1. Why is HUIT implementing a Freeze?
The freeze is being implemented to support the cost of the Cloud transition. The freeze provides cost stability for application budgets and ensures income stability for the HUIT Infrastructure budget while moving to the Cloud.
2. To whom does the freeze apply?
Currently, the freeze is being applied to the majority of HUIT. It may be expanded to non-HUIT data center customers on a case-by-case basis.
3. How do I know if my account contains frozen server assets?
If you see the line item SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE under the Account Level Charges header, your account contains frozen server assets. If you have any further questions, please contact Ben Rota at ben_rota@harvard.edu.
4. Is the freeze for just 60 Oxford Street data center, or also for 1 Summer Street data center?
The freeze applies to both 60 Oxford Street and 1 Summer Street servers.
5. What are the details of the freeze?
Definitions
Server assets: A physical or virtual server hosted by HUIT Infrastructure
Services: Billable Infrastructure services that are currently applied to a particular asset.
Quantities: The volume that the Service keys to. For example, the STORAGE-PREMIUM service is billed according to the number of Gigabytes of storage allocated to the server.
Rate: The published cost for one unit of a particular service per month. For example, the BACKUP service costs $0.22/GB/Month.
The freeze applies to services attached to server assets. When the freeze is applied to a particular server asset, the quantities of all related services (except FAC-RMU-POWER) are "frozen" at their current quantities. That means that even if storage or backup quantities go up or down, the net charge will still be based on the frozen quantity, multiplied by the rate for the service.
6. What will show up on my bill after I'm frozen? Will I see actual quantities or frozen quantities?
The volumes on the bill will reflect the actual quantities. The financial difference between the actual quantities and frozen quantities will be reflected in a new Account Level Charge called SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE.
This means that the dollar value of SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE will start out low and increase as servers are decommissioned (and the associated quantities go to zero). It also means that, in the early stages of migration, the value could even end up as a credit if quantities like backup increase.
6a. Can you give me an example of this?
For example, let's say a server that has a backup volume of 100GB. If that volume increases to 110GB the month after the freeze is applied, the SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE volume would reflect a credit for the additional 10GB of backup charge. Since the BACKUP service is $0.22/GB/Month, the credit would be for $2.20.
Before the freeze, your bill might look like this:
If you increased your backup as described above, the bill would look like this:
If, on the other hand, your backup charges went down by 10 GB, the bill would look like this:
7. Is the SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE line item cumulative or a monthly amount?
It is a monthly amount. You can view your year-to-date charges by running the appropriate report in the customer portal.
8. Once I'm frozen, are there circumstances under which my costs might change?
Yes, but they're rare. If you need to provision a new on-premises server (and if that server passes the review process), that server will be charged as normal.
If you change storage type (Premium to Standard or vice versa), the system will see that as a new service being added to the server and charge for it, unfrozen. If you need to make a storage type change after the freeze is applied, please work with the billing team.
9. Will my costs stay the same in FY18?
No. Since what is frozen is the quantities (not the rates), a change in rate would mean a change in the Net Charge. Please consult the rate sheet published in the Customer Care and Billing Portal at https://ccb.huit.harvard.edu/.
10. I am one of the HUIT accounts that was consolidated. What impact does the freeze have on me?
The impact of the freeze is the same for everyone. The only difference is that those who are part of the consolidation will see their charges billed to the consolidated billing code.
11. What if I am in HUIT but moving to a SaaS solution?
The freeze is applied on a server-by-server basis. Servers that host applications that are moving to SaaS solutions will not have their quantities frozen.
12. If my account was frozen (I was intending to go to AWS), and then I decided to go to a SaaS or third-party solution, am I still frozen?
We will review these situations on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out to Matthew Zeller at matthew_zeller@harvard.edu if this situation may apply to you.
13. I’m decommissioning a server completely. I am not moving to the Cloud, and I am not part of the HUIT consolidated budget. What happens to my charges?
We will review these situations on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out to Matthew Zeller at matthew_zeller@harvard.edu if this situation may apply to you.
14. When will the freeze end?
We are currently targeting the end of FY18. If that changes, communication will be sent out well in advance.
15. My server costs are frozen. My application is in the process of moving, or has been completely moved to the Cloud. Will I pay for migrated Cloud costs on top of my frozen on-premises costs?
No. HUIT Infrastructure funds (175.11154.8070.000001.520614.0000.00000) will cover your migrated Cloud costs during the freeze. You will, however, see all AWS charges listed on your bill. Migrated application costs will be billed to HUIT Infrastructure. Please see FAQ #17 for net-new Cloud costs.
16. What happens to my server costs when the freeze ends?
If you are part of the consolidated budget, the SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE line item will disappear, and your SOC and AWS costs will continue to be paid for by the consolidated GL code.
If you are not part of the consolidated budget, your SOC-CLOUD-FREEZE line item will also disappear, but your actual SOC and AWS costs will begin to be borne by your local budget.
17. If I create a brand new application in the Cloud, or significantly expand an environment for an application that was migrated to the Cloud, will my AWS costs still be covered by the HUIT Infrastructure budget?
No. Net-new Cloud costs will be billed to your organization.
18. Why aren't costs like power and hardware maintenance for physical servers included in the freeze?
We are only freezing infrastructure charges. Power, hardware maintenance and software maintenance (ITO, TWS) are vendor charges that are passed through directly to server owners, and are therefore not frozen.
Likewise, any other charges that appear in the Account Level Charges or Vendor/Pass Through Charges areas of your bill are not frozen.
19. What about Direct Connect (DX)? Who pays for that?
Generally, Virtual Private Clouds (VPC) that are primarily intended for Infrastructure Cloud migrations have their DX charges covered by the freeze, and ones that are primarily for new applications or self-managed migrations are not. Mixed-use VPCs are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. We do not have the ability to split DX charges. But, in general, if an account already exists, its DX will continue to be paid for the way it currently is. Contact Ben Rota for DX questions.
20. Which accounts or customers and services are and aren’t included in the freeze and consolidation?
Click here for a complete list of consolidate accounts and frozen accounts