A presentation at Networkshop46, by Josh Fry

1. Jisc cloud services:
helping our
members deliver
their cloud
strategies
Josh Fry,
Enterprise director, Jisc

2. Overview
Jisc – a
Cloud first
organisation
How we apply the
advantages of Cloud
to remain agile
Liberate and
AMF Cloud
architecture
walkthrough
A technical overview of
how Cloud underpins
Liberate and AMF
Jisc Cloud
Services
A look at Jisc Cloud
Services: how we are
helping members to move
to the Cloud

3. Often asked for examples of organisations who have moved
to the Cloud.
Eureka moment: “Yes!, Jisc are a cloud first organisation”
For me a case of not seeing the wood for the trees.
A priority for Jisc is responding to member needs rapidly;
developing services and solutions through applying agile and
iterative processes.
The application of Cloud as an enabling technology enables
Jisc to leverage the benefits of hyperscale computing; SaaS
and PaaS to underpin a wide range of services.

4. Cloud services we use as enablers
> Office 365
> Salesforce
> Eventsforce
> Remedyforce (internal and external
facing service desks)
> Microsoft Teams
> Power BI
> Data Warehouse (Amazon Redshift)
> HR System
> SharePoint apps
> Finance system
> Moving to a soft phone system
> Agile working hot desking software
> Risk Management software
> PM/Agile tools: Pivotal Tracker, Trello, JIRAetc
> Dev ops tools: Jenkins, Git, Docker etc

5. Jisc services underpinned by Cloud

6. >Overview of how Cloud underpins Liberate and AMF
>Example of how Jisc are agnostic in approach using both
AWS and Azure; leveraging their respective advantages
Acknowledgment:
Liberate and AMF Cloud solution design, architecture and
implementation; and the following technical information
courtesy of:
Dr Rhys Smith
Chief technical architect, trust and identity @Jisc
Liberate and AMF technical walk through

7. >Web-based federated identity and SSO
>Uses SAML
>1,130 members; 5,023 entities
>Connected globally via eduGAIN –
worldwide inter-federation with around 40 countries
UK Federation

8. >Jisc’s new Cloud Managed Services platform for
identity and access management
We run an organisation’s:
>UK federation (SAML) IdP
>eduroam home and visitor
>govroam home and visitor
>Assent IdP/SP
>Web proxy
Liberate

9. >AMF and Liberate use two major cloud providers for public
facing services
>Resilient, elastic, scalable; auto backup and archiving
and a global distributed architecture
>UK federation metadata signing uses a Hybrid model running
security critical services in our own secure data centres
Applying Cloud

10. UK
Federation
High availability
CRITICAL 100%
uptime desired.
Multiple public facing
systems:
Ukf Metadata distribution:
~50-100TB traffic a year

11. UK
Federation
High availability
CRITICAL 100%
uptime desired.
Multiple public facing
systems:
CDS discovery
Service: ~ 4 million
Discovery Service flows
a month

12. UK federation – Designing for High Availability
Azure Traffic Manager
(Priority Routing)
Azure Load Balancer
RHEL 7
VM
RHEL 7
VM
North Europe Region West Europe Region
Azure Load Balancer
RHEL 7
VM
RHEL 7
VM

15. Liberate
> Requirements:
> Multiple backend systems
– Custom orchestration infrastructure
– Configuration Database
– Statistics Database
> Multiple Public facing systems
– One per service per organization
– Potentially hundreds of
(t2.micro)VMs
> Backend:
> All services running on RHEL 7 VMs
in one AWS DC
> Databases are PostgreSQL and
Aurora RDS instances
> Frontend:
> Managed services run on Debian
VMs, controlled by our custom
orchestration platform, interacts
with AWS APIs

19. Jisc Cloud services
How do I take
advantage of
the Cloud?
Hi! We are
here and
ready to help!
+ =
Great!

20. Jisc Cloud Services
Advice,
Consultancy
and
Professional
Services
Partners
and
Platforms
Connectivity
and
Frameworks
Hyperscale
and Public
Cloud

21. Cloud Journey
Migration
Plan
Test
Execution
Review
Discovery
Readiness
Goals
Timescales
Requirements
Cloud
Strategy
Roadmap
Costs
Resources
Risks
Design
Architecture
Selection of
cloud provider
Operating model

22. Jisc Cloud Services
Advice and guidance to
our members
Jisc consultants and subject
specialists & partner led
consultancy.
Cloud strategy formulation.
Cloud readiness assessments.
Cloud security and GDPR.
Cloud procurement advice.
Cloud implementation services.
Sector insights: facilitating
inter-member Cloud strategy
knowledge sharing and
collaboration.
Extensive partner eco-system
Cloud platforms.
Shared Data Centres.
Chosen for focus on Research and
Education.
Frameworks; for direct selection, or
mini completion.
Highly expert supporting cloud
services and technologies.
Managed services and professional
services.
IaaS, PaaS, SaaS: heterogenous
platform support. Many supporting
no egress charges for data.
World class cloud connectivity
Highspeed peering to global and
UK cloud providers; highspeed
peering with Google, Microsoft and
Amazon.
Microsoft Azure Express Route
circuits: for dedicated Layer 2
private connections to Azure Cloud.
GÉANT IaaS framework.
Discounts available via GÉANT for
cloud services and network egress
charges.
Cloud partners available via G-
Cloud framework for fast track
procurement.
A strong voice for
our members
Strong working relationships with
the major cloud providers; high
level contact with senior education
and cloud leadership teams within
Azure, AWS & Google.
Advising how they can bring their
cloud service offering to
focus around the needs of the
community.
Providing feedback with our voice
of a trusted advisor for our
community.
Ensuring an agnostic and
balanced relationship to all
providers.
.
Advice,
Consultancy
and
Professional
Services
Partners
and
Platforms
Connectivity
and
Frameworks
Hyperscale
and
Public Cloud

23. Jisc Cloud Services
Advice,
Consultancy
and
Professional
Services
Partners
and
Platforms
Connectivity
and
Frameworks
Hyperscale
and
Public Cloud
Managed
Services
Current Next

24. Managed Cloud ideation …

25. Josh Fry
Enterprise director
Josh.fry@jisc.ac.uk
I have been…
Lumen House Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11
T 01235 822 177
customerservices@jisc.ac.uk
jisc.ac.uk

26. Any questions? /
Thank you