University IT Infrastructure information

The request was successful.

Dear Manchester Metropolitan University,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 may I kindly request the following information about the Universities IT Infrastructure. The information needed is as follows:

IT Compliant Route to purchase
What Frameworks are used for IT Procurement? (ie. SSSNA, NEUPC, Janet, CCS, CPC)?

Desktop
Number of Desktops?
Do you use VDI?
If so what platform do you use?
Desktop major Refresh date?
Date existing support contract ends?
VDI refresh date (if relevant)?

Datacentre
Servers
Number of Windows Servers?
Number of UNIX/Linux Servers?
Server platform?
Virtualisation platform?
What operating system do you use?
Virtualisation & Licence support refresh dates?
Percentage of infrastructure Virtualised?
Server Refresh Date?
Value of current server support contract?

Storage
Volume of Data in TBs
Storage Vendor?
Storage Virtualisation?
Storage Refresh Date?
Date Storage support contract ends?
Value of storage support contract?

Backup
Tape vendor?
Disk backup?
What backup software do you use?
Backup refresh date?
Date backup support contract ends ?
Value of backup support contract ?
Disaster Recovery contract renewal date?

Network
Network vendor?
If you use Cisco, do you use Smart Collector?
How many switches?
How many routers?
How many wireless controllers/ AP’s?
Network speed?
Network contract start date?
Date Network Support ends / is refreshed
Value of existing Network support contract ?
Network virtualisation?

Security
IT Security vendors used?
IT Security Support renewal date?
Do you use 2FA?
What web and email filtering is used?
What DLP is in place?
What SIEM solution is used?
What intrusion prevention is used?
What endpoint security is used?

Cloud
Are you using or are interested in AWS/Google or Azure for cloud services?
Do you use any Cloud File Storage? If so, what?

Data Destruction
Is there a Data Destruction Policy in place?
Do you destroy HDD onsite or outsource the service?
Current Supplier of HDD destruction services?
Is the HDD wiped / degaussed before leaving your datacentre?
Approx Number of drives destroyed/wiped per annum?

Thanking You
Yours faithfully,

Francois Charles

FOI, Manchester Metropolitan University

Thank you for your email.  
The University aims to respond to all Freedom of Information requests
within 20 working days of receipt.  If this is not possible, we will
contact you within 20 working days to explain why and will provide you
with an alternative response date.
Please note that the 20 working day timescale under the Act starts to run
the following working day after the date the request is received.
Regards
[Manchester Metropolitan University request email] 
"Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read
the Manchester Metropolitan University email disclaimer available on its
website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer "

FOI, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dear Sir/Madam

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request, this is due to recent staff absence.

The University is unable to provide all of the information you have requested within the cost limit for having to comply with a request. The cost limit is currently set at 18 hours/£450 under the Appropriate limits & fees regulations. Under s12 of the Act, the University is therefore not obliged to comply with your request.

However, in order to assist you further, we can advise the following:
- some supplier/contract information is routinely published on the IT Services section of the University website
- detailed information relating to numbers of equipment and the services included in a particular contract are commercially sensitive information which would usually be withheld under s43 of the Act; as release of this information is likely to cause harm to the University's competitive tendering processes.
- details of University policies and IT Services specific policies and procedures are also published on the University website.
- the University is under no obligation to state what it might be 'interested in' under the Act.
Please see the following links as the starting points for your further research:
http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/itservices/a2z/p/
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/records-management/

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of this decision, you should write to Head of Legal Department, All Saints Building, Manchester, M15 6BH, or at [email address]. If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Legal Department. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us.

FOI & DPA Officer
Legal Services|The Manchester Metropolitan University | All Saints| Oxford Road | Manchester | M15 6BH
Email: [Manchester Metropolitan University request email]
Web Page: http://www.mmu.ac.uk

Dear Manchester Metropolitan University,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Manchester Metropolitan University's handling of my FOI request 'University IT Infrastructure information'.

The reply to my recent FOI request stated that:
1) It would take longer than 18hrs to collect the information ( I have received information from many other universities and not one of them has taken 18hrs to collect the information required. Normally the IT Services Dept has all this information to hand)
2) A lot of information was supposed to be on the University website. ( I have clicked on the respective links provided and there is no such information relating to the request)
3) providing this information would be detrimental to any further Tendering process (I don't see this information as imparting with competitive information - as when the University does go out to tender for various technologies, the information would normally have to be given out to allow the respondent of the tender to make an informed decision on what the particular response to the tender would be)
4) - detailed information relating to numbers of equipment and the services included in a particular contract are commercially sensitive information which would usually be withheld under s43 of the Act; as release of this information is likely to cause harm to the University's competitive tendering processes. ( Section 43(1) provides an exemption under FOIA for information which is a trade secret. (The University is, to my knowledge, a Public Sector body and unless the University is working solely on secret projects, then this information should be in the public interest to see how the public money is been spent)

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

I look forward to meeting with the University to discuss this in person.
Yours faithfully,
Francois Charles

FOI, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dear Mr Charles

Apologies for the error. The University usually publishes a spreadsheet which is updated once or twice a year, containing information about our IT infrastructure and suppliers/contracts. However, on investigation we found that this had not been updated recently and had therefore been removed from the University website. Hence, when you searched for the data via the link provided you could not find it. The remaining response and exemptions we had quoted are part of a standard response to requests for very detailed information which go beyond the level of information we routinely publish. The main point, however, was that much of the information you had requested should have been publicly available for you to examine directly, at the time of your request.

As the information is regularly published online (even though it was temporarily unavailable) it is exempt from disclosure under s21 and 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and work is currently underway to refresh the publication. However, in order to assist you further on this occasion, the relevant information, where held, is provided below:

IT Compliant Route to purchase
What Frameworks are used for IT Procurement? (ie. SSSNA, NEUPC, Janet, CCS, CPC)?
NWPC, SUPC, NEPA, NDNA, GCloud,

Desktop
Number of Desktops? 4971
Do you use VDI? no
If so what platform do you use? n/a
Desktop major Refresh date? Annual refresh schedule
Date existing support contract ends? Support for what? Each desktop is covered by 4 yr warranty
VDI refresh date (if relevant)? n/a

Datacentre
Servers
Number of Windows Servers? 421
Number of UNIX/Linux Servers? 229
Server platform? Mixed windows 2003 – 2016, Centos (plus some mixed suse, Ubuntu appliances)
Virtualisation platform? VMware
What operating system do you use Mixed windows 2003 – 2016, Centos (plus some mixed suse, Ubuntu appliances)
Virtualisation & Licence support refresh dates? ELA due December 2018
Percentage of infrastructure Virtualised? 95+ % (at a rough guess)
Server Refresh Date? Windows 2008R2 – 2019, else ongoing
Value of current server support contract? ? £360k over 3 years for VMWare and NSX

Storage
Volume of Data in TBs 750 TB
Storage Vendor? EMC and Netapp
Storage Virtualisation? We have a small amount utilising Atlantis USX (around 4TB)
Storage Refresh Date? 3years March 2018 – EOL - 2010
Date Storage support contract ends? ? Dec 2018
Value of storage support contract? ? £220K per annum

Backup
Tape vendor? None
Disk backup? Data Domain (EMC)
What backup software do you use? Netbackup
Backup refresh date? ? September 2019
Date backup support contract ends ? ? Sep 2019
Value of backup support contract ? ? £81K
Disaster Recovery contract renewal date? N/A

Network
Network vendor? Cisco
If you use Cisco, do you use Smart Collector? Yes
How many switches? 525
How many routers? 14
How many wireless controllers/ AP’s? 1200
Network speed? 10gig
Network contract start date? 1/10/2017
Date Network Support ends / is refreshed Value of existing Network support contract ? 1/10/2018
Network virtualisation? no

Security
IT Security vendors used? Cisco
IT Security Support renewal date? 1/10/2017
Do you use 2FA? yes
What web and email filtering is used? Cisco umbrella web filtering, barracuda spam filtering
What DLP is in place? none
What SIEM solution is used? none
What intrusion prevention is used? Cisco IPS
What endpoint security is used? Sophos endpoint

Cloud
Are you using or are interested in AWS/Google or Azure for cloud services? Azure
Do you use any Cloud File Storage? If so, what? One drive for business

Data Destruction
Is there a Data Destruction Policy in place? yes
Do you destroy HDD onsite or outsource the service? On site and CDL
Current Supplier of HDD destruction services? CDL
Is the HDD wiped / degaussed before leaving your datacentre? Yes
Approx Number of drives destroyed/wiped per annum? Data not held

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of this decision, you should write to Head of Legal Department, All Saints Building, Manchester, M15 6BH, or at [email address]. If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Legal Department. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us.

FOI & DPA Officer
Legal Services|The Manchester Metropolitan University | All Saints| Oxford Road | Manchester | M15 6BH
Email: [Manchester Metropolitan University request email]
Web Page: http://www.mmu.ac.uk