INF129 Proposal

Portfolio

CHASS / CSE / CMVM / CSG / ISG / USG (delete as required)

Programme Name

INF

Proposal Name

Proposal Sponsor

Stefan Kaempf

Contributors

Heather Larnach

Need, problem, or opportunity?

Need

Scope and Additional Information

This project is intended to build on the work of the deployment of new application and database tiers, to implement ways that we could provide more resilience beyond our current basic manual disaster recovery failover provision. Most systems can be failed over to a secondary site in the event of a major problem but require manual, attended intervention. Work to date has highlighted the myriad complexities for implementing this facility for services.

With this project we will look at a specific service and implement a basic automated failover facility to manage unplanned events in the infrastructure or application layer. This will form the basic building block for the next phase of the project. This second phase will look to deliver a general structure for each technology set used in our environment, highlighting what services fall into what category and producing guidance for how automated failover could be achieved. Exceptions will be highlighted. This information will be used to scope future work on all the services for implementation of automated failover facilities where deemed necessary.

When will work be done?

Start Year: 2017/18

Duration (No. of Years work will span): 1 year

What are the estimated costs?

This is the total cost of both internal staff effort and any external spend. Please complete the following summary table:

Is this work sustainable?

This service already is funded and the current budgets will service the new platform.

What would happen if the proposal is not funded?

We would continue with limited resilience for our services, relying on manual intervention to recover services as required. Services would be at continue to be at risk for events that arise outside of normal working hours (evenings and weekends) with the associated impact on service availability for the University community.

Type of work

Compliance* 

*Compliance Justification

Unable to support the service as it is

Meet external legislative requirement

No

Address obsolescence of technology component

Yes

Maintain critical University business system AND

no practical workarounds available

Yes

Provide further brief details on why this work should be considered as Compliance

Staff and students have been operating more and more on a 24x7x365 basis. Service availability is key to ensure this. While our infrastructure is robust, issues to arise and as we do not have personnel on hand to the same timeframe, an automated facility is required.

Who does it affect?

Does it impact other business areas?

What the benefits?

Each proposal should include details of the benefits expected to be delivered should the work go ahead. Each benefit should be described in terms of which group(s) will receive the benefit, who will be responsible for benefits realisation and how benefits will be monitored/measured. Wherever possible the value of the benefit over 4 years should be estimated. All benefits should be credible.

Procurement activity required?

N/A

BI requirements?

N/A

External costs?

N/A

Objective -  Leadership in Learning

Select appropriate option(s) and provide brief explanation including references/links to external information where appropriate

Objective -  Leadership in Research

Objective -  Impact on Society

Theme – Influencing Globally

Theme – Contributing Locally

Theme – Digital Transformation and Data

Theme – Partnership with Industry

Unique Edinburgh offer for all students

Our services need to reflect the 365x24 nature of today's learning environment

Strong and vibrant communities

Diverse and supported staff from all over the world

More post graduate students

More international student body

Culture of philanthropic support

More students benefiting from distance learning

Sustained world class research

Flexible estate that meets expectations and showcases the University

Deeper industrial, public sector and third sector collaboration

Proposal Scoring (see additional guidance)

Element

Score

1.Alignment with University Strategic Plan and Vision 2025

2.Benefits relative to costs 

3.Time to deliver benefits

4.Risks of not doing the work

TOTAL

Element

Scoring

Weighting

1 - Alignment with University Strategic Plan and Vision 2025

Every proposal should have expected outcomes which would support one or more elements of the University's Strategic Plan and Vision for 2025.  This element should be scored as:

0 - no clear alignment with the Strategic Plan and Vision 2025 1 - some alignment with the Strategic Plan and Vision 2025

2 - clear evidence of alignment with the Strategic Plan and Vision 2025

X3

2 - Benefits relative to costs 

Each proposal should describe the benefits expected to be achieved should the work go ahead. This element should be scored as:

0 – Few clear or credible benefits

1 - Benefits described are credible with some evidence of measures provided. Benefits may be expected to exceed costs

2 - Benefits credible, adequately described and with appropriate measures. We can be confident that benefits will exceed costs

3 – Benefits credible, well described and with clear and appropriate measures. We can be confident that benefits will significantly exceed costs.

X2

3 – Time to deliver benefits

For each stated benefit it should be possible to identify how quickly the benefit can be achieved. This element should be scored as:

0 - no reliable time frame for benefits realisation

1 - More than 2 years

2 - 1-2 years

3 - Less than 1 year

X3

4 - Risks of not doing the work

This score should focus only on the risk of not doing the work, it should not include any risks around not achieving benefits. This element should be scored as:

0 - no risk

1 - low risk

2 - medium risk

3 - high risk

Please state the most important risks that have led to the chosen scoring.

X1

Element

Applies Y/N

Description

Increased efficiency and effectiveness

Enhanced end user experience

Enhanced data quality and consistency

Increased process standardisation or simplification

Estimation Types: Select all the relevant option(s) which apply

Business Case / Options Appraisal (BUS)

Software Development (in-house) (SWD)

Solution Procurement (BUY)

Agile Software Development (in-house) (AGL)

3^rd Party Solution Implementation (IMP)

Software Development and Configuration within Student Systems Partnership (SSP)

IT Infrastructure (TEC)

Other (OTH)

Estimated IS Applications Staff and Student Days (excluding Service Management)

S

Estimated IS Applications Service

Management Staff and Student Days

n/a

Estimated Other ISG Staff and Student Days 

S

Estimated Business Partner Staff and Student Days

n/a

Estimated College Staff and Student Days  

n/a

Estimated Other Internal Costs e.g. training materials,  VMs (£)

Estimated External Costs - Consultancy and Other Services (£)

Estimated External Costs – Software (£)

Estimated External Costs – IT Infrastructure (£)

12 days

Estimation Confidence (delete as required)

Reasonably Confident (Similar to previous work)

Estimation References