administration tasks are automated over time and accordingly
the cost of infrastructure management goes down from $75,000 to $67,000.
Power – Although there will be some reduction of power consumption due to better hardware utilization, this will not impact
the calculation substantially.
The annual total cost of ownership with a cloud computing solution is approximately $180,000 per year. Given that we are
accounting for a total capacity of 800 seats, the overall cost per seat is reduced to approximately $225 per year.
$500
Annual cost per seat
$250
Computer Labs
Application Access Over The Internet
Application Virtualization
$225
Cloud Computing
17
The main reduction in operational costs comes from the fact that a cloud solution doesn’t require new implementation each
time a new customer is added. The technology implementation is done once in a scalable, multi-tenant architecture and
supports additional customers without any substantial changes.
Investments
With a cloud computing service model, the required investment will be very minimal. There is no infrastructure investment
required. There will be some expenses in program management and driving user education, yet, in most cases, they can be
done by leveraging existing staff or with support from the cloud services provider.
$1000
Investment per seat
$500
$0
Computer Labs
Application Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Desktop refresh budgets could be repurposed to cover the cost of the service. Colleges will encounter additional savings along
the process, after computer labs are replaced with the “Application access over the Internet” solution.
Application Access Over The Internet
18
About Wipro
Wipro Technologies, a division of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is a leading global IT services organization and one of the largest
product engineering service providers worldwide. The company offers comprehensive research and development services and
IT solutions and services, including systems integration, information systems outsourcing, package implementation, software
application management, and datacenter managed services to global corporations. Wipro is investing in the development and
marketing of advanced cloud computing services and comprehensive service delivery platforms. The company has strategic
alliances with all major technology providers and leverages the most advanced software products to build its solutions. Wipro
partners with other players in the IT ecosystem to service its customers. For more information, please visit the Wipro website
at www.wipro.com.
Trademark Disclaimer
Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this document are the property of their
respective trademark holders. These trademark holders are not affiliated with Wipro Technologies for the purpose of this
document. They do not sponsor or endorse any parts of this document.
Application Access Over The Internet
19
DO BUSINESS BETTER
www.wipro.com NYSE:WIT | OVER 110,000 EMPLOYEES | 55 COUNTRIES | CONSULTING | SYSTEM INTEGRATION | OUTSOURCING
Wipro Technologies, Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore - 560 035, India. Email: [email protected], Tel: +91 (80) 2844 0011, Fax: +91 (80) 2844 0256
North America Canada Germany Switzerland Austria Finland Portugal Japan Singapore South America United Kingdom France Poland Sweden Benelux Romania Philippines Malaysia Australia China South Korea New Zealand