This document discusses how moving computing infrastructure and services to the cloud can save costs and improve quality for further education colleges. It begins by defining cloud computing and outlines the traditional costs of owning on-premise IT hardware and software versus renting configurable computing resources from the cloud. The document uses the example of moving from an on-premise student email server to Microsoft Outlook.com to illustrate how cloud computing reduced costs by thousands of pounds per year while improving features and reliability. It acknowledges risks around data security, legal compliance, and vendor reliability but argues that the opportunities for expenditure management, innovation, and focusing on core educational activities outweigh these concerns. The conclusion is that for most colleges, computing is now effectively a utility and spending

1. Microsoft Briefing for FE Principals and Policymakers 2011
COST SAVING ( AND QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT!) WITH IT IN THE CLOUD.
Robin Gadd
Head of Information and Systems Development

2.  Midsize Tertiary FE College
 Central southern England in SE Region (just)
 New Forest National Park – semi-rural, wide
(international) catchment
We do education and training outstandingly well
 c.11,000 learners per annum, 14-104 years
We’re not an IT service provider
old, pre-entry to foundationthis outstandingly well pre-
(although we try hard to do degree level, and a too!)
school nursery
 c.200 key employers (mainly SMEs)
 Beacon College since 2004
 Technology Exemplar Provider since 2008

3. MY CASE STUDY…
 A brief guide to Cloud Computing for Principals and
Policymakers – demystification!
 Explain what we’ve been doing at Brock, and why
 Outline the perceived costs and the benefits
 Contextualise in the “shared services” agenda
 Highlight some things to think about
So that we…
 Can think some more about how cloud computing
fits in FE sector IT Strategies going forward

4. EVER READ THESE?
“All those government bodies likely to
procure ICT services should look to do
so on a scaleable, cloud basis” (Digital
Britain, p213)

5. TECHNOLOGY HYPE CYCLE 2010 (GARTNER)
Gartner: Cloud computing is “the most
hyped subject in IT today”!!
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1447613

6. TRADE-OFFS OF “TRAD” IT INVESTMENTS
 Hardware
 Fixed costs; fixed performance!
 Five-year capitalised ownership = out-dated equipment!
But we wantutilization
 Variable asset to spend more money at the
 Most servers run at 5-20% of processing capacity
frontline of teaching nowhere near 100% don’t
 Even virtualised servers get
and learning,
we?
 Data redundancy and security
 Computing/networking reliability & redundancy
 Backup and DR (disaster recovery)
 Power and cooling efficiency
 Datacentres: 1 watt to the server, 1.5 watts in overhead!
 Personnel costs
 Recruitment, retention, training

7. WHAT ARE WE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT HERE?
Cloud computing is “a model for enabling
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared
“Technology services resources
pool of configurable computing delivered
over the internet”
(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service
provider interaction”.
(US National Institute of Standards and Technology)

8. THE CLOUD COMPUTING PROPOSITION
CLOUD CAN BE A WAY OF…
 Focussing on what we’re good at (educating)
 Getting more
 Providing more
 Spending less £
 Innovating
 Sharing services
 Improving
cashflow
 Capex → Opex
clarionledger.com

9. THREE CLOUD SERVICE TYPES…
• Email • Developer tools • Storage (disk space)
• Office apps • Databases • Content delivery
• CRM • Web apps • Backup/DR
• Facebook • Azure • Compute (processors,
memory)

10. So what is cloud computing?
Looking for economies of scale?
Rent a piece of this 7 acres…

12. CLOUD STUDENT/ALUMNI EMAIL
ForeFront IM on an
existing (virtual) server
syncs our AD with the
Live ID cloud service
Elastic storage!
(expands and contracts
on demand)
Exchange
Server(s)
Typical in-College infrastructure

13. LOTS OF COST; NOT MUCH BENEFIT!
In-College Student Email Service Levels at Brock in 2007
 Inbox (200MB)
 Network file store (200MB)
 Lost USB sticks galore
 No external mail send by default
 No system redundancy
 A mediocre experience
 Low usage
£££
 Hardware, software, anti-virus, backup, DR
 Maintenance & support

14. HOW MUCH COST?
£ Per Year (x4)
CAPEX
Server Hardware 2,500
Licensing 1,250
Installation 500
Setup/Config 500
AV & Antispam 1,250
SSL 125
OPEX
Backup 1,000
Admin (5 hrs/wk) 9,100
Training (admin, helpdesk, end users) 2,000
18,225

15. MORE QUALITY AND LESS COST!
Outlook.com Service Levels 2008
 Inbox (10GB)
 Online file store (25GB)
 Anti-virus and anti-spam
No brainer?
 Email for life (Alumni? Destinations tracking?) easily!)
(providing you have Microsoft systems and can get ForeFront working
 An experience that meets expectationshelpful too!!!)
(oh… and a working knowledge of PowerShell is quite
 High usage (>3000 mailboxes)
 99.9% uptime guarantee
£££
 Free!
 Fewer servers, less software, reduced maintenance

16. CASHFLOW, ROI, AND CAPACITY PLANNING
In-College Exchange In-Cloud Exchange
Elastic as
£18k +£18k +£18k +£18k
demand
invested invested invested invested
grows (or
contracts)

17. SO IS THERE A FUTURE FOR IN-COLLEGE IT?
 Yes. Less. But still probably a lot!
 PCs, printers, networking, high-end media
But different ownership models; different support

Themodels; utility computing; thin clients organisational
Cloud presents many
 A data centre
development implications!
 But smaller; bridge between the college and the cloud;
more proactive monitoring/self-healing; shared services
 An IT Support structure
 But smaller? More contract and supplier relationship
management etc… skills gaps?

18. GREY CLOUDS – RISKS?
 Our data is somewhere “out there”?
 Security; public or private cloud? is the door locked?
 Where in the world is our stuff?
 Lots of due diligence needed!
Legal jurisdictions? regulatory compliance; data
protection? £-$ exchange?
 SLAs
 Service/support; uptime guarantees (with financial
penalties?); technical support; time zones?
 Partners
 Trust; reliability
 Single point of failure moves elsewhere
 JANET connection: capacity/cost; redundancy?

19. FLUFFY WHITE CLOUDS – OPPORTUNITIES!
 Expenditure management
 Spending less; shared/managed services; fewer fixed
costs; elastic capacity; moving Capex → Opex;
enhanced cashflow
 So why
Quality improvement wait?
 Getting more service/capacity; providing better services
to our customers
can save you
 Innovation and agility - this year!
money
 The world changes; IT changes; opportunities change;
keeping up with the next big thing!
 Focussing on what we’re good at!
 Keeping what adds value, outsourcing what
doesn’t, adding more value by buying-in just the
services we need

20. CONCLUSION: THE BOTTOM LINE
 Nick Carr was right!
May 2003
 Most computing is now a
“utility” – we can’t live
So why spend any more £ (or $) than
without IT, and yet “IT
doesn’t matter”
absolutely necessary on IT?
 IT infrastructure is not a
key differentiator in the
FE sector!

21. THANK YOU!
RGADD@BROCK.AC.UK