Post on 12-Jan-2016
transcript
Helen FosterCEO
Introduction• Who and where
• What we did
• Why we did it
• What worked – What didn’t work
• Why replicate it – How to replicate it
West Midlands, England
Poor, sparserural areas
Dense urban areas
Commuterrural areas
Decayingindustries
What we did• Regional part of four national pictures:
– Regional schools brought together– Colleges (Further and Adult Education) interlinked– University to University – Nationally to NREN/ National Education Network– Local and Central Government interconnection
• Unique in the UK– Some regional networks for schools– All regions have university networks– Most colleges connected via a university– None have Local Council traffic carried on network
• Only the WM has them all working together
What we did• Region wide public sector network
– 14 Councils plus 24 District Councils– 5.5 million population, aged below national average– 1 million plus learners– 0.5 million public sector employees
• High speed broadband backbone, 1G going to 2.5G– MPLS, QoS enabled– Diverse core ring, spur structure to most sites– Technically straightforward
• Connection to National Education Network– SuperJanet, hence to Geant
• Also connections to Health and Secure Gov’t sevices• Managed network, Cisco powered
– Bought by the public sector– Not built by the public sector
Schematic last month!
TW BromsgroveCisco 7304
KeeleCisco 6509
TW Wolverhampton
Cisco 6509
TW TelfordCisco 6509
StaffordCisco 6509
TW HUB3 (Birmingham)Cisco 6509
University of BirminghamCisco 6509
Worcestershire County Council
Cisco 6509
Warwick University
Cisco 6509
Stoke City Council
Cisco 7304
Stafford County Council
Cisco 7304
Wolverhampton City CouncilCisco 7304
Dudley Metropolitan
Borough CouncilCisco 7304
Wolverhampton University
Cisco 7304
Shropshire County Council
Cisco 7304
Shrewsbury 6th Form CollegeCisco 2691
Telford & Wrekin Council
Cisco 7304
Telford CATCisco 2691
Worcestershire County Council
Cisco 7304
Herefordshire County Council
Cisco 7304
Hereford Tech. College
Cisco 2691
Hereford 6th Form CollegeCisco 2691
Hereford Art & Design College
Cisco 2691
RNCB HerefordCisco 2691
Wolverhampton AES
Cisco 2691
Walsall Metropolitan
Borough CouncilCisco 7304
Solihull Metropolitan
Borough CouncilCisco 7304
Birmingham City Council
Cisco 7304
Sandwell Metropolitan
Borough CouncilCisco 7304
Newman CollegeCisco 7304
UCECisco 7304
AstonUniversity (1)Cisco 7304
AstonUniversity (2)Cisco 7304
100 Mbps
100 Mbps
Solihull CollegeCisco 2691
Sutton Coldfield College
Cisco 2691
Bournville CollegeCisco 2691
City College (Birmingham)Cisco 2691
Cadbury 6th Form College
Cisco 2691
Josiah Mason College
Cisco 2691
Sandwell CollegeCisco 2691
South BirminghamCisco 2691
Solihull 6th Form College
Cisco 2691
Fircroft Adult Ed.Cisco 2691
Joseph ChamberlainCisco 2691
Matthew Boulton College
Cisco 2691
10 Mbps
Walsall Art and Tech. College
Cisco 2691
University of BirminghamCisco 7304
Warwick University
Cisco 7304
Coventry University
Cisco 7304
Coventry City Council
Cisco 7304
Warwickshire County Council
Cisco 7304
Warwickshire College
Cisco 2691
Dudley CollegeCisco 2691
Halesowen College
Cisco 2691
City of Wolverhampton
CollegeCisco 2691
Walsall COCECisco 2691
10 Mbps
King Ed. 6th (Stourbridge)Cisco 2691
Stourbridge College
Cisco 2691
New College Telford
Cisco 2691
Pershore Group of CollegesCisco 2691
Evesham CollegeCisco 2691
10 Mbps
RNIB College Worcester Cisco 2691
Worcester Tech.College
Cisco 2691
Worcester 6th Form CollegeCisco 2691
Kidderminster College
Cisco 2691
NE Worcs. College
Cisco 2691
City College (Coventry)Cisco 2691
10 Mbps
Henley CollegeCisco 2691
Hereward CollegeCisco 2691
Stratford-u-AvonCollegeAlcatel
10 Mbps
King Ed. 6th (Nuneaton)
Alcatel
N Warks. & Hinckley College
Alcatel
Internet
SuperJANET
WolverhamptonTelford Campus
LinkVPN Tunnel
WolverhamptonCampus LinkVPN Tunnel
Local Authority
University
FE College
1 Gbps
100 Mbps
10 Mbps
VPN Tunnel
KeySite Identifer Link speed
B’ham College of Food Tourisim and Creative Studies
Switch Core
Local Authorities
Universities
FE Colleges
1 Wolverhampton
2 Walsall
3 Dudley
4 Sandwell
5 Birmingham
6 Solihull
7 Coventry
Stafford
Shrewsbury
Hereford
Worcester
Warwick
Stoke
Telford
2
34
5
1
67
The Partners Involved
• Regional Development Agency– Advantage West Midlands
• Universities– Birmingham, Warwick, UCE, Aston, Coventry,
Wolverhampton, Newman– supported by UKERNA
• Regional Broadband Consortium (WMnet)– Schools connectivity
• Later– Colleges, supported by Universities, UKERNA & LSC– Local Authorities
Why we did it - AWMAWM is the Regional Development Agency
“To create a better region in which to invest, work, learn, visit and live.”
• Skills Development: ICT skills to make the West Midlands workforce more competitive
• Retain the young people of the Region: where new ideas can thrive and hi-tech businesses can grow
• Market Stimulation: focusing demand, that in turn will make more services available to other customers
• Broker to start up * They get:– Initial capital funding - Board
representation– Start up staff - Grant deliverables
Why we did it – Universities and Colleges
• 54 sites spread widely across the region– History of co-operation– Connect onwards to SuperJanet– Very limited funding for colleges
• Regional network met these requirements– Outsourced the delivery, made it easy, commodity – Wide range of requirements, 4Mbs to 2.5Gb diverse
• Out-reach objective for all Universities– Engage with the community
• Represented on Board
Why we did it – Schools & Councils• 14 Councils and 2500 Schools• Central Government
– Set targets for bandwidth and timetable for connectivity– 2Mbs for 5-11 age group, min 8Mbs for senior schools– Each region must connect its schools together & to other regions– Limited national funding
• National solution was to use the NEN (SuperJanet)• Made sense for the local solution to work with those other
institutions that were also connecting to it– Money goes further– Share expertise– Access to resources, extended teaching unforeseen bonus
• Councils bought in alongside schools– now use new services
• Councils nominate Board Member• Central Gov’t has Board Member
Who did it - WMNC
• Need a central organisation– Independent of the different user groups– Find a middle way between the agenda of all involved– Owned by the regional Public Sector– Accountable to the region via Board Members
• WMNC acts as the contracting and managing company for all the users– Commercial Telecoms/Network professionals– Bringing the funds together – Delivering the service– ‘Not for profit’ maximises the efficiencies
WMNC FundingAdvantage
West Midlands
WMNC “not for profit”
Services delivered to public sector clients
Regional Development Grant
Invoice for services
WMLocal
Authorities
MidMAN
Payment for services
Connectivity,ISP, Hosting,etc
Payment to network & Service suppliers
-ve £’s
£’s £’s
LSC/UKERNA
What worked about the idea• Private sector like it
– Easier to negotiate for bigger contracts– More professional/expert on the client side
• Aggregate not replicate– Central Government like it– Brought together similar requirements from a similar sectors– Encouraged further sharing of services
• Webcasts between experts in Universities and schools
• Teacher training
– Created new opportunities• “Rock idol”, poetry competitions, paired schools (local, international)
• Education otherwise than at school
– Shared know-how eg.Firewalls, management systems
What didn’t work• Implied scrutiny scared some, needs tact
– ‘Outsiders’ challenging existing practices– Differing levels of expertise “showing us up” – Security means different things, particularly in schools
• Much slower to embed than expected– Working practices take a long time to change– Initial contract was too short
• Central government moved on too soon– Withdrew funding before 100% complete in schools
• National Audit Office - difficult to understand– Too many sources of funding
Why replicate it• More ‘bangs for bucks’
– Larger scale contract, economies of scale– Affordable scrutiny and professionalism– Skills transfer locally– Co-operation increases opportunities
• The Network is the beginning of the road– Cost effective services– Shared services– Joined up services– Better value for the institution and the citizen
• But be prepared for the long haul
How to replicate it• Needs a large capital injection
– To provide the “carrot” to get involved– To de-risk the proposition– European funding can be a source
• under social change, economic development, etc.
• Bringing together diverse sources of funding– Individually always insufficient– Always different targets, timetables, deliverables– One organisation to ‘smooth’ them together
• Central team must be– Independent of all user groups– Professional network / telecoms people– Not just administrators
What are we going to do next?• Now delivery is quick, reliable and robust …• More services
– Over and above just bandwidth– For all of education
• Add services• Add delivery organisations
– Looking for the ‘Value Add’ for the Public Sector• Health, Emergency Service, Civil co-operation
– Quasi-Public Sector eg. Charities, Arts, Voluntary
• Central Government agenda in all areas– Easier to deliver– Faster and cheaper
• Improve resiliance and flexibility
Conclusions• There are more benefits than you would anticipate• Must be aware of customers
– Appropriate control and transparency– Understand the political considerations– Understand how the money works– Public Sector = one of us, in the family
• More people are keen to join up and make it work than will feel threatened – but some will– Can include existing national instituations as well as local
• Private sector prefers to deal with one focused organisation– Gives a better deal and better service
• It takes time and patience– But it’s worth it!
Unique co-operation,Joined up,
Delivering ValueFor the West
Midlandswww.wmnc.org.uk