GOVERNMENT

Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

Virtualization has made us more efficient and agile. That means were able to devote more of DODDs resources to serving the citizens, providing services directly and through the various providers we work with across the state. Moving forward, we now have even greater capabilities to continue to improve DODDs abilities to assist the developmentally disabled citizens in the great state of Ohio.  K ipp Bertke, IT manager for infrastructure and operations, Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

Improving IT Services Through Virtualization Helps Those Who Cant Help Themselves
More Efficient Help for the Developmentally Disabled
The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) is charged with overseeing a statewide system of support services for some 80,000 people with developmental disabilities. The state provides early intervention and special education services for children, and a range of adult services to support training, employment and residential needs. Like state agencies everywhere, the DODD has been budget challenged in recent times. When new CIO Bryant Young joined the agency, he wisely reasoned that investing in a more responsive, agile IT solution could boost productivity and automate processes that had gone unchanged for too long. Upgrading the IT infrastructure was named one of 10 DODD priorities. The problem was the agencys infrastructure was already way overdue for an upgrade.

K E Y H I G H L I G H TS Challenge
Replace aging infrastructure with virtualized environment to improve services and enable faster application development.

Aging Systems Couldnt Meet Service Demands

When Kipp Bertke joined the IT team at the DODD, the agency had an aging server farm of 50 production servers. Online systems had become antiquated and were unable to provide the services required by users throughout the state. The applications development team was slowed by inadequate infrastructure resources. It took too long to provision servers for major development projects. We werent able to scale for pre-production environments, and that led to problems and delays in code development, explains Bertke, the agencys IT manager for infrastructure and operations. Finally, there was effectively no disaster recovery capability just a plan on paper that the IT team called the cookbook. It consisted of instructions to rebuild physical servers, and those instructions had never been tested. Even on paper, the process could take weeks. A disaster causing actual system-wide IT failure would have very real human impact. In addition to our 10 developmental centers, were also responsible for making sure providers throughout the state get the support they need to receive funding from the federal government, says Brian Brothers, network administrator manager. If our services were to go down, and we couldnt ensure reimbursement for Medicaid funds, it would have a severe impact on the providers and the developmentally disabled they serve. Some providers might be forced to shut their doors.

Solution
Virtualization with VMware has enabled the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities to speed application development, launch new projects, improve service levels and implement a fully tested disaster recovery solution 100 percent of mission-critical servers, 98 percent of all servers, virtualized

Results
Fully tested, active disaster recovery solution implemented DODD received two grants for energy efficiency, based on reduction in power use resulting from virtualization Online systems provide faster, more reliable service

Starting Anew with a Virtual Environment

Part of the new incoming CIOs vision was to create a more flexible, responsive IT environment in order to improve service delivery. To do this, we had to create our own private cloud based on a fully virtualized infrastructure that included servers, desktops, network and SAN, says Bertke.

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V M WA R E AT WO RK VMware vSphere
- VMware vCenter Server - VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

Bertke led a team of just four agency employees to fulfill that vision. None of them were extensively experienced in virtualization at the beginning of the project. The team spent nine months planning. We knew we needed to create a flexible environment that would enable agile IT operations and new development, he says. We didnt start out thinking in terms of specific technology; we articulated a vision and designed towards it. Their strategy was to begin by building a brand new, green field virtual environment, then migrating existing operations over to it. VMware was already a strong partner with the state of Ohio, so the team quickly gravitated to taking advantage of that. They acquired VMware licenses through OARnet, a state agency that supports technology services for Ohios government and education agencies. That helped DODD stretch its budget so that it could afford everything it needed to rebuild the IT infrastructure from the ground up. The nine-month planning phase was so effective that it actually took the team less time to implement the plan than they had anticipated. Within one month, they turned-up the new virtual environment on new HP 7000 blade servers running VMware vSphere virtual machines, supported by a Compellent Storage Center storage area network (SAN). We targeted the servers we wanted to virtualize and within six months we had migrated 100 percent of those servers, and more than 98 percent of all our servers (exceptions were backup and fax servers), over to the new virtual environment, Bertke notes.

Deployment E n viro n ment Primary application

VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure

Primary hardware
HP ProLiant bl490c blade servers * HP ProLiant DL380G5 servers * Compellent Storage Center SAN

Primary software
VMware vSphere 4.0 VMware vCenter 4.1 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Veeam Backup and Replication Veeam Monitor

Active DR Implemented with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

Newer HP G5 servers were upgraded and re-purposed and moved off-site to create an active Disaster Recovery site; with a DR solution driven by VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager software. The backup site also has a Compellent SAN. The new private cloud system uses the suite of Veeam tools including Backup and Replication software for backup and Veeam Monitor for system monitoring. A VMware Technical Account Manager and a local partner helped DODD develop the disaster recovery plan and architecture. The VMware team members were important partners who were there with us through the whole process, Bertke says. We went through a lot of iterations in planning, but once we had a plan in place, the implementation was very easy to execute. Weve had to make very few adjustments. The agency has tested its disaster recovery solution twice. The second test involved 50 production servers, which were successfully failed over to the remote site in about 90 minutes. If we do have a true disaster some day, our DR site becomes our production site. We expect to be up and running in less than two hours, Bertke notes. DODDs disaster recovery site doesnt just sit idle awaiting a disaster that may never come. Instead, the backup site actively supports the application development team on a daily basis.

New Confidence, Capability in IT

The benefits of DODDs new virtual infrastructure are beginning to be felt throughout the agency. Early on, it took a lot of work to convince all of our teams that things would be better under the virtual environment, Bertke notes. There was definitely apprehension among the application developers. But now they know we can spin up an environment for them much faster than before. To support development of a new high-priority Cost Projection Tool for DODD, the IT team provisioned 50 development servers in less than a week. One of the prime

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benefits to this whole effort is how much faster we can respond, which translates directly to improving what the application team can do. They can develop, test and roll out applications far faster. Weve improved quality, speed of delivery and our agility. Online servicesthe starting point for many families seeking assistance and gateway for employees at the development centerswere also improved. They have become more reliable and responsive. The new infrastructure has prolonged the life of the datacenter by reducing power requirements and the footprint of the server farm. The power savings resulting from virtualization led to two grantsone from the State of Ohio for $71,000 and the second from American Electric Power for $15,000to help fund the transition. And at long last, the agency knows that it has a truly agile private cloud infrastructure with a viable Disaster Recovery solution in place to support the business. The changes were very timely, because DODD had a portfolio of critical applications that it needed to develop and deploy, and it couldnt have happened without the virtualized environment, says Bertke.

Next Challenge: Desktop Virtualization

Bertke says the teams virtualization efforts to date have accomplished about 75 percent of its original two-year plan. The remaining 25 percent will involve virtualizing desktops for employees throughout the agencys headquarters and in the 10 development centers scattered across the state. The plan is to replace aging desktop PCs with HP thin clients, which will access virtual desktops created with VMware View software. The virtual desktops will all be running in the agencys main data center, where it will be far easier to maintain them. Physical desktops are difficult to manage, especially when theyre dispersed across the state. It takes an army, says Robbert Murray, Network Engineer. Managing desktop images on a virtual server including becomes much easier. We can standardize applications. We can deploy patches and updates more efficiently. This will reduce the resources and the time we have to spend on desktop management. Virtual desktops are also more secure. With traditional PCs, you have no control over how data is managed or transferred, says Murray. With virtual desktops, well have much more control over whats done with the data. Most of the agencys desktops are four to five years old and already due for a refresh. So moving to thin clients will significantly reduce the agencys hardware costs for the desktop. Power consumption for thin clients is also significantly less. All told, the team will deploy 1,500 virtualized desktops that will replace 99 percent of DODDs existing desktops. VMware is going to be an important partner in making that happen, says Bertke. In planning the desktop project, the IT team studied how VMware View manages software images and delivers applications. It evaluated SANs to support the desktops and ultimately chose one featuring solid state storage. We knew that we couldnt replace someones physical desktop and give them something that didnt actually work better for them. Thats our goalto not just replace their existing desktop, but to improve the users experience with it.

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Improved Service to Disabled Citizens

Overall, Bertke says, DODDs virtualization initiative means IT can do more, do it more quickly, and with improved quality, than it could while managing a traditional physical server and desktop environment. Creating a private cloud with VMwares virtualization capabilities is more efficient and effective than ever. The bottom line: Virtualization has made us more efficient and agile. That means were able to devote more of DODDs resources to serving the citizens, providing services directly and through the various providers we work with across the state. Moving forward, we now have even greater capabilities to continue to improve DODDs abilities to assist the developmentally disabled citizens in the great state of Ohio.

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