Northwestern University Information Technology System Management Issues for the Future Real-Time University Environment Tom Board September 22, 2004 Northwestern University Information Technology

A real-time enterprise is too complex to manage with our current methods. To keep users productive, to avoid security breaches, and to meet overall expectations we need new approaches and tools. About the “Real-Time Enterprise” Application availability Information integrity Transaction transparency Thesis:

Northwestern University Information Technology About System Management Goal: User productivity Measured by: –Predictable and reliable transactions –Confident security of all information assets –Minimal application downtime While enabling: –Efficient operations –Effective application of resources

Northwestern University Information Technology Item: Transaction Transparency For a single user transaction, all expected secondary transactions between systems take place without intervention “Real-time” means the time it takes for the user to move between systems that are affected by the transactions

Northwestern University Information Technology Transaction Transparency

Northwestern University Information Technology How: Service-Oriented Architecture Virtual application integration “Structured application architecture” defines services and eases maintenance

Northwestern University Information Technology Item: Information Integrity Authoritative information is current Current information can be accessed in real-time (what is the fund balance?) Consistent data item semantics Data capture is reliable and audited Business Continuity requirements call for frequent restore points –Can we lose one (day’s, hour’s) transactions?

Northwestern University Information Technology Threats to Information Integrity & Security Lack of security awareness Poor software configurations Exploitation threats Compromised identities Poor Business Continuity practices –Information sensitivity –Legal requirements –Opportunity risks –Open file permissions –Open preset accounts –Weak or non-existent passwords –Unpatched software –Unlocked file cabinets –Social vulnerabilities –Post-It™ password reminders –Auto-login settings –Shared NetIDs –No information backup process –No off-site backups –Too infrequent backups

Northwestern University Information Technology Answers to Information Integrity Threats Lack of security awareness – education; newsletters; required quiz before access Poor software configurations – desktop scanning; controlled intrusion attempts Exploitation threats – education; auto scanning of ; desktop scanning Compromised identities – common identity and reduced sign-on; two-factor methods Poor Business Continuity practices – education; audit reports; table-top drills

Northwestern University Information Technology Item: Application Availability Most important: user-perceived availability –Up-time –Response time Service provider availability –Up-time outside of maintenance windows –Response time –Simultaneous sessions Transaction transparency makes any service only as reliable as the weakest link

Northwestern University Information Technology Measuring Availability Users want:99%= 87 hours down/year = 15 minutes/day Provider (6hr maint. / week (312 hrs/yr): 99% = 85 hours down/year = 14 minutes/day = 95% to user Provider: 15 down hrs/year = 99.8% User: 15 down hrs / year = 99.9%

Northwestern University Information Technology Availability is Measured End-to-End We must measure availability, performance, response time, etc., end-to-end. –This quantifies perceived experience –Requires monitoring the complete application path Transaction measurements and trends are more important than volume metrics –Instead of how many – what was the wait? –Instead of worst response time – distribution and trend of response times

Northwestern University Information Technology Threats to Application Availability Physical Malicious code Denial-of-Service Poor software quality assurance Poor capacity planning If an application is available this hour, then what must we do to ensure that it is available next hour?

Northwestern University Information Technology Threats to Application Availability

Northwestern University Information Technology Capacity - Monitoring is Crucial Time Response Time or Transaction Time SLA goal Perceived Take corrective action? What is the interval?

Northwestern University Information Technology Dealing with Peak Demands Time SLA Actual Demand Idle Capacity Excess Capacity Static provisioning for peak demand leaves resources idle. Conservative estimates create excess capacity. Both contribute to increased costs. Transactions / unit

Northwestern University Information Technology Dynamic Provisioning End-to-End Measurement

Northwestern University Information Technology Using Dynamic Provisioning Idle Capacity Dynamic provisioning for peak demand reduces idle capacity and eliminates over capacity. Result: cost savings. Allocated pool capacity Time SLA Actual Demand Transactions / unit

Northwestern University Information Technology Answers to Availability Threats Physical – redundancy and diversity Malicious code – vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection Denial-of-Service – session behavior modeling Poor software quality assurance – new development methods and regression testing Poor capacity planning – load testing, monitoring and dynamic provisioning

Northwestern University Information Technology Work In Progress Continuing requests for load testing and regression testing software ITCS is experimenting with dynamic provisioning and end-to-end monitoring software Dormitory scanning software is under study for possible wider deployment ADC working on data access policies and role-based security frameworks Identity management system replacement

Northwestern University Information Technology Summary The University will become a real-time enterprise under a Service Oriented Architecture Information integrity and real-time access are vital to support distributed business processes User productivity will be dependent upon many inter-operating systems – a single degraded service will affect processes throughout the University

Northwestern University Information Technology Summary (con’t) We need increased security awareness and systems to automatically detect and remediate threats – the network must defend itself This new environment will overwhelm “seat of the pants” monitoring or uncoordinated approaches End-to-end monitoring, dynamic provisioning, software authoring tools, and move-to- production testing tools are necessary for NUIT to be both proactive and efficient

Northwestern University Information Technology Questions?