1. CommCare Hosting Options

2. Three Hosting Options for CommCare
Managed Cloud
Fully managed environment by Dimagi, hosted in one of our cloud locations
Managed
Local Server
Local environment partially managed by Dimagi in a local provider
Unmanaged
Local Server
Local environment not managed by Dimagi in a local provider

3. Considerations for Hosting Options
All of the components of the system must be considered:
Data Center
Hardware
Operating System
Software
Others
Key factors of each component must be taken into account:
Performance
Scalability
Support
Upgradability
Data Security and Sovereignty
Complexity
Cost

4. Considering Different Components of the Environment
Data Center
Where will you host your server? Will it be easy to scale, upgrade? Will it meet your data security and sovereignty needs? Will you have expert support? What will the cost be?
Server Hardware
What hardware do you need? Will the system be performant? Will it be easy to scale and upgrade? How complex will it be? Will it meet your data security/sovereignty needs? Will you have expert support? Cost?
Operating System
How will you install and maintain your operating system? Will it be easy to upgrade? Will you have expert support?
Software
How will you install and maintain the software? Will it be easy to upgrade? Will you have expert support?
Others
Will you need to consider adding things such as an SMS Gateway? Will you have someone to manage the whole system? What do you need to consider in terms of back-ups and disaster recovery?

5. Hosting Options Managed Unsupported Cloud Local Server Description
Requires no client management and servers are hosted at Commercial Hosting Providers as selected and managed by Dimagi
Servers are located in country at local data centers
Access to Dimagi’s Product Support Team
Dimagi-managed server infrastructure
Similar to the in country managed servers, however software is supported by a 3rd party
Set up and maintenance efforts will highly depend on the skill and availability of the managing 3rd party
Components of the system the client needs to consider
None, system fully managed by Dimagi
Data Center, Hardware, OS, Other
Whole system: Data Center, Hardware, OS, Other

6. Detailed Breakdown of Options
Managed
Cloud
Local Server
Unsupported
Data Center
Managed by: Dimagi’s Commercial Hosting Providers
Managed by: Commercial Hosting Provider or by an Organization (MOH, NGO)
See details in later slide
Hardware Infrastructure
Tasks Involved:
Set-up
Updates and maintenance
Scaling
Scaling (purchase new equipment)
Operating System
Managed by: Dimagi / Commercial Hosting Provider
Managed by: Third Party
Tasks involved:
Maintaining updates
Set Up
Software
Managed by: Dimagi
Managed by: Client IT and Dimagi
Bug fixes and new features
Testing on a separate server prior to live updates
Daily updates to the software
Support software issues
Dimagi can set up the software for a fee
Weekly updates to the software
Taking Dimagi’s code from open source to update to software
Support for software also by third party
Requires additional testing environment

7. Managed Cloud and Support Options for Dimagi’s Products
Custom / In-country Data / Higher Cost Per User
Mature / Easier deployment / Economies of Scale
Managed
Cloud
Local Server
Unmanaged
Performance
+++ Speed
+++ Reliability
+++ Value at scale
++ Speed
+ Reliability
++ Value at scale
N/A Speed
N/A Reliability
N/A Value at scale
Scalability
+++ Scalability
++ Scalability
N/A Scalability
Product Support
Dimagi Support for Software-level issues
New 3rd party support team
Infrastructure Management
Cloud Infrastructure fully managed by Dimagi
Server Infrastructure fully managed by Local Vendor
New 3rd party infrastructure team
Upgradability
Included & provided by Dimagi
Data Security and Sovereignty
Hosted in a fully audited and secured data center in the US or India
Hosted in a local data center
Complexity
Turnkey
Leverage Existing SMS Gateways
Significant initial effort
Requires dedicated SMS Gateways
Cost
$ Per user Cost
Fully economies of Scale
$$ Per user Cost
Partial economies of scale
$$$ Per user Cost
No economies of Scale

8. Summary of Managed Cloud and Support Options for Dimagi Products
Local Server
Unsupported
Summary
Significant investment in performance and reliability at low cost
High-availability environment, along with test and staging environments
Completely managed by Dimagi
Ability to invest in performance, scalability, and reliability is less
Dimagi can provide product and infrastructure support at a separate cost
This is typically less cost effective as Dimagi has significant tooling & automation to support management of our software layers
Cost Detail
Only cloud subscription fees,
Cost of Data Center Hosting
Cost of Hardware
Cost for Dimagi to set up software (
Cost for Dimagi to do data migration
Remote Server Support Costs
Subscription Maximum number of users depends on the hardware selected.
Support – Variable, depends on the skill of the IT system administrator and if software is updated
Most expensive option over the long term.

9. Technical considerations

10. Data Center Requirements and Considerations
In order to ensure performance, security and reliability of CommCareHQ, Dimagi partners with the best available data centers
Suggestions for requirements of a data center are mirrored from what Dimagi expects and attains with our partners

11. Data Center: Certification, Security, and Power
Area
Attributes
Certification
ISO 27001, SOC1, SOC2 and SOC3 compliant
Physical Security
Keycard protocols, biometric scanning protocols, and around-the-clock interior and exterior surveillance
Access limited to authorized data center personnel—no one can enter the production area without prior clearance and appropriate escort
Every data center employee undergoes thorough background security checks
Conditioned Power
UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for all servers
N+1 redundant UPS power subsystem, with instantaneous failover if the primary UPS fails
If an extended utility power outage occurs, our routinely tested, onsite diesel generators can run indefinitely

12. Data Center: Precision Environment and Network
Area
Attributes
Precision Environment
N+1 redundant HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system ensures a duplicate system immediately comes online in the event of an HVAC system failure
Every 90 seconds, all air is circulated and filtered to remove dust and contaminants
Advanced fire suppression systems
Network
Always high-performance bandwidth
Multiple network providers for redundancy
Fiber carriers enter at disparate points to guard against failure
Fully redundant, enterprise-class routing equipment only
Configuration developed to guard against single points of failure at the shared network level
Network topology and configuration automatically improves in real time
Network monitoring for security
Network and security teams must be certified and thoroughly experienced in managing and monitoring enterprise-level networks

13. Hardware Requirements and Considerations
The hardware itself will be dependent upon the expected usage of the system and recommendations will be based upon the expected number of users and data volume 
As a rough guideline: for every 10 users, assuming that 10 forms are submitted per user per day, we recommend planning for approximately 0.3GHz of a core processing power, 0.6GB of memory and 5GB of hard drive space (Please contact Dimagi for more guidance)

14. Hardware Requirements and Considerations
The hardware also needs to be maintained and set-up by a local server management team. The following things also need to be considered for this team:
Available to support hardware and network related issues
Can perform offsite local backups and recovery
Can set-up and procure network and firewall

15. Hardware and Software Requirements and Considerations
The platform consists of the following roles. Each role can be run on a single server or distributed across a number of servers depending on the performance and cost requirements:
Web Proxy Server
Web Application Server
noSQL database (CouchDB)
SQL database (PostgreSQL)
Messaging queue (RabbitMQ)
Asynchronous task processor (Celery)
ETL process server
Cache server (Redis)
Search index (Elasticsearch)

16. Operating System Requirements
CommCareHQ is fully tested and supported to run on Ubuntu and our current recommended version is 14.01
A local server management team needs to be responsible for installation and updates of the operating system