1. A Model For Centralized Network Support On The Campus Basil Irwin Senior Network Engineer June 8, 1999 National Center for Atmospheric Research

2. Shouldn’t Campus LANs Be Treated Like A Utility Service? Basil Irwin Senior Network Engineer June 8, 1999 National Center for Atmospheric Research

3. NCAR 3 Examples of Utility Services Examples of utility services * Electricity distribution * Telephone service * Potable water supply * Waste-water removal * Natural gas distribution

4. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 4 Utility Service Attributes Attributes of a utility service * Provides an essential and/or indispensable service * Universal service is required * Universal interoperability standards required * Universal service delivery standards required * Operated by a central support organization * Hierarchically architected with tiered service levels * Universal and fair pricing required

5. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 5 Campus LAN Attributes Attributes of today’s Campus LAN service * Provides an essential and/or indispensable service * Universal service is required * Universal interoperability standards required Desirable attributes of Campus LAN service * Universal service delivery standards required * Operated by a central support organization * Hierarchically architected with tiered service levels * Universal and fair pricing

6. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 6 Campus LAN Attributes Based on these attributes, it looks to me like the Campus LAN is a service utility Therefore, shouldn’t Campus LANs be funded and operated like other Campus service utilities? UCAR thinks so, and that’s the way we operate our networks as one of our utility services

7. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 7 The UCAR LAN Utility

8. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 8 UCAR serves, collaborates, and is governed by its 63 member universities (R1 universities) UCAR consists of ~20 Department-sized internal subdivisions that are semi-autonomous ~1,200 UCAR employees About $150,000,00 total funding for FY1999 UCAR funding is a mixture of direct NSF funding and grant funding * About 2/3 direct and 1/3 grant UCAR’s Budgetary & Political Context

9. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 9 UCAR’s Networking Context 9 buildings at 4 county-area sites ~1,200 local users ~2,500 local networked devices ~2,400 “standard” telecommunications outlets ~110 local subnetworks ~100 (intelligent) network switches, routers, etc. ~100 dial-in ports ~1,200 users at UCAR’s 63 R1 universities * Connected via vBNS/Abilene/Commodity Internets

10. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 10 Service Model For The UCAR LAN Utility

11. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 11 Customer-Operated UCAR LAN Utility is advised by a standing advisory board of technical representatives from all major UCAR Departments * This is the “PUC” of the UCAR LAN Utility Advisory board extremely valuable asset! * Unloads spending priorities from the support group * Develops consensus clout with higher management » Regarding requests for spending » Regarding technology deployment decisions Strong upper-management support!

12. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 12 Services Provided All Layer1, Layer2, and Layer3 services * Layer1: All physical cabling plant * Layer2: All logical networking - VLANs/ELANs * Layer3: All routing (99.9% IP) * Layer4: Some host-configuration/performance consulting All LAN, MAN, and WAN services * Campus LANs * Intersite MAN connections * vBNS/Abilene/Commodity WAN connects

13. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 13 Service Categories Standard Services * “Free”: no chargebacks Premium Services * Fixed chargebacks Special Services * Negotiable: basically time and materials Department Services * Internal Departmental support personnel

14. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 14 Standard Services Includes all LAN, MAN, and WAN Layer1, Layer2, and Layer3 networking necessary for, and benefiting, UCAR as a whole Each office has a telecommunications outlet (“TO” or ”wallplate”) with: * 2 pairs of terminated MM fiber cables * 4 terminated Cat5 cables * 2 terminated Cat3 cables (for telephones) Each office has one or more dedicated 10Base and/or 100Base switch ports

15. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 15 Standard Services (cont.) The LAN Utility responsibility ends at the wallplate (almost) Departments free to attach what they want to the wallplates, including network equipment at their own risk

16. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 16 Premium Services Things like FDDI, OC-3, OC-12 or GigE to the desktop Standard chargebacks for such services

17. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 17 Special Services Anything else anybody wants. Prices are negotiable Includes “Emergency” (instant) service

18. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 18 Services Not Provided System administration of PCs, Unix, etc. * Completely distributed service model DNS * Receives some central funding; ought to be part of LAN Utility service Email * Receives some central funding Web * Receives some central funding

19. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 19 Services Not Provided (cont.) Security * This was set up as a Security Utility based on the LAN Utility model Telephones and PBXes (except for the cabling infrastructure, which is part of the LAN Utility) * Receives central funding, should be part of LAN Utility Problems on the “other” side of the wallplate

20. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 20 Service Resources

21. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 21 Service Resources ~$2,400,000 FY1999 networking budget Total staff: 12 people Type of Staff * 6 Network Engineers » Perform design, operation, tuning, trouble- shooting, etc. * 4 Network Technicians » Mainly Layer1 (cabling) construction * 2 Administrative/Support Staff

22. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 22 Funding Model

23. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 23 Typical Utility Funding Models Usage Based * Example: Long distance telephone service » Fees based on minutes of service Flat Fee * Example: Local telephone service » Fees based on number of end-points installed

24. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 24 UCAR Funding Model UCAR has an occupancy cost tax based on square footage of space occupied This tax is levied to fund all service functions For FY2000 this will be $12.51/SF on 543,679 SF for a total of $12.2 million. Networking gets $2.9 million, or 24% of the tax Networking is approximately 2% of the total FY2000 UCAR budget

25. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 25 How Do UCAR’s Costs Compare? In 1996, Gartner Group estimated annual average corporate networking support costs $3,270/desktop In 1996, Forrester Research, Inc. estimated each networked desktop cost $8,000/year to maintain UCAR’s networking cost is $1,200/device/year or $2,200/employee/year

26. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 26 More Information About The UCAR Model A Strategic Plan for UCAR Networking: Welcome to the 21st Century “A Strategic Plan for UCAR Networking: Welcome to the 21st Century” www.scd.ucar.edu/nets/Documents/strategy.html

27. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 27 Conclusion

28. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 28 Conclusion It wouldn’t be very effective or efficient if each Campus Department or Project operated their own water, electricity, or sewer systems, so why does it make sense for them to fund and operate their own LANs?

29. NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research 29 The End!