The Data Centre Strategy (DCS) is a University programme
that will deliver a modern, flexible and consumable approach for delivering IT
to staff, students and researchers.
What benefits will
the DCS programme deliver?
Improved service quality – Greater automation and
self-service options will reduce the time it takes to satisfy requests for server
and storage capabilities.
Greater reliability – All applications and storage will be
migrated in to technology environments that provide guaranteed levels of
resilience and security protecting key University systems and data.
Meeting future needs – A combination of University hosted
platforms and third party services will provide a scalable, flexible and more
responsive framework for hosting applications, servers and storage to meet the
current and future IT needs of staff, students and researchers.
Greater sustainability – 23 machine rooms across campus will
close, alongside the migration of existing applications, servers and storage
onto energy-efficient platforms in modern data centre facilities resulting in
reduced power consumption.
Which new services
will be provided?
Research Computing – A flexible virtual machine and
container provisioning/hosting service, offering performance and protection
options.
Research Storage – A scalable, secure and flexible network-based
storage capability, offering a broad range of availability, performance,
protection and access features.
Business Applications Hosting Service – A virtual machine,
database and web application provisioning/hosting service suitable for
Corporate and Line of Business Applications.
Why do we need to
make this change?
The University relies on access to systems and applications,
which are highly available, responsive, resilient and secure – protecting the
University’s intellectual property from theft and accidental loss.
Our current hosting infrastructure does not always provide
the resilience and durability expected by modern University services. Some of
the University’s existing IT equipment is very energy-inefficient, when
compared to modern alternatives, and current hosting locations constrain our
ability to support future demands.
Plus, the technology landscape underpinning IT services is
changing faster than ever before. Third-party services, such as Cloud computing
and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), offer competitive advantages that the
University would like to utilise.
How might the
programme impact me?
All applications and storage will be migrated in to
technology environments that provide guaranteed levels of resilience and
security. The migration activity is expected to run from 2018 through to 2020,
during which time there may be periods of scheduled, pre-announced downtime for
an application you use in order for migration to take place.
If you are the business owner of an application, then the
programme may request a small amount of your time so we can gather essential
information to plan the migration of that application.
How will this
programme be delivered?
The University has engaged ANS
to implement and manage the hosting service that delivers the benefits of the
Data Centre Strategy. Working closely with University staff, ANS is also
responsible for assessing, planning and executing the migration of University
applications, servers and storage into the new service.
When will the
programme complete?
The initial service will launch in September 2018, with
enhancements being phased in across a number of releases over several months.
The migration of University applications, servers and storage into the new
service will commence in 2018 and will complete in 2020.
