mpma 2013 - leveraging the cloud for museum collections

© 2013 Cloud Technology Partners, Inc. / Confidential

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Cloud Technology Partners / October 1, 2013 / www.cloudtp.com

Kacy Clarke

[email protected]

Mountains Plains Museums Association 2013 Conference

Collections Management and the Cloud


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• What Is Cloud Computing?

• How Can Museums Use the Cloud for Collections?

• What about Security?

• A Few Cautionary Notes

Agenda


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Prior to the turn of the

last century, every

industry had to have their

own power plant: water,

steam, animal power, gas,

etc. Even the advent of

electricity had companies

building their own power

plants: 50,000 of them

What is Cloud Computing? – Let’s Start with a History Lesson

Nicolas

Tesla

Thomas

Edison

Burden’s Wheel

IN 1851, In a field beside an ironworks in upstate New York, Henry Burden built a magnificent machine to power his factory. In 50 years it was gone.

Carr, Nicholas , The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, 2008

Samuel

Insull

Then came the Disruptive Innovators


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Utility Power Started Small: Edison Wanted to Light Homes

Every neighborhood had their own power plant

Good, But Limitations: - DC couldn’t go far distances - Small turbines - Lighting only - Industry kept building their own


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Tesla and Insull Wanted Utility Power for All: Industry and Homes

Key Innovations: - Alternating Current

for transmission - Large Turbines - Demand Meters - Load Balancing - Utility Power

replaced Individual Power Plants

True Economies of Scale


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• Cloud computing and the Internet are to Information Technology, what utility power generation and distribution are to the Electrical Industry

• Focus is on Economies of Scale and Efficiency

• Virtualization of Resources: Compute, Network, Storage to be shared by all consumers with

• Utility computing with three delivery models to serve different uses : Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service

• Enables Pay as You Go usage , demand metering and Load Balancing between consumers (multi-tenancy)

• Ubiquitous access – ability to get access to data and systems from anywhere (with proper security)

What is Cloud Computing?

Key Innovations: - Virtualization - Internet Connectivity - Elasticity - On Demand Automation


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• Businesses and Organizations spend well over $1 Trillion each year on Hardware, Software

• On average, systems in a private data center are only used 10% - 15% of capacity

• World class Cloud data centers are much more efficient and therefore much greener

It’s All About Economies of Scale


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What is Cloud Computing?


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• Myth 1: You still don’t know what the cloud is

– Yes, you do, most likely. Some of the cloud technologies that the majority of organizations have used at some stage include Dropbox, SalesForce, Amazon Cloud Player, Facebook, Office 365 and Google

• Myth 2: I should make the move to reduce costs

– Probably but it’s not all about cutting costs. There are many other benefits that should not be ignored, including reliability, scalability, security and remote access.

• Myth 3: The public cloud is the cheapest means of obtaining IT services

– Maybe, but there are other options: hosted private cloud, Software as a Service, etc.

• Myth 4: My critical applications and the cloud won’t mix

– Major businesses and governments with mission critical applications are moving to the cloud. There are very workable options for organizations of varying availability requirements and security needs

• Myth 5: It’s unreliable and insecure

– The systems in your server closet are probably less secure and the data on your laptop is even more vulnerable. With cloud the data will be remotely accessible and protected by a service-level agreement, with strict security protocols in place to keep it secure.

Top 10 Myths Of Cloud Computing (from CloudTweaks)


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• Myth 6: Productivity will be reduced

– No, in actual fact, organizations able to take advantage of advanced applications and servers, with support from experts who will maintain their data through the latest security and hardware.

• Myth 7: Virtualization is the first step

– Perhaps but… many organizations are moving aggressively into SaaS or Backup as a Service first. Find the best approach for you

• Myth 8: 100 per cent, all the time

– Cloud providers don’t guarantee 100% up time but you can get close. You’ll need some expertise to make the migration effectively and achieve your desired uptime

• Myth 9: The cloud is too complex

– There are different types of systems out there and they have differing levels of complexity. Evaluate the capabilities and complexities carefully and choose the option that works with your achievable level of expertise

• Myth 10: Security is the same for all cloud systems

– Not necessarily. There are different types of systems and as a result the levels and types of security will differ. There are also different requirements for different types of industries and types of data.

Top 10 Myths Of Cloud Computing


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How Can Museums Use Cloud Computing?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Host My System: • Archivist Toolkit • PastPerfect • Argus • TMS/EmbARK

Host My Collection: • PastPerfectOnline • MINISIS • MuseumPlusRIA

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Backup My System: • CrashPlan • Amazon Glacier • Zmanda

Backup as a Service (BaaS)


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Better, Faster, Cheaper

• Protection from failures: reliable systems can be easily created

• Pay as you go: only pay for what your need

• On demand: can scale up quickly to host growing needs

• Economies of scale: same compute and storage can be cheaper from a TCO perspective

Control, Skills, Complexity

• Your data is no longer on site. You must ensure security of data without relying on physical security

• Internet access and bandwidth can be problematic in some areas so beef up your internet connection or get a backup

• Cloud computing skillsets are still hard to find but growing rapidly

• New approaches to integrate on-site and cloud resources required

How is Cloud Computing Better … or Worse?


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Examples of Cloud Storage Options: Amazon Storage Services


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State of Cloud Storage 2012


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Jeff Barr of Amazon tried to put this growth in perspective:

• Our galaxy is estimated to contain about 400 billion stars, that works out to five objects for every star in the galaxy.

• The field of Paleodemography estimates that 100 billion people have been born on planet Earth. Each of them can have 20 S3 objects.

• Our universe is about 13.6 billion years old. If you added one S3 object every 60 hours starting at the Big Bang, you’d have accumulated almost two trillion of them by now.

State of Cloud Storage 2013


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Example: Amazon Storage Pricing

and Quality Comparison • For up to 1TB of storage Amazon

Simple Storage Service (S3) costs $0.095 per GB per month

• Amazon automatically copies data to multiple data centers so if one data center has an issue, the data is still available

• They will not run out

Vs.

• Typical Data Center storage is $1.25 per gig per month

• You have to manage your own backups on your servers

• You will eventually run out and have to buy a new storage frame

Example: Amazon Availability and

Disaster Recovery

• AWS has multiple Availability Zones (data centers) in US East and US West Regions

• AWS databases and file systems can be configured to automatically copy between AZ’s and Regions

• Route 53 and DNS can fail your app over between AZ and regions

• You only pay to copy to data until you need the other site

Vs.

• You only have one data center/data closet

• Your co-location provider will charge you for both sites and you have to pay for the underutilized equipment

• If you just have backup, it will take days if not weeks to get back online

So How Much More Economic is Cloud Computing?


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• The Myth: Moving Your Data to the Cloud will make it Less Secure

• The Reality: You’re Already Insecure. Moving to the Cloud can make it Better

What About Security? (a.k.a The Great Cloud Security Myth)

Today • Your data center is a closet

• Your data is on laptops, USB drives and floppies

• Your firewall needs upgrading and you’ve never heard of Pen Testing

• What’s a DR (disaster recovery) plan?

In the Cloud • Your data center is run by the best

• Your data is on redundant servers and no one can walk away with it

• Your firewalls are used by Wall Street and the US Government

• You can copy your data beyond the recommended 200 miles for DR


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• Control Who Has Access

– Identity Management

– Permissions

– Audit trails

• Defend Your Walls

– Firewalls are the soldiers at the gate

• Watch Towers

– Intrusion Detection

– Anti Virus

• Classify Your Data

– Some data can be public (Collection)

– Some data should be kept private (Shelf Location, Provenance, Valuation)

• Keep Your Secrets

– Data Encryption for Private Data (in Flight, at Rest)

Security: Set Up Your Defenses At Multiple Levels


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Classifying Your Data for Data Protection

Green Zone

Red Zone Public Data

Private Data • Collections • Search • Media • Exhibitions

• Shelf locations • Valuations • Loans • Transport


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• There’s a lot of “cloud washing” out there. Understand your requirements and then look deeply at the solution

• Many of the Collections SaaS solutions I looked at didn’t distinguish classes of data, nor provide different protection zones

• Remember cloud computing is utility computing. You’ll give up some customization for faster, better, cheaper

• This is a service so the contract is key. Make sure you understand what happens if something changes or goes badly

• Be open to new approaches and be ready to leverage new capabilities

A Few Cautionary Notes

mpma 2013 - leveraging the cloud for museum collections

Technology

utility computing

top 10 myths

load balancing

cloud computing

data center

storage

cloud

pay