Transcript IBMRoadmap recommendations

IBM K-12 Education
Abbotsford School District #34
Building a Strong and Optimized IT
Foundation for the 21st Century
Part 3: IT Strategic Plan
Viktor Kvrgic
Ba.A.Sc., CNA, MCSE, CCENT
Senior IT Architect
IBM K-12 Education
David Ell
Educational Consultant
IBM K-12 Education
Abbotsford School District #34
Executive Summary
During the time we spent at the Abbotsford School District #34, we have found them to be a
progressive board that is determined to achieve its goals. We observed many initiatives that were intended
to assist teachers to better engage students and increase their achievement levels. These initiatives
included using many of the latest technologies to which the students are accustom outside of the school
environment. This progressive attitude will be a critical component as the district begins to make its next
steps through the IT optimization roadmap.
Overall, we found that the school district’s IT operations are in good technical shape thanks to their
leadership team. The above mentioned initiatives have been implemented to the best of their abilities but
they are not nearly as effective as they could be. The end users are not reaping the benefits that they
should be, and in fact, are somewhat frustrated from the many unique initiatives.
Before the district creates another initiative, there needs to be some fundamental changes. Otherwise,
any additional changes are likely to be ineffective. We have found that there is no central plan regarding
technology in general and because of this, there has become a disconnect between the various initiatives.
This will need to change.
As long as the time is taken to action this report, we are confident that School District #34 can repair
the issues identified rather quickly and then continue on its journey of being a leader in its use of
technology in the education of its youth.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
Summary - The guiding principles for a Strategic Plan
The guiding principles for a 3 to 5 years Strategic Plan:
I.
Empower teachers with the necessary tools and resources needed to improve students’
academic achievement.
II.
Increase teachers technological competency.
III.
Increase availability and accessibility to electronic resources and knowledge base resources
for students and teachers and staff members.
IV.
Empower the IT Staff to accomplish necessary tasks with proper tools, education and
direction.
V.
Consolidate and streamline your enterprise IT Infrastructure (Servers, Storage, as well as the
Admin and Curricular Networks).
VI.
Increase network security, business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness.
VII.
Streamline administrative tasks (Account Management, Client Infrastructure Management,
Web Presence and Administration).
VIII. Enhance the client support coverage structure.
IX.
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Reduce the total cost of ownerships (TCO) and increase Return On Investment (ROI)
through standardization initiatives in all areas of IT infrastructure (Servers, Workstations,
Operating Systems, Software, and Professional Development).
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
A Roadmap to Effective ICT Implementation Plans
SD34’s Top 12 ICT Priorities:
1.
Centralize Control of IT decision making
2.
Resource Standardization & Management
3.
New Central Directory Infrastructure
4.
Disaster Recovery Planning & Deployment
5.
Local Area Network Upgrade
6.
Server Consolidation/Virtualization
7.
Realign IT Support Coverage
8.
Data Centre Infrastructure Optimization
9.
Wide Area Network Upgrade
10. Secure Network Access Control
11. Portal Infrastructure Upgrade/Expansion
12. Cloud Computing/Emerging Technologies
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
1st ICT Priority: Centralize Control of IT Decision Making
Recommendations:
A. It is recommended that SD34 implement a centralized model for IT equipment
purchasing. The district is a large enterprise and needs to be run as one
enterprise rather then many smaller entities working together.
B. Expected benefits:
 This will eliminate the large inequities between schools currently found today.
 Provide a more consistent technological environment for teachers and
students.
 Reduce duplication of effort for teachers by enabling and promoting
collaboration between departments and schools.
 Provide a more consistent technological environment for IT staff to support.
 Lower the cost of technology as it will leverage the purchasing power of the
school district and will minimize money wasted on technology.
 Create an environment that is easy to monitor and make adjustments for
future needs.
 Make new initiative more effective as they take advantage of all of the current
infrastructure.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
2nd ICT Priority: Resource Standardization & Management
Recommendations:
A. Adopt a standard Network Operating System (NOS).
B. Adopt a single standardized workstation operating system throughout the district
for both admin and curricular networks.
C. Engage in an evergreen workstation refresh schedule for both admin and classroom
computers. Workstation hardware refresh should take place every five to six years.
D. Evaluate the prospect of laptop cart initiatives for in-class at point of instruction
and technology access.
E. Evaluate and purchase a District license for an Enterprise workstation image
management and deployment tool.
F. Assign the image build responsibility to a single individual to ensure consistency.
G. Evaluate each centrally-approved software title for pedagogical benefits, network
security, and ease of deployment.
H. A Professional Development Plan for teachers should be paired with the software
selected.
I.
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The Curriculum Department should produce an online reference Library, training
documentation, professional development sessions on key selected and approved
software titles.
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
2nd ICT Priority: Resource Standardization & Management
Expected benefits:

Increase student academic outcomes through
the use of readily available and robust
academic resources.

Increase teachers technological proficiency
through a PD plan that is relevant to the
activities in the classroom.

Increase students and teacher satisfaction
levels.

Enhance file sharing and collaboration.

Provide equal opportunity for students and
teachers to use the same technology resources
throughout the district.

Reduce technician’s workload related to
software troubleshooting.

Reduce the District’s exposure in the area of
software licensing.

Lower the Total Cost of Ownership through
bulk purchases of standard hardware and
software.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
3rd ICT Priority: New Central Directory Infrastructure
Recommendations:
A. Engage in a district wide central directory architecture/design/deployment to
collapse your existing domains a more effective and simplified design.
–
The industry standard is Microsoft’s Active Directory structure
Expected benefits:
 Increase teacher/support staff collaboration, accessibility and mobility between
different schools
 Increase security and user account manageability
 Streamline administration support tasks
 Simplify and provide for more tight integration with the messaging and
collaboration infrastructures (E-mail, Portal, etc.)
 Essential step for the Disaster Recovery Planning
 Provide simplification through the consolidation and centralization of as many
network services as possible
 Increased integration with network services and peripherals (e.g: VPN, WiFi,
NAC)
 Reduce TCO by eliminating redundant server hardware, environmental control
software licenses
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
4th ICT Priority: Disaster Recovery Planning & Deployment
Recommendations:
A. It is recommended that the District either dedicates an IT resource to work on a
plan or hire an IT consulting firm to create, test and validate a proper Business
Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan.
B. The Disaster Recovery Plan will identify mission critical systems, data retention
and backup, acceptable down time, and recovery procedures.
Expected benefits:
 Increase district operations resiliency against any potential risks (e.g.:
fire/explosion, earthquake, flood, theft, electronic cyber attack).
 Ensure business operations continuity is safeguarded against:
– Interruption to administrators, schools and staff work.
– Interruption of transportation, planning, and district support staff operations.
– Financial losses from services outages (e.g. Distance Learning).
– Loss of public goodwill and confidence.
 Avoid missing reporting deadlines and other commitments to the Ministry of
Education.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
5th ICT Priority: Local Area Network Upgrade
Recommendations:
A. Move your networks to a private IP address scheme
B.
Conduct a physical network audit to identify the entire district network equipment inventory;
that includes measurement of Ethernet Switches, Hubs, Wireless Access Points.
C.
Conduct a physical network connectivity audit to identify unneeded and damaged Ethernet
ports in the schools.
D. Define LAN Electronics infrastructure platform standards for the next 3 to 5 years.
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While the hardware has been defined, there needs to be a more comprehensive plan for the entire
network including wireless infrastructure and the introduction of schools firewalls.
E.
Define standard colour schemes for each VLAN and core network device (uplink ports,
routers, printers, security appliances).
F.
Install cable management equipment (patch panel, cable trays) where needed.
G. Continue to replace all your wiring and wireless closet switches with manageable state of the
art switches.
Expected benefits:

Network security, flexibility, reliability, and high availability
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Enhanced accessibility, mobility within schools closet
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At point of instruction capabilities
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
6th ICT Priority: Server Consolidation/Virtualization
Recommendations:
A. Reduce the number of servers where possible. (Off site domain controllers,
exchange, Databases, etc..)
B. Further invest in a Server Virtualization infrastructure (e.g. VMWare) to
consolidate and virtualize selected backend servers.
C. Migrate end of life servers onto new server infrastructure.
D. Consolidate all storage systems onto a single robust Storage Area Network
Expected benefits:
 Reduces operating costs by increasing the utilization of the server hardware from
10-20% to over 80%.
 Data protection and high availability.
 Enhanced Disaster Recovery capabilities.
 Significant reduction in heating and air conditioning requirements.
 Significant reduction in power consumption.
 Enhanced reliability, availability and serviceability capabilities.
 Significant infrastructure savings: UPS, Cable management, KVM, and physical
space requirements.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
7th Priority: Unified Communications
Recommendations:
A. Identify the strategic benefits of a voice system relevant to SD34’s strategic objectives
B.
A single voice platform deployed across SD34 will result in considerable efficiency
savings, as well as improvement and morale of staff
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C.
Replacing obsolete voice systems will provide the highest return first
The deployment of a centralized voice mail system over existing PLNet ADSL lines is
not recommended
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Insufficient bandwidth to offer any guarantee of service
Develop with PLNet a Quality of Service (QoS) strategy to protect voice where and when
possible
D. Move the management of the voice systems to the IT systems management group
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E.
Deploy a network and voice monitoring tool, such as Solarwinds (recommended),
WhatsUp, or Nagios.
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This transition is effectively complete within the industry, and is now considered a Best
Practice
Voice systems are essentially application servers today, with the same deployment and support
issues and tools
Measuring network performance from the user’s perspective is always preferred, where
possible. For voice this is tracking the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of the callsocus all
Helpdesk requests through one interface (i.e. call to a helpdesk or entry to the on-line
helpdesk system). Minimize or discontinue direct contact from user to IT staff members.
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
8th Priority: Realign and Monitor IT Support Coverage
Recommendations:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Focus all Helpdesk requests through one interface (i.e. call to a helpdesk or entry to the on-line
helpdesk system). Minimize or discontinue direct contact from user to IT staff members.
– Once help desk ticket has been completed, end users should be notified either by IT Staff
member, E-mail, or helpdesk contact.
Realign IT support coverage (Helpdesk and technicians) to effectively manage a consolidated and
centralized infrastructure deployment. Identify job roles overlap and define procedures to manage
these areas.
– Realign IT Staff skill sets with job responsibilities rather then specific schools.
Communicate to schools any planned changes in IT support structure and highlight the expected
benefits to the students and teachers.
– Regularly keep schools informed of the effect of changes made. (i.e. a biannual E-mail to all
highlighting the changes made over the past six months and the effects to measurements made
from the helpdesk system).
Evaluate ways of securely providing “remote control” capabilities to the Helpdesk team into the
academic network to assist with teacher issues.
– IT Staff will be able to provide more support from a central (or remote) location
Monitor helpdesk statistics on a regular basis and readjust support responsibilities as necessary.
– Develop standard measurements and expectations in various areas:
 Type of ticket of incoming tickets (i.e. user management, hardware issue, new software
install, etc)
 Time to close a ticket
 Average number of open tickets per school
Cross train the IT Staff so that there will always be a backup if personnel are away.
–
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This can be accomplished by regular training sessions for the IT staff by the IT staff (i.e. they will train each
other)
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
8th Priority: Realign and Monitor IT Support Coverage
Expected benefits:
 Provide a higher level as well as predictable support to schools and
teachers through more efficient use of remote and helpdesk resources
and capabilities.
 Provide more focus on the efforts related to standardizing,
architecting, managing, and regularly updating the core IT
infrastructure components.
 Allow for a proactive approach to server, network and application
maintenance monitoring and maintenance.
 Minimized inequities between schools regarding support.
 Increased satisfaction from users due to better communication and
more reliable computer resources.
 Increased effectiveness of IT staff’s work due to standardization.
 Increased sense of camaraderie among IT staff due to regular
interaction.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
9th ICT Priority: Data Centre Infrastructure Optimization
Recommendations:
A. Engage in a green data center construction project as a foundation of the IT
infrastructure.
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It can remain in the current location of be integrated into the new secondary
school’s construction. Ideally, you should share services wherever possible.
B. The site should be able to host all of the district’s mission-critical servers,
central backup infrastructure and the Distance Learning backup/failover site
systems.
C. It should have adequate wide area network connection throughput capacity to be
the focal hosting site for all schools.
D. The new site should follow all data center design best practices.
Expected benefits:
 Reduce the potential of a catastrophic systems failure.
 Reduce energy consumption.
 Increased security to sensitive data and back-end servers.
 Pinnacle part of your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Strategy
 Reduce Total cost of ownership by simplifying backend server administration
tasks.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
10th ICT Priority: Wide Area Network Upgrade
Recommendations:
A. Continue to upgrade the district’s Wide Area Network connections.
B.
Introduce firewall software/appliances at every school.
C.
Replace all unmanaged switches to managed throughout the District.
D. Deploy standard enterprise-class wireless access points throughout the district.
Expected benefits:

Immense ROI through the consolidation and centralization of essential services:
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Consolidation of schools’ academic servers centrally.
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Consolidated firewall and network traffic shaping equipment.
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Reduction of software acquisitions.
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Centralized network management and preventive maintenance tasks.
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Increased use of remote support tools.
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Consolidated phone systems with the future use of VOIP district wide.

Increase mobility and accessibility throughout the district both internally and externally (access
through district network, or externally from home)

Secure access to managed and unmanaged roaming equipment connecting to the network, for
example: teachers and students’ personal laptops, or WiFi enabled technology.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
11th ICT Priority: Secure Network Access Control
Recommendations:
A. Deploy a District wide Web content management/traffic shaping solution.
B. Deploy an enterprise Network Access Control infrastructure, to secure your
network from within the school perimeters.
Expected benefits:
 Unified access policy: centralized access policy and management for all users
(admin staff, students, teachers, custodians, roaming guidance).
 Authentication and device health assessment: user/device authentication prior
to authorizing access to the network. Optional or mandatory device health
assessment to ensure endpoint compliance to District’s policy.
 Authorization: enforces access control to specific network resources, services
or applications based on user and device context (e.g., user identity, user type:
student, teacher, device health and location)
 Ongoing threat analysis: Continuous analysis of users and device health,
security violation result in network termination or remediation.
 Quarantine and remediation: automated quarantine and remediation based on
the authentication and/or security health assessment violation.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
12th ICT Priority: Portal Infrastructure Upgrade/Expansion
Recommendations:
A. We recommend that a set of standards and guidelines for schools’ websites should
be set to assure organizational branding and content consistency such as: School
name, address, contact information, newsletters, school calendar, site map, and
link to the District’s homepage
B. We recommend that the District adopts a long-term goal of integrating a portal
tool (such as SharePoint) as the main tool of communication between teachers,
administration staff, students, and parents.
C. Whichever solution is chosen as a communication platform, it must tie into your
central directory system to simplify management and security.
Expected benefits:
 Improve the District’s public image.
 Increase communication and collaboration between students and teachers as well
as District admin staff and the community.
 Allow for greater accessibility and mobility where staff members and teachers
could access their records securely both during and after hours, on and off the
District’s network.
 Provide the ability for students and teachers to securely access online courseware
titles whenever, wherever, and whatever they choose as a device.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
13th ICT Priority: Cloud Computing/Emerging Technologies
Recommendations:
A. Once the IT infrastructure has been standardized, evaluate cloud
computing tools to virtualize applications or complete desktops.
B. Evaluate newer technologies as to their value and their ability to tie into
the current infrastructure.
– This must be done by a team with representatives of whom will be affected
by any changes with this new technology.
Expected benefits:
 Continue to engage students using the newest technologies.
 Further cost savings.
 Improve the District’s public image.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
A Roadmap to an Effective ICT Implementation Plan
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Phase IV
Phase V
Data Center and
Core Network
Infrastructure
Core Server
and Storage
Infrastructure
Elem. +Mid.
Schools’ Infra.
Upgrade
Secondary Schools’
Infra. upgrade
Backup and
Disaster Recovery
Infrastructure
Hardware
Rack, Switch,
WiFi NAC,
VPN, Firewall
Server Infra., Storage
Infra., VMWare,
Exchange, UPS
School Server, LAN
Electronics, WAP,
Firewalls, UPS
School Server, LAN
Electronics, Wireless
Access Points, UPS
Rack, UPS, DR Site
ESX Servers, Storage
Infrastructure
Windows 2008 Lic, SD
Middleware, Image
Deployment
VMWare SRM,
NSI Doubletake,
NOS Licenses
Software
Power Monitor,
LAN Monitor,
A/C and HVAC
NOS Lic., Enterprise
Applications Lic.,
VMWare ESX Lic.
Windows 2008 Lic, SD
Middleware, Image
Deployment
Services
Data Center Design &
Const., Firewall /VPN,
NAC, IT ProD
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ADS Design & Build,
Server Migration,
VMWARE VCP
Elementary Template,
Deployment, WAN
Upgrade
Server Template,
Deployment, SBO
Migration
DR Architecture &
Implementation.,
Annual Validation
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
Conclusions
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
The Reasons Initiatives Fail
A. Lack of strategy/vision
B. A great sense of urgency was not established
C. A powerful enough guiding coalition was not created
D. Under-communication of the strategy/vision
E. Obstacles to the new strategy/vision were not removed
F. No systematic planning for the creation of short-term wins
G. Declaring victory too soon
H. Staff preparation, training and support were inadequate
I. Changes were not anchored in the school or system
Adapted from: Kotter, J.P. Leading Change, 1996
Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
Conclusion – General Comments
A. The Abbotsford School District #34 has taken the first step towards an IT infrastructure
revitalization initiative. This is a major step and the leadership team is commended for
taking that step.
B. The District’s IT leadership team demonstrates strong dedication, innovation and
commitment to the success of the organization. Their cooperation throughout this study
demonstrates a sincere desire to improve the operation of their team wherever possible.
C. It has to also be noted that all the staff that participated in this study have been very
cooperative and open minded about the process.
D. It is critical that SD34 keeps the momentum that has been generated through this study
and capitalize on the high expectations the staff have developed through this process to
produce tangible actions and results in a short time frame.
E. Once the next steps are defined and agreed to, based on the recommendations in this
report, it is encouraged that a communiqué be sent to the staff with the actions that will
directly impact them.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
Conclusion – Recommended Priorities / Next Steps
A. Establishing a central point of control of your IT infrastructure is
critical for any of the following steps to succeed. You are operating
a large enterprise and it must be treated as such.
B. Adopting the proposed 5 Year Long Term IT Strategic Plan will
enforce standards, and provide schools and staff with a support
framework that they will respect and honour, and that will simplify
the support requirements.
C. Establishing District wide standardization is a top priority and
should be addressed prior to proceeding with any other changes to
the infrastructure. At a minimum, a new central directory should be
chosen, designed and implemented.
D. Server consolidation and virtualization will yield cost savings,
better performance, and a manageable support environment and
should be addressed prior to the acquisition of any new hardware.
E. Currently, your backup infrastructure is very fragmented and
inconsistent. If a disaster should occur, your district will likely have
a difficult time resuming operations and recovering data.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
Conclusion – Recommended Roll Out Plan
Recommended Roll Out Plan
Item
1 to 6 Months
7 to 18 Months
Temporarily freeze school-based technology purchases
Broaden the membership of the Technology Planning
Committee
Move Management Of Voice Systems to District IT Team
Appoint a Director of ICT
Develop Strategic Educational Technology RoadMap
Establish a Centralized Model for Technology Purchases
Select Single, Central User Directory
Standardize Network OS and Workstation OS
Server Consolidation & Virtualization
Develop & Implement a Disaster Recovery Plan
Define a Long Term Telephony Strategic Plan
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 The IBM Consultants would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the
Leadership team (Ms. Julie MacRae, Mr. Mark Lee, Mr. Kevin Godden, Mr. Steve
Carlton, and Mr. Bruce Ivany) for their unwavering support and help throughout
this study.
 Sincere thanks are due to Mr. Leighton Lefaivre for his support throughout this
study. His helpful attitude has reflected on the excellent cooperation we received from
the IT Department’s staff. Also, we would like thank Ms. Shelley Wilcox for her
assistance in organizing and facilitating meetings with various participants.
 We would also like to extend our gratitude to the IT team in general, and in
particular Mr. Sam Shah and Mr. Taj Gahir for gathering the information we
requested and then spending additional time with us while continuing to perform
their regular duties.
 Sincere thanks are due to the Principals, Vice Principals, Teachers, Clerical staff,
Central administrative staff, and IT Department staff whom we have had the
pleasure of meeting with during this study for the time they have taken out of their
busy schedules and for their valuable input and cooperation.
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
SD34 Participants
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Ms. Julie MacRae
Mr. Mark Lee
Mr. Kevin Godden
Mr. Steve Carlton
Mr. Bruce Ivany
Mr. Leighton Lefaivre
Ms. Lisa Pleadwell
Mr. Tom Maddigan
Mr. Steve Woelke
Ms. Shelley Wilcox
Mr. George Keys
Mr. Balwinder Rai
Ms. Susan Antak
Ms. Katrina Miller
Mr. Taj Gahir
Mr. Sam Shah
Ms. Bonnie Smith
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Mr. Brandon Dunn
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Mr. David Gregson
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Mr. Dean Saler
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Mr. Derrick Anderson
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Mr. Doug Shearer
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Mr. Greg Nutchey
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Mr. Leo Wong
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Mr. Mark O’Neil
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Mr. Mike Sillery
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Mr. Norm Taylor
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Mr. Wayne Li
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Mr. Jun Kim
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Ms. Deborah Beres
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Ms. Jo Szabo
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Ms. Kanta Naik
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Mr. Dave Stephen
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Ms. Julie Wright
Ms. Marlene Funk
Ms. Cindy Romanowski
Mr. Barclay Neilson
Mr. David Ennis
Mr. Gary Toews
Mr. James Klassen
Ms. Kerry Enns
Ms. Mary Stobbe
Mr. Tom Louie
Mr. Rick Walker
Mr. Bob Mainman
Mr. Ed Davis
Ms. Kelly Plastow
Ms. Marie Van Dalfsen
Mr. Jonathan Culley
Ms. Daljeet Rama
© 2009 IBM Corporation
Abbotsford School District #34
SD34 Participants
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Mr. Jinder Sarowa
Mr. Greg Sharpe
Mr. Lance McDonald
Ms. Rhonda Pauls
Mr. Kevin Pedersen
Mr. Jagannath Narayanan
Mr. Chris Rempel
Mr. Bud Loewen
Mr. Shane Hipwell
Mr. Angus MacKay
Mr. Gord Revel
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Mr. Alex Andison
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Ms. Sandy Lane
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Mr. Novglas Williams
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Mr. Greg Batt
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Mr. Grant Gasser
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Ms. Tanya Cook
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Ms. Alison Haist
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Mr. Bill Henderson
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Ms. Sue Baker-Hamm
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Ms. Joanne Neveux
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Mr. Dean Fetterly
Mr. Rich Whitman
Ms. Leslie Forsyth-Eno
Ms. Jo Szabo
Mr. Doug Robertson
Mr. Mark Grillandini
Mr. Paul Rochon
Ms. Nancy Castonguay
Mr. Mike Ewart
Mr. Woody Bradford
© 2009 IBM Corporation