ISC Cloud First Update
February 2018
In this update, we focus on Cloud First team reintegration, the program retrospective lunchtime learning video, recent progress, new web content, and upcoming cloud-related events.
Cloud First Team Reintegration
With the success of ISC’s Cloud First program, we decided that going forward the best way to expand the experience and learnings from the work accomplished was to embed the Cloud First team back into their respective organizations. While the named Cloud First team will no longer exist, our Cloud First strategy remains ISC’s primary strategy, using all of the tools, frameworks, and technologies identified by the team.
Cloud First Program Retrospective Video Available
In December, the Cloud First team hosted a program retrospective lunchtime learning event, reviewing activities and accomplishments to date. In case you missed it, a video of the retrospective is available. Materials from previous events are also available on the Cloud First website.
Recent Progress
- Online Giving update – After release of the Online Giving application, the year-end campaign was monitored to ensure the application performed properly, and a marked increase in both participation and revenue over the previous year was noted.
- Infrastructure as a Service – ISC’s Platforms Infrastructure team has completed contract discussions with VMware and will move forward with participation in the East Coast pilot of the new VMware on AWS service. The team has begun two proof of concept activities, looking at VMware on AWS versus AWS-native, and has selected applications to try out in both environments (ATLAS and an administrative app used for O365). This work will be done in test environments and will not impact production.
New Web Content
We are excited to unveil the following new content:
- Cloud Infrastructure Overview – Diagrams detailing ISC’s AWS infrastructure used for our greenfield/redesigned applications for cloud-native use, and the path a user’s request would take when using ISC’s cloud-native applications.
- Cloud Infrastructure Tools – Consumer Reports-style summary of the cloud infrastructure tools evaluated by ISC with ratings for key capabilities, community and modules, stability and viability, and support and operations.
- Cloud Providers – A summary of the cloud providers available for hosting infrastructure or applications at Penn and with whom the University currently has contracts. For each provider, key details are provided, including general information, auto scaling, networking, active directory, ease of use, cost, documentation, notable case studies, and miscellaneous information.
- Cloud Automation Pipeline – Three workflows showing how ISC’s cloud automation pipeline builds components including the underlying cluster, deployment of the application, and database provisioning.
Upcoming Cloud-Related Events
Following are upcoming Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings that will feature cloud-related presentations:
- Developer SIG (2/19) – Implement Forth in Python: Joe Dougherty of Wharton Research Data Services will give a brief overview of the Forth programming language, and make the case that the required primitives map cleanly to built-in Python data structures. Then the group will look at what it takes to implement a Forth-style interpreter in Python. For more information about Dev-SIG, including links to subscribe to the listserv, join the Slack channel, or contact the leads, see the Dev-SIG page on the website.
- Cloud-SIG (2/21) – Azure overview and demo: An overview of using Azure as a PaaS and IaaS provider at Penn, with a specific focus on comparing advantages and disadvantages to AWS. There will be an opportunity for open questions as well as a demo of Azure Site Recovery, an essential disaster recovery service unique to Azure. For more information about Cloud-SIG, including links to subscribe to the listserv, join the Slack channel, or contact the leads, see the Cloud-SIG page on the website.
Visit the Cloud First Website
For more on ISC's Cloud First strategy, including links to updates, presentations, and resources, please visit the
Cloud First website.
We look forward to sharing more progress with you soon!
The ISC Leadership Team
