A brief introduction to Jisc's horizon scanning activity, and our recent work to map out the future of cloud computing for UK further and higher education and skills.

1. Horizon scanning & future trends
Martin Hamilton
Photo credit: CC-BY-NC-ND Flickr user sigurdrHorizon scanning & future trends

2. Horizon scanning & future trends
1. Horizon scanning in context
– Jisc’s vision and mission
– Building on the Janet network & cloud brokerage
2. Future of cloud computing
– Open questions from Jisc’s cloud survey
– Horizon scan report: Potential R&D actions
– Feedback from cloud think tank
– Next steps: Jisc cloud strategy
3. What’s next?
– Other trends and technologies we’re looking at

3. 1. Horizon scanning in context
Horizon scanning & future trends

4. 1. Context
What Jisc does:
› Delivers shared digital infrastructure and services for
universities and colleges
› Brokers sector-wide deals with IT vendors and
commercial publishers
› Provides expert and trusted advice and practical
assistance

5. 1. Context
Mission
To enable people in higher education,
further education and skills in the UK
to perform at the forefront of
international practice by exploiting
fully the possibilities of modern digital
empowerment, content and
connectivity
Vision
To make the UK the most
digitally advanced
education and research
nation in the world

6. 1. Context
› Jisc’s annual
funding

7. 1. Context
› Janet network

8. 1. Context
Netflix
Voicenet
Akamai
Virgin Radio
Bogons
Logicalis UK
Pipex / GXN
BBC
Datahop
InTechnology
INUK
Simplecall
LINX multicast
Gamma
Google
Simplecall
Redstone
Updata
aql
Voicenet
Google
Limelight
Limelight
Akamai
BTnet
Init7
Amazon
Microsoft EU (viaTN)
Telekom Malaysia
Globelynx
10Gbit/s
1Gbit/s
100Gbit/s
GÉANT
GÉANT+
LINX
Microsoft EU (viaTW)
Total external connectivity ≈ 1Tbit/s
Leeds
Akamai
Google
VM for LGfLInTechnology
NHS N3
Exa Networks
Synetrix BBC (HD 4K pilots)
One Connect
Glasgow
&
Edinburgh
HEAnet
BBC (Pacific Quay)
Gamma
BBC (HD 4K pilots)
NHS N3
SWAN (Glas)
SWAN (Edin)
Manchester
Telecity
Harbour
Exch.
Telehouse
North &
West
VM for LGfL
RM for Schools
VM for LGfL
RM for Schools
GlobalTransit
Tata
IXManchester
IXLeeds
GlobalTransit
Level3
GlobalTransit
Level3

9. 1. Context
Jisc brokered cloud deals: Google Apps for Education
» The University of Westminster estimates that it saved £1m by moving to Google Apps for
Education for email and other online collaboration facilities. They also state that “an additional
benefit has been the reduced time spent in systems and user support with a minimal number of
calls for support for such a significant system”, and that moving to the cloud has “liberated staff and
students from the smaller storage limits of the previous in-house solution.”
http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/univofwestminster.pdf
» Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College have also migrated to Google Apps.They observe
that “each year, 20,000 new accounts are created providing 600 terabytes (around 150,000
DVDs worth) of storage in less than five minutes.” Subsequently to this article being written,
Google moved to offering free unlimited storage.
http://www.wlc.ac.uk/college/news/article.asp?newsID=4228

10. 1. Context
Jisc brokered cloud deals: Microsoft Office365
» The University of theWest of London moved its 14,000 students to Office365, and observes that
once a student graduates “they can maintain that Office365 account through the University for
life.We can continue to supply them with information about the University, help them find their
second job, their third job and so on.This isn’t just about collaboration while studying, it’s about
creating a life-long connection between the students and the University.”
http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/university-of-west-london-case-study-office-365
» The University of Dundee migrated all of its 22,000 student accounts to Microsoft’s Office365 for
Education service over a week.They note that this was achieved with zero down time, and estimate
that Office365 “will save us at least £500,000 in infrastructure and staffing over five years.”
http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/university-of-dundee-case-study-office-365
» Now over 100 UK universities using Office365

11. 1. Context
Dogfooding
› We moved
our own core
infrastructure
to AWS
› Estimate that
this saved
>£100K p.a.
› Cloud first /
mobile first
for new stuff
[Image credit:
Mike Jones]

12. 1. Context
Jisc’s Amazon cloud portal
› Monthly invoicing - credit cards are no longer
required for payment
› Itemized billing - consolidated across
users/departments
› Billing inGBP, not dollars
› Setting of budget limits for individual user
accounts or departments
› The retrieval of service usage information within
own areas of responsibility
› Volume-discounts through aggregation across
multiple educational institutions

13. 1. Context
Open questions from Jisc’s recent cloud survey:
› 29% of the CIOs responding to our survey told us that they had no
plans to use public cloud to support research at their institutions
› 31% indicated that they were reluctant to move business
systems to the cloud
› 61% of respondents said that financial aspects of cloud
computing were a major concern
Need to address these in Jisc’s Cloud Strategy (under development)

14. 2. Future of cloud computing
(report & think tank)
Horizon scanning & future trends

15. 2. Future of cloud computing
Photo CC-BY Jisc, from an original by Phil Wolff

16. 2. Future of cloud computing
https://community.jisc.ac.uk/blogs/regulatory-developments

17. 2. Future of cloud computing
https://community.jisc.ac.uk/blogs/regulatory-developments

18. 2. Future of cloud computing
https://community.jisc.ac.uk/blogs/regulatory-developments

19. 2. Future of cloud computing
Think tank feedback:
› Actual and perceived cost issues
around public cloud, e.g. egress
charging versus anecdotal evidence
around “credit card professors”
› Institutions and funders struggling
with shift from capex to opex – RCUK
CloudWG will look at research view
› Need to raise awareness of shared
responsibility for security, role of IT
department to facilitate
Amazon, Microsoft and Google at the cloud think tank

20. 2. Future of cloud computing
Three big ideas in our future of cloud report:
› Cloud as a utility
› App as a Service
› Building capability
Read the report: bit.ly/jisccloudfutures

21. › Cloud as a utility
“Our key recommendation is
that Jisc should work with the
sector and public cloud providers
to make it easier for
institutions to switch between
cloud providers and to migrate
workloads between the public
and private clouds – leveraging
public investment in the Janet
network.”
2. Future of cloud computing

22. 2. Future of cloud computing
http://science.energy.gov/~/media/ascr/pdf/program-
documents/docs/Magellan_Final_Report.pdf
› Cloud as a utility

23. › Cloud as a utility
2. Future of cloud computing
http://science.energy.gov/~/media/ascr/pdf/program-
documents/docs/Magellan_Final_Report.pdf

24. › App as a Service
“Smartphones and tablets have
established a culture of ‘package
once, install a billion times’, but
our colleges and universities
still commonly package
common applications
separately and independently
for distribution to users.This is
inefficient and it diverts highly
skilled IT staff from activities
that could genuinely add value.”
2. Future of cloud computing
See http://blog.martinh.net/2011/11/post-pc-manifesto.html

25. 2. Future of cloud computing
› App as a Service

26. 2. Future of cloud computing
› App as a Service

27. 2. Future of cloud computing
› App as a Service

28. 2. Future of cloud computing
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/11/07/ce
rns-openstack-cloud-to-reach-150000-cores-by-2015/
› Building capability
“It is clear from the results of the
Jisc cloud survey that practice
with established cloud
technologies is still quite
variable. We believe that there is
a need to come together to
share our experiences of what
works, building capability at
institutions and identifying areas
where further intervention
would be helpful.”

29. 2. Future of cloud computing
http://www.datanami.com/2013/09/23/cern_turns_to_google_for_datacenter_direction/
› Building capability

30. 2. Future of cloud computing
Think tank feedback:
› Our efforts would be best focussed on
particular domains and use cases, e.g.
cloud HPC orchestration, canned
workflows,Windows apps
› Lots of interest in OpenStack for
private/community clouds and
Docker for app portability
› Feeling that cloud could potentially free
up significant amounts of IT staff time to work with
educators and researchers
Amazon, Microsoft and Google at the cloud think tank

31. 3. What’s next?
Horizon scanning & future trends

32. 3. What’s next?
Upcoming topics
› Data-driven decision making
› The digital institution
› Open by default
› Personalised learning
› Research in a connected era

33. 3. What’s next?
Photo CC-BY Flickr
user codep8
Data-driven decision making
› How do we move from business
intelligence to the sort of data-led
culture that internet-native firms like
Google and Amazon have built their
decision-making processes around?
–How can we improve our approach to data
gathering and sharing both internally and
externally?

34. That’s all folks…
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY
Martin Hamilton
Futurist, Jisc, London
@martin_hamilton
martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Horizon scanning & future trends