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Dr Andrew Treloar, Director Information Management and Strategic Planning, ITS

ICT Infrastructure Strategic Plan: 2006 - 2010

Presentation to IT Managers, 17 October 2006

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Outline

• Why a new strategic plan?• Context• ICT and Infrastructure• Structure• Overview

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Why a new strategic plan?

• Last one published in 2001– Base plan

– Series of annual updates in varying formats

• Strategic planning environment for university has now evolved and settled down

• New Academic plans and directions for next five years now in place

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Context - 2001 ITSP

Insert image of original pyramid

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Monash University Planning Pyramid

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ITS Planning Pyramid

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ICT and Infrastructure

• ICT - Information & Communication Technologies• Infrastructure underpins everything• Some largely invisible to most users

– server hosting, storage provision, and voice/data networks and many underpinning software systems

• Some only visible to a small and specialized subset of the university community

– research admin, student management and ERP• Some infrastructure is fundamental platform for

everything the university does– collaboration environment, web

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Principles

• The deployment of ICT Infrastructure is guided by two sets of principles– Information Management Principles

– IT Architecture Principles

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Information Management Principles

Corporate importance

Information sources

User-centeredness

Availability

Staff and student development

Productivity and efficiency

Statutory requirements

Trustworthy information and systems

Retention and disposal

Information and technology

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IT Architecture Principles

• University strategic objectives guide IT decisions• Systems are secure• Designs target high availability and reliability• Systems safeguard privacy and intellectual property• Systems use the authoritative source for data• Open standards are used where possible• Platform-independent user environments are globally accessible• Purchased software is preferred to in-house development• Standard products and platforms are adopted to limit diversity• Applications share hardware platforms• Systems are structured for easy extension• Management of systems is easy to devolve

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ICT Infrastructure Strategic Plan - Layout

• Divided up into six sections– Research

– Education

– International

– Administration

– Information Management

– ICT Core Infrastructure

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Section Layout*

• Each section starts with one-page overview identifying the main issues

• The remainder of each section highlights particular issues of importance on one page

– Introductory paragraph– Benefits in business terms– Proposed leadership– Estimated investment– Status to date

* This format derives from OSU Strategic Plan

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Example

Overview

Benefits

Investments

Status

Leadership

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Research Overview

• Researcher-centric tools, applications, support and advice

• e-Research projects• Information repository, cataloguing and

curation systems• Research collaboration• Physical infrastructure• Management information systems

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Education Overview

• Enterprise Learning Management System rolled out – WebCT

• Operational service from 2007 onwards• $510K Strategic Initiative Funding in 2007

for Vista 4 pilot, planned rollout in 2008• Watching brief on alternate enterprise LMS • Scheduled upgrades once every 18

months for the foreseeable future

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Education (cont)

• Recently formed learning management steering committee

• Monash university studies online (MUSO) will broaden to include:– InterLearn

– LEX

– Walkabout

– my.monash unit pages

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Administration Overview

• Rollout of mySAP ERP• More self-service coming

– in a standards-based way

• Increased application integration• Review of options for student

management

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International Overview

• International Plan approved• ‘One Monash’

– Consistent set of services

• Opportunities for those who are “less mobile” for “virtual international experiences”

• Improve efficiency of staff communication between campuses

• Create good quality e-learning connectivity• Dependent on network and VOIP investment

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Information Management Overview

• Information Management Strategy published...• themed...

– Working with information efficiently and effectively

– Delivering information and services to users using web technologies

– Providing high quality management information

– Supporting collaborative activity• and being implemented

– IM forums– IM for Workgroups Framework– ICE

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ICT Core Infrastructure Overview

Requirements• Security• Scalability• Resilience• Recoverability• Accessibility• Manageability• Fitness for purpose• Standards compliance

Areas• Data Centres• Cabled Data Network• Wireless Data Network• Internet Services• Telephone Services• Host Server Platforms• Data Storage Mgt• Workstation Infrastructure• Security• Application Integration• Identity Management and

Authentication Systems

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Process for future years

• Annual planning conference will continue• Annual revision of overview sections• Annual update of funding and status

elements for each strategic initiative• Annual addition/deletion of strategic

initiatives as university priorities change

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Questions

?http://www.monash.edu.au/about/itsp/

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e-Research Programme

• DEST Funding– ARROW+ARROW2: $8M– DART+ARCHER: $7.8M– LIEF 2006+2007: $0.5M

• MMV Funding– VeRSI: $2.4M

• 2007 Strategic Initiative Funding– LaRDS, MCG, MeRP: $0.6K

• Status– ARROW: in use– LaRDS: 60TB disk and SAN commissioned

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Research Administration

• 2007: $448K strategic initiatives fund• 2008: possible replacement of RM4 with InfoEd

software: up to $5M from the strategic initiatives fund

• 2007 - 2008: implementation of the BI strategy (cost to be determined)

• Status– ROPES, ongoing RM4 modules, research quality

framework information system

– Replacing MRGS access databases

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Teaching and Learning Spaces

• Approximately 70,000 teaching sessions conducted per year

• 160 centrally managed and 110 Faculty owned teaching spaces at Australian campuses

• 3-5 year (average of 4 years) refurbishment cycle to refresh technology components

• Progressively developing learning commons

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Educational Technology Innovation

• Educational Technology Sub-Committee established by the Education Committee of Academic Board

– encourage examples of best practice– mainstreamed when successful

• Student Experience Framework developed to support the goals identified in Monash Directions 2025

• Trials of e-Portfolios, Lectures online expanded for MP3 downloading and podcasting, iLecture system (integrated slides, audio, video and notes), Desktop Video Conferencing for remote students, delivery to mobile phones/PDAs, in class polling using wireless keypads

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Administration – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• SAP implemented in 1999• Application integration and cross-application

reporting are key issues for 2006 and beyond • Work has commenced on replacing the legacy

‘point to point’ data-dependent application interfaces

• The focus is now on reporting the information systems contain for tactical and strategic purposes

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Administration - Student Management System• Callista implemented in 2000• Associated systems developed/acquired since:

– research administration– timetabling and class booking– flexible learning support systems for off-campus

learning,– course and unit publications– student load planning and monitoring– core business evaluations

• The final phase of DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training) reforms will be undertaken in 2007

• Monash will need to comply with other government reporting systems such as the Centrelink Academic Reassessment Transformation (CART)

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Information Management - Web technologies/Web strategy

• University-wide web strategy published in early 2006• University's web presence must “Attract, support and

retain staff, students and partners most likely to help Monash in the attainment of its strategic goals, in the most cost-effective manner.”

• Separating public (external-facing) and intranet (internal-facing) content

– Extranet creation planned for 2007• Focuses on user needs and activities rather than on

institutional information silos

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Information Management - Web technologies/portal Platform

• 2008: conduct a proof of suitability exercise with the Oracle portal engine

• 2009 - 2010: pending successful proof of suitability and development of implementation plan; commence migration

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Information Management - Management information/Business intelligence & KPI • Recent initiatives

– TARDIS, ROPES, University KPI Reporting and Course and Unit Profiling

– Data has been sourced from SAP, Callista, ResearchMaster, DEST/GCCA submissions and national collections

• Monash is piloting Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) software for application integration

• Business Intelligence (BI)– Strategy completed 2006– applications and technologies for gathering, storing,

analysing and reporting data to help organisations make better decisions

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Information Management - Workgroup Collaboration Support

• The current environment was selected in 1996 and is essentially email and calendar

• Current integrated offerings provide– shared document spaces– mobility support– instant messaging– presence awareness– web conferencing

• Progressive rollout starting right now

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ICT Core Infrastructure – Data Centres

• Build– Two new data centres of 500m2 each - $18.4M

– One new data centre or 500m2 and refurbish the existing Building 28 facility - $13.3M

– One large data centre of 1000m2 and share facilities with another University - $14.8M

• Refurbish an existing building to build one large data centre of 1000m2 and share facilities with another University - $10M

• 2006: Plan and Design• 2007: Commence first Data Centre

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ICT Core Infrastructure – Cabled Data Network

• Large and complex network– more than 1,350 network devices– 20,000+ network data points– 50 buildings on 20 sites

• Quality of Service (QoS) support is being implemented to prioritise traffic for delay-sensitive applications such as video and Voice Over IP (VoIP)

• Progressively moving to inter-campus and Internet gigabit network capacity links replacing microwave with glass optical fibre

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ICT Core Infrastructure – Wireless Data Network

• Over 3,500 wireless clients• Over 400 Wireless Access Points• Planned introduction of the eduroam

service (http://www.eduroam.edu.au/)

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ICT Core Infrastructure – Internet Services

• Provision and management of gateways (proxies, remote access etc), capacity, bandwidth, border and router management

• Network speed on-campus, inter-campus and to the internet is gigabit per second

• Most inbound Internet traffic flows through the various proxy servers

• Range of initiatives will enhance the performance of the proxy service functions and allow faster access

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Shared Services Review

• Consolidation of service desks• Reducing TCO on desktop workstations

– Focusing on administrative divisions

– Locked down environment

– Remote tools

– Streamlining procurement etc.

• Consolidating bespoke applications