10/16/2012
iSeries Server Cloud Migration Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the advantages of the iSeries cloud-hosted environment?
● Elimination of LEA’s costs associated with power, cooling and floor space
● Elimination of LEA’s responsibility and costs associated with iSeries hardware and OS
updates
● Servers hosted in a large secure data center 24x7 monitored
● Nightly backups encrypted and secured off-site
● Hardware and OS under IBM maintenance contract
● Redundant systems in different data centers, in year two second data center will be in
Charlotte
● Secure VPN access 24x7 via internet
● Districts can administer or ask SAS to administer system (add/delete users, printers,
allocate resources)
● Help Desk with email tracking
● OS upgrades and all PTRs on a published schedule
● Application Software upgrades and Application Support for LEA licensed software
available for a nominal yearly fee noted below (or use your current consultants)
● The iSeries cloud will have managed, redundant power and network connections
● Faster recovery times in the event of a disaster at the LEA central office location
● Improved physical security of all hosted hardware
● Managed and monitored firewalls protecting the iSeries at SAS
● Capability to request a temporary iSeries partition for testing new software or software
releases
● LEA local Disaster recovery (Hurricane, flood)- use SAS supplied laptop tops and an
office in Cary if needed for a nominal fee
2. What is the LEA’s cost for this iSeries migration to the centralized cloud?
NCDPI, through the Race to the Top (RttT) initiative, will cover all costs of the migration to the
cloud. An LEA will not be responsible for any migration costs, provided its migration is
completed before August 2014 when the RttT federal grant expenditures must be completed.
3. Will my LEA be billed for hosting, and if so will it be more expensive than owning and
maintaining iSeries server?
Each LEA that migrates to the SAS cloud prior to August 2013 will be provided free hosting for
12 months. LEAs that migrate after August 2013 will receive free hosting until August 2014.
LEAs migrating after August 2014 will not receive any free hosting as RttT federal grant
expenditures must be completed by this date.
Following the free hosting period, we expect the average LEA will save 50% as compared to the
price of owning and maintaining the iSeries system at the LEA. This cost savings estimate is
based on the required technical personnel to maintain the systems which often include
additional external contracted support services, uninterrupted power source cost, annual
operating system license renewals and support, plus the cost of replacing the iSeries servers on
a 3-4 year refresh cycle. Usage data indicates that most iSeries systems are greatly
underutilized. SAS will provide each LEA an iSeries Logical Partition (LPAR) appropriately sized
based on past performance and utilization information. The cloud-based systems will
dynamically adjust processing power assigned to each LPAR to ensure the cloud provides all
users the maximum processing power available.
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4. How much is the cloud infrastructure recurring cost to the LEA?
There are 3 LEA size categories: Small, Medium, and Large.
 A small LEA iSeries has up to 100 Gigabytes of current storage utilization
 A medium LEA iSeries up to 500 Gigabytes of current storage utilization
 A large LEA iSeries greater than 500 Gigabytes of current storage utilization
Note: 90% of all LEAs fall into the small category
Cloud hosting recurring cost is:
 Small: $700.00 monthly (2 Gigabytes of Random Access Memory)
 Medium: $800.00 monthly (3 Gigabytes of Random Access Memory)
 Large: $800.00 monthly (4 Gigabytes of Random Access Memory)
Storage is charged at $1.50 per Gigabyte. (The state average is 65GB per server)
 65GB X $1.50 = $97.50 monthly
Application Layer Configuration Support (Optional choice for the LEA which may choose to
retain their current ALCS vendor support)
 Small: $1,200 Annually
 Medium: $1,800 Annually
 Large: $3,600 Annually
Small Example:
 $700 X 12 months = $8,400
 ALCS Annual = $1,200
 Storage $97.50 X 12 = $1,170
 Total Annual Cost = $10,770
5. What is included in the Cloud Service Hosting agreement?
 Infrastructure
 OS Licensing
 OS updates
 System patching
 Backups: Full System and Incremental
 Disaster Recovery
 Security
 SAS Help Desk Support (3 tiers)
6. Is it mandatory for an LEA to migrate to the Cloud hosted solution?
The iSeries migration is not mandatory. This is an optional service that a LEA may opt-in for
only if it makes sense for the LEA and saves cost. Hopefully in the future all of the financial
services applications will move to a new more convenient platform where the cost
prohibitive iSeries will not be required. If an LEA chooses to opt-out and later decides to Opt-in
we will be happy to conduct the migration. However, after August 31, 2014 there may not be
any available Race to the Top funding to cover the migration cost. If at any point an LEA is
considering buying a replacement iSeries server, cloud hosting will be a more cost effective
solution.
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7. Some of the current Financial Applications are moving to SQL Server and the LEAs
have been told they will have to purchase additional infrastructure. Will this migration
support this new infrastructure requirement?
SAS is exploring the possibility of supporting this additional hosting requirement and will provide
us a SAS decision by November 30, 2012. Once decisions are made, the results will be
appended to this Frequently Asked Questions document.
8. What happens if an LEA chooses to Opt-Out of the cloud migration and continue to
maintain a local iSeries Server?
When the DPI iSeries servers move to the cloud there will be a configuration change required
for the Opt-Out LEA iSeries server. SAS has developed an in-depth pre and post migration test
plan that will be adjusted for each LEA and DPI configuration points to ensure a seamless
migration effort.
9. What functions will SAS perform?
SAS will perform the Migration, Hosting, and Application Layer Configuration Support (ALCS).
SAS is purchasing the hardware and OS licenses from IBM. All centralized systems will run
version V6R1 or later. SAS will provide help desk support for the hardware operational aspects
of the iSeries system. SAS will provide regimented backups of all data on the centralized
systems to an environmentally safe and physically secure location, outside of the SAS data
center. SAS has AS400 staff expertise that will be engaged throughout the migration process
and supporting Help Desk response. SAS will be responsible for maintaining the systems
physically, including reliable power, cooling, routine maintenance and hardware failure
replacement. DPI will ensure that SAS meets the contract’s 99.9% availability and uptime
requirements. During the migration, SAS may determine a security audit is prudent and will be
performed at no cost to the LEA. SAS will also incorporate the cost of OS upgrades into the
hosting fee; no additional OS licenses will be required from LEAs.
10. What functions will NCDPI perform?
NCDPI will provide project management services during the migration of LEA services and will
provide administrative support as needed. NCDPI will monitor SAS to ensure that all contract
obligations and deliverables are met.
11. Will the LEAs be able maintain their current level of control and access privileges to
their cloud hosted iSeries server partition?
Yes, LEAs that currently have admin rights assigned may choose to retain those admin rights
for the centralized system.
12. What functions will my LEA perform?
Each LEA remains responsible for its day-to-day application processing, the ownership of its
data, and the VPN connection from the LEA network to the SAS data center. Each LEA will
continue to be responsible for third party product licenses, such as ISIS, Sartox/K12 Industries,
Lotus Domino (for HRMS) and any other applications that may be in use. Those applications will
be migrated to the centralized server at SAS, but SAS will not provide support for these
applications. All 3rd party software products on the iSeries will continue to be the responsibility
of those product providers. The LEA will be responsible for maintaining software applications
above the operating system, such as Lotus Domino (for HRMS) and add-on products such as
IBM OnDemand or additional 3rd party products.
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13. What about current LEA Application Layer Configuration support contracts?
The LEA may continue any current contract with existing support vendors for Application Layer
Configuration Support (ALCS) or end-user help desk agreements until they expire or as long as
they desire. However, during the migration the LEA may opt-in for the SAS provided ALCS
support at no cost to the LEA. Upon expiration of the LEA current support contracts, the LEA
may choose to continue their current support or opt-in for the SAS-contracted firm fixed price for
annual ALCS services. The SAS provided ALCS support is optional and completely up to the
LEA to choose. However there should be no need to maintain both ALCS services.
14. Will the centralized systems be more secure than my current iSeries?
Yes. We expect an improvement in the overall LEA-NCDPI security posture as a result of
centralization. SAS is a world class technology company with incredible resources available at
its Cary facility, and we will all benefit by leveraging its infrastructure.
15. I have custom written iSeries applications. Will they be migrated to the SAS
centralized systems too?
Yes. SAS will work with each LEA, through an interview process, to inventory and migrate each
application. If you have custom-written or purchased applications in addition to those which
interoperate with NCDPI, please email Douglas.McKinney@DPI.NC.GOV so that we can ensure
these apps will port properly during the migration.
16. What is the migration plan and how will it affect our end users? BUD, HRMS, (duel
entry while migrating etc.?)
There is no anticipated need for duel entry; SAS will do a complete iSeries site assessment and
write a migration & test plan specific to each LEAs migration needs. An MOU between SAS and
the LEA will be prepared with the details. If accepted by the LEA a migration date will be
agreed upon to do the transition. Example: LEA stops iSeries transactions on a Thursday or
Friday and SAS will do a full system backup and restore it to the LEA Cloud LPAR on the SAS
infrastructure. With coordination between all parties such as network and a comprehensive test
plan to ensure everything is 100% operational in the new cloud infrastructure; upon successful
testing, the LEA will begin cloud iSeries operations Monday with no changes for the user. If the
test fails for any reason that cannot be resolved during the migration window; normal operations
would resume Monday morning on the current LEA infrastructure.
17. Will all current DPI iSeries servers be migrated to the cloud?
Yes; however, extensive assessments conducted on the unique complexities of the iSeries
operations at DPI point to the need for a segmented migration approach rather than an ‘all at
once’ transition as there are 7 LPARS to be migrated and configuration actions that have to be
coordinated with network connections at each LEA and the cloud. SAS is currently documenting
and testing the network and application migration tasks and configurations associated with this
effort.
18. DPI currently maintains their iSeries servers applying system patches as well as
application upgrades (BUD); will this still occur or will that come back in house to the
LEA or be done by SAS?
The new cloud infrastructure will be maintained by SAS to include OS licenses and patching
etc. The specific applications such as BUD=DPI, will remain the responsibility of the applicable
applications owners. For an LEA that chooses to Opt-out of the migration, they would continue
to operate as they do today maintaining their systems licenses and support. The application
owners (DPI or external) will continue to be responsible for the continued support of their
respective application regardless of where the application resides.
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19. DPI currently provides the LEA access during Disaster Recovery (DR) testing?
SAS will provide full system and incremental backups and a complete DR plan. SAS would
coordinate any disaster recovery testing needs with the LEA.
20. When issues occur who will be providing support?
SAS will have a 3 tier help desk with an 800 number call in service; SAS is responsible for the
infrastructure & Operating System and will pass trouble tickets to MCNC if on network; If it
appears the issue is application specific, the ticket will be handled by the application owner;
(Sartox; Isis; HRMS, BUD, etc.). The trouble ticket will remain open until the district
concurs that the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction.
21. Is SAS aware of the iSeries critical processing schedules?
SAS is aware of the processing windows that migrations would not be acceptable such as;
month end 25th - 8th and year end 6/15 - 7/15.
23. What if my system needs an OS upgrade or security audit?
OS upgrade needs and security audits will be determined during the Site Migration Assessment
by SAS and performed during the migration at no cost to the LEA. SAS has been diligently
working for the last 4 months collaborating with the application vendors, DPI, and MCNC, to
ensure that SAS is prepared with comprehensive pre and post migration task list, and test plans
to ensure a seamless transition.
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