LYT Task 3 1
WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY IT LYT2 CURRENT AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
TASK 3
Seabreeze: Virtualization as a New Wind In Its Sails
There is no doubt that the city of Seabreeze, CA is a beautiful place to live. The location
on the Pacific Coast has brought wonderful weather, a temperate climate and citizens that enjoy
both aforementioned weather variables. Unfortunately, the economic climate has not been as
favorable and as a result, the operating budget is feeling pressure from both the lack of
discretionary income of our citizens as well as the state having to fill its budget deficit. This
burden can be alleviated by elevating our city to a more modern computing structure, saving not
only money but resources and manpower.
The virtualization plan envisioned utilizes Amazon Web Services for State and Local
Governments. Selection of AWS is done in part because of its being “named as a leader in the
Infrastructure as a Service Magic Quadrant report for the 3rd consecutive year” (“Amazon Web
Services”, 2015). The nuances of hosting government data are also taken into account, as Amazon
has specialized sectors that meet the regulatory requirements of government agencies (“AWS
GovCloud (US) Region Product Details”, 2015). Seabreeze will be able to host all 72 servers, as
well data storage, with Amazon and then utilize a virtual desktop interface for all 350 end-user
machines using Amazon Workspaces.
Why Virtualization?
Virtualization and cloud computing are relatively new terms in computing, but the
concepts have been in use for years. Currently at Seabreeze, all of our physical servers that house
all of our data are sitting within the confines of the city’s IT department. For a user to access that
data, they need to be on Seabreeze’s network using a machine that has been granted access to the
data. Those connections need to be maintained and updates as servers change and upgrade.
Maintaining the physical servers as well at the network lines that keep all the systems talking to
, LYT Task 3 2
each other is a formidable and expensive task. Virtualization helps ease the load by having
servers share physical space, making multiple servers essentially function as one larger server.
Using virtual servers in a cloud environment is akin to shopping at a wholesale location like
Costco or Sam’s Club: we can take advantage of the exceptional buying power of Amazon by
sharing server space to mitigate costs. It also allows for central management of the servers,
keeping the administration costs low and all rolled into one subscription-type cost for our servers.
The benefits of virtualization span multiple facets. For the city of Seabreeze, the cost
savings are formidable and come at the right time. CWG found that “organizations say they have
cut IT costs by 13 percent since moving to the cloud and they expect up to 25 percent savings in
four years” (as cited in Wong, 2012). This is because not only is the money savings in the physical
hardware upfront costs, but also maintenance and repair. A municipality has to budget some sort of
emergency fund if a tier one server that is integral to daily operations fails. When you are on a hosted
cloud environment, the often exorbitant cost is handled by the provider. You also only pay for what you
use. When you are planning a network, you often have to plan for the maximum usage; hypothetically all
350 computers could be on and being used at the same time, so network connectivity and server access
has to accommodate that. Instead of having 350 connections available at any given time, we can utilize
auto scaling so that capacity is dynamically increases as connections come in, so we are only paying for
the capacity we are actually using, not what we could be using (“Auto Scaling”, 2015). This subscription
model also works with server space; as servers are needed we can enable them, and then later disable
them, without having to depreciate the physical value of the asset and dispose of them (“AWS GovCloud
(US) Region Product Details”, 2015). Another huge benefit is that we will not need to change our
end user’s machine structure, as the virtual desktops can function on any device. With Amazon
Workspaces, the ability to use any device and costs approximately half of most virtual desktop
solutions in the marketplace (“Amazon Workspaces). This will assure minimal training costs to
have users get accustomed to new machines and software; they can keep using their current
computer and in the future, we could even move to a “bring-your-own-device” methodology,
WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY IT LYT2 CURRENT AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
TASK 3
Seabreeze: Virtualization as a New Wind In Its Sails
There is no doubt that the city of Seabreeze, CA is a beautiful place to live. The location
on the Pacific Coast has brought wonderful weather, a temperate climate and citizens that enjoy
both aforementioned weather variables. Unfortunately, the economic climate has not been as
favorable and as a result, the operating budget is feeling pressure from both the lack of
discretionary income of our citizens as well as the state having to fill its budget deficit. This
burden can be alleviated by elevating our city to a more modern computing structure, saving not
only money but resources and manpower.
The virtualization plan envisioned utilizes Amazon Web Services for State and Local
Governments. Selection of AWS is done in part because of its being “named as a leader in the
Infrastructure as a Service Magic Quadrant report for the 3rd consecutive year” (“Amazon Web
Services”, 2015). The nuances of hosting government data are also taken into account, as Amazon
has specialized sectors that meet the regulatory requirements of government agencies (“AWS
GovCloud (US) Region Product Details”, 2015). Seabreeze will be able to host all 72 servers, as
well data storage, with Amazon and then utilize a virtual desktop interface for all 350 end-user
machines using Amazon Workspaces.
Why Virtualization?
Virtualization and cloud computing are relatively new terms in computing, but the
concepts have been in use for years. Currently at Seabreeze, all of our physical servers that house
all of our data are sitting within the confines of the city’s IT department. For a user to access that
data, they need to be on Seabreeze’s network using a machine that has been granted access to the
data. Those connections need to be maintained and updates as servers change and upgrade.
Maintaining the physical servers as well at the network lines that keep all the systems talking to
, LYT Task 3 2
each other is a formidable and expensive task. Virtualization helps ease the load by having
servers share physical space, making multiple servers essentially function as one larger server.
Using virtual servers in a cloud environment is akin to shopping at a wholesale location like
Costco or Sam’s Club: we can take advantage of the exceptional buying power of Amazon by
sharing server space to mitigate costs. It also allows for central management of the servers,
keeping the administration costs low and all rolled into one subscription-type cost for our servers.
The benefits of virtualization span multiple facets. For the city of Seabreeze, the cost
savings are formidable and come at the right time. CWG found that “organizations say they have
cut IT costs by 13 percent since moving to the cloud and they expect up to 25 percent savings in
four years” (as cited in Wong, 2012). This is because not only is the money savings in the physical
hardware upfront costs, but also maintenance and repair. A municipality has to budget some sort of
emergency fund if a tier one server that is integral to daily operations fails. When you are on a hosted
cloud environment, the often exorbitant cost is handled by the provider. You also only pay for what you
use. When you are planning a network, you often have to plan for the maximum usage; hypothetically all
350 computers could be on and being used at the same time, so network connectivity and server access
has to accommodate that. Instead of having 350 connections available at any given time, we can utilize
auto scaling so that capacity is dynamically increases as connections come in, so we are only paying for
the capacity we are actually using, not what we could be using (“Auto Scaling”, 2015). This subscription
model also works with server space; as servers are needed we can enable them, and then later disable
them, without having to depreciate the physical value of the asset and dispose of them (“AWS GovCloud
(US) Region Product Details”, 2015). Another huge benefit is that we will not need to change our
end user’s machine structure, as the virtual desktops can function on any device. With Amazon
Workspaces, the ability to use any device and costs approximately half of most virtual desktop
solutions in the marketplace (“Amazon Workspaces). This will assure minimal training costs to
have users get accustomed to new machines and software; they can keep using their current
computer and in the future, we could even move to a “bring-your-own-device” methodology,
