IT Innovations on a Church Budget

Innovations on a Budget Joe Luedtke Liturgical Publications Inc JLuedtke@4LPi.com @cathtechtalk

• Introduction• The Pace of Technology Change• Trends in Technology• The Infrastructure Needs of a ―Typical‖ Church• Innovations on a Budget—from the Ground Up • Network and Network Monitoring • Server and Workstation Infrastructure • Applications • Websites, Apps, and Social Media • Collaboration Tools• The Wrap-up

Why is a ChurchBulletin Company talking about technology?

Innovation & BudgetsAre not mutuallyexclusive ideals!

Pace of Technology Change

Technology Change and the Pace of Change• I love hindsight; I just don’t get it early enough• Working in the church, we do, however, have the benefit of hindsight• Techies within the church often lament that we’re slow to adopt technology• Take the glass half-full few… we’re deliberate, thoughtful, and efficient in how we do it!

Technology Changes that Are Impacting the Church• Innovations we are leveraging• Innovations we should be leveraging• Innovations being inflicted upon us

Innovations that You See?

Corporate CIOs 2010 Top Priorities• Consolidate IT infrastructure• Significantly upgrade DR and Business Continuity• Expand use of mobile for employees and customers• Significantly upgrade security• Implement and expand use of collaborative capabilities

Typical Church Infrastructure

Survey of 4,000 Catholic ChurchesOperating System % Observations:Windows 7 19% • Churches aren’t as successfulWindows Vista 12% as corporations in enforcingWindows XP 53% standards • Macs are on the rise inWindows 2000 7% churches and will continue toWindows 98/ME < 1% grow • The Windows 7 lag inWindows 95 1% churches probably means anMACs 7% acceleration of Windows 8 when releasedLinux < 1%

Technology Needs• Internet Access – Firewalls Commodities – Sufficient bandwidth – Secure and safe access for staff and parishioners• File and Print services• Backups and Disaster Recovery• Business Applications (Finance, CMS, School ERP)• Website and Social Media Sites

Technology Challenges• Mishmash of old hardware and software• PC and LAN support capabilities vary dramatically church by church• Security issues are increasing – Religious … sites were found to have triple the average # of [virus / malware] threats than adult/pornographic sites. —Symantec, April 2012• Data privacy is becoming increasingly important• Network capabilities are not prepared for growth

Network and Security Innovations on a Budget• Separate Wireless for Staff and Parishioners • Lock down staff access • Segment and limit guest access• Leverage Cloud-based Network Services for Simple Security and Malware Protection • OpenDNS—$1250/yr • Dyn.com—$30/month • SpamHero – Spam filtering for $5/month for 100,000 e-mail messages

• Open source tool with a freemium model• Nagios XI premium verison is free for 7 or less nodes• Robust network monitoring• Event monitoring• Batch monitoring with a little effort

Network and Security Innovations on a Budget• OpenVPN—Open Source VPN Solution• Proxy Server • Squid Proxy is my personal favorite, squid-cache.org/ • Reduces bandwidth plus some content control and reporting• Drive Encryption • BitLocker—comes with Windows 7 Ultimate or Software Assurance Subscription • Starting with OS X 10.7—Full Disk Encryption now available

Hardware Innovations on a Budget• Virtualization • Start with server virtualization and then evaluate workstation virtualization • VMWare Vsphere Hypervisor (ESXi) • Free for 32 Gig of memory or less • Benefits: • Abstracts the servers from the hardware • Move servers to solve hardware and capacity issues • Introduces simple backup and recovery solutions

Hardware Innovations on a Budget Case Study at Liturgical Publications• LPi’s server infrastructure was 48 physical servers in 2009• We’re at 18 now• Each of our print facilities had between 12 and 15 physical servers. Now, they’re going down to 2 • Each server runs at less than 50% capacity • VCB Backups copied to the other server nightly • No hardware maintenance • LOM / iLO / ipmi

Hardware Innovations on a Budget Case Study at Liturgical Publications• Old workstations make great dumb terminals • Reuse donated or old equipment while creating at least OS-level standards • Remove the hard drives, Optical drive, and fans and you have a dumb terminal • Remote access, remote updates not available on the VMWare server • Lowers support cost and centralizes administration• Augment VMWare with remote desktop solutions: • I love Citrix, but it’s expensive • Openthinclient.org with VMWare Vsphere is a free alternative

Hardware Innovations on a Budget• Cloud-based Backup Solutions • Dropbox • Mozy• Disk-based Backup Systems • Disk mirroring • Disk-to-disk backups with physical swapping

• Benefits • Access your data anytime and anywhere • Syncs your files to all your devices • Backs up your files to the Web• Costs: • Free for < 2 Gig of data • 100 Gig is $99 / year • Team Dropbox starts at $795/year

Cloud-based Computing• Removes infrastructure support, OS support, application upgrades• Anywhere, anytime access• Pay-as-you-go and pay-as-you-grow service• Browser-based, does not require anything but a Web browser to run. Should be mobile enabled• No upgrades to perform. You’re always on the latest version• Backup and Disaster Recovery become the vendor’s responsibility

Application Innovations on a Budget Software as a Service (SAAS)• E-mail is a core communication requirement that many churches have not yet addressed• Churches should not: – Have their staff use their personal e-mail addresses – Try to implement their own e-mail server• Churches should: – Leverage readily available cloud-based e-mail services • Gmail—Free via Google Apps for Non-profits • Office 365—$4/user/month – Leverage diocese e-mail services if they’re available – If not using a cloud-based email, look at outsourcing SMTP services to companies like SendGrid

Application Innovations on a Budget E-mail Newsletters• E-mail Marketing Programs make an rich HTML e- mail and e-mail list management simple• MailChimp is my favorite as it’s free for lists under 2,000• VerticalResponse and Constant Contact are good, cost-effective alternatives

Church Management Systems are Moving to the Cloud• They’re just starting to move to the Cloud• Marketing hyperbole—CMS’s that claim they’re in the Cloud by offering Terminal Services or Citrix-based solutions• ParishSoft is potentially the only Catholic- focused CMS that currently offers a Cloud- based solution

Application Innovations on a Budget WebsitesWebsites:• Are you really still hosting your own website?• Remember it’s not an IT Development Project it’s an ongoing Content Management responsibility.• For the ―average‖ church, don’t build your own. Leverage one of these providers: http://catholictechtalk.com/website-builders/.

Application Innovations on a Budget Collaboration ToolsParishioner Engagement:• Yes, you should have a Facebook Page, but for marketing your diocese or church• Look to parishioner engagement-focused systems like LPi’s WeGather (free) or FlockNote ($13–$100/month) for more• Online Giving – What does your diocese recommend?

Application Innovations on a Budget Collaboration ToolsCollaboration Tools:• Diocese Video Conferencing—great idea, but start with Google+ Hangouts first• Getting the budget for a good video conferencing system is easy compared to changing your culture to use it• For IT Projects, check out Redmine.org• Extend this group here – Where do you all connect and share information online? – Any plans for CTMag discussion forums?

The Wrap-up• Open Source, SAAS, and Cloud Computing bear serious investigations in many areas• Don’t be an ―early adopter.‖ Strive only for silver or bronze• Remember software is sold not purchased. Do your homework before making a buying decision• Leverage hindsight by looking at what corporations and other non-profits have already done• Share with each other. You have a strong community here. Figure out how to connect online; not just connect once per year

Thank You! Joe Luedtke Vice President, Liturgical Publications Inc JLuedtke@4LPi.com @cathtechtalk

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IT Innovations on a Church Budget

by Liturgical Publications on Aug 02, 2012

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