Automation reduces CUT s IT workload

Transcription

1 Automation reduces CUT s IT workload The Central University of Technology (CUT) is the foremost higher education institution in the heartland of South Africa. The university is dedicated to quality education and training in science, engineering and technology and has campuses in Bloemfontein, Welkom and Kimberley. The university has around active students, plus a host of lecturers and administrative staff, and has multiple systems running in its IT environment. CUT s networking system utilises Microsoft Active Directory, while its solution is Scalix and its Human Resources (HR) offering is ITS, running on an Oracle database. All of these systems need to be connected, but at the same time each requires a level of identity management. This means that it is up to the IT administrators to coordinate who is supposed to be utilising which system. Clearly, it is no large stretch of the imagination to see how easily something like this can become unsynchronised. With multiple types of users, with different needs and levels of security clearance needing to use these various connected systems, CUT required an expert in ensuring effective identity management (IDM) and control. For this it turned to Inobits, a company that is a frontrunner in the provision of such solutions, to assist. Solving the problem Inobits chose to deploy Microsoft Forefront IDM, a solution which sits neatly between the Scalix, ITS and Active Directory solutions. According to Andre Keartland, Senior Infrastructure Architect at Inobits, a key consideration was the creation of a password management system for the university. This facility, he says, would allow users to register for passwords and to reset their passwords when required. Moreover, adds Keartland, the system allows for rule-based provisioning and disabling of users as required. For example, in the past if a student left the university half way through a term, HR had to inform IT about it in order to have them removed from the various systems. Now, with the systems interlinked via Forefront, they can do this in the HR system and the rest will be done automatically, he says. In addition, if there is any interdepartmental movement within the CUT, the relevant metadata about the lecturers that is on the system is kept automatically updated. This includes password synchronisation between project-defined systems, since the solution has been designed to reduce the number of necessary sign-ons. That is not to say there were no challenges, he explains, pointing out that the underlying Oracle architecture did not allow the Forefront solution to connect natively to the different systems. To this end, he says, Inobits had to develop a custom-built Oracle connector to enable such connectivity. Furthermore, a similar connector had to be crafted for the MySQL intranet system. While these connectors were obviously developed specifically for this project, the principles behind it are generic enough that we will be able to reuse the knowledge gained in this development in future projects.

2 The biggest challenge we faced was simply a matter of distance. Inobits is based in Johannesburg, a long way from the various campuses of the CUT. This meant that we conducted the majority of the project remotely, although travel was sometimes necessary. This made it quite tricky to get it done on time and within budget, although we managed to achieve this, states Keartland. Another challenge he identifies is the fact that Forefront was unable to interface with one of the additional systems the university had in place. To this end, Inobits implemented an intranet instead. While this wasn t part of the original project s scope, explains Keartland, it simply goes to prove that Inobits was agile enough to change on the fly and fit within the altered scope of the project, while still remaining within budget. Beneficial outcomes He states that the project began in the third week of November 2012, and the company needed to have a specific portion of the project completed before registrations began. We finalised that part of the project and had the new system completely in production by the end of February. This was followed by an additional week in March where we provided tweaks to the system and instituted training for the CUT users. This training was mostly data-related, he adds, since it is a technical system and in order for the university s IT staff to be able to effectively troubleshoot any problems that may crop up in future, they had to properly understand it first. The training was mostly around issues of process and information flow; it focused on how the system works and how information flows through the system, and what they needed to do should certain events arise. Group management was also critical Internet access throughout CUT is governed through this system so it was designed to populate the correct groups in order to facilitate Internet access for students and lecturers, which differs in scope, depending on who is accessing it. Having spoken to CUT s technical people following its implementation, Keartland reports that they have been all smiles. He says they are particularly impressed with the workload reduction the system offers. It is doing exactly what it is advertised to do and they are clearly seeing the benefits thereof. Data integrity is the key to this success. Any data management system is only as efficient as the data it receives, he points out, therefore the data needs to be clean and correct. This was certainly a key part of the project right from the beginning. Even though they thought their data was good, the intense efforts put in to ensure the data was properly cleaned up highlighted a number of issues, as well as highlighting minor flaws in their other systems, which we were then also able to make more bullet proof, states Keartland. He is also excited by the fact that CUT was the first project Inobits has worked on where it was able to effectively implement lessons it had learned on other projects. This, he says, meant the company was able to shrink the project timeline, while still accommodating certain changes.

3 What it boils down to is that this automation means less man hours are now required for the administration of the system. In turn, it means that the IT department can utilise its time more productively. Furthermore, because the system is forms-based, it means other systems can also be easily incorporated into the IDM solution. For example, it is the ideal foundation on which to develop an electronic enrolment system. With manual provisioning, it can take perhaps 15 minutes per student at enrolment time. This system means they can instead automatically provision between 400 and 500 students per day during registrations. The end result is that the IT department can use its time more proactively, instead of merely keeping the wheels turning, he concludes. Facilitating service delivery through infrastructure optimisation The province of Limpopo has had its fair share of travails in the recent past, but what is seldom mentioned is the good work done by the Limpopo administration. The Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA), for example, is strongly focused on expanding and developing agriculture in the province, the provision of land grants, and developing and providing support for a wide variety of agricultural projects. With agriculture being extremely important to the province and with Limpopo covering a vast geographic area, the LDA clearly requires a strong IT infrastructure to help it keep track of projects and programmes that are being run. These include educational programmes, distributing relevant information to farmers and even operating agricultural colleges. The department therefore needs the ability to facilitate communications amongst its own employees, as well as to disseminate information to constituents. It also needs the right tools to enable innovative offerings like its SMS communication programme, which provides information to farmers around subjects like potential infestations and changes in agricultural prices. Realising that its IT infrastructure was not up to the task, the LDA sought out a partner that could look at their requirements and put together a strategy to assist in overcoming the many challenges it faced. The key requirement was a business that could assist the department in transforming and optimising its IT infrastructure. Since Inobits has a long and varied experience in doing exactly that, it was no surprise when the LDA engaged the company to assist it with this project. Ensuring project success Our engagement came about through Microsoft LDA s infrastructure being mostly Microsoftbased and we initially performed a deployment planning process. This is, in effect, a workshop where we discussed their environment with them, to obtain a true understanding not only of their challenges, but also their future plans and desires, says Andre Keartland, Senior Infrastructure Consultant at Inobits. We then made recommendations as to how best to change the infrastructure and split these into short, medium and long term changes. Once we had constructed this solution, we were awarded the project.

4 Keartland says that key challenges that had to be overcome included obsolescent hardware and the implementation of a server consolidation and virtualization solution, based on Microsoft Hyper-V. In addition, Inobits had to implement an infrastructure management solution, based on Microsoft System Centre Suite, which included the implementation of components like Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, Data Protection Manager and Virtual Machine Manager. The goal with Systems Centre Suite was to move LDA s IT from being reactive to being proactive. This suite is very useful, since it performs constant monitoring of servers, applications and network links, meaning it can generate alerts to the administrator that not only inform them of the problem, but also offer potential solutions. This is particularly important for the LDA, since their IT department is very small and managing an array of systems across such a large geographic area can be very challenging, adds Keartland. Additional challenges He points out that consolidation and virtualization was a critical aspect of the project, as it not only meant that older and less reliable equipment was replaced, but also that the amount of equipment requiring management was reduced. There was also a challenge around skills, as these are not only difficult to find, but it is even tougher to attract and retain high-end IT skills in the public sector. This is especially the case in rural areas like Limpopo. For this reason, we wanted to create an attractive, high-end environment for their skilled people to work in. At the same time, a key aspect of the project was the development of skills amongst their employees. In this way, we were able to not only address the technology component of the solution, but also the people and process aspects, he states. To this end, Inobits built training and hands-on experience into the project. The company also addressed the process elements by assisting the LDA to create proper operational processes and procedures for managing their IT environment. We also assisted with their disaster recovery (DR) set-up; considering the rural nature of the province, they faced numerous infrastructure challenges around power and network outages. We ensured that even if their head office was without power for some reason, their branch offices could continue operating, by delivering a DR facility that could ensure that critical applications were replicated. We also had to assist in overcoming the challenge of compliance to government standards and regulations. Their systems needed to be managed according to certain specifications around backup and recovery, while security and information protection requirements also needed to be complied with, says Keartland. On-going benefits He suggests that a key benefit of the project will be the reduction in operational costs, but that more crucially, it about the department utilising its budget more effectively. Keartland explains that in the past, the department spent a lot of money on third party products, without obtaining a reasonable return on investment (ROI). This was because the systems either didn t work properly, weren t installed properly or weren t looked after properly. This time, the LDA insisted on getting bang for their bucks, and that is what Inobits delivered, he says.

5 The LDA s chief concern is effective service delivery; to provide this, a strong and effective IT infrastructure is critical. In order to make a positive contribution in this respect, it is important to have the budget available to begin implementing public-facing systems like Websites and information portals. Our efforts in consolidation and virtualization have considerably reduced the amount of money required for system upkeep, meaning more budget is now available for projects like this. The infrastructure will ultimately be the platform for these other, public-facing services to run on, providing the relevant access, security and reliability. For our part, we have therefore positioned ourselves as trusted advisors to the LDA. To this end, he adds that Inobits has signed a long term maintenance agreement with the department, which means the company will be back on site every month, assessing the infrastructure and environment and verifying that everything is working according to plan. Should there be any issues, these will immediately be rectified, while Inobits will also enable on-going improvements to the system. From an Inobits point of view, we see this project as a process or a journey, one which we want to walk with the LDA. We do not believe in simply coming in, dropping some boxes and leaving again. For us, this project is a long term engagement that will encompass people, processes and technology, for many years to come, concludes Keartland.