Technology Requirements / Data Center

Tags TechReq

Current State Specification

Miami’s Data Center architecture includes the use of Cisco Nexus switches, 6800 routers, Firewall Services Modules, and F5 for load balancing.  The Firewall and Load balancing are being migrated to Cisco ASA Firewall Service Modules and F5 for layer 3-7 load balancing.

Miami University uses multiple tools that include but not limited to Cisco Prime, Enigma, StruxureWare Data Center Expert, Jamf Pro, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Management (MECM/SCCM), Puppet, Foreman, SNMP, Oracle OEM, and Nagios NTPE agents to monitor systems.

Miami University has standardized on VMware vSphere with vSAN as their standard hypervisor and storage solution on-premise. 

  • Best: Automated/Scripted Install using Puppet or SCCM on CentOS 7 or Windows Server 2022/2019 running on VMware VM
  • Better: Manual Install on CentOS 7 or Windows Server 2016 running on VMware VM
  • Acceptable: VMware appliance (OVF) or AWS AMI running Linux 7, Windows Server 2022/2019/2016 
  • Undesirable: Physical Hardware running  CentOS 7 or Windows Server 2022/2019/2016
  • Unacceptable: Requirements for hypervisor other than VMware, Requirements for OS other than Linux or Windows Server
     

Premise Solution Provider Support Questions 

  1. Describe your strategies for content backup, restoration, and disaster recovery. Outline any additional costs required to provide disaster recovery instances at a remote site.
  2. Provide a list of external management consoles/applications you integrate with and describe how Miami would integrate your application specifically with those applications in our environment. Outline any additional costs or additional software required to implement these integrations.
  3. Outline all costs associated with your application in a virtualized environment or Miami managed cloud environment (AWS, Azure as examples). If the application does not support virtualization, indicate your physical requirements.
  4. If you're providing an appliance solution, specify virtual/physical hardware specifications, power requirements, network requirements, etc.
  5. Specify if your application supports Miami’s load balancing infrastructure. If not, describe how Miami would implement your load balancing solution within our environment. Specify any additional costs associated with providing load balancing within your application.
  6. If you’re providing an application solution, describe the testing environment capabilities you offer. Is there an additional cost for a test environment?

 

 Remotely Hosted Solution (SaaS) Provider Support Questions 

  1. Describe your strategies for content backup, restoration, and disaster recovery. Outline any additional costs required to provide disaster recovery instances at a remote site.
  2. Provide a list of external applications and/or management applications you integrate with and describe how Miami would integrate your application specifically with those applications in our environment. Outline any additional costs or additional software required to implement these integrations.
  3. If the application is hosted remotely, specify what access methods Miami University will use to access the application and data.
  4. Where is your data center located? Is it suitable for Public EDU? What is your security model etc? What are we responsible for? How do we retain our data if we terminate our use of this solution?
  5. Is there an egress fee involved?

 

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