The conversion project would be completed in stages. The rst stage was selecting a provider. The next stage was migrating none mission critical information to the cloud. The next stages would entail migrating each ofthe six big grant projects in waves to the cloud. The final stage would focus on the remaining smaller projects. Training would be an integral part of each stage. The institute would maintain a backup for all the data until six months after complete conversion. After that the cloud service provider would be responsible for backing up the data. At first Tom was excited about the prOject. He was savvy enough to realize that this was the future of computing and he was intrigued with how the whole system would work. His feelings soon changed when he started thinking about the potential ramifications for his job. He asked Garth more than once what the department would look like afterthe conversion. Garth replied vaguely that they would figure it out once the system was up and running. A task force was formed, headed by Garth,to select a cloud service provider. Garth was surprised by how many choices there were. Plans and cost structures varied considerably. After much deliberation the committee narrowed the choices to three. The first two were among the bigger providers in the industry, VMWARE and Microsoft. The third choice was a relatively new company, OpenRange, which offered a cheaper solution. Torn argued that even though the bigger providers would cost more, they were a much safer bet. Garth responded that he had confidence in OpenRange and cutting costs was the primary goal behind the project. In the end, Garth persuaded the committee to choose OpenRange. Not only would cost be significantly cheaper, but OpenRange would help in training the personnel. Garth liked this idea; training was not his strength, and he wasn't looking forward to holding senior scientists' hands through the process. It took Garth and Tom six weeks to identify noncritical data. Garth worked on the back end while Tom met with staffto identify noncritical information. The motto was when in doubt, leave it out. The actual migration only took a couple of days. Training proved to be more problematic. The staff sent by OpenRange appeared to be straight out of college. While enthusiastic, they were inexperienced in the art of getting older staffto accept and use new technology. Many trainers had the habit ofsimply doing things for the staffinstead of showing them how to do it themselves. It all came to a head when a power outage at the OpenRange storage system shut down and disrupted operations at the institute for 36 hours. Ahmet held an emergency meeting. Garth reported thatthe power outage occurred in North East India and that DpenRange was expanding their backup systems. Several members argued that the institute should switch to one of the bigger providers. When this came up Garth looked at Tom and was relieved when he remained silent. In the end, Ahmet announced that it would be too costly to switch providers and Garth and his staffwould have to make the conversion work. Tom stepped forward and volunteered to manage the training. Everyone agreed that the institute should hire three more part-time assistants to help the staffwith the transition. Garth worked behind the scenes, coordinating with his counterparts at OpenRange and planning the conversion ofthe next segment ofthe project. Tom worked closely with the OpenRange trainers and refocused theirattention on teaching. Resistance was pretty high at first. Tom used his personal contacts within the institute to rally support for the change. He persuaded Garth to change the conversion schedule to begin with those projects in which the leads were most supportive ofthe change. Training improved and Tom created some useful training materials, including short videos on how to access the virtual machines. One problem that occurred early in the process involved a graduate research assistant who mistakenly hit the wrong commands and terminated hervirtual machine instead of logging off. This resulted in complete loss ofthat machine's data in the cloud. Fortunately, the institute had backup and Tom was able to recoverthe work. Collaborating with some programmers at OpenRange, Tom wrote a program that triggered a popup message on the screen, warning users not to terminate their virtual machine when logging off. CLOSING OUT THE BLUE SKY PROJECT It took almost a year to complete the Blue Sky pr0ject. After the rocky beginning things went relatively smoothly. Acceptance was slow, but Tom and his staffworked with the staffto demonstrate how the new system would make their work easier. Two student assistants were always on call to address any problem or question. Garth spent most of his time interacting with the OpenRange counterparts and rarely ventured out of his office. He had his student assistants collect information from staff so he could configure the new virtual machines to exactly match staff needs. He put in long hours so that customized databases would work in the new environment. This proved to be a very difficult task and he was quite pleased with his work. Twice OpenRange experienced momentary power shortages at their serverfacility, which disrupted work at the institute. Garth was happy to report that OpenBange was breaking ground on an alternative server system in Ukraine. When the institute conducted a retrospective (project review) on the Blue Sky prOject, some still questioned the choice of OpenRange as a cloud service provider but praised Tom's work on helping the staff make the transition. Despite the criticism over the choice of OpenRange, Garth felt good about the project. The system was up and running and the staff was beginning to enjoy the exibility it provided. Besides, the institute would achieve real savings from the new system. Soon after the retrospective, Garth was surprised when Ahmet walked into his olce and closed the door. Ahmet began by thanking Garth for his work on the project. He then cleared his throat and said, \"You know, Garth, one ofthe consequences of Blue Sky is reducing our IT staff. Grant Hill is needed for the data library project. So it comes down to you or Tom. Frankly, there is general agreement among the associate directors that Tom is essential to the institute. I know this might come as a surprise to you, and before I make a decision Iwant to give you a chance to change my mind." 1. If you were Garth, how would you respond to the director? 9. What mistakes did Garth make? 3. What are the lessons to be teamed from this case? Case 10-1 The Blue Sky Project Garth Hudson was a 29-year-old graduate of Eastern State University (ESU) with a BS degree in management information systems. After graduation he worked for seven years at Bluegrass Systems in Louisville, Kentucky. While at ESU he worked part time for an oceanography professor, Ahmet Green, creating a customized database for a research project he was conducting. Green was recently appointed director of Eastern Oceanography Institute {EOI}, and Garth was confident that this prior experience was instrumental in his getting thejob as information senrices (IS) director at the institute. Although he took a signicant pay cut, hejumped at the opportunity to return to his alma mater. Hisjob at Bluegrass Systems had been very demanding. The long hours and extensive traveling had created tension in his marriage. He was looking forward to a normaljob with reasonable hours. Besides, Jenna, his wife, would be busy pursuing her MBA at Eastern State University. While at Bluegrass, Garth worked on a wide range oflS projects. He was confident that he had the requisite technical expertise to excel at his newyob. Eastern Oceanography Institute was an independently funded research facility aligned with Eastern State University. Approximately 50 full- and part-time staff worked at the institute. They worked on research grants funded bythe National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Nations (UN), as well as research nanced by private industry. There were typically? to 9 major research projects under way at any one time, as well as 20 to 25 smaller projects. Oneithird ofthe institute's scientists had partitime teaching assignments at ESU and used the institute to conduct their own basic research. FIRST YEAR AT EOI Garth made a point ofintroducing himselfto the various groups of people upon his arrival at the institute. Still, his contact with the staff was limited. He spent most of his time becoming familiar with EOl's information system, training his staff, responding to unexpected problems, and working on various projects. Garth suffered from food allergies and refrained from informal stafflunches at nearby restaurants. He stopped regularly attending the biweekly staff meetings in order to devote more time to his work. He only attended the meetings when there was a specific agenda item regarding his operation. The IS staff at EOI consisted oftwo full-time assistants, Tom Jackson and Grant Hill. They were supported by five part-time student assistants from the Computer Science Department. Grant Hill was assigned full-time to a large five-year NSF grant aimed at creating a virtual library ofoceanographic research. Grant worked out ofthe project leader's office and had very little interaction with Garth or Tom. Garth's relationship with Tom was awkward from the start. He found out, after the fact, that Tom thought he would get thejob as director. They never talked about it, but he sensed tension the rst couple of months on thejob. One ofthe problems was that he and Tom were totally different personalities. Tom was gregarious and very talkative. He had a habit of walking around the institute after lunch, talking to different scientists and researchers. Often this led to useful information. Garth, on the other hand, preferred to stay in his office, working on various assignments, and ventured out only when called upon. While Garth felt Tom was not on top ofthe latest developments, as he was, he respected Tom's work. Last month the system was corrupted by a virus introduced over the Internet. Garth devoted an entire weekend to restoring the system to operation. A recurring headache was one ofthe servers, code-named \"Poncho,\" that would occasionally shut down for no apparent reason. Instead of replacing it, he decided to nurse Poncho along until it could be replaced. His work was frequently interrupted by frantic calls from staff researchers who needed immediate help on a variety of computersrelated problems. He was shocked at how computer illiterate some ofthe researchers were and how he had to guide them through some of the basics of email management and database configuration. He did find time to help Assistant Professor Amanda Johnson on a project. Amanda was the only researcher to respond to Garth's e-rnail announcing that the IS slaffwas available to help on projects. Garth created a virtual pfOJEC'l ofce on the Internet so that Amanda could collaborate with colleagues from institutes in Italy and Thailand on a UN research grant. He looked forward to the day when he could spend more time on fun projects like that. THE BLUE SKY CONVERSION PROJECT The \"Blue Sky\" conversion proyect began in earnest four months ago. Ahmet Green returned from Washington, D.C., with grim news. The economic downturn was going to lead to a dramatic reduction in funding. He anticipated as much as a 25 percent reduction in annual budget over the next three to five years. This would lead to staff reductions and cutting of operating costs. One cost-cutting measure was moving IT operations to the \"cloud." Ahmet had first proposed the idea to Garth after attending a meeting with several directors of other institutes who faced similar nancial challenges. The basic strategy was to move all ofthe institute's databases, software, and even hardware to a \"private cloud.\" Staffwould use their current PCs to simply access more powerful machines overthe Internet. These powerful machines could be partitioned and configured differently according to the needs of research staff, giving each staff member his or her own virtual machine WM). Staff could also access, use, and share virtual servers over the Internet as needed. Garth worked with the institute's accountant on a cost/benefit analysis. From their standpoint it made perfect sense. First, the institute would not have to replace or upgrade aging computers and servers. Second, the institute would enjoy significant IT savings, since they would pay for only IT resources actually used. They would not have to make any major IT capital expenditures. Third, cloud computing would provide the scientists greater flexibility by accessing desired resources or software from anywhere at any time. And nally, once the system was up and running, the institute would no longer need the senrices of at least one full-time IT worker. Ahmet decided to name the project \"Blue Sky" to put a positive spin on the conversion. At first the associate directors balked at the idea. Some had a hard time conceptualizing what cloud computing rneant. Others were worried about security and reliability. In the end they reluctantly signed off on the project when given alternative cost-cutting initiatives. Garth assured them that cloud computing was the wave of the future and setting up or accessing virtual machines on the \"cloud" was as simple as setting up or accessing their g-mail account