CTA Infrastructure Subgroup IT Roadmap
Draft list of initiatives
Vision for Infrastructure:
Common properties of all IT infrastructure include a simplified customer experience for obtaining services, with a single customer
point of contact for Medical Center and University employees. By the end of the 5 year period, it is expected that the single point of
customer contact will evolve into a single team and consolidated set of resources providing infrastructure services to the Campus
and Medical Center.
Customers will be able to utilize services from all common platforms, and are expected to be accessing services increasingly from
mobile devices, and via the wireless network. There will be transparency and visibility into key aspects of infrastructure operation,
with meaningful performance and availability metrics published for all infrastructure components.
 Unified Communications Strategy – Fully converged, cost-effective, secure, communications environment integrating voice,
video, email, voicemail, and collaboration tools on any device, anywhere.
 Data Network – Full featured, high performance, secure, scalable, robust IP network providing service to the Campus and
Medical Center, with the ability to deliver any network segment, and any network service anywhere within the institution.
The network will be intra-operable with strategic partners including SFVA, DPH, Gladstone, and others. It is expected that
wireless connections will increasingly become the most common technology for connecting to the network in the latter years
of the road map. Utilization will be proactively monitored, and resources will be allocated intelligently to insure sufficient
capacity is provisioned before bottlenecks appear. A comprehensive lifecycle management program will insure that sufficient
resources are allocated to allow network components to be replaced on a regular schedules (estimated to be 5-7 years for
core components, 3-5 years for wireless components).
 Data Center – Consolidated facilities providing a cost-effective suite of IT services at attractive price points. The data center
organization will provide energy-efficient, reliable, flexible, scalable, services with the ability to provide geographic diversity
for critical applications. A borderless data center design will facilitate service migration between sites. In addition to
providing in-house services, the data center organization will supply expertise to facilitate migration of data and services to
cloud providers when appropriate, and also implement a ‘cloud burst’ capability to address spikes in demand.
 IT services – An IT service team will provide consolidated services from the data center to reduce duplication in effort when
addressing common problems. Services will include database and application servers, IT management, monitoring, and
reporting systems, and desktop engineering tools to support automated imaging and remote assistance.
Unified Communications Strategy
Data Network Strategy
Initiative
Brief Descriptions
Benefits
Lync implementation
Utilize Microsoft Lync as alternative to new Centrex
handset purchases and replacements
Octel voice mail
replacement
Wireless handset
integration – single
number reachability
Replace out-of-service Octel voice mail system
VoIP / Centrex Retirement
Replace remaining Centrex handsets and switching
equipment with VoIP solution
End state were wireless and wired handsets, email,
voice mail, and other communication are integrated
into a single environment.
Selection and standardization on a single DNS/DHCP
solution to be shared by all UCSF organizations
Cost-effective mechanism to leverage existing
investment in Microsoft communications
products
Provides a supported product, with modern
voice mail features
Allows UCSF faculty and staff to use a single
wireless handset for all phone calls,
minimizes cellular charges. Facilitates
communication by providing single number
reach.
Reduces operational costs, more robust
infrastructure, improves telephony features
Simplifies and enhances communication
capabilities for UCSF community
Medical Center / Campus
Communications
convergence
DNS/DHCP Refresh
Integrate smart phones with UCSF communications
systems, allowing calls to be placed without using
cellular minutes.
MPLS Converged
Segregated Network
Creation and implementation of separate logical
networks (HIPAA communications, campus general
communications) and support for extending these
networks to any point of the UCSF enterprise.
10G building upgrade –
Ongoing lifecycle
management
Upgrade of campus-to-campus building-to-building
network communication speeds. Ongoing equipment
refresh to stay current with technology and capacity
demands.
Access layer refresh –
Ongoing lifecycle
management
Upgrade of wired and wireless network equipment
supporting end user connectivity.
Reduction in management effort and support
costs while adding functionality and
standards management
Merger of UCSF Campus and Medical Center
network infrastructures to reduce duplication
of effort, improve redundancy, and provide
flexibility in supporting clients at different
sites.
Improved performance and reliability for
network communications, addition of
support for MPLS, Multicast, and quality of
service. Project builds required foundation
for access layer equipment refresh.
Improves performance and reliability of
network services.
Data Center Strategy
Network Endpoint
Assignment
Identification and classification of end user devices.
Wireless Expansion
Design and implementation of dense wireless
networks for UCSF auditoriums, plans for future
adoption of evolving standards such as 802.11ac, and
prepare for a future where more and more of the
UCSF community connects wirelessly.
VPN and remote access
integration
Consolidate multiple VPN and remote access
solutions into a single system for Campus and
Medical Center
Virtual server
infrastructure/self service
Design and implementation of virtual server
environment, eventually providing self-service
provisioning of virtual servers.
Enterprise Storage
Provide multi-tiered data storage service with a range
of options from cost-effective, high capacity storage
to high performance premium storage.
Enterprise Backup
Provide server backups for disaster recovery
Cloud Computing Support
Facilitate use of external cloud storage and servers
when appropriate. Implement ‘cloud bursting’
strategy to address short term capacity expansion
Automates assignment of network services
based on system or user identification
instead of requiring manual intervention.
Ensures users with valid credentials are
assigned to use specific networks instead of
general Campus network.
Creates support for densely populated
auditoriums with the possibility of high
network client count (multiple devices per
users, high bandwidth requirements on some
devices).
Simplifies remote access for UCSF
community. Cost savings through reduction
of overlapping equipment and personnel
efforts.
Improved agility in deploying services. Cost
savings from reduced energy consumption,
reduction of server hardware, and better
staff utilization.
Cost savings through scale and improvements
in staff utilization. Improved agility to meet
evolving performance requirements.
Reduction of institutional risk by moving
more data into controlled environment.
Protects critical data, centralized approach
reduced equipment footprint, improves staff
utilization, and provides reliable and tested
backup procedures.
Facilitates use of more cost-effective services
as they become available, improves ability to
address capacity ‘spikes’, reduces duplication
of effort in identifying / negotiating
agreements with cloud service providers.
VDI
Design and implement virtual desktop infrastructure
Research Infrastructure
Provide data center infrastructure appropriate for
research computing needs (HPC?)
Consolidate the separate service teams into a single
organization providing infrastructure and support
services, with a single point of contact for all
customers
Centralized tools to provide UCSF IT community with
enhanced ability to monitor systems, and to provide
the non-IT community visibility into SLA compliance
and key operational metrics of subscribed services.
Provide services necessary to support desktop
engineering and help desk operations, including
remote imaging, application and OS update servers,
and remote assistance systems
(Need background from STAC)
Create consolidated
service delivery teams
System monitoring, tools
including logging, and
reporting (Dashboard,
Nagios, SLA reporting)
Desktop Engineering Tools
Exchange Free/Busy
IT Service Strategy
Endpoint backups
(desktops and laptops)
Database Administration /
Data Management
Cross-platform AD
Integration
Centralized
Knowledgebase
Provide data protection to desktops and laptops
Simpler provisioning of new desktops and
applications, improves ability to maintain
standard environment, improved data
security.
Reduces duplicated effort, improves
productivity through vertical specialization,
improves customer experience.
Improve desktop support staff productivity,
improve ability to deploy new systems
quickly, enhance customer satisfaction.
Protects data produced on desktops and
primary documents crated on laptops by an
increasingly mobile workforce. Improves
compliance reporting capabilities, produces
cost savings by facilitating self-service
restores.