Get best practices for cloud in government in this technical case study. Find out how multi-tenancy is the key to the State of California’s ultrasecure, ultraefficient cloud deployment. http://nt-ap.com/1misAo1

1. Technical Case Study
By Robert Syphax, Chief of
Storage Operations for the California
Natural Resources Agency and the
Department of Water Resources
California is the world’s eighth-largest economy, and our
IT challenges exceed those of many national governments.
That was particularly true during the budget crisis that began
in 2008. In the face of severe budget cutbacks, state agencies
needed to radically change the way they operated to keep
meeting their missions to serve citizens.
The State CIO, Carlos Ramos, developed a vision to improve IT efficiency
by adopting shared services. Instead of each department purchasing and
managing its own IT infrastructure, all departments in an agency would share
a common IT infrastructure. The idea was to slash IT capital and operational
expense—and increase service levels at the same time.
State of California Sets a New Standard
for IT with Shared Services
How the California Natural Resources Agency harnessed the power of cloud computing
to reduce IT capital costs by 42% and speed up service delivery by 70%

2. 2
The “Before” Picture: Storage Islands, Unpredictable Costs,
Increased Demands
The vision struck a chord with Tim Garza, CIO for the California Natural
Resources Agency (CNRA). The agency consists of 29 departments, boards,
and commissions with a common mission to restore, protect, and manage
the state’s natural, historical, and cultural resources for current and future
generations. Departments range in size from environmental consortiums with
a few dozen employees to CalFire, with 7,200 employees across California.
At the time, each department in the California Natural Resources Agency
­maintained its own siloed IT infrastructure. Duplicate equipment and
­management efforts were costly. Some departments had excess capacity
while others were strained. The time needed to fulfill service requests varied
widely. And departments couldn’t share information to collaborate on the mission.
The Natural Resources Agency’s Newest Resource:
Private Cloud Computing
Today, all departments in the California Natural Resources Agency consume
shared services from a private cloud built on various industry technologies and
NetApp®
storage technology. In total, the private cloud stores 8 petabytes—a
combination of virtual machines and data.
The shared-services model has transformed the economics of IT services for the
agency. We’ve increased storage capacity by 300% while shrinking our storage
physical footprint by 30%. At the same time, we’ve reduced overall IT capital
expense across the agency by 42% and operational expense by 35%.
The CNRA private cloud has also helped agency departments become more
agile. They no longer have long wait times for computer resources required for
critical projects to restore, protect, and manage the state’s natural resources.
Instead, they receive capacity on demand. In addition, departments have been
able to avoid costly IT budget spikes associated with equipment refresh costs
every four years.
Nondisruptive Operations Support 24/7 Government
Enabling nondisruptive operations is one of the most compelling advantages
of NetApp clustered Data ONTAP for the California Natural Resources Agency.
Storage availability is critical because we don’t have physical servers. Almost
98% of our applications are virtual servers that live on storage, and agency
personnel count on these applications to plan responses to fires and floods,
for example.
With nondisruptive operations, we don’t need to schedule downtime windows to
add or maintain storage nodes. Instead, we can move data and virtual machines
to any other array so that our customers can continue working without interrup-
tion. We’ve increased availability from the 99% we provided before we used
NetApp storage to 99.99% today. As we complete our migration to NetApp
clustered Data ONTAP, we expect to reach our goal of 99.999% availability.
NetApp nondisruptive operations also help to keep the workforce fully produc-
tive, because personnel don’t have to sit idle while we’re doing upgrades and
refreshes. That’s especially important in today’s business climate in which staff
resources are lean.
More Efficient Storage,
More Efficient Government
• 300% more storage capacity
• 70% faster storage provisioning
• 42% less overall IT capital expense
across the agency
• 35% less overall IT operational
expense across the agency
• 30% smaller storage physical footprint
• 50% increase in cooling efficiency
and 40% increase in power efficiency
• 8 petabytes of data

3. 3
Lower Costs Through Infrastructure Consolidation and Storage Efficiency
NetApp storage played a big part in helping us shrink the overall agency
infrastructure footprint from 22,000 to 6,500 square feet. As a result, cooling
efficiency increased by 50% and power efficiency by 40%. Freeing up space
also gives us room for growth. That’s important for the Natural Resources
Agency because we look at historical trends. Models of the effects of climate
change on water levels, for example, might use 100 years of data. So the
Department of Water Resources never throws away data, and storage
increases 30% to 40% every year.
One way we reduced infrastructure floor space was by consolidating separate
IT infrastructures in multiple locations to one shared infrastructure. The other
was increasing storage efficiency—to the point that we store 300% more data
in 30% less space. In combination, NetApp deduplication, compression, and
thin provisioning technology increased storage efficiency by 40%. For example,
deduplication eliminates the need to maintain hundreds of copies of a virtual
machine or a separate copy of a virtual desktop for all employees. Instead, we
store one golden image along with just the changes to the other copies. Thin
provisioning, in turn, helps us to not purchase more storage than is actually
used. If a department requests 100TB for a new application, we allocate it using
thin provisioning. All 100TB are there if the customer needs them. But if the
customer overestimated the need or later scales back application use, the
capacity is available for other uses.
Capacity on Demand: Customers Receive Storage 70% Faster
Departments can now receive new storage capacity in as little as a few hours,
compared to three to four weeks on our legacy storage platform. That’s because
provisioning capacity from a shared pool with NetApp OnCommand System
Manager takes just a few clicks. Our customers receive new storage capacity
more quickly than they could provision it themselves—a major reason why they
move to the CNRA internal private cloud.
Easy provisioning also benefits our IT team. Now that we’re not bogged down in
day-to-day operations, we have more time for strategic initiatives to support the
mission. The CNRA private cloud has helped to increase IT business value by
allowing us to better align our IT resources and services to the needs of our
business programs.
High Performance for Big Data Analytics and Virtual Desktops
Performance of the Department of Water Resources’ geographic information
systems and data-intensive applications such as SAP®
improved when we
moved them to the CNRA private cloud platform. This is due to the use of the
Data ONTAP operating system and its use of on-board PAM cards to assist
in the execution of application requests. In addition, NetApp flash storage,
deduplication, and compression features improved the storage ­efficiency and
performance of scientific and engineering applications, resulting in the ability
of scientists to perform critical computation and analysis more effectively and
in reduced time frames. This helps them more accurately predict the effects
of changes in water flow and water level on commercial fishing, for example.
Four Requirements for Storage
in a Multi-Tenant Private Cloud
Only NetApp storage met all of our
requirements:
Secure multi-tenancy: Our agency
works with sensitive data, so security
is essential. For example, information
about critical infrastructure like dams
and aqueducts can’t get into the wrong
hands. Using NetApp MultiStore®
technology, we’ve created a “virtual
partition” for each department. The
virtual partitions are securely isolated
within the shared environment. Each
department can manage its own
datastore without making it accessible
to anyone else. Secure multi-tenancy
helped make the shared-services
cloud attractive.
Nondisruptive operations: Taking
­virtual machines offline to add, upgrade,
or maintain storage arrays can interrupt
disaster response or critical research.
That’s unacceptable in our agency.
With the NetApp clustered Data ONTAP®
operating system, we can add or main-
tain arrays with zero interruption to our
customers’ business.
One management interface: NetApp
V-Series storage virtualization controllers
helped to minimize capital outlay because
we could continue using existing third-
party disk drives. We use one interface,
NetApp OnCommand®
­System Manager,
to manage all storage arrays from
NetApp and our legacy vendor, which
we’re phasing out. Allowing our staff to
focus on NetApp technology lets them
build up their skills, helping to improve
time to deliver and stability.
Storage efficiency: NetApp deduplica-
tion, compression, and thin provisioning
technology increase storage efficiency.
That’s important because storage space
is at a premium for the agency, and
­storage takes up 70% of our rack space.

4. 4
The virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is also hosted in the CNRA private cloud.
The VDI experience improved even more because of NetApp virtual storage
tiering and flash storage. These technologies improve the performance of virtual
desktops and other applications with high input-output operations per second
(IOPS). We’ve offloaded a large amount of read IOPS from disk.
Interdepartmental Collaboration
In addition to increasing IT efficiency, our shared-services model created a
foundation for improved interdepartmental collaboration. Departments can grant
each other permission to view their data in the shared environment. A scientist
studying the effects of climate change on a lake in Central California, for
example, can also view geospatial data from other departments pertaining
to fire hazards, fishing conditions, nearby oil and gas wells, and more.
A Look Inside Our Private Cloud
The agency’s shared-services cloud platform includes NetApp storage,
HP BladeSystem c7000 servers, VMware®
vSphere®
and vCloud Director®
, and
Cisco®
Nexus®
switches. The CNRA team can quickly orchestrate the provisioning
of virtual computer resources including storage utilizing a combination of
VMware software and NetApp Data ONTAP. In the future, CNRA will offer
customers the ability to self-provision storage and other computer resources.
Cloud storage consists of two partner pairs of NetApp V6240 storage virtualiza-
tion controllers. The controllers front-end legacy storage, which lets us continue
using them. NetApp supports all common protocols, and right now we use
Fibre Channel, Network File System (NFS), and Common Internet File System
(CIFS) protocols.
We migrated from NetApp Data ONTAP in 7-Mode to NetApp clustered
Data ONTAP in 2014. Today we have three high-availability storage arrays
using NetApp clustered Data ONTAP. Moving the data from our legacy storage
platforms to clustered Data ONTAP immediately freed up five racks.
Our VM and storage teams both use the VMware management console.
A NetApp management plug-in lets them manage storage as well as virtual
machines. Most storage vendors write to the same VMware API, but we’ve
found that the NetApp solution works the best. This convenient way to ­monitor
capacity and VM health helps us identify storage issues before they affect our
customers. Using the VSC plug-in, VM administrators are able to clearly identify
the relationship between their datastores and the underlying volumes presented
by the NetApp storage system. This aids in troubleshooting problems and pro-
viding the proper tier of storage to customer environments.
We take daily backups. Backup and recovery times are two to three times faster
with NetApp than with our legacy storage platform. The reason is the tight
compatibility between NetApp Data ONTAP in 7-Mode and Sympana IntelliSnap
Recovery Manager. We’re in the process of implementing a disaster recovery
data center. We’ll use a NetApp FAS6250 storage system running clustered
Data ONTAP and SnapMirror®
technology to replicate data daily.
Robert Syphax
Chief of Storage Operations
The California Natural Resources Agency
and the Department of Water Resources
Mr. Syphax’s organization provides
services to the Department of Water
Resources that include storage,
backup, and recovery. The Department
of Water Resources provides water
delivery, power generation, and flood
protection to the State of California,
and also focuses on environmental
concerns related to water quality.

5. www.netapp.com
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NetApp Products
• NetApp FAS6290 and FAS6250
storage systems
• NetApp clustered Data ONTAP
• NetApp Data ONTAP in 7-Mode
• NetApp V6240 storage
virtualization controllers
• NetApp MultiStore
• NetApp deduplication,
compression, and thin
provisioning
• NetApp Flash Cache™
intelligent caching
• NetApp SnapMirror
• NetApp OnCommand
System Manager
• NetApp Virtual Storage
Console for VMware vSphere
Protocols
• Fibre Channel
• NFS
• CIFS
Third-Party Products
• HP BladeSystem c7000
• VMware vSphere and
vCloud Director
• Cisco Nexus switches
• CommVault Sympana 10 and
IntelliSnap Recovery Manager
Bottom Line: More Agile, Efficient Government
By providing more capacity and capabilities in a shared-services environment,
NetApp storage helps the California Natural Resources Agency set new standards
of excellence for government IT. Now departments can start new projects to
support the mission without waiting weeks for servers and storage. Projected
data growth of 30% to 40% doesn’t faze us because we can add storage without
disrupting operations. We have the performance we need to harness big data
to protect and manage California’s natural resources. And, importantly, we’ve
achieved our goals at less cost to taxpayers.
About the California Natural Resources Agency
The California Natural Resources Agency consists of 29 departments whose
mission is to restore, protect, and manage the state’s natural, historical, and
cultural resources for current and future generations using creative approaches
and solutions based on technology, science, and collaboration.
About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that
deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs.
Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further,
faster at www.netapp.com.
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