IBM Cloud Computing in Education

IBM Cloud Computing in Education Andy Rindos, Head, RTP CAS & WW CAS Strategist

What is Cloud Computing? NIST Definition: “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (such as networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” More simply, for our purposes here… A cloud can be considered to be a collection of hardware, software and other resources that can be accessed over the Internet, and used to assemble a solution on demand (that is, at the time of the request) to provide a set of services back to the requester.

Services Hardware as a Service (HaaS)– On demand access to a explicit (specific) computational, storage and networking product and/or equipment configuration possibly at a particular site Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)– On demand access to user specified hardware, interconnects, and storage capabilities, performance and services which may run on a variety of hardware products Platform as a Service (PaaS)- On-demand access to user specified combination hypervisors, operating system, and middleware that enables user required applications and services that are running on either Haas and/or IaaS Application as a Service (AaaS) - On-demand access to user specified application(s) Software as a Service (SaaS)- may encompass anything from PaaS through AaaS Business Processes as a Service (BPaaS) Cloud as a Service, Security as a Service

Smarter Classroom through Cloud Computing: The Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) in North Carolina + NC Community College System + NC K-12 school districts WFU NCA&T OC12 (622 Mbps Circuit) OC48 (2.4 Gbps Circuit) DWDM (10 Gbps Enet) vcl.ncsu.edu VCL is a true education cloud computing (open source) solution developed by NC State & in production for 6 years.

A partnership with IBM and others, to develop a new generation of IT resources Students • “The applications you need when you need them” Faculty • “Go from days to hours a month of management” University IT • “Increase efficiency by reducing redundancy” NC State Cloud Computing is powered by its Virtual Computing Laboratory technology • VCL project development started in 2002 • NCSU production use started in 2004 • Support for both HPC & non-HPC workloads • Awards incl. Computerworld Honors Prog. Laureate • Currently NCSU VCL - is open to 30,000+ NCSU student and faculty, and res250,000 plus in NC - has 2,000 plus Blades in production - delivers over 460,000CPU hours to general reservations (desktops, sub-clouds, classroom, etc.) annually, and over 7,000,000 HPC CPU hours. • Number of user sites in and outside NC, e.g., NC Community College System, UNC System Universities, Virginia VCL consortium (GMU just won a significant award for its VCL), GSU, UMBC, GSU, TTP, UofSC, Southern, Cal State System, Montana, NYU, etc. Dr. Mladen Vouk, “the father of VCL” Professor and Head of Computer Science Department, and Associate Vice-Provost for Information Technology North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

IBM Collaboration with NCSU on VCL and cloud computing related projects. • IBM’s BladeCenter has proven to be a very reliable platform in implementing VCL • IBM’s new VMControl Virtual Systems Pools technology provides the opportunity to further optimize VCL • IBM Research projects including “Secure Open Virtual Machine Image Repositories” • IBM WebSphere Technology Institute sponsorship of the Virtual Computing Lab as an Apache Project • VCL support services provided by IBM’s GBS University Delivery Services (UDS) VCL opportunities include; • The ability to improve resource utilization; • Today non-HPC workloads have low utilization on average (currently over provisioned to handle peak loads). • The ability to optimize for power savings during off peak (typically between midnight and 6:00 am); • Today VCL does not actively reduce the power consumption of blades during off peak periods The ability to enhance security to further isolate user communities and workload types; • Today VCL is very secure based on locking VCL users to specific allocated resources for requested workload. However, we are extending security to meet even higher standards • The ability to improve availability by moving workloads in response to hardware problems; Today platform management is a post-event (i.e. there is no runtime workload migration). IBM’s Virtual Systems Pools allows pro-active availability management in VCL We intend to continue our collaboration with IBM to provide feedback and take advantage of these capabilities in VCL as they evolve over time.

HPC Login Nodes VCL Web Interface VCL Scheduler LSF Manager Chassis of Blade Servers Image Library HPC Jobs VCL HPC Servers

HBCU Cloud GA Education Cloud NC Education Cloud MD Education Cloud SC Education Cloud VA Education Cloud HBCU HBCU HBCU HBCU HBCU UMBC GMU An ICA Community: Southern State Education Cloud Consortium Southern U NCCU, NCA&T Morgan State (TTP) • Lead institutions in each state establishing VCL pilots for a state education cloud – goal is to follow the trajectory of the NC Cloud, adding other state universities, community colleges and K-12 • Cloudlets from each cloud and/or member pilots will be combined to create the HBCU Cloud (led by the Technology Transfer Program or TTP) • Individual institutions partner with IBM to seek state (stimulus and other) funds for their respective state clouds; and partner with IBM, SURA and TTP to seek federal funds for TTP Cloud • VCL workshops for consortium on establishing set-up “assets”, POCs (for CloudBurst etc.), strong Apache open source community around VCL, etc. NC State U of SC Clemson GSU

NC STATE UNIVERSITY IBM Leadership Data Center MCNC North Carolina Education Cloud Powered by VCL Representing the opportunity for a seamless integration of resources from the state of NC and the IBM Leadership Data Center facilities through cloud computing Public Schools of North Carolina K-12 The University of North Carolina System North Carolina Community College System Cost-effective, secure and “green” state-wide on-demand delivery and sharing of educational content and state-of-the-art information technology resources and support. Infrastructure that enables “Race to the Top”

Tennessee Education & Government Cloud Leadership by OIR & TBR Powered by VCL Representing the opportunity for a seamless integration of resources from the state of TN universities, community colleges etc. – together with state government - through cloud computing Public Schools of Tennessee K-12 The Tennessee Board of Regents Software Applications can be distributed from multiple data facilities located anywhere in TN to … Other TN education and government partners Infrastructure that enables “Race to the Top” Cost-effective, secure and “green” state-wide on-demand delivery and sharing of educational content and state-of-the-art information technology resources and support. Delivered through

Apache Incubator Virtual Computing Lab • NC State U donated VCL to Apache Foundation in November 2008 • Initial committers from NC State, Duke, UNC, Virginia Tech – now many new contributors • Rules of the Road • Community oriented rather than technology oriented • Bottoms up … not top down • No permission necessary … simply get involved • Mailing list vcl-dev@incubator.apache.org • Also vcl-user, vcl-commits • Web Site http://cwiki.apache.org/VCL Virtual Computing Laboratory is Open Source http://incubator.apache.org/projects/vcl.html http://vcl.ncsu.edu

Soon-to-be-announced: The IBM Smart Cloud for Education(1) VCL Quickstart Services (from GBS), providing VCL planning/ configuration, installation/deployment, education and support;(2) VCL availability on the IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud (from STG) adding to the list of IBM hardware platforms currently supporting VCL;(3) VCL integration with Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) and High Scale Low Touch (HSLT) virtual desktop solution, again adding to the list of IBM software products integrated with VCL;(4) Seamless interconnectivity for VCL private cloud users with the resources and applications hosted on the public IBM Smart Cloud (via a software plug-in donated to the VCL Apache project)

IBM VCL Quickstart Services IBM Deliver Installed & Configured VCL Environment Via Remote Collaboration and Access to Servers Technical Team Lead and PM Client Project Team • Works with Technical Lead and PM to define Scope & Schedule • Provides for remote access to hosting servers • Assures required SW Licenses are provided as needed • Accepts VCL Environment • Assists in transition to Support • Installation & Configuration: • Linux, Apache, Database, VCL Code, etc. • Creation of Prototype Virtual Images • Verification of Installation, Configuration, Virtual Images • Instruction & Training: • VCL Administration • Creation & Management of Virtual Images • Level 1 & Level 2 Trouble Shooting Techniques • Additional Support Available: • Creation & Management of Virtual Images • Upgrades to base VCL code IBM Technical Staff Problem Reporting, Tracking, and Resolution Level II

Introducing: IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud Start-up Services Virtualization & Systems Management SW Virtualized Servers & Storage Networking An integrated platform with network, servers, storage, management and services that enables the fastest virtualized platform deployment today – now with VCL! • Customer Benefits • Quick time to value- Rapidly deliver a virtualized platform that is preloaded and integrated • Improved innovation- Dramatically improve business value and IT’s effect on time-to-market by faster deployment • Decrease IT cost – Maximize current capital usage and reduce need for future capital with built-in virtualization • Reduce complexity and risk- Pre-loaded and integrated means the human error factor is minimized. • Allows for evolution – migrate to cloud when ready without rip and replace Single product, single delivery, single installation, single invoice, single support structure 14

IBM BladeCenter Foundation for CloudMajor Components BNT 10Gb Virtual Fabric Switch Qlogic 20 Port 8Gb SAN Switch BladeCenter H – Cloud Infrastructure DS3400 & EXP3000 Inaddition to VMware managed environment, IBM will be supporting the VCL standard deployments for VMware and KVM through Lab Services QuickStart

VCL can now interoperatewith Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) & HighScale Low Touch (HSLT)virtual desktop soln.-along with many other IBM SWG products Apache has been successfully replaced by IBM HTTP Server (IHS) Integrate ITUAM (IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager Other Areas for Integration: Service Desk (SRM) Virtualization Analytics (ITM) Virtualization Dashboard (ITM) Backup/Restore (TSM) IBM TCR (Tivoli Common Reporting) has been running within the VCL for nearly 2 years MySQL has been successfully replaced by IBM DB2 &/or Derby Integrate TPM 7.2 Image Library (IL) ITM 6.2 agents are already installed on many images in the VCL Image Library, with planned pilot for ESX agent Provide TPMfImages7.1.as an option for xCAT (current deployment module) Available soon IBM Director (with Virtual Systems Pools) has already been integrated Into VCL as a successful POC IBM Mirage technology (from IBM Research) has been running within the VCL for nearly2 years Integrate HSLT as a Provisioning Node An image of the VCL code above has been successfully installed in a WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance – and deployed Integrate IBM Cloud as a Provisioning Node WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance can provision WAS patterns in VCL Already Integrated Integration to be done 16

Internet Research Lab As part of the IBM Smart Cloud for Education offerings, VCL users can now seamlessly access resources in the hosted IBM Smart Cloud. VCL Manager & Scheduler Authentication Service VCL Database IBM Smart Cloud Node Manager #1 Storage API VCL Interface Image Repository Image Repository Storage Computer Lab Virtual or Real Differentiated Resources Campus Private Cloud 17

Dublin, Ireland London, UK Seattle, WA Seoul, S Korea Poughkeepsie, NY Beijing, China Raleigh, NC Tokyo, Japan Nevada San Jose, CA Middle East Wuxi, China Hanoi, Vietnam Bangalore, India São Paulo, Brazil Johannesburg, South Africa IBM Compute Cloud Centers today include Raleigh, Germany, Boulder ,Toronto - and now Japan and Singapore . IBM’s cloud computing centers

Collaborating on transformative models & approaches IBM Cloud Academy The mission of the IBM Cloud Academy is to provide an organization for K-12 schools and higher education institutions who are actively integrating cloud technologies into their infrastructures to share best practices in the use of clouds and to collaborate with partners to create innovative cloud technologies and models. From IBM Cloud Academy Charter as developed by initial member institutions, 1Q 2010

What are the Goals of the IBM Cloud Academy ? • Provide a forum for the exchange of best practices to accelerate the successful deployment of cloud computing models that enhance education. • Gain early insight of and access to emerging cloud computing technologies development and research from IBM and partners. • Develop repositories for cloud computing curriculum, tools and resources for teaching, skills development and implementation. • Foster pilot projects and collaborative programs by members to evaluate technical, financial and service qualities of cloud computing. • Disseminate our insights, performance metrics, benefits and understanding of cloud computing through reports, white papers, presentations and other scholarly and technical communications. IBM Cloud Academy Charter, 1Q 2010

Membership Participation Qualifications Active integration of IBM cloud computing technologies and solutions into their institutional infrastructure Ability to make an institutional-level commitment to participle in the IBM Cloud Academy over a multi-year timeframe Commitment of participation in collaborative projects and initiatives of the IBM Cloud Academy Member Responsibilities Engage. Use cloud computing technologies and solutions for a pilot or production service or infrastructure. Participate. Share insights, lessons learned and experiences through the collaboratory, events, presentations and publications with IBM Academy members and the broader education community. Advance: Contribute to or lead strategic projects as defined by the IBM Cloud Academy Feedback: Provide IBM with feedback on newer solutions and cloud computing models and approaches, and their applicability in education. Membership Qualifications Criteria and Responsibilities IBM Cloud Academy Charter, 1Q 2010

IBM Cloud Computing in Education