IOD Information Infrastructure Recharge Program

From IOD SysWiki

1 Building Information Infrastructure
2 Operating Expenses
3 IOD Demographics
4 Monthly Cost Structure Scenarios
5 Catalog of Services
6 Additional Services
7 Implementation
8 Links of Interest

Building Information Infrastructure

Our goal is to build a sustainable information environment which provides Long-Term Support to Ocean Science. We plan to do this by helping meet a number of IT challenges you face:

Compliance with University network security mandates
The need for a reliable and secure data storage, collaboration, and computational environment
Funding agency requirements for data sharing and accessibility

We've spoken with most of you and have received positive responses. Everyone recognizes the need for computer support and services, especially in light of the challenges listed above.

There are a couple of universal concerns a number of you expressed:

Can I afford this?
How do I pay for graduate and undergraduate students?

We address these concerns here, as well as how they have informed our design of this program, and how an integrated information infrastructure (i.e., Computational + Data Storage + Information Management) can help you achieve your scientific goals.

Initially, we planned to have the recharge program in place by October 2007. Due to the complexity of building such a system, these plans have been delayed. The good news is that during this time, you've continued to receive your current level of services with the department picking up the tab.

We started including a line item for computer support in most of your proposals as of March 2007, and the funding agencies have not questioned this, demonstrating that they do recognize the importance of computer and network management in support of research. Because of this, most of you now have the money in your grants to pay for this support. So, in answer to the question "Can I afford to do this?," the answer is "Yes, you can," and more importantly, we believe you can't afford NOT to do this.

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Operating Expenses

As you can see from the table above, the bulk of the costs for the proposed recharge program are in salaries and benefits for three Programmer/Analysts and 25% of an administrative person required to maintain the books.

One of the benefits of this program is the ability to pay for software and printing supplies (e.g., printers, toner, ink, and paper), items not allowable on C&G but ok via this program where costs are based upon effort. If you are not participating in the program, you will have problems paying for these general purpose items in the future. You might need to use discretionary or "Banked" funds to pay for them.

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IOD Demographics

Currently IOD has 186 active members. A few research groups maintain their own IT infrastructure specific to their research missions. These groups won't participate in the recharge facility. At present, there are 152 people (broken out by function, above) participating in the recharge program.

We've excluded volunteers and and short-term visitors in the recharge calculation for two reasons:

They constitute a fluid population that is difficult to track from month to month
They generally don’t put a significant load on the system

The volunteers and visitors who are members of participating groups will be granted full status in the recharge system.

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Monthly Cost Structure Scenarios

Participants will pay 100%, including those funded by 19900 funds and fellowships. Scenaro #1 shows a 100% cost for all categories.

Scenario #2 is consistent with your feedback which expressed concern about paying for Graduate and Under Graduate students. This scenario is our current target.

To address concerns about paying for graduate students, we have initiated discussions with the SIO Department about possible GSR subsidies. The $50/month shown in scenario #3 is an example of how such a subsidy would be applied, i.e., taken off the top of the $163 base fee for grad students.

By way of comparison, MPL charges $462/month per machine in an opt-in program.

IGPP charges $188/month (going up to ~$208/month Spring 2008), Their program is different in scope, e.g., mandatory participation and single platform support (Mac OS X). They subsidized the building of their infrastructure with a NSF ITR award, which also helps to keep their costs down. The existing IOD infrastructure was built with funding provided by the original core PIs, and more recently with help from LTER Information Management. We are leveraging this existing infrastructure, thus will require no upfront buy-in.

The computer support line item used in IOD proposals since March 2007 was $462 (using MPL's number, since it was already vetted by the Campus Recharge Committee). This was changed to conform to scenario #2 numbers ($326/$163) in proposals as of Feb. 2008.

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Catalog of Services

Desktop computer support including security management: Compliance with UCSD Minimum Network Security Standards; Network configuration and management; OS and application patching; Hardware and troubleshooting consultation
Access to shared printers (supplies included)
Data storage and backup: 25GB per user for email, web, desktop/laptop backups; All servers backed-up nightly to secure, offsite location
Coast/IOD email address
Individual and research group website hosting
Individual and research group calendar & collaboration hosting
Access to Reference operating systems and application software: MS Windows XP, RedHat Linux, Mac OSX; MS Office (Mac, Windows), Adobe Creative Suite (w/Acrobat Pro); Matlab campus concurrent site license

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Additional Services

*** The following services are not included in your monthly fees, but are available at additional cost. ***
Hardware server hosting: Your server is hosted in our server room; Full systems administration provided; Data Backup; Cost ~$250/Server/Month + data storage/backup fees (see next)
Additional data storage (over and above the 25GB each user has access to with their participation in the program): Backed-up nightly to off-site facility; Available for desktop mounting using AFP, SMB, and NFS protocols; Cost ~$5/25GB/Month
Data & information management resources: Recharge rates TBD

These services will only be available to individuals and groups participating in the Recharge Program.

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Implementation

Target date 1 July 2008 Participation by PI group only No “Cafeteria-style” support

Proposal costs (including those covered under 19900 funds and fellowships) From $462 (original cost estimate for everyone) To $326 (PI, Staff, Postdocs), $163 (Graduate Students)

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