NC EDUCATION CLOUD
The primary objective of the NC Education Cloud (NCEdCloud) is to provide a world-class IT infrastructure
as a foundational component of the NC education enterprise. Moreover, the NCEdCloud will provide for:
Equity of access to server and storage resources;
Efficient scaling according to aggregate NC K-12 usage requirements;
Consistently high availability, reliability and performance;
A common infrastructure platform to support emerging instructional systems;
Sustainable and predictable operational model.
As such the NCEdCloud will facilitate migration from LEA-hosted server infrastructure to provider-hosted
application and infrastructure services. Through a dedicated statewide support model that addresses
procurement, management and shared learning infrastructure services we convert from a decades-old
inequitable and locally constrained technology support environment to a contemporary and consistent
education enterprise solution.
The NC Education Cloud project team bases its work plan on collaboration and planning methodology
proven out in the School Connectivity Initiative (SCI). The team conducted site surveys and interviews
with all 115 North Carolina Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and 9 Charter Schools, interviewed
representatives from states that have adopted cloud services in state level deployments, discussed E-rate
consortium possibilities with peer state and FCC leaders, and conducted live request for information
sessions with dozens of private sector service providers and vendors.
Based on the findings of the site survey and interview process, the NCEdCloud team defined five
strategies that address LEA requirements, deficiencies and future instructional plans - namely:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Transition LEA infrastructure to a cloud-centric IT Enterprise service model;
Deploy an NC shared learning infrastructure supporting identity, data, and content integration;
Modernize statewide business operations systems;
Form a dedicated NCEdCloud support organization and support network;
Initiate a digital inclusion model to address anywhere any time access to the shared learning
infrastructure platform.
The projects supporting these strategies emphasize procuring services, raising the bar on reliability, 24x7
access, fewer providers, more competition, avoiding custom integration, and adopting standards. MCNC
content filtering and managed firewall services are early examples of services that facilitate transitioning
LEA infrastructure to cloud-centric models. An RFP supporting AS/400 hosting focuses on the
infrastructure and support for LEA business applications – addressing a transition to a cloud service model
while also modernizing finance and HR systems. Data integration and Identity and access management
(IAM) projects provide services that automate the creation of user accounts and integration of accounts
and LEA data with emerging cloud-based applications and services. A project to extend the Community
College System’s NC Learning Object Repository (LOR) <http://explorethelor.org/> provides services that
enable the sharing of standards-aligned content across the state. The shared learning infrastructure
services represented by the LOR, data integration, and identity management are backbone services that
will support LEA and NCDPI integration with the emerging NC instructional improvement system (IIS), with
the developing Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) computer adaptive assessment system,
and with like emerging instructional tools. Within each of these projects we address governance, workflow,
and operational supports required for sustainability beyond 2014 and the end of RttT funding.
The following table summarizes the core projects that comprise the NCEdCloud work. Project status
possibilities are plan, design, RFP, deploy, and operational. Target in-service specifies the target quarter
that a service will be in a production operational state – that is, the service will be reliable and supported.
In general, most all service procurement will happen by the end of first quarter 2013 and all services will
be operational by first quarter 2014.
Project
Owner
Identity and Access Management service
Friday
Institute
MCNC
Desktop Virtualization – remote hosted
desktops and remote virtual applications
Mobile device management (MDM)
MCNC
AMTR 3.0 – automated collection
and reporting for IT assets
Learning Management System
(LMS) procurement and provisioning.
Friday
Institute
Friday
Institute/
NCDPI
MCNC
Establish a convenience contract for
Hosted IP Telephony
Data Integration managed service
Email/Collaboration
Friday
Institute
MCNC
Status
RFP – RFP exiting NCDPI
review.
Plan – Feasibility study –
relationship to online
assessment.
Design – RFI/RFP definition.
Q3 2013
Design – RFP development –
target release Q3 2012.
RFP – Reviewing IIS vendor
responses.
Q2 2013
Design – Market study. Target
RFP Q2 2012.
RFP – RFP entering NCDPI
review.
Operational – 60 LEAs and
Charters migrated 6 scheduled
for 2Q 2012. Developing admin
training.
Design – Procurement of
Equella licenses and
maintenance with CCS.
Design – Developing a
reference architecture and RFI.
Target RFP Q3 2012.
Q4 2012
Learning Object Repository (LOR) –
Extend NCLOR to support K12 IIS and
LMS integration
Performance monitoring/ management –
extend network management functionality
to collect and analyze data about user
application availability and performance
Friday
Institute
Sustainable managed wireless
infrastructure
AS/400 (i-Series) Managed Hosting
MCNC
Plan – Feasibility study.
Friday
Institute
RFP – RFP award review at
NCITS.
MCNC
Resources: http://it.ncwiseowl.org/resources/RTTT_Cloud/
http://cloud.fi.ncsu.edu/
mailto://cloudhelp@ncsu.edu
2
Target
In-Service
Q4 2013
Q4 2012
Q2 2013
Q2 2013
Available
Q2 2013
Q1 2013
TBD
Q4 2012