Systems Engineering - External Linux Support Changes

For many years OIT has been absorbing most of the cost of providing this service, but we no longer have the resources or budget to continue providing this service.

OIT will begin meeting will customers to ascertain the services being run on their servers in an effort to discover whether some or all of those services can be moved to a different platform.

• A Linux consulting company will manage your server(s).
• OIT will provide a business analyst who will work with you to determine a new path forward for your impacted system(s).
• Before June 30, 2024 OIT will work with customers to set up a direct relationship with the company managing the servers.
• Please continue to email trouble@colorado.edu or oithelp@colorado.edu for support.  Requests for server support will be processed by the OIT Systems Engineering team and shared with the Linux consulting company who will perform the work.
• Cost: 
  • You are responsible for the monthly virtual server resources (CPU, memory, storage) if using the OIT Private Cloud Service.
  • OIT will fund proactive and reactive server support costs provided by the Linux consulting company.

• Customers will contact the Linux consulting company directly.
• Cost:
  • You are responsible for the monthly virtual server resources (CPU, memory, storage) if using the OIT Private Cloud Service.
  • You are responsible for the reactive server support costs provided by the Linux consulting company.
  • OIT will fund proactive server support provided by the Linux consulting company.
     

• Customers will collaborate with the Linux consulting company directly for support of your server(s). 
• Support costs will be charged directly to you from the Linux consulting company.
• Cost:
  • You are responsible for the monthly virtual server resources (CPU, memory, storage) if using the OIT Private Cloud Service.
  • You are responsible for all proactive and reactive server support costs provided by the LInux consulting company.
     

• Proactive: Operating System patching, monitoring, and alerting.
• Reactive: Software installations, configuring new web servers, software upgrades, and system modifications at your request.
   

Twice the hourly rate, which at this time is $300/hour.

An additional $115/month.

We are establishing a relationship with a third-party company, Crafty Penguins (CP), to support these systems. OIT will cover the CP cost through June 30, 2024. Then will cover the cost for CP proactive support through June 30, 2025. It costs more than what OIT was charging. We'll see how this support works over the next few months. We have a project established to leverage a BA that will meet with the customers of these 61 systems to help them determine a path forward and support options.

The long term plan is that OIT will maintain the contract for all customers and charge back customers for both proactive and reactive support.

There will be a collaboration between Crafty Penguins (the third party support company) and Systems Engineering to ensure the proper access is in place for management.

System upgrades are charged for at the hourly rate, so could be considered reactive. However, system upgrades are necessary, both to adhere to our Secure Compute standard as well as to avoid running end-of-life operating systems. So they will be scheduled and will happen without necessarily being requested.

Yes. However, if through your use of sudo something breaks there will be the hourly charge to fix it.