Learning Management System Migration Strategy

IDEAL-NM: Learning Management System Migration Strategy

The technical portion of the IDEAL-NM solution will support the Learning Management System (LMS). A learning management system is a software application or web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process. The system provides an instructor with tools to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and assess student performance. The delivery is typically asynchronous.

Extensive development and testing will go into ensuring that when the LMS is deployed at a client site the user experience is optimal. Lessons learned from previous deployments and system administration best practices will be used in the development of client hardware recommendations.

This recommendation includes cost and configuration for two hosting sites. The higher education state hosting centers will provide dedicated hardware in a state of the art hosting environment as illustrated in Figure 1. The hosting sites will provide fully redundant and reliable hosting services with guaranteed availability detailed through service level agreements. Given the size, importance, and complexity of the IDEAL-NM eLearning system the following will be deployed: . High-availability & high-performance production environment . System failover & disaster recovery . Test and development environments . Security and integration

1 NM Hosting Sites Implementation Timeline The implementation timeline begins with the selection of a vendor and completed contract negotiations and execution. During the first year following the award of the contract and following the selection of the New Mexico LMS Hosting Sites, a detailed Project Plan and Project Schedule can be developed by state participants. Development and presentation of the required funding would take place before the 2009 Legislative session

Once funding has been awarded technical training can be scheduled and the required hardware and software can be ordered. System setup, configuration, and testing will take place during the Fiscal Year 2010. A limited course pilot project would begin in the Fall Semester of 2010.

Migration of courses from the vendor hosted sites would begin in June, 2010 and be complete by May, 2011. State public schools and agencies are expected to follow the post secondary schedule with the exception of newly developed agency training. The NM LMS Hosting Sites would assume all responsibilities for LMS hosting by May, 2011.

Table 1 shows the general timeline.

Table 1: NM Host Sites Implementation Timeline Task Name Start Finish Duration 1 Vendor contract signed & executed 6/2008 2 Develop detailed Project Plan/Schedule 7/2008 11/2008 16 wks 3 Hosted sites training - Administration 6/2009 7/2009 4 wks 4 Funding proposal presented to Legis 7/2008 1/2009 5 Host sites training - Administration 7/2009 8/2009 6 wks 6 Receive funds - budget control 7/2009 8/2009 5 wks 7 Process POs and formalize contacts 8/2009 10/2009 9.4 wks 8 Hardware acquisition & installation 8/2009 10/2009 12 wks 9 System setup & configuration 11/2009 11/2009 4 wks 10 System testing 12/2009 6/2010 24 wks 11 Limited course pilots 1/2010 6/2010 20 wks 12 Course migration to NM hosting site 6/2010 5/2011 52 wks 13 NM Host Sites Production 6/2011

2 Staging Training Pilot Final CNM Central New Mexico CC Immediate Aug-08 FA08 SP09 WNMU- Western New Mexico University- Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 A Alamogordo ENMU Eastern New Mexico University Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 ENMU- Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 R WNMU Western New Mexico University Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 NNMC Northern New Mexico College Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 LCC Luna Community College Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 SFCC Santa Fe Community College Immediate Aug-08 FA08 SP09 MCC Mesalands Community College Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 NMJC New Mexico Junior College Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 NMT New Mexico Tech Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 CCC Clovis Community College Immediate Jul-08 FA08 SP09 UNM University of New Mexico Immediate Jul-08 SP09 FA09 NMSU New Mexico State University Immediate Jul-08 SP09 FA09 NMHU New Mexico Highlands University Immediate Aug-08 SP09 FA09 SJC San Juan College Not Contracted with another LMS Participating vendor All dates tentative and contingent upon LMS contract and date of availability

The above table provides estimated readiness for post secondary institutions to move to a hosted environment. New Mexico will be migrating the NM Cyber Academy courses over the summer with immediate staging access. Agencies that are currently using institutions to host classes will conform to the institution schedule. Other agencies will come on line as the environment matures and when they are ready.

Host Center Hardware Configuration Figure 1 is an illustration of a single site capable of hosting 200,000 FTE, the estimated number of learners to be served by IDEAL-NM. If New Mexico were to employ two hosting sites (recommended), the number of clustered application servers would be cut in half. All other elements of the proposed model would remain the same.

The proposed model shows a production site on the left and a failover site in the shaded area. By actively using half of the computing power of each application server, each site has the capacity to provide failover capabilities. The entire system is also horizontally scalable to provide services for anticipated future growth.

Again, if New Mexico utilizes two hosting sites, each site would resemble the configuration shown in Figure 1 with half of the shown application servers.

3 Figure 1: Host Center Hardware Configuration (200,000 FTE)

Figure 2 and Figure 3 illustrate the configuration needed to support 100,000 FTE and provide failover capability. Application and database servers are split equally between two locations, with each location providing the capacity to support all application users.

Figure 2: Host Site Server Rack Configuration for 100,000 FTE

4 Computer Center Failover Site

Application data would be reside in a Storage Area Network (SAN) at the Computer Center and would be mirrored to an identical SAN at the Failover Site. Additionally, two snapshots of the data would also be stored at the Failover Site.

Figure 3: Host Site SAN Rack Configuration

Computer Center Failover Site

Disaster Recovery The Failover Site would provide application and database recovery mechanisms. Additionally, the two snapshots stored at the Failover Site would provide the ability to restore application data to specific points in time during the previous 24 hours. If both the Computer Center and the Failover Site were to experience a catastrophic event, application data stored at the Second Hosting Site would be used for recovery.

5 IDEAL-NM LMS Hardware Cost Profile  Hardware costs for two Hosting Sites serving 200,000 FTE (10,000 concurrent users)  Hosting Sites are comprised of two datacenters, one for production and one for failover  Each Hosting Site would provide disaster recovery capability for the other

Unit Hardware Cost Qty. Total Cost Notes Servers: Oracle 10g Database Servers 4 x 2.15 GHz SPARC64 VI Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 $62,500 4 $250,000 Processors, 16 GB RAM, 2 x 10,000 RPM 73GB HDD, 4 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet + 3 yrs Gold supp. 3 year Gold support upgrade $16,900 4 $67,600 recurrs every 3 years Blackboard Vista 4/8.0 Application Servers + 1 Admin. Server 2 x UltraSPARC T2 Plus (Quad-Core) 1.2GHz Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 $15,000 22 $330,000 Processors, 8 GB RAM, 2 x 10,000 RPM 73GB HDD, 4 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet + 3 yrs Gold supp. 3 year Gold support upgrade $6,000 22 $132,000 recurrs every 3 years

Networking Equipment: Citrix Netscaler 9010 Enterprise $50,000 4 $200,000 4 1000Mbps ports Cisco 24-port 1000mbps switch $10,000 8 $80,000 24 port (copper) with fibre uplink

Data Storage: DS4800 SAN contoller $54,000 4 $216,000 SAN controller EXP-810 4TB Tray $48,000 12 $576,000 2 TB Storage in 16 300 GB Drives IBM SAN32B-3 16-port FC Switch $16,000 8 $128,000 4Gbps FC Switch FC Tranceiver (SFP) $1,000 8 $8,000 Allows connectivity between host and switch

Rack & Power: Sun Rack 900-38 $4,700 4 $18,800 38 RU Rack includes Power Distribution IBM NetBay 42 $4,000 4 $16,000 42 RU Rack PDU for NetBay 42 $500 4 $2,000 PDUs for IBM Rack Total Hardware Cost $2,024,400

6 Unit Software Cost Qty. Total Cost Notes SAN Features: Flash/Volume Copy $24,000 4 $96,000 To assist in DR/data backup strategies Remote Mirror $28,000 4 $112,000 To assist in DR/data backup strategies

Oracle Features: Oracle RAC Processor License $12,500 48 $600,000 Perpetual License based on Processors Oracle RAC Support $66,000 1 $66,000 Total Software Cost $874,000

Unit Professional Development Cost Qty. Total Cost Notes Oracle DBA $65,000 0.5 $32,500 System Administrator $65,000 0.5 $32,500 Application Administrator $65,000 0.5 $32,500 Oracle RAC Training $7,500 4 $30,000 Two training courses for 4 individuals Sun Training $4,000 4 $16,000 Two training courses for 4 individuals Blackboard Training $42,000 1 $42,000 Admin and support training Total Software Cost $120,500

TOTAL SYSTEM COST $3,018,900

7 Hardware Costs Since the Hosting Sites for the IDEAL-NM Learning Management System have not yet been selected, all unit costs for items in the IDEAL-NM LMS Cost Profile reflect List Price, except Oracle RAC. The Oracle RAC reflects a 37.5% discount from the $480,000 list price. Each institution or organization has varying degrees of discount in place up to approximately 20%.

Professional Services Achieving the organizational goals of a state enterprise software implementation requires informed planning and skilled execution. Professional and contractual services will be used to provide valuable experience and expertise in the implementation phase. Particularly important to the success of the IDEAL-NM Initiative are the Oracle RAC training for Hosting Site database administrators and the Sun sysadmin professional development.

Professional Services will also play a key support role in the project team and can help New Mexico leverage implementation best practices to cost-effectively mitigate deployment risks and ensure a smooth product adoption by their constituents.

The IDEAL-NM Project will work with the project core team to explore the opportunities for efficiency in the implementation during the consulting sessions. The specific recommendations will be reviewed prior to adoption by the entire implementation team with representation from all participating institutions. In addition to implementation support, contractual services will be used to provide technical training for both the hosted and hosting institutions.

LMS and Oracle licenses The model of centrally hosting the Learning Management System provides campus-level autonomy while allowing individual institutions to focus most of their efforts on institution- specific goals and objectives, and less on the management of server technology infrastructure. With a number of state institutions implementing a LMS concurrently, there are opportunities for institutions to work together to save on implementation costs and maximize resources. One way to save money is to purchase a statewide LMS perpetual license for all users. The other large software is the core database product which should also be purchased in aggregate to realize cost savings.

Annual Maintenance: (LMS, & Hardware & Software) Each year after the initial year, the participating institutions will pay Oracle, software, and hardware annual support fee. Annual support payments typically increase about 5% each year. The fees provide for upgrades, technical support, and bug fixes. It also includes the hosting services provided by Blackboard. Computer hardware is typically purchased with a 3-year warranty to reduce maintenance costs as reflected in the Cost Profile table.

Annual Budget Projections for Vendor to State Hosting The spreadsheet for budget projections are attached to this document.