Cloud Services

What is the Cloud

Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of shared, on-demand computing services over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

These services can include servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence, and more. 

The most popular form of cloud is public cloud. This is where a third-party service provider grants multiple users access to the same pool of resources which can be rapidly assigned, re-assigned, and distributed as needed.

Private cloud offers some of the same advantages as public cloud, such as flexible resource allocation and self-service, through the use of specialized hardware and software residing within and managed by the organization itself.

Hybrid cloud combines public and private cloud, bound together by technology that enables data and applications to be shared and moved between them. This allows for greater flexibility, more deployment options, and optimization for your existing infrastructure, security, and compliance requirements.  A common example may involve extending an application to a cloud-enabled service provider if additional capacity is needed.

Our Strategy

In alignment with UCF’s Strategic Plan, our migration to innovative cloud services will improve operational efficiency and provide valuable experience to our staff. To empower IT to deliver strategic solutions for our customers’ needs, we will follow a cloud first methodology for all IT services and solutions.

We will prioritize Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as our cloud model of choice whenever possible.

While we will enable access to Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud, we will utilize a single cloud provider for most IT solutions to reduce duplication of cloud services.

We will simplify and optimize costs for internally managed solutions by using Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings when possible and use Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) only when required.

While we will prioritize cloud solutions over traditional infrastructure, “cloud first” does not mean “cloud always” .   We will limit on-campus infrastructure to only what’s absolutely necessary based on very specific use cases.

What We Offer

Let us help you find the right solution.

We want to work with you to solve your business problems, not simply install and manage your IT solutions. UCF IT has spent significant time and effort properly implementing security features and integrating our cloud environments with existing network and authentication systems. Our Information Security Office has vetted hundreds of SaaS solutions, and we know the right questions to ask to ensure university data is not being put at unnecessary risk.

Let us put our cloud knowledge and experience to work for you. Spend less of your time and effort on IT so we can all focus on our common goal to positively impact higher education through scale and excellence.

Contact your department’s Business Relationship Manager to get started.

Cloud Consultation

We will always seek to use whichever cloud provider best meets your needs based on our ability to deliver that solution.

Do you have questions about cloud? Do you have a business problem and wonder if a cloud-based solution may be the answer? Do you have a cloud solution in mind but you’re not sure where to go next? Our cloud team is here to help with a free one-hour consultation to assist with cloud adoption, architecture review, design, security, best practices, and recommendations. Our goal is to provide the appropriate cloud solution based on your unique business needs. 

SOFTWARE IN THE CLOUD

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is our recommended cloud model of choice whenever possible.

To ensure the most efficient use of UCF IT resources and deliver solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is our recommended cloud model of choice whenever possible. However, there are many technical, legal, and service considerations that may not be clear from a vendor’s description. UCF is a complicated environment for system implementations, and the university has requirements that may be unfamiliar, even to vendors who have worked with other higher education clients.

To help you navigate these challenges, UCF’s Information Security Office has established a Vendor Risk Management (VRM) review process. This assessment is required for any department or business unit contracting with a third-party service provider for the purposes of storing, transmitting, processing, or collecting university data on our behalf.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF A SPECIFIC SAAS SOLUTION IS THE RIGHT PICK FOR YOU?

Based on our experience working with many types of providers, we’ve gathered some questions you should consider before moving forward with a SaaS solution. We encourage you to address them directly with the provider and make sure you’re comfortable with the answers provided.

Software As A Service – What To Consider First 

SUPPORTED PROVIDERS

Before you begin the process of searching for a cloud solution provider to meet your specific needs, it may be helpful to find out whether the university already has a relationship with an existing vendor.

Below are some of our key providers that have pre-negotiated agreements with UCF and provide strategic value to the university.

• Microsoft Office 365 – Email, File Sharing, Unified Communication, Content Management, Business Intelligence 
• Salesforce – Customer Relationship Management
• Canvas – Learning Management System
• ServiceNow – Service Lifecycle & Incident Management
• Workday – Enterprise Resource Planning
• Panopto – Video Lecture Capture
• Qualtrics – Survey & Experience Management
• Pantheon – Shared WordPress and Drupal Hosting

MICROSOFT AZURE MANAGED SERVICE

Microsoft Azure is our preferred provider for cloud computing IaaS and PaaS services. Our team has years of experience and knowledge within this platform and the university has made significant investments to ensure tight integrations with existing authentication systems and network services.

Our managed service includes:

• Pass through provider costs, +25% service charge
• Architecture cost estimate, design, and review
• Provision and configure environment infrastructure resources and permissions
• Ongoing infrastructure administration, support, and maintenance
• Connectivity to core services including AD domains, enterprise backup, and password management
• Enhanced cost tracking, visibility, and forecasting
• Cost optimization through reservations and right-sizing recommendations

Popular Services

• Virtual Machines – Provision Windows and Linux virtual machines
• Storage – Durable, highly available, and massively scalable cloud storage
• Ultra SSD – Storage for IO intensive workloads with low latency and high throughput needs 
• Cool & Archive Storage – For storing rarely accessed data
• Azure Files – Serverless managed files shares 
• Azure SQL and MySQL – Managed, intelligent, and scalable cloud databases
• Azure Backup – Simplify data protection and protect against ransomware
• Azure CycleCloud – HPC orchestration, scheduling, and management
• Traffic Manager – Optimally route DNS traffic, providing high availability and responsiveness
• Azure DNS – Host your non-EDU domain in Azure
• Content Delivery Network – Ensure secure, reliable content delivery with broad global reach

AZURE, AWS, & GOOGLE CLOUD SELF-SERVICE

If you prefer to manage your own resources, we can also provision space within our existing public cloud environments for you to build whatever you need. Our self-service offering includes:

• Pass through costs, no additional markup
• Optional budget alerts
• Provisioning of resource group or subscription/account/project as needed
• Access permissions assignment
• Direct access to cloud provider portal & tools

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Regardless of whether you choose our managed or self-service offering, partnering with UCF IT for your public cloud infrastructure needs gives you access to the following additional benefits:

• Convenient monthly internal billing
• No additional charges for shared networking, security, and data protection infrastructure
• 10% discount off all Azure on-demand list pricing
• 5% discount off all Google Cloud on-demand list pricing
• 20% discount for some research workloads (based on provider, funding source, and data type)
• Tax exemption, no network egress charges (as applicable), and potential volume discount pricing
• Baseline security, auditing, and compliance through a UCF IT managed environment
• Favorable and compliant terms and conditions through our pre-negotiated vendor agreements
• BAA access for highly regulated workloads
• Integration with university identity
• Connectivity to UCF’s internal network for applicable workloads
• Complementary access to vendor subject matter experts and architecture design review
• Enhanced vendor training opportunities

Follow Our Progress

Moving to the cloud requires a complete transformation of IT culture and will fundamentally change the way we offer services to customers.

This transition will not happen overnight. It is a multi-year effort, built on incremental improvements as well as a larger cloud maturity plan with well-defined objectives. The scale and speed of cloud innovations requires a deliberate approach to process and architecture design to ensure  successful service delivery.

HOW WE’LL GET THERE

Gartner Research recommends that organizations follow a multi-year Cloud Adoption Maturity Plan.

Overall progress is tracked along four phases of overall maturity: Elementary, Specialized, Multicloud, and Self-Service. Key milestones for successful cloud adoption are contained within five major workstreams: Organizational, Governance, Architecture, Provider Brokerage, Cloud Operations.

UCF IT will track its progress toward each milestone along the five workstreams and across each phase of cloud maturity. We will review our overall progress annually, set new goals, and identify specific milestones to focus on  to achieve them.

CURRENT MILESTONES IN PROGRESS

• Create Cloud Engineering Team
  Primary responsibilities include research, implementation, and management of all UCF IT PaaS and IaaS public cloud services. They will also serve as a consultation resource for other technical areas and customers. Offload non-cloud related duties as resources are available.
• Train and Transform the Organization
  Define individual and department cloud training and development plans across the organization that focus on versatility, enablement, collaboration, orchestration, customer services, complex problem solving, idea generation, and cross-functional thinking. Evangelize the benefits of cloud computing to staff and customers across the university.
• Implement Orchestration to Standardize Services and Processes
  Select and implement a strategic orchestration solution across all public clouds. Utilize DevOps best practices for automated governance and operations functions. Leverage toil automation to reducemanual and repetitive tasks.
• Establish a Dedicated Cloud Financial Analyst for Cost Management
  Implement a comprehensive FinOps practice to mature our financial management capabilities including cost transparency with reporting and forecasting, right-sizing through performance tracking, cloud rate and usage optimization, and organizational alignment based on policy and governance.
• Implement Multicloud Network and Identity Architecture
  Upgrade and strategically transform existing WAN architecture and design to support a hub/cloud exchange for future multi-cloud integrations. Establish dedicated connectivity to major cloud providers. Improve campus identity redundancy and develop a modern platform for dealing with federation, authentication, and authorization across cloud providers.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

As our journey to the cloud continues, here’s just a few of the major achievements we’ve completed related to SaaS application delivery, operational improvements, service offerings, and strategic initiatives. 

WHAT’S NEXT

As our journey to the cloud continues, UCF IT will continue to research and adopt the latest technologies so that we can fulfill our mission to provide innovative, responsive, and reliable technology solutions for our customers. These are some of the enhancements and exciting new offerings we’re currently working on.[GM15] 

• KnightShield environment within Azure Government Cloud for highly restricted workloads and projects 
• Azure Application Gateway for advanced, cloud-native load balancing
• Migration of existing workloads from Azure VPN Gateway to Azure ExpressRoute 
• Microsoft Intune for unified mobile device and endpoint management
• Commvault Metallic SaaS for enterprise backup management and ransomware protection
• Legacy ERP infrastructure migration to managed cloud provider for streamlined management and maintenance
• Enhanced key vault services implementation for improved encryption management

Want to learn more? Click here for a consultation.