South Carolina Cloud Services offers the effective and efficient provisioning and management of cloud-based resources. The Cloud Services leverages a "cloud smart" strategy and a standard approach for cloud management in the public and government clouds. Cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS offer customers the ability to rapidly provision cloud resources such as servers, storage, databases and cloud-native services (e.g., serverless, micro-services).
- Key Features and Benefits
- Cloud Services extend the existing IT Shared Services portfolio and are in alignment with the South Carolina Statewide Strategic Information Technology (IT) Plan.
- Scalability and elasticity, increased speed and agility, flexibility and collaboration, resiliency/disaster recovery, security and privacy, governance controls and increased visibility into workload costs.
- Cloud Accounts/Subscriptions
- Cloud accounts and subscriptions are the building blocks for customer cloud consumption, allowing agencies to access the public cloud.
- Each cloud resource, such as a virtual machine or database, resides in a single account/subscription.
- IT Shared Services agencies share a networking hub for secure connectivity to the MetroNet and internet.
- Security log aggregation and monitoring is managed through a centralized toolset using common alerting rules and thresholds.
- Automated provisioning of common services is built into the solution to accelerate the availability of key services.
- The cloud model is based on industry best practices according to enterprise-level standards.
- Cloud cost is generally incurred based on utilization rates per service.
- Enterprise Storage
- Enterprise Storage is a cloud-based storage account for object-based storage that can support multiple redundancy levels, including global replication and availability across many cloud-hosting regions.
- Enterprise Storage provides a tier-based data hosting model that allows agencies to manage costs by defining which storage objects need immediate availability and which can be placed on slower, lower-cost storage tiers.
- The costs of the available storage tiers vary by data accessibility rates. Higher availability rates have higher costs, while lower availability rates have lower costs. Before any cloud migration, agencies should perform data accessibility studies on the data they plan to host using Cloud Enterprise Storage to determine which storage tiers are appropriate for their data.
- Network Interconnect
- Cloud network services include network egress, load balancing, application gateway and firewalls.
- Services include Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect.
- Services also include VPN gateways, cloud interconnects, CDN, DNS and traffic management, DDoS protection and IP addressing.
- Relational Database
- Agencies may choose the type of database instance they would like to launch. Agencies are cautioned to appropriately size database instances to fit their needs within their projected cost model before launching a cloud instance.
- Web Hosting
- Static and dynamic websites can be deployed as a PaaS offering. Based on usage, resources can be automatically scaled up or down.
- Cloud-Native Services
- Additional Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as Service (PaaS) services are available in Azure and AWS, and the list is constantly being updated. For the latest information regarding available products, please refer to the respective AWS and Azure documentation:
- Exclusions
Most cloud products are available by default. AWS Service Control Policies and Azure Policy restrict direct manipulation of external networking, monitoring and other security-related resources. See the table below. Agencies may request the deployment of restricted resources in coordination with Admin.
Reason for Restriction AWS Products Azure Products - Security and Compliance
- Must be configured in coordination with DIS
CloudFront, Global Accelerator, Internet Gateway, NAT Gateway, SSO, VPN CDN, Front Door, Sentinel, Virtual WAN, VPN - Governance and Cost Management
- Managed by DTO and the ARM
Console Mobile Application, Control Tower, Managed Services, Organizations, Savings Plans Arc, Azure ADDS, Azure Mobile App, Blueprints, Cost Management and Billing, Lighthouse - Standardization
- Require evaluation as exceptions to existing standard
AppStream, Chime, Connect, Outposts, Storage Gateway, VMware Cloud, WorkDocs, WorkMail Azure Stack / Edge, OpenShift, SAP Hana, StorSimple, VMware - Undefined Use Cases
- Require further evaluation
Alexa for Business, Bracket, DeepRacer, Elemental, GameLift, Ground Station, IoT, Lumberyard, RoboMaker, Sumerian, Wavelength Data Share, Digital Twins, IoT, Kinekt, Orbital, Remote Rendering, Spatial Anchors, Spring Cloud
- Prerequisites
- Agencies wishing to use Cloud Services must adopt them as an IT Shared Service through the Division of Technology Operations.
OTIS and Customer Responsibilities
| Responsibilities | OTIS | Customer |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Engineering | ||
| Resource provisioning and lifecycle management. | Image
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| Infrastructure as Code (IaC). | Image
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| OS image and configuration management. | Image
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| Plan, configure and manage Disaster recovery for Cloud. | Image
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| Cloud Networking | ||
| Plan, configure and manage circuits and VPNs required for Cloud. | Image
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| Plan, configure and manage firewalls required for Cloud. | Image
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Platform infrastructure monitoring. | Image
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| Uptime monitoring. | Image
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| Security and incident event monitoring (SIEM). | Image
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| Cloud Governance | ||
| Financial reporting on cloud services utilized (enroll in Cloud Health). | Image
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| Cloud vulnerability management. | Image
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| Cloud Application Software | ||
| Custom developed | Image
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| Commercially provided | Image
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| Middleware/utility software | Image
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| Other software not defined above | Image
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| Cloud Training | ||
| Initial cloud enablement for new onboardings. | Image
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| Cloud AWS and Azure certifications training. | Image
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| Ongoing cloud skills training. | Image
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| Cloud Engineering | ||
| Resource provisioning and lifecycle management. | Image
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| Infrastructure as Code (IaC). | Image
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| OS image and configuration management. | ||
Plan, configure and manage disaster recovery for Cloud. | ||
| Cloud Networking | ||
| Plan, configure and manage circuits and VPNs for Cloud. (*) For customers utilizing the state’s Cloud Express circuit there is a shared responsibility. | * | |
| Plan, configure and manage firewalls for Cloud. | ||
| Cloud Monitoring | ||
| Platform infrastructure monitoring. | ||
| Uptime monitoring. | ||
| Security and incident event monitoring (SIEM). | ||
| Cloud Governance | ||
| Financial reporting on cloud services utilized (enroll in Cloud Health). | ||
| Cloud vulnerability management. | ||
| Cloud Application Software | ||
| Custom developed. | ||
| Commercially provided. | ||
| Middleware/utility software. | ||
| Other software not defined above. | ||
| Cloud Training | ||
| Initial cloud enablement for new onboardings. | ||
| Cloud AWS/Azure certifications training. | ||
| Ongoing cloud skills training. | ||
Service Levels for each of the Cloud services customer is purchasing will be included in the Job Order provided to the customer during the Request for Solution (RFS) process.
Service Rates
Call for pricing.
Service Contacts
To report issues related to this service, customers should contact the Division of Technology Operations (DTO) Service Desk (servicedesk@admin.sc.gov).
For additional information on this service customers should contact their Agency Relationship Management (ARM) representative or the Program Management Office (pmo@admin.sc.gov).
Estimate Initial Service Delivery Time
Initial service delivery time is dependent on customer engagement during the Request for Solution (RFS) process. Onboarding ranges from 4 weeks to 4 months, typical service delivery time is 9 weeks (following approval of service request and independent of other services).
| Customer Entity Type | Eligible |
|---|---|
| State Agencies | Yes |
| Local Government Entity including Municipality and County | No |
| Higher Education | No |
How To Order
Customers should contact their Agency Relationship Management (ARM) representative or the Program Management Office (pmo@admin.sc.gov) to acquire these services.
