From Pilot to Production Emerson Pratt & Shaun Taylor University of Otago • New Zealand’s oldest University, founded in 1869 • Main campus in Dunedin with campuses in Invercargill, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland • 19,568 EFT students • 3,739 FTE staff Where We Were • Provide computer resources to student via computer rooms • Approximately 1,600 computers mostly in Dunedin -also -Invercargill, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland • Current system based on Novell technologies • Deliver some software to all students and ‘course specific’ to groups based on paper codes Why Change? • Current desktop built on technologies that are currently or soon to be end of life • Current system is labour intensive to manage • Students requirements have changed! Student Laptop Ownership 100% 96% 95% 98% 98% 90% 88% 93% 80% 82% 70% 72% 60% 50% 49% 40% 30% 21% 20% 14% 10% 0% 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Student Mobile Device Functionality 99.0% 95.0% 90.5% 91.6% 88.7% 90.1% 85.8% 85.5% 84.1% 81.7% 75.2% 72.5% 71.3% 66.9% 65.1% 65.6% 63.0% 64.5% 58.3% 53.1% 52.9%52.6% 53.1% 49.3% 40.3% 38.0% 20.9% 17.9% 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Send & Receive SMS/Text messages Play Audio Play Video Access the Internet How often do you use Internet on your Mobile Device? 4% 5% 3% 2014 17% 3% 12% 22% Hourly 28% 2013 24% 35% Daily 9% Almost every day 10% Every week 2012 Every week or two 56% 30% 2% 14% 5% Hardly ever 4% I don't access the internet on my phone 6% 11% 2011 11% 34% 14% 41% The Student ‘Desktop’ University Owned Student Desktop, 1,600, 5% Student Mobile Devices, 13,600, 39% Student Owned Laptops, 19,600, 56% Where We’ve Been • 2006 - first looked at replacing the current Student Desktop: – Transitional time in desktop technologies – Risk deemed too high to change systems at that time • 2010 - again began the process of determining if a Student Desktop was required and if so the requirements through to 2020 2011 - 2012 • Interviewed 71 staff (Technical, Non Technical, ITS, Non ITS, Academic, General, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and Auckland) • Met with a number of student groups including OUSA, Student IT and College of Residence students • Surveyed students (3,651 responded!) • Ran technology roadshows in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington Findings • Students want to be able to access Student Desktop from University computers AND their own devices • Must have Endnote, SPSS and course specific applications in use by teaching departments • Distance and placement students find lack of access to computer sources a barrier to learning • Students with disabilities not well catered for by the current ‘one size fits all’ approach Vision The Desktop should be available “Anytime, Anywhere on Any Device” Pilot – Proving the Theory • Engaged CITRIX directly to design a pilot environment: – Eliminated risk and ensured we had the best people working with us to design the system – Designed the pilot environment as if it was a full production environment (just smaller) – Evaluated other CITRIX Student Desktop implementations (University of Sydney) Business Case • Built business case around actual use case scenarios • Able to demonstrate the concept using the pilot • Data from pilot meant costings were very robust • Pilot gave us a sense of timeframe for the project Handover Sponsor to Project Manager The Lucky Straw • Asked to manage pilot project – Maintaining day to day activities – Additional project management duties • First major project • Quite time consuming – Following Prince2 best practices • Became obvious would need full focus for end state – Seconded as full time Project Manager Timeline • October 2013 – Funding request was accepted and endorsed by University Council • November 2013 – January 2014 – Project Group formed • 8 core teams represented – Negotiation with key suppliers • Microsoft: Windows VDA Licensing, Office 365 Licensing, RDS and App-V (MDOP) Licensing • Citrix: 3 year Licensing model and Technical Resource Manager (TRM) support – RFP Timeline • March 2014 – June 2014 – Completed RFP for hardware • Compute • Storage – Application\Software rationalisation • 400 down to 80 – Update to XenDesktop 7.5 • Redesign strategy – Hardware delivery Timeline • June 2014 – September 2014 – Commence end state build • Cisco UCS stand up and integration • EMC XtremIO storage integration • CITRIX XenDesktop 7.5 install and configure – Migration of applications into App-V • Vendors contacted – FAQs developed • RMIT • September 2014 – Build complete – Load and scalability testing (test, balance, adjust) – Training – 1st Level Support hand over Where We’re Going • September 2014 – October 2014 – Launch • Students’ own devices • ‘Non Teaching’ areas – Libraries, eStops and Residential Colleges • Semester 1 2015 – Full advertising campaign • OUSA, SIT, printed publications, posters, screen savers, … – Complete roll out to all computer rooms • Teaching staff to update course materials By the Numbers • 48 physical blades – Cisco • 4 dedicated high specification rack mounted graphic servers – 3D rendering: ArcGIS • EMC XtremIO Solid State Storage – 300 micro second latency • Original scope was to support 3,000 users – 2 x data centres – closer to 6,000 • Current system login time 3 to 10 minutes – New system less than 20 seconds • Delivery – XenDesktop virtual desktop – XenApp hosted shared desktop – App-V streaming applications Successes / Lessons Learnt • Create team culture - include internal and externals where everyone has a voice and everyone is excited • Talk with your partners early and get them involved as part of the team • Utilise the skills and input of any students you have on staff (who better to help with the design than those using it?) Successes / Lessons Learnt • Difficult to build new desktop environment at the same time the University is implementing a brand new network • Present the business case in a way that is meaningful to the audience • Communicate, communicate, communicate and if you think you might have communicated enough, communicate again What Next? • Storefront • Staff Desktop • Offer choice of OS (Win 7, 8.1, 9?) • Applications for mobile devices • Reduce hardware footprint • Repurpose and redesign study areas Thank You Questions email Phone emerson.pratt@otago.ac.nz +64 3 479 8391 shaun.taylor@otago.ac.nz +64 3 479 4679 Twitter Facebook @OtagoeLearning http://www.facebook.com/emerson.pratt @EmersonNZ Coffee Teaching and Learning Facilities 51 Clyde St University of Otago.