 Good afternoon. Can you all hear me all right? Thank you. Welcome. My name is Helen Hawkes-Hugh. I'm an enterprise architect in the Office of Information Technologies at the University of Notre Dame. So today we're going to talk about storage. This came through my social media feed last night. Since I worked on storage, I get all kinds of storage related advertisements on Facebook. This is also storage. And the last statistic actually drew my attention. I thought, hey, this is actually, I notice a similar pattern when it comes to object storage. So storage really is the core building block of IT infrastructure. And I don't think we had to worry as much as we have about it in the last couple of years. So Google storage used to be free and unlimited, but this is no longer the case. They announced in February last year that starting July 2022, Google Workspace stops offering free unlimited storage, providing schools and universities with a baseline of 100 terabytes of food storage, which is shared across all users. There are ways to obtain additional storage by buying all kinds of different types of license. Actually, Google wasn't the first one. I think Box might be the trendsetter. Box was never free, but they imposed a quota in 2020, limiting storage to five gigabyte per account. We signed a contract with Box for three years with a total quota of 500 terabytes. But some schools actually have to leave Box because of this quota. And ironically, Box has recently lifted this quota, maybe as in response to Google's action. Who knows? So all of us not just noted in. A lot of schools are actually in this mess, if I may say so. Internet too conducted a storage survey in April 2021 with responses from 54 institutions showing common use of Google Drive, as well as shared concern about the newly imposed limit and costs. Research data, videos, images, backups filled up the space. When asked whether the institutions would consider changing their primary content collaboration platforms, 58% said they will not change. And 30% said they will do so. When asked where to migrate the data to from Google, the options included another collaborative environment, public cloud, on-prem storage, archival object storage. I think the reality is that a lot of us are still working on this on a solution to the Google challenge. We need scanning tools, data moving tools. We need tools for moving data at scale on behalf of users. But on a going basis, we also need end user tools to manage and archive data. We also need change management plans. So the scale of change at Notre Dame, we have 1.4 petabytes in Google across Gmail, G Drive, Google Photo and shared Drive. I took a slightly more detailed look at the top 10 accounts which have more than 10 terabytes of data. So 10 accounts totals about 250 terabytes, which is 13% of our total storage usage. The top number one user is a faculty in the association department doing research on classic Chinese politics and guess how much data he has. 61 terabytes. I had to call a colleague to verify the number a couple of times because I just couldn't believe that. I spoke to him. I understand what it is now. He called this data his digital library. He said, if you look in my house, I have shelves full of books. These are digitized books from the public domain, which I need for my research. He also said, am I in trouble? You never said, I couldn't do this. I said, that's fine. I just want to understand how you're using them. And actually 70% of the top 10 accounts is research data. I also discovered university records, marketing and learning material. Interestingly, about 15% of the Google data belong to suspended and inactive accounts. Those are people who have left the university. That is just the Notre Dame domain. We also have the Notre Dame alumni association who has a separate domain and more data. They have more data than us. So the era of free storage is gone. So how do we manage this new reality? So that picture is me standing in front of our tape storage, our tape library in our on-prem data center. So while working out detailed implementation plans for Google, I think strategically we have decided to accept that storage costs money. This means making permanent changes in how to manage storage. We're not going to take knee-jerk reactions to move from one vendor to another just because they're more cost effective at the moment or because they're yet to impose any limitations in terms of storage. This also means regardless what the storage allowance is, free or paid, we need to proactively manage retention, storage usage and expenditure. So we revised our storage strategy, which I'm going to talk about later, and added retention data and expenditure management to it. When it comes to the cost model, we haven't worked out the detail yet. But directionally, we're thinking that this should include essentially founded no charge-based entitlement. And we should be able to allow people to obtain additional storage capacity beyond the base entitlement. Also, we think externally founded projects and revenue-generating activities, I think it might be reasonable to ask those to pay their own storage. I just mentioned that about 15% to 170 terabytes of data belong to the people who have left the university. So we put in place a set of guidelines as to how we treat often data defined as data without a business owner tied to an individual that has separated from the university. So the background we all understand, the Google's change of storage policy is a direct trigger. Right now, when someone leaves the university, their net ID, which is used to authenticate into all services, expires after the last day worked, which disables access to all services. So their accounts get suspended, but data is left where it is. This is how we accumulated 270 terabytes of data in the last five years. So I was looking at holistic guidelines for Google, specifically, but also should apply to other platforms and services. So we talked to stakeholders on campus, general counsel, university archives. We're also involved in our change management colleagues from the outset, making sure that we have spoken to the relevant people. The outcome of this guideline on disposition of often data is actually nothing controversial or outrageous. But I do have to say, I was so happy when I got an email from our general counsel, which says, this looks good to me. So what we've done really is to look at existing policies and processes and align these guidelines with that. Right now, our HR has normative separation processes, which require the removal of personal content and ownership transfer of business content. There is also an existing 60 days grace period. So the separators, managers actually could use that grace period to get access to retrieve files left behind. So the guideline added an additional 365 days on top of that grace period and said IT, OIT will keep the files that are shared for another year. And if files which are not shared only accessible owned and accessible by the person who has left would have been deleted after the 60 days grace period. Only shared files will be kept for another 12 months. And when that point, when that expires, if it's not accessed, we'll dispose that. Otherwise, we'll get in touch with the person's line manager and say, hey, this file has been left by this person, has been accessed in the last 12 months. Would you like to take ownership? We would like to cross check with the individuals on legal hold, so we don't touch their content. And also this should not change any existing retention policy if they're there. So I just covered elements of our storage strategy in the context of collaborative platforms, which is actually one of just one of the seven categories of storage services OIT provide. Next, I'd like to spend some time talking about this strategy, which I co-authored with my colleague, Tony Rimovsky, who's also an enterprise architect. I would like to try to provide you with an overview of Notre Dame storage services portfolio and how we would like to see this develop. So the storage strategy was developed based on campus-wide requirements or needs assessment, which I led in 2018. And this is followed by a program of work for its implementation, which we're going to take a brief look at later. The storage strategy supports our cloud-first strategy. So as many of you might know, Notre Dame is an early adopter of the cloud and migrated the majority of OIT services to AWS in the period of 2015 and 2016. That's when I joined Notre Dame. According to our service layer framework, we should expect to find enterprise services in the foundational and common areas. However, our storage services currently may be more in the common area, or even at times, struggling common and community. Fundamental storage services are typically for for example, highly sensitive data or regulated data. So the next two slides contain a list of Notre Dame storage services. Our tape-based archival storage service is definitely a community service and not available for the wide campus, only for a limited number of departments. Instrumentation storage, which is mentioned as a type of research storage, for example, is currently not provisioned. Archival storage service for research data is also a gap that we have identified. So going back, we have cloud storage for collaborative environments, such as Google and Box. We have on-premises storage, the caching components for data stored in AWS, for example, NASAS, SAM, specifically for storing multimedia at ND Notre Dame Studios. We have the infrastructure storage in the cloud itself, AWS, EBS, EFS, or S3 for disaster recovery. We also have in the research labs directly attached storage, like instrumentation storage attached to microscopes and imaging stations. So we have a tape-based archival storage, which is not widely available. Research storage is probably an area where we have the most gaps. Otherwise, we also have compliance storage, specific storage with controls governing highly sensitive information or regulated data. So for each of these service categories, the strategy describes their intended use and the gaps and put forward a set of directional actions. I don't think we have time to go through all of this, but I think we could take a look at a couple. Just for the interest of this audience, maybe you can look at an archival storage. The directional actions include expanding the use of current tape library so that more users on campus can make use of it. This is essentially, this is not a technical issue. This is more like a business model. So how do people pay? How much do we essentially found to enable the use of this service? Actions also include the consideration of moving, looking into whether it makes sense to move the tape library to the cloud so that we're aligned with our cloud first strategy. We're also saying, utilize storage gateways so that we can benefit from the cloud archival storage services, at least for the inactive data. Let me see. The strategy also include two additional strategy areas addressing data and cost management, which we just covered. There is also an area which is called communication and outreach. This is about making it easy for users to find information about storage services and help them make choices, putting the right data in the right places. It's about having a single point of entry, informing users where to get IT support without having to speak to different people and shop around, which is currently the practice. So it takes a lot of looking before you can find information about storage. So actually ahead of time. So that is how the storage strategy is structured. We have an annual review cycle to review and revise the strategy to incorporate the latest development, for example, the Google change, policy change, is one of, as an example. So I think in 2019, we started the smart storage program, which is intended to implement a storage strategy, which will run through, I think, 2024. Currently, the program contains about 13 projects, each implementing elements of the storage strategy. So what the intention is to create and maintain a multifaceted storage environment that will meet the common administrative and academic needs of the university, as well as providing solutions for various compliance requirements. So my colleagues actually produced this video to disseminate and to communicate our intention or the strategy and the storage program. And I think it's about five minutes. So I'm going to invite you to watch this video with me. I think there's no sound coming through it for some reason. Okay, so that, there we go. The smart storage program is a multi-year initiative to provide the right storage solutions for the University of Notre Dame's different storage needs. What do we have? Where should we best store it? And how do we achieve this smoothly? Our lives are full of things, both physical and digital. We have things in our homes and things we need for work. Some are used often, some infrequently, but all need to be stored somewhere. At home, we store items like spatulas and lawnmowers in their different and designated places. At work, we also need to store our files, emails, and research in the most appropriate locations. Both occasionally need sorted through and reorganized for life to run smoothly and efficiently. The kitchen is the hub of the house and where most of the collaboration happens for the family. Pots, pans, and kitchen utensils need to be nearby and easily accessible. At Notre Dame, we use the Google Collaboration Suite to work together with ease. Information that we use most often should be stored where it's most conveniently accessed. The garage holds our big tools and instruments. Cars and bikes can't be used or kept anywhere else in the house, but we need to be able to get to them on a regular basis. Occasionally at work, we have assets that must be kept in a specific location, such as specialized lab equipment for research. Just as garages are cleaned out of clutter so that they can be used as intended, our digital storage spaces benefit from being decluttered as well. The basement is often used for items we only need occasionally. Golf clubs are infrequently accessed, but we need them handy on Saturday morning to make tea time. There are digital assets that we may only need monthly or yearly. These should be stored somewhere where they can be easily reached, but are out of the way. No one wants to trip over golf clubs on the way to the coffee maker. The attic of a house is commonly used to store items that we don't want to dispose of, but also don't need to use on even a yearly basis. It's a great place to archive things like our vacation slides and High School Glory Day's trophies. Our files, projects, and research from years ago may not be necessary for our current work, but we may want to keep them in accordance with Notre Dame's Records Management and Archives Policy. Notre Dame is our home for work. We all deserve for that home to be organized, efficient, and sustainable. That's why we've built a campus-wide partnership to develop a storage strategy. The Smart Storage Program includes collaboration space, specialized storage, long-term storage, and archival solutions. We're working to give you the best storage solutions so that you can live your best work life. If you have any questions about the Notre Dame storage strategy, the Smart Storage Program, or options available to you as an educator, researcher, staff member, or student, please visit go.nd.edu slash smart storage. Okay, so let me pause there. That URL also mentioned in the video will actually lead you to the full version of the storage strategy and also the program plan, the timelines, what we're doing exactly to implement the program, the storage strategy. So I think that's all I had prepared. I'd like to open questions to the floor and maybe also have a discussion on what you're doing in terms of Google and what the storage service looks like at your campus.