This document discusses the potential benefits and opportunities for libraries in adopting cloud computing models and shared infrastructure. Some key points: - Cloud computing can help libraries reduce costs by eliminating hardware expenses and allowing subscription-based access to software and resources. It also enables libraries to reallocate staff time. - Shared, multi-tenant systems hosted in the cloud allow libraries to break out of individual silos and engage in large-scale, cooperative systems with greater impact and efficiencies. - Examples of successful library collaborations utilizing shared infrastructure in the cloud include the Orbis Cascade Alliance, South Australia Public Library Network, and BIBSYS in Norway.

1. Libraries in the Cloud
Marshall Breeding
Independent Consultant, Author,
Founder and Publisher, Library Technology
Guides
http://www.librarytechnology.org/
http://twitter.com/mbreeding
February 19, 2015 Future Tech Strategies for Libraries

2. Cloud Computing for Libraries
 Volume 11 in The
Tech Set
 Published by Neal-
Schuman / ALA
TechSource
 ISBN:
781555707859
 http://www.neal-
schuman.com/ccl
Book Image Publication Info:

3. Local Computing
 Traditional model
 Locally owned and managed
 Shifting from departmental to enterprise
 Departmental servers co-located in central IT
data centers
 Increasingly virtualized

4. Fundamental technology shift
 Mainframe computing
 Client/Server
 Web-based and Cloud Computing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrick/61952845/
http://soacloudcomputing.blogspot.com/2008/10/cloud-computing.html
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2001/jw-1019-jxta.html

5. Cloud Computing
 Major trend in Information Technology
 Term “in the cloud” has devolved into
marketing hype, but cloud computing in the
form of multi-tenant software as a service
offers libraries opportunities to break out of
individual silos of automation and engage in
widely shared cooperative systems
 Opportunities for libraries to leverage their
combined efforts into large-scale systems with
more end-user impact and organizational
efficiencies

6. Cloud computing –
characteristics
 Web-based Interfaces
 Externally hosted
 Pricing: subscription or utility
 Highly abstracted computing model
 Provisioned on demand
 Scaled according to variable needs
 Elastic – consumption of resources can
contract and expand according to demand

7. ASP / Server Hosting / Co-
location
 Vendor hosting of server associated with
single-instance system
 Each instance separately installed and
configured
 Often deployed on virtualized servers
 Client/server systems may require installation
of client software on staff workstations

8. Multi-tenant SaaS
 One Instance serves all users of the service
(institutional or Individual)
 Supports institutional or individual partitioning
of functionality
 Supports shared data access as needed
 Fixes and features deployed once for all users
 Web-based interfaces, no workstation clients

9. Benefits of Cloud Computing
 Elimination of capital
expenses for
equipment
 Lower annual costs
 Redeployment of
technical staff to
more meaningful
activities
 Higher revenues
relative to software-
only arrangements
 Provision of
infrastructure at scale
with lower unit costs
 Longer-term
relationships with
customers
Libraries Providers / Vendors

10. Cost implications
 Total cost of ownership
 Do all cost components result in increased or
decreased expense
 Personnel costs – need less technical administration
 Hardware – server hardware eliminated
 Software costs: subscription, license,
maintenance/support
 Indirect costs: energy costs associated with power
and cooling of servers in data center
 IaaS: balance elimination of hardware
investments for ongoing usage fees
 Especially attractive for development and prototyping

11. Budget Allocations
 Server Purchase
 Server Maintenance
 Application software
license
 Data Center
overhead
 Energy costs
 Facility costs
 Annual Subscription
 Measured Service?
 Fixed fees
 Factors
 Hosting
 Software Licenses
 Optional modules
Local Computing Cloud Computing

12. Risks and concerns
 Privacy of data
 Policies, regulations, jurisdictions
 Ownership of data
 Avoid vendor lock-in
 Integrity of Data
 Backups and disaster recovery

13. Caveats and concerns with
SaaS
 Libraries must have adequate bandwidth to
support access to remote applications without
latency
 Quality of service agreements that guarantee
performance and reliability factors
 Configurability and customizability limitations
 Access to API’s
 Ability to interoperate with 3rd party
applications
 Eg: Connect SaaS ILS with discovery product
from another vendor

14. Security issues
 Most providers implement stronger safeguards
beyond the capacity of local institutions
 Virtual instances equally susceptible to poor
security practices as local computing

15. Data as a service
 SaaS provides opportunity for highly shared data
models
 Bibliographic knowledgebase: one globally shared
copy that serves all libraries
 Discovery indexes: article and object-level index
for resource discovery
 E-resource knowledge bases: shared authoritative
repository of e-journal holdings
 General opportunity to move away from library-by-
library metadata management to globally shared
workflows

16. More than a technical transition
 Transforming infrastructure
 Transform resources
 Working toward shared infrastructure
 Identify areas where libraries can collaborate to share
resources
 Infrastructure transformation
 Bandwidth
 Shared services
 Refocus development from stand-alone applications to
platforms
 Platform development
 APIs that allow individual libraries or campuses to
consume content or services according to local needs

17. Leveraging the Cloud
 Moving legacy systems to hosted services
provides some savings to individual institutions
but does not result in dramatic transformation
 Globally shared data and metadata models
have the potential to achieve new levels of
operational efficiencies and more powerful
discovery and automation scenarios that
improve the position of libraries overall.

18. Move up the technology stack
 Infrastructure
 General support
 Library-specific support
 Utility programming
 Application programming
 Strategic technology planning
 Creative innovation

19. SaaS: New financial model
A software-as-a-service
(SaaS) economy model trades
higher upfront costs, incurred
by libraries for equipment and
software licenses, for a
comprehensive annual
subscription fee.

20. SaaS: Efficient model of computing
 Leveraging economies of scale,
SaaS providers have the potential
to enable savings for libraries
over time compared with direct
and indirect costs of maintaining
local servers and related
infrastructure.

21. Saas: Library Adoption
 Newer products … come only via
SaaS. Even for server-based
integrated library systems,
libraries increasingly opt for
hosted options as they acquire
new products, instead of
replacing outdated equipment
underlying existing installations.

22. Support for Collaborative
Infrastructure

23. Large-scale Implementations
 Scale of any given project is no longer limited
 Multi-tenant systems are already supporting
very large numbers of sites
 Shared implementation does not necessarily
require more resources than separate ones

24. Benefits of shared infrastructure
 Increased cooperation and resource sharing
 Collaborative collection management
 Lower costs per institution
 Greater universe of content readily available to
patrons
 Avoid add-on components for union catalog
and resource requests and routing

25. Orbis Cascade Alliance
 37 Academic Libraries
 Combined enrollment of 258,000
 9 million titles
 1997: implemented dual INN-Reach systems
 Orbis and Cascade consortia merged in 2003
 Moved from INN-Reach to OCLC Navigator /
VDX in 2008
 Current strategy to move to shared LMS based
on Ex Libris Alma

26. South Australia
SA Public Library Networ
140 Public Libraries

27. Northern Ireland
 Recently consolidated from 4 regional
networks into one
 96 branch libraries
 18 mobile libraries
 Collections managed through single Axiell
OpenGalaxy LMS
http://www.ni-libraries.net/

28. Norway: BIBSYS
 Provides automation services for:
 National Library of Norway
 105 Academic and Special Libraries
 History of local system development
 Originally selected WorldShare Platform for
new generation system development (Nov
2010) and later withdrew (Oct 2012)
 Primo implemented for Discovery (May 2013)
 Alma selected for new shared infrastructure
(Jan 2014)

29. WHELF
Wales Higher Education Libraries
Forum
Institution Prior ILS Bib Records
Aberystwyth University Voyager 677,846
Bangor & Glyndwr University Sierra 591,673
Cardiff University & Welsh National Health
Service
Voyager 856,381
Cardiff Metropolitan University Alto 269,965
National Library of Wales Virtua 6,643,696
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Voyager 53,544
Swansea University Voyager 738,399
University of South Wales Symphony 365,602
University of Wales Trinity St. David Horizon 637,326

30. Orbis Cascade Alliance
Orbis Cascade Alliance
Campus Libraries 37
Aggregated Enrollment 258,000
Total Titles 9 million
Total Items 28 million

31. California State University
Institution Titles Volumes Circulation Staff FTE
Bakersfield 473,134 637,606 15,714 25
Channel Islands 100,433 255,594 24
Chico 850,000 1,265,907 32,182 59
Dominguez Hills 628,193 637,064 8,456 38
East Bay 944,415 1,139,057 33,491 43
Fresno 1,928,624 1,345,398 208,491 78
Fullerton 1,153,714 1,256,867 61,486 74
Humboldt 692,017 807,101 30,300 31
Long Beach 1,198,788 3,073,252 147,461 68
Los Angeles 926,498 983,229 35,665 48
Maritime Academy 42,854 154,820 5,439 8
Monterey Bay 277,228 333,982 27,768 16
Northridge 1,575,695 2,170,589 130,322 138
Pomona 776,251 1,058,236 43,514 48
Sacramento 1,189,093 1,415,562 98,675 66
San Bernardino 935,366 868,453 29,001 90
San Diego 2,340,641 2,513,984 46,402 106
San Francisco 1,524,464 1,677,437 89,161 89
San Jose 1,505,676 1,441,279 94,745 88
San Luis Obispo 805,508 724,531 38,895 62
San Marcos 441,812 538,203 17,071 47
Sonoma 506,040 585,082 191,187 34
Stanislaus 344,311 513,565 31,611 27
Total 21,160,755 25,396,798 1,417,037 1,307

32. University of California
University of California
Campus Libraries 10
Aggregated
Enrollment
238,686
Total Titles 38 million
Total Items 45 million
The University of California system is in an earlier stage of
consideration regarding the possibility of a shared resource
management system. .

33. Denmark