Lightning Rod for Transformation - Effective Cloud Management

John RuckerData Center Operations

FDCCI representativeDepartment of Veterans Affairs

Apocalypse Soon?

December 2012 isn’t that far off…

FDCCIVirtualization25 Point PlanBudget WoesLegacy systemsCloudMobile Devices

The Times They Are A’Changin’Deliver business outcomes and customer experience without regard to infrastructureDeploy a hospital tracking system like you would “Angry Birds” on an iPhone.Leave your expectations at the door; we need a new way to manage IT.

Vivek Kundra, Federal CIONIST Cloud Computing Workshop, April 2011

One Trillion Devices Connected to the Internet By 2013 Padma Warrior, Cisco Chief Technology Officer

March, 2010

25 Point PlanThere will be a quiz following

1 Complete detailed implementation plans to consolidate 800 data centers by 2015

2 Create a government-wide marketplace for data center availability3 Shift to a “Cloud First” policy4 Stand-up contract vehicles for secure IaaS solutions5 Stand-up contract vehicles for “commodity” services6 Develop a strategy for shared services7 Design a formal IT program management career path8 Scale IT program management career path9 Require Integrated Program Teams10 Launch a best practices collaboration platform 11 Launch technology fellows program12 Enable IT program manager mobility across government and industry

http://www.cio.gov/documents/25-Point-Implementation-Plan-to-Reform-Federal%20IT.pdf

13 Design and develop cadre of specialized IT acquisition professionals14 Identify IT acquisition best practices and adopt government-wide15 Issue contracting guidance and templates to support modular

development16 Reduce barriers to entry for small innovative technology companies17 Work with Congress to create IT budget models that align with modular

development·18 Develop supporting materials and guidance for flexible IT budget models19 Work with Congress to scale flexible IT budget models more broadly20 Work with Congress to consolidate Commodity IT spending under Agency

CIO21 Reform and strengthen Investment Review Boards ·22 Redefine role of Agency CIOs and Federal CIO Council23 Rollout “TechStat” model at bureau-level ·24 Launch “myth-busters” education campaign25 Launch an interactive platform for pre-RFP agency-industry collaboration

Steven VanRoekel

Weed out inefficiencies, Recognize cost savingsChange a fiefdom culture to a sharing cultureDarwinian pressure when it comes to innovationCreating a 21st century workplace

VA Case Study: FDCCIGeographical Locations

REGION 1 REGION 2

Puerto Rico

Hawaii

Alaska

REGION 4

19

1

2

4

5

6

10

9

7

8

16

17

15

23 12

11

20

21

2218

8

2120

3

REGION 3

Guam

Philippines

21

21

VISN Location

VA Strategic Goals All VA enterprise and mission

critical systems consolidated by 2018 in 4 or fewer National Data Centers (NDCs)

No VA Owned Data Centers by end of 2018

VA will continue to administer applications and systems in NDC’s

VA will co-locate all Region 2 VistA systems into St. Louis DECC and Region 3 VistA systems into Warner Robins DECC beginning Q2FY12

CRDC will move into CRRC 2012.

VA will co-locate all Region 1 and Region 4 VistA Systems into DISA DECCs in FY13

ITCs will consolidate into NDCs by 2018DECC Location R1 & R4 (2013 - 2015)

DECC Location R2 & R3 (2011 - 2013)

ITC Location

Data Center Consolidation

Planning Beats FlounderingDevelop a Communications PlanDon’t forget the Risk Register101: Bite Sized PiecesCharter Your Project

Scope Creep Kills More Projects Than Any Other FactorIdentify Stakeholders

There are more of them than you think

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Can’t Have Too MuchWell, actually you can…Manage Your Stakeholder ListHave FAQ on handHave the “Short Version” availableWeb Site vs. SharePointSomeone Won’t Get the MessageMarket SuccessAdmit What You Don’t Know

FDCCI is going to be painful and expensive if we don’t virtualize & standardize.

We need to start now

VA will complete consolidations within this decade

Challenges

MoneyTimeTurfMetrics

Can’t Measure Some ThingsMeasuring the Wrong ThingsCost Savings Difficult to Estimate

Additionally…

VA has only one CIO. One. And we are the 2nd largest Federal DepartmentUp to 100,000 Tablets/Smart Phones in next 18 monthsPMASAgile DevelopmentCloud: Private & Public

Cloud ComputingCloud computing is a model for enabling highly-available, convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

“NIST definition of Cloud Computing” National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-145 (Draft); January 2011

NIST’s 5 Characteristics of CloudOn-demand self-service Broad network accessResource poolingRapid elasticityMeasured Service

Other Key characteristics Often Cited

AgilityCost SavingsDevice IndependenceMulti-tenancyImproved AvailabilityScalabilitySecurityEase of Maintenance

Other Random Cloud Observations

Minimal management effort or service provider interaction: Reduce number of iterations through the approval process; provide more self-service; allow easier cost estimating by customer. Location independence: Workload can run anywhere; move aroundQuickly Scale Out; Quickly Scale In: Scaling tools in the hands of customer; automated scaling; the illusion of unlimited capacity“Your” platform could be anywhere, at any given time and shared with others. Server huggers don’t like Cloud.

Several Types of Clouds

Private: Run within the organization. Full organizational control (although control can be shared between organizational elements)Public: Non-VA owned. Usually non-government owned. Control can vary, but inevitably some security controls run by the vendor, often everything but the application is vendor managedVarious Mixtures: Not us, not yet

Huge Implications For the Way We Do Business Now

FundingCost ModelsApproval ProcessFinancial Transparency SecurityStaffingNetworkInfrastructure

As if you don’t know this already

Policy memo for Cloud being drafted

All IT business processes will integrate moving-to-the-cloud initiative by factoring it into the decision making.

Not just included in the development lifecycle of programs/projects but factored into all decision-making and implementation for new and ongoing business processes

Deployment Decision Internal (Private Cloud) vs. External (Public Cloud):

• Cost• Privacy• Compliance • Application• Bandwidth/latency• Schedule

There is NO default assumption!

And Now the Bad News…

This assumes we have a transparent apples-to-apples cost comparison – currently we do notThis assumes we have fairly tight requirements for applications – often we do not

• Sea change For VA IT operations - our role will become managing infrastructure, not owning assetsMirrors Changes in Software Production – move from in-house to outsourced

And Now the Really Bad News…

Long term, Federal IT Operations are ill-equipped and ill prepared to compete with public CloudI don’t see this situation improvingThe end of Federal leadership in IT operations is at handThis doesn’t mean we won’t continue to exert leadership in other IT areas

Private sector data centers have to be part of the strategic mix

They offer far more flexibility than we can realistically hope to achieve, no matter how agile and hard working our organizations are:

• We can’t hire fast enough• We can’t buy fast enough• We can’t build/upgrade facilities fast enough• We can’t decide fast enough

In short, we simply don’t move at “Cloud Speed”

Federal data centers provide the security and stability required for Legacy applications

• Legacy systems need not be outmoded or inefficient.

• Legacy systems typically follow a predictable capacity planning profile – rapid provisioning not needed

• Already amortized• Costly to move to Cloud • There is much to be said for stable, reliable systems!• Not everything can or should be moved to Cloud• …but let’s not overplay that “security” card

So, To Be Blunt…

We all need to get serious about standardizationStandard ToolsStandard PlatformsStandard Versions

We all need to get serious about release managementCloud isn’t going awayVirtualization isn’t a fadWe’re not as special as we think we areStop Talking and Start Doing

Cloud StrategiesAdopt Platform and Software StandardsImplement Release ManagementBuild in Regression Testing NowData Center IndependenceVendor IndependenceDevice IndependenceDevelop a costing modelEstablish GovernanceTrain Staff

• Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

Re-Inventing ITAs we move into a “post-operational” world, we need to develop different skill sets & staffing modelsThe next gen Federal IT will have to think more like systems aggregators and system architectsWill also need to consider IT from a business perspectiveGreat opportunity for new workers, or workers looking for a career changeThis transition will not be easy for existing staffHuge management challengeWe still have an obligation to protect Federal data

Questions?

John.Rucker@va.gov