If you are looking to get started with Disaster Recovery on the IlliniCloud we invite you to take a minute or two and please fill out the Disaster Recovery Request Form.  It will provide us some basic information about the services you are looking for so we can better assess the situation before we talk with you.  Once you have filled out the form someone from the IlliniCloud DR team will contact you shortly to start an initial conversation about the services that will take anywhere from 10-20 minutes.  We also have posted updated information about the service in the Services section of the website along with a FAQ of the most commonly asked questions about the service that have came up over the initial conversations we have with everyone.

Disaster Recovery Requirements

• K12 Public or Private District and LEAs
• Windows or Linux Servers
• Indicate your provider (ICN/other) and connection speed – T1 minimum speed required.
• Basic understanding of services you need to DR.  Additional assistance can be provided by local area Network Specialists if needed.

Disaster Recovery Details

We have a detailed FAQ section available under the Services section of the website, but in short we offer a short term Disaster Recovery solution that allows a school to provide an offsite backup of core services of data in case of data loss.  We commonly have school districts doing this for core systems such as SIS and Financial systems along with file data.  We provide an excellent solution to DR your virtualized VMWare environment as well if you are looking for another layer of protection in that area.

We are still conducting ongoing trials to determine the final cost to the districts in a consumption based model (by GB stored) and once the pricing plan is released you will have the option to continue with the service or discontinue the use of the service at no cost.  During these trials we are offering access to the service at no cost.

IlliniCloud will be hosting collaborative teams in the form of Workgroups. We hope that people from all over Illinois with expertise will join us in researching, collaborating and testing all the many technologies that can help make Education better.

Most of the work will take place on the IlliniCloud Workgroup Wiki and on mailing lists. Check out the Wiki for information on how to join and participate in workgroups or become a Workgroup Leader.

We are always looking for more suggestions but as of today, the official Workgroups supported by IlliniCloud are:

Again, check out the IlliniCloud Workgroup Wiki for more information.

I would like to release an Call For Members for the VDI Workgroup.

If you would like to participate head over to the wiki,  create an account on the site, then add your name to the members list on the VDI Workgroup page. You can also join our mailing list.

We are currently accepting any interested K12 people whether or not you have experience in VDI. Now is a great time to learn what Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is and how it can help your district and how it can be implemented into the IlliniCloud.

VDIW already has an informative training lined up open to Workgroup members.

We will have a VDI Mailing list shortly, please check the VDI wiki page for up to date information on the workgroup.

I never dreamed that we would actually win, it was just an honor to be at the industry event with companies like Rackspace,  Google, Fusion-IO, EMC, NetApp, Cisco, HP, etc.

Imagine my surprise when it was announced the Illinicloud had won the award, it was amazing.

This was truly a team effort and would not have been possible without all of the great people that make up the illinicloud team as well as all of the school districts participating that have made us a success at lowering the cost of IT for schools.

The URL below links to the award.  Well done everyone!

-Jason

https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/SNWS2011/19965/?&

If you have additional questions about the service you can email dr@illinicloud.org or check out the DR area in the Services section of the website as there is a fairly detailed FAQ about the service based on questions we have answered in the preliminary conversations we have had with everyone.

BigBlueButton is an active open source desktop and document sharing project that focuses on usability, modularity, and clean design — both for the user and the developer. The project is hosted at Google Code

BigBlueButton is built by combining over 14 open source components. The following diagram gives an overview of its capabilities

For more information please see Big Blue Button’s Website at http://bigbluebutton.org/