...
What are the technical limitations of running one or more of the Kuali applications at a remote data center (such as the San Diego Super Computer Center)?
This anlaysis analysis assumes the rational for co-location would be due to space limitations for additional servers here at the UC Davis campus. This does not address the issue of disaster recovery/high availability because that requires more architectural changes than simply running servers remotely.
...
The current Kuali Rice architecture requires that Rice applications make direct database connections to the central Rice database for performance and transactional integrity of workflow documents. If client Rice applications are physically located a large long distance from the Kuali Rice database there would be performance degregation degradation for KEW transactions.
It is the technical workgroup's recommendation to keep all systems that are dependent on Rice located in the same physical location. As the Kuali Rice framework matures the database dependency is expected to become less of a critical issue so then separating the Rice application from Rice infrastructure may be technically fesablefeasible.
Kuali Application Issues to consider
...
Kuali Rice applications have three main depencenies dependencies on central infrastructure:
...
The UC Davis San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) Colocation Co-location Feasibility Study Report found that when amortized over 15 years the cost of co-locating at San Diego vs. building additional space on campus were nearly identical.
...
As more services are virtualized on campus it would make the transition to a remote location more seamless. The virtual images of the servers could be transferred to a remote virtualization service with minimal downtime and without the need to move physical hardware.
Recommendation
In short, there Kuali Application Recommendation: There are technical application reasons why all Kuali applications and Kuali Rice services should be hosted in the same location.
Physical Data Center Recommendation: There are no technical data center issues with co-locating services remotely as long as the service owners are aware of the risks and work to mitigate them where possible.