Web Hosting Pilot Project

December 1, 2009Jason Austin & Sarah Noell

Overview of the Pilot

Early 2009, OIT staff submitted a proposal to Dr. Hoit for the pilot.Proposal was to investigate both internal and external options for web hosting services for campus. The idea would be to model the service after commercial services like DreamHost, Host Gator....OIT would be the reseller of the service and we are looking to offer campus:

more flexibility / quicker response time more packages / options / add-ons with easier installsmore control locally for units to better support their unit goals (teaching, extension, etc)

The Pilot ....

External account with Host Gator

Standard package for dedicated servers; highlights:4 Gb RAMBandwidth 1,500 Gb/monthcPanel / FantasticoUnlimited databases, ftp accounts, cPanel accounts

Internal service with Hosted Services group

Will replicate the Host Gator service w/ exception of:unlimited bandwidthunits could put student data on these servers

The Internal Pilot team . . .

Sarah Noell - OCCJen Riehle - OCCJason Austin - OCCEverette Allen - OCC

Charles Brabec - ISOHarry Nicholos - ISODolores Leonard - ISO

Richard McLane - ITECS (Engineering)

Pilot participants

Four units in addition to OIT OT were selected for initial pilotDivision of Student Affairs

Leslie DareITECS, College of Engineering

Mike VysockaCollege of Natural Resources

Charlie MorrisDELTA

David HowardOutreach Technologies, OIT

Jason Austin

Status of Pilot

Testing currently underway with the external hostUnits were asked to sign an SLA outlining terms of service;

No charge for pilotTesters cannot put any student or other sensitive data on external host

Support is limited, as OIT staff are learning as we go as well.

providing some limited trainingasking testers to document their findingsmeet regularly to review / answer questions, etchttp://ot.ncsu.edu/webhostingpilot

What have our testers done?

Student Affairs has been the most active of our testers. They have several sites running externally and have found the service to be meeting their needs:

Division is able to unify their approach to web developmentDivision's technology support dept provides centralized access and control for account provisioning and supportMore cost effective and is more feature-rich (has allowed units to stay "on-campus" and not go contract with an external provider).

Uses ....

College of Natural Resources:Has not moved much to the external source, but see it has providing a huge benefit for storage of their media. Space issues consume time and money;Ability to create multiple databases and schemas allows for more support options within college;

College of Engineering:Allows for services to be offered to units in a standardized manner;Provides flexibility without sacrificing efficiency. One click installs is very powerful

Uses ....DELTA:

Allows for exploration of new alternatives to support teaching

WordPress, Drupal are two that have been tried outMoodle is another option where things could be tested / tried out before going production.

Outreach Technologies, OITAbility to provision own space and databases provides flexibility on timelines;One click installs for many open source packagesRuby on Rails applications saving timeKeeping tools more secure and up-to-date by running them in web hosted space. Restrictions/limitations of AFS no longer an issue.

What value-add can OIT provide?

In addition to the flexibility that web hosting can provide our campus, OIT can also provide some value-add services too:

WRAP-authenticationLevels of service

'Power user' to 'newbie', OIT can offer additional servicescPanel lite 'version' so that cPanel isn't so complex to the average user

Possible branding with NC State themesInForm availability

In general ....

We have found the web hosting model to be of value to not only our testers but also our internal support staff.

Would be a 'for fee' service, comparable in price to an external provider; value-add services would be available.

Moving quickly to set up the internal service for testing; will move OT's site, Student Affairs and possibly other testers to internal service for comparison.

Issues / Processes still to work onFully test internal hosting serviceBusiness process issues:

costing model for serviceslegal / licensing issuespayment and billing for servicetraining / documentationrequesting service, accounts, etcURL name conventions (being solved at University level)

Security Making sure student and other sensitive data is protected if we go with an external provider.

Technical issuesLooking at cPanel 'lite' versionInForm and WRAPBack-ups & Bandwidth (external)