it innovations on a church budget
DESCRIPTION
Not all information technology is costly. There is a wealth of free or nearly free tools available for churches and dioceses to leverage for their mission and operations.TRANSCRIPT
• Introduction• The Pace of Technology
Change• Trends in Technology• The Infrastructure Needs of
a “Typical” Church• Innovations on a Budget—from the Ground Up
• Network and Network Monitoring• Server and Workstation Infrastructure• Applications• Websites, Apps, and Social Media• Collaboration Tools
• The Wrap-up
Why is a Church Bulletin Company
talking about technology?
Innovation &
Budgets
Are not mutually exclusive ideals!
Pace of Technology Change
Technology Change and the Pace of Change
• I love hindsight; I just don’t get it early enough
• Working in the church, we do, however, have the benefit of hindsight
• Techies within the church often lament that we’re slow to adopt technology
• Take the glass half-full few… we’re deliberate, thoughtful, and efficient in how we do it!
Technology Changes that Are Impacting the Church
• Innovations we are leveraging
• Innovations we should be leveraging
• Innovations being inflicted upon us
Innovations that You See?
Server Virtualization
Mobile Technologies
CrowdSourcingE-Mail Marketing
OpenSourceC
lou
d
Co
mp
uti
ng
FREEMIUM
Content Management
So
cial
Med
ia
Apps
Server Consolidation
Corporate CIOs 2010 Top Priorities
• Consolidate IT infrastructure• Significantly upgrade DR and Business
Continuity• Expand use of mobile for employees and
customers• Significantly upgrade security• Implement and expand use of collaborative
capabilities
Typical Church Infrastructure
Typical Church Infrastructure
Survey of 4,000 Catholic ChurchesOperating System %
Windows 7 19%
Windows Vista 12%
Windows XP 53%
Windows 2000 7%
Windows 98/ME < 1%
Windows 95 1%
MACs 7%
Linux < 1%
Observations:
• Churches aren’t as successful as corporations in enforcing standards
• Macs are on the rise in churches and will continue to grow
• The Windows 7 lag in churches probably means an acceleration of Windows 8 when released
Technology Needs
• Internet Access– Firewalls– Sufficient bandwidth– Secure and safe access for staff and parishioners
• File and Print services• Backups and Disaster Recovery• Business Applications (Finance, CMS, School ERP)• Website and Social Media Sites
Commodities
Technology Challenges
• Mishmash of old hardware and software• PC and LAN support capabilities vary dramatically
church by church• Security issues are increasing
– Religious … sites were found to have triple the average # of [virus / malware] threats than adult/pornographic sites.
—Symantec, April 2012
• Data privacy is becoming increasingly important• Network capabilities are not prepared for growth
Network and Security Innovations on a Budget• Separate Wireless for Staff and Parishioners
• Lock down staff access• Segment and limit guest access
• Leverage Cloud-based Network Services for Simple Security and Malware Protection
• OpenDNS—$1250/yr• Dyn.com—$30/month• SpamHero – Spam filtering for $5/month for 100,000 e-mail messages
• Open source tool with a freemium model
• Nagios XI premium verison is free for 7 or less nodes
• Robust network monitoring
• Event monitoring• Batch monitoring
with a little effort
Network and Security Innovations on a Budget
• OpenVPN—Open Source VPN Solution• Proxy Server
• Squid Proxy is my personal favorite, squid-cache.org/• Reduces bandwidth plus some content control and reporting
• Drive Encryption• BitLocker—comes with Windows 7 Ultimate or Software
Assurance Subscription• Starting with OS X 10.7—Full Disk Encryption now available
Hardware Innovations on a Budget• Virtualization
• Start with server virtualization and then evaluate workstation virtualization
• VMWare Vsphere Hypervisor (ESXi)• Free for 32 Gig of memory or less
• Benefits:• Abstracts the servers from the hardware• Move servers to solve hardware and
capacity issues• Introduces simple backup and recovery
solutions
• LPi’s server infrastructure was 48 physical servers in 2009
• We’re at 18 now• Each of our print facilities had between 12 and 15
physical servers. Now, they’re going down to 2• Each server runs at less than
50% capacity• VCB Backups copied to the
other server nightly• No hardware maintenance• LOM / iLO / ipmi
Hardware Innovations on a BudgetCase Study at Liturgical Publications
• Old workstations make great dumb terminals• Reuse donated or old equipment while creating at least
OS-level standards• Remove the hard drives, Optical drive, and fans and you
have a dumb terminal• Remote access, remote updates not available on the
VMWare server• Lowers support cost and centralizes administration
• Augment VMWare with remote desktop solutions:• I love Citrix, but it’s expensive• Openthinclient.org with VMWare Vsphere is a free
alternative
Hardware Innovations on a BudgetCase Study at Liturgical Publications
Hardware Innovations on a Budget
• Cloud-based Backup Solutions• Dropbox• Mozy
• Disk-based Backup Systems• Disk mirroring• Disk-to-disk backups with physical swapping
• Benefits• Access your data anytime and anywhere• Syncs your files to all your devices• Backs up your files to the Web
• Costs:• Free for < 2 Gig of data• 100 Gig is $99 / year• Team Dropbox starts at $795/year
Cloud-based Computing• Removes infrastructure support, OS support, application
upgrades• Anywhere, anytime access• Pay-as-you-go and pay-as-you-grow service• Browser-based, does not require anything but a Web
browser to run. Should be mobile enabled• No upgrades to perform. You’re always on the latest version• Backup and Disaster Recovery become the vendor’s
responsibility
• E-mail is a core communication requirement that many churches have not yet addressed
• Churches should not:– Have their staff use their personal e-mail addresses– Try to implement their own e-mail server
• Churches should:– Leverage readily available cloud-based e-mail services
• Gmail—Free via Google Apps for Non-profits• Office 365—$4/user/month
– Leverage diocese e-mail services if they’re available– If not using a cloud-based email, look at outsourcing SMTP services to companies
like SendGrid
Application Innovations on a BudgetSoftware as a Service (SAAS)
• E-mail Marketing Programs make an rich HTML e-mail and e-mail list management simple
• MailChimp is my favorite as it’s free for lists under 2,000
• VerticalResponse and Constant Contact are good, cost-effective alternatives
Application Innovations on a BudgetE-mail Newsletters
Church Management Systems areMoving to the Cloud
• They’re just starting to move to the Cloud• Marketing hyperbole—CMS’s that claim
they’re in the Cloud by offering Terminal Services or Citrix-based solutions
• ParishSoft is potentially the only Catholic-focused CMS that currently offers a Cloud-based solution
Websites:• Are you really still hosting your own website?• Remember it’s not an IT Development Project it’s an
ongoing Content Management responsibility.• For the “average” church, don’t build your own. Leverage
one of these providers: http://catholictechtalk.com/website-builders/.
Application Innovations on a BudgetWebsites
Parishioner Engagement:• Yes, you should have a Facebook Page, but for
marketing your diocese or church• Look to parishioner engagement-focused systems like
LPi’s WeGather (free) or FlockNote ($13–$100/month) for more
• Online Giving – What does your diocese recommend?
Application Innovations on a BudgetCollaboration Tools
Collaboration Tools:• Diocese Video Conferencing—great idea, but start with Google+
Hangouts first• Getting the budget for a good video conferencing system is easy
compared to changing your culture to use it• For IT Projects, check out Redmine.org• Extend this group here
– Where do you all connect and share information online?– Any plans for CTMag discussion forums?
Application Innovations on a BudgetCollaboration Tools
The Wrap-up• Open Source, SAAS, and Cloud Computing bear serious
investigations in many areas• Don’t be an “early adopter.” Strive only for silver or
bronze• Remember software is sold not purchased. Do your
homework before making a buying decision• Leverage hindsight by looking at what corporations and
other non-profits have already done• Share with each other. You have a strong community
here. Figure out how to connect online; not just connect once per year