Cloud Computing Systems Case

¶ … universities are migrating services to cloud-based systems. One recent successful cloud project is Oxford University's use of the HEAT cloud cluster. The goal of the cloud project was to "provide better IT support for 30,000 students and more than 6,000 members of staff," (Curtis, 2015). Prior to using the cloud-based systems, the university had relied on multiple, discreet and separate IT service desks. These desks operated independently of one another, disabling interconnectivity and hindering sharing of services and communications.

The staff were either specializes or support staff, and the result was students and staff who had become "confused and frustrated" when trying to solve problems (Curtis, 2015). Consolidation was of course not necessarily dependent on cloud systems, but in this case, cloud services did provide precisely the tools needed to help Oxford University become more streamlined in its IT. The primary rationale for selecting cloud services was to promote efficiency and consistency throughout a major university: which includes 100 different department as 38 different colleges throughout the city of Oxford.

A "single toolset" was required, offering a "unified service desk" that would help the end user experience (Curtis, 2015). Cloud tools were the logical solution. The procurement process lasted almost a year, and SaaS vendor HEAT was ultimately selected after "rigorous" testing by various IT employees and stakeholders (Curtis, 2015). The goal was choosing a tool that would suit the needs of all users, while remaining at its core highly functional and effective.

HEAT was also selected due to its products and services being able to blend in with the organizational culture of Oxford (Curtis, 2015). The benefits of selecting HEAT include the ability for end users to access al IT service features directly from web browsers, which aids foreign students who may be away from campus or who may have unique types of technologies (Curtis, 2015). Likewise, HEAT allowed for post-graduate students to access services remotely.

Other benefits include the ability to use multiple user profiles, depending on the different roles a person may have on campus. For instance, some students are also teacher assistants or staff members. Their IT needs and issues will change depending on what role they are in at the time. Cloud services, and HEAT in particular, allowed for greater user flexibility. There are few drawbacks associated either with the selection of cloud services in general or with HEAT in particular, although as with all systems, glitches occasionally arise.

Cloud services provide a distinct advantage in offering the ability for greater remote assistance. As a SaaS cloud application service, HEAT "eliminates the need to install and run applications on individual computers," which is of great benefit to the large numbers of staff and students accessing the system ("IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Explained and Compared," 2015). In fact, there are also security benefits to having users not install the proprietary software on their personal systems. This saves considerable time and prevents problems related to installation or configuration (Sylos, 2013).

Upgrades and new releases of products can be instantaneous. User interfaces become familiar throughout different products within the same system line. The only potential disadvantage is that if the cloud service products were to be compromised as in a security breach, there could be numerous casualties and the problem might be costly. However, the same security risks would have existed had proprietary software been installed on individual user computers.

Moreover, SaaS allows for the streamlining of services and support systems, which was the main goal of Oxford's cloud project to begin with. Everything from email to collaborative services can be centrally managed by the vendor. Other advantages to using HEAT as SaaS service is reduced cost, especially when considering the scale of Oxford's operation. HEAT, like many other SaaS cloud systems, offers scalability and integration with other products and services even if they may be within the same brand category (Sylos, 2013).

Oxford would have considered multiple options during its 11-month procurement process, including alternatives to Cloud systems entirely. However, ITSM, ServiceNow, and Cherwell ended up being the front runner considerations because of the needs assessment. Non-cloud systems would have been considered as an alternative for a smaller college. Perhaps some colleges that are part of the Oxford consortium might install proprietary software for specific needs, such as statistics processing or database management. However, the only university-wide systems that could be viable in this situation would have been cloud-based.

Having thousands of people install the same software on multiple devices and keeping that software updated.