Excerpt from Statement of Work

Project Objectives

The primary objectives of this engagement are to develop a storage strategy that is: Scalable storage solution to meet the unique needs of the University over the next 3-5 years.

  • Relationship of mission critical infrastructure applications to data storage 
  • Development of a robust, scalable Central File Service (CFS) to offer a shared CIFS file environment to the entire University community
  • Backup and recovery environment to complement the storage solution and meet the needs of CCS’s  internal customers
  • Highly available infrastructure
  • Transparent integration with existing heterogeneous IT environment 
  • Replication capability to support D/R initiatives
  • Centralized storage infrastructure management capability
  • Non-disruptive scalability and serviceability
  • Meets the needs of all of the disparate stakeholder groups in the University community, with a shared infrastructure that addresses both operational requirements as well as requirements of individual researchers.

FlexITy’s approach to addressing these objectives will involve two tracks. We will consider the business/stakeholder needs through in-depth interviews and workshops with Stakeholders. We will also consider the technology requirements by breaking the solution architecture down into the following five elements of storage architecture:

  • Storage Subsystem Infrastructure
  • SAN Infrastructure
  • Data Replication
  • Storage Infrastructure Management
  • Backup and Recovery
  • Security

Each of these elements will be analyzed independently based on the requirements of CCS and its customers to develop a baseline architecture. Then they will be analyzed as an integrated environment to determine the optimal unified architecture. 

Project Scope 

Activities

Phase I – Initiation & Discovery

  • Define roles and responsibilities for all associated project tasks
  • Identify stakeholder groups and participants
    • Identified Stakeholders  (must have representation in workshops/interviews)
      • CCS
      • Library
      • University ERP
      • OVC
      • Open Learning
    • Additional University Community Stakeholders (ITSIG will be leveraged to provide a representative sample)
      • Operational requirements
      • Research requirements
  • Identify key business processes to be supported within Stakeholder groups
  • Identify key CCS applications
  • Perform Interviews and Workshops with all Primary Stakeholders and a representative sample of Secondary Stakeholders
    • Identify business initiatives, programs and projects that will have net new capacities and requirements
  • Identify IT infrastructure to be included in detailed audit
    • CCS storage devices (disk, tape, storage appliances, SAN fabric)
    • Relevant connected servers
  • Gather disk storage asset information by having Client provide storage array details:
    • Vendor, model, disk types and number, establish raw capacity
    • Useable disk capacities: RAID levels, usage and identify unused and unallocated capacity.
    • Number of connecting ports (F/C, iSCSI, etc.) and speed
    • Value-added array-based software: snapshot/clone, replication and management
    • Capacity of clones and snaps used and for what applications and associated business processes
    • Collect SAN switch and director asset details from Client including:
      • Vendor, Make and Model numbers with number and type of total ports
      • Number of connections: servers, storage, ISL and free ports
      • Storage topology if possible
      • Associated SAN management software: version and capacity license
    • Gather Backup and Tape storage asset information by having Client provide component details:
      • Tape libraries: vendor, model, tape drive types and quantities 
      • Data de-duplication devices: vendor, model, raw capacity
      • Number of useable library tape slots and tape media type
      • Tape capacities: native and compressed – average utilized capacity per cartridge. 
      • Number of tape cartridges in total by location including onsite and offsite
      • Number of connecting ports (F/C, iSCSI etc.) and speed
      • Associated backup and recovery software 
      • Backup policies and schedules 
      • Backup server(s) configuration
    • Financial details of storage devices listed above are to be provided by Client staff 
      • Capital costs and remaining book value (or lease cost and end date)
      • Warranty expiry date and maintenance cost per month or year
      • Costs of value-added software and monthly or yearly maintenance and capacity-based licensing.
    • Gather server asset information by having Client provide details:
      • Server manufacturer, model and hardware configuration
      • Operating system version and patch level
      • Environment type – production, development, test and any others
      • Total storage allocated, actual used and available 
      • Number of paths and multi-pathing software for SAN-attach systems
      • Workload types
      • D/R plans and policies including offsite cycles, RTO and RPO per application grouping
    • Gather server performance trending data using approved instrumentation to include:
      • Thirty days of CPU, memory, NIC and HBA usage
      • Server configuration and main application/business process use
      • Capacity of disk allocated and used (DAS and SAN)
    • Validate all above data collected for completeness and readiness for analysis

Phase II – Analysis, Planning & Design

  • Create category summaries of all collected data from Phase I
  • Establish or determine growth rates based on a 5 year growth trend leveraging information from the 2004 ILM study
  • Financial data analysis including the following:
    • Establishing a cost of raw GB/month based on original, book value and maintenance amounts
    • Identify cost trends over 5 years based on the above and using the growth trends 
  • Establish storage tier definitions based on service requirements of analyzed hosts and applications as well as current storage use to provide Client with a framework on where to place future workloads.
  • Provide a strategy on tiering to reduce cost while increasing capacities with an ideal state from the analyzed data including:
    • Online disk tiers
    • Backup tiers
    • Recovery tiers
    • Archive tiers
  • Provide a visual scoring of existing environment to the ideal state to demonstrate gaps in consolidation, re-alignment and cost savings possibilities
  • Provide a roadmap to achieve cost effective tiering to increase online capacities including planned and provided projects while reducing per GB costs.
  • Provide a summary of Risk and Other Considerations as identified by data collection, analysis, discussions and as listed by the Client.
  • Hold discussion and strategy sessions with Client storage architect(s) and stakeholder representatives to ensure road map and strategy alignment to business needs
  • Develop strategy for proposed Central File Service
  • Develop strategy for proposed Central Backup and Recovery Service
  • Develop proposed future shared storage infrastructure architecture
  • Develop strategy for migration of current environment to proposed architecture

Phase III – Documentation & Presentation

  • Initial presentation review to a small team with the focus on findings and revision for management.
  • Create initial draft document from Phase II – Client to provide feedback before completion.
  • Provide industry trends and analysts statements that support the Client’s Storage Strategy and Roadmap recommendations 
  • Present summary of results to Client with specific details around roadmap recommendations and alignment to future identified project plans.

Phase IV – Transition & Close

  • Finalize document. Update documentation revisions from review and presentation feedback
  • Hand-off of both the presentation and documentation in Microsoft Office 2003 PowerPoint and Word formats.
  • Close out meeting and feedback with next steps 

Deliverables

  • Project Management Documentation – standard PM documentation
  • Storage Strategy Documentation – as described above
  • Storage Strategy Presentation – summary of the storage strategy document from current situation to future state, recommendations and roadmap. 

Acceptance & Sign-Off Criterea

  • Phase I – Initiation & Discovery
    • Sign-off of discovery and audit data
  • Phase II – Analysis, Planning & Design
    • Sign-off of initial draft analysis
  • Phase III – Implementation & Testing
    • Sign-off of draft strategy document
  • Phase IV – Transition & Close
    • Acknowledgement of delivery of final strategy documentation