Cloud UW 07 October 2008 Terry Gray Associate Vice President, University Technology Strategy & Chief Technology Architect University of Washington
Objective Background Trends UW activities UW needs MS Challenges Discussion topics
What do we expect to see when we look into the clouds? Presentation Objective: A UW Perspective
$3.7 Billion budget (12% State) 45,000 students 28,000 fac/staff 395,000 managed identities 130,000 devices on network 32,000 phones 15,000,000 homes with UWTV 60 TB/day on network messages: 1,500,000,000 (83% spam) Operations: 18,000 tickets Client Services: 110,000 contacts Security: 150,000 s UW by the numbers (2007)
Key Challenges for Central IT at UW Budget issues Political & cultural shifts (central → decentral) Technology shifts... e.g. Cloud Computing
The rise of utility computing
CC Quote #1 “It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign.” “Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true." Richard Stallman 29 Sep 08 UK Guardian
CC Quote #2 “The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do.” Larry Ellison 25 Sep 08 Wall Street Journal
CC Quote #3 "When people talk about cloud computing, they're talking just about taking some stuff, putting it outside the firewall, and perhaps putting it on servers that are also shared or storage systems." Steve Ballmer 25 Sep Churchill Club (InternetNews)
So... Cloud Computing: Hot or Not? Nick Carr Richard Stallman Larry Ellison
WWDC "We're taking everything we do at the server level and saying we will have a service that mirrors that exactly. It's getting us to think about data centers at a scale that we haven't thought of before... [to create] a mega-data center that Microsoft and only a few others will have." -Bill Gates, quoted in NY Times 3 June 2008
MS Prognosis "We believe that by 2010, at least 25 percent of our Office users will be using some kind of [online] service provided by Microsoft" Eron Kelly, Microsoft director of product management, 2008
What is Cloud Computing? ”Like having your dinner delivered” SaaS: Software as a Service PaaS: Platform as a Service Not "outsourcing the IT dept"... But includes hosted svcs that overlap current central svcs Not highly-negotiated custom contract services General model: low cost via scale and tech & contract standardization (apts vs. cust. houses) Full circle: M ainframe → Mini → PC → "Cloudframe" cf. Service Bureaus and Value-Added-Networks
Different Cloud Computing Layers (Example players) Application Service (SaaS) Application Platform Server Platform Storage Platform Amazon S3, Dell, Apple,... 3Tera, EC2, SliceHost, GoGrid, RightScale, Linode Google App Engine, Mosso, Force.com, Engine Yard, Facebook, Heroku, AWS MS Live/ExchangeLabs, IBM, Google Apps; Salesforce.com Quicken Online, Zoho, Cisco
CC Attractions Cost Flexibility; rapid scalability and de-scalability Data replication; geo-diversity Easier cross-institution collaboration Any {time, place, device} access via web browser Alternative if dept'l or central IT non-responsive This is where our students/fac/staff will be! Priorities: no need to focus on commodity IT Future of computing, esp. eScience
CC Concerns Loss of control (cf. central/decentral debate) Integration: enterprise & federated auth; SSO Interop: with key enterprise apps (esp cal) Accessibility and UI limitations of web apps Reliability, performance, security; offline access Features; changes; vendor lock-in Policy/compliance concerns (privacy, eDiscov.) Breach forensics and mitigation Business “surprises”; Support; More Logins Consequences of “Creative Destruction”
Why use cloud-computing? Scalability: Handling load peaks (EC2 instances for a new facebook app)
Why not use cloud-computing? Ooops...
Why some enterprises are not interested in SaaS Forrester Research study: 66% Integration issues 61% Total cost of ownership concerns 55% Lack of customization 50% Security concerns 42% "We can't find the specific app. we need" 39% Complicated pricing models 39% Application performance 34% "We're locked in with our current vendor"
Sweet Spot? Accepted wisdom: Small – Medium Business PaaS especially attractive for Start-Ups BUT: large research universities can be thought of as federations of hundreds of independent businesses... STILL: Higher-Ed is split over CC use Datacenter issues will drive eScience choices Large businesses are just starting to embrace e.g. GE's 400K seat Zoho deal
Cloud Computing Applicability Will grow over time Extreme Computing Mundane Computing Cloud Dedicated Mundane Computing Cloud Dedicated 2008 Extreme Computing Mundane Computing Cloud Dedicated Mundane Computing Cloud Dedicated 2012
UW Is Already Using CC More than half our students already forward their outside UW Approx 700 sign-ups for Google Team Edition Significant use of MS Live & Google Docs Departments using SaaS, e.g. Blackboard Departments using PaaS, e.g. EC2/S3 Facebook!!! UW focus: productivity tools, not enterprise apps
Current UW Cloud Activities Individual (e.g. MS Live, Google docs, Gmail...) Departmental (e.g. gCal, Blackboard, EC2/S3) Central Policy/guideline framework Alumni via MS ExchangeLabs Google Apps discussion Broader MS apps discussion Investigating hosted exchange/sharepoint options Goal: enable individual & dept'l use with better compliance
Things We Need from the Cloud All the usual (e.g. reliability, perf, security, cost) Serious business partners (e.g. security, SLAs) Flexibility, choice Interoperability
Key: Interoperability Across cloud silos Across desk/mobile platforms Across institutions With enterprise IAM With stds-based thick clients Poster-child: Calendaring Beware the famous “Microsoft Myopia”... The cloud is different
Interoperability Model Cloud Provider B Cloud Provider A Microsoft Thick Client Non-MS Thick Client Generic Web (thin) Client Open Protocols HTTP Proprietary Protocols Enterprise IAM Server
Contract Concerns CISO – Security – Ability to do forensics after a compromise – Liability transfer Attorney General – Compliance, especially eDiscovery – Also ITAR, HIPAA, FERPA, etc – Indemnification
Microsoft's Challenge Software-and-Service theme: – Innovator's Dilemma: new cannibalizes old – How to preserve cash cow while embracing cloud? – Natural focus on traditional base Will focus on base undermine larger opportunity? We in central IT empathize with this challenge!! Key to broader success: interoperability standards
Discussion Topics How committed is Microsoft to interoperability? Web-based ads vs. thick clients Goal of broad contracts w/cloud providers Does a contract increase or decrease risk? Consequences of no institutional contract? Geographic issues: PRA/FOIA, Patriot Act, etc Health care opportunity; HIPAA Policy/guidelines for using cloud services... Relationship to data security standard?
Any Questions?