ISS PROJECT UPDATE
INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL PROGRAMME
February 2015
Information Solutions and Services—Infrastructure Renewal Programme
What is IRP?
The Infrastructure Renewal Programme (IRP) is a series of IT Infrastructure projects required in order to provide NUI Galway with the technical
capability to provide a secure, resilient and high performing infrastructure
which meets the requirements of the University.
The key programme outcomes are:
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Offer adequate and appropriate capacity which is scalable on demand
Provide fast access to data without interruptions
Provide resilience for equipment failures from the minor to the data
centre level failures
Prevent data loss
Use cost-effective technologies
Achieve fixed price costs
Reduce internal resource commitment on infrastructure expertise
Provide an infrastructure platform which is available and supported
24/7.
IRP Elements
IT Infrastructure can be viewed as consisting of three basic elements
Compute Power — we are replacing and upgrading approximately 95% of the compute power across both Data Centers.
These are the main “engines” for the IT services provided.
In This Update
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What is IRP?
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IRP Elements
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What stage is the
Programme at
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How it will affect you
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Technical and Managed Services
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Technical View-Point
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Migration and transition Calendar
Did you Know?
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An IT Strategy for
NUI Galway has been
developed and is
available.
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IRP is one of the key
IT Strategic Programmes
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ISS will provide you
with any extra information you require
around IRP, just
email
John.Lavelle@NUIGa
lway.ie
Network Capability — we have upgraded the bandwidth and
resilience of our connectivity to the external world, at a campus
level and at an individual buildings level.
Data Storage — we have upgraded and expanded the data
storage capacity, and data back-ups, within each Data Center.
This ensures we have adequate expansion capability for 3 to 5
years.
What stage is the Programme
at?
Network
Over the past 18 months we have been addressing the network elements of this
programme. This work has been largely completed and focus now turns to the
compute and storage requirements.
Compute & Storage
After research on market trends and anticipation of future developments in the
area a converged Compute and Storage solution, complimented by full Technical
Support and a Managed Service element for specific areas, was put out to an EU
tender.
Contract Award
Following the procurement process the contract was awarded to MJFloods Technology partnered with HP. This solution proposed by this partnership provided the
best overall fit to our exacting requirements.
Installation and Commissioning
The installation and commissioning of the kit have now been completed and we
have entered the migration phase.
The new HP Converged Compute & Storage
Migration
Within this phase we will be migrating nearly all of our compute and storage elements from the old environment to the new. We are endeavoring to make this
transition as seamless as possible but there will be some impact on the affected
services.
Service & Customer Owner Engagement
We are currently in the process of engaging with key customer and users through
the University to identify and plan the optimal time for the physical transition to
occur. If you are directly impacted you may already have been contacted, otherwise you will be contacted shortly.
The Timing
Our planned window for migration and transition into full production is throughout March and
April.. The timing of this migration
and transition will be defined in
conjunction with the key users
which will allow minimal service
impact.
Converged Infrastructure operates by grouping multiple information
technology (IT) components into a single,
optimized computing package. Components of a converged infrastructure may
include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for
IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.
How it will affect
you.
As a University
The “IT Wheel” represents the
way in which IT is delivered as
a Services to the core activities of the University; Teaching, Learning & Research. It is
useful to view this as a wheel
as it allows us to view the central green circle (the Infrastructure layer) as the hub
upon which all of these University services rely. In essence the platform supports
all services.
As an IT Business Service Owner
You will be consulted on the
optimal timing for the service
transition over the next two
month period.
As an IT Service User
You will be informed of any
maintenance slots required to
enable the transition within the
next two month period
The Impact
The IT wheel used to highlight
those services which shall be
transitioned before the end of
March 2015.
Where the Service is not highlighted in amber it should be
noted that there may be some
cross impact such as when
the databases are transitioning.
NUIG IT Services delivering into the University—”The IT wheel”
Technical and Managed Services
As part of this programme of work we have engaged in a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) based contract with MJFloods
Technology for the provision of technical support and managed services for the new Infrastructure. This will be managed
through ISS which ensures a seamless change for those outside ISS.
Converged Infrastructure Support and Management Services
Technical View-Point
For those of a more technical persuasion the logical presentation of the
new Infrastructure is presented. For
Disaster Recovery purposes compute
and storage capability is matched in
both data centers.
John Lavelle
|Head of Strategy, Architecture & Security| ISS | National University of Ireland, Galway
|:+ 353 91 492124 |:086 0214774|
John.Lavelle@NUIGalway.ie
Migration and Transition Calendar
The calendar below is the current proposed schedule for migration and transition into the new infrastructure environment. Whilst the current planned week has certainty about it in terms of the target services
and service elements which will be migrated the subsequent weeks may be subject to some change and
variation as timings and dependencies are identified and agreed between services owners and customers.
Please check back weekly for updates to this page.