Texas Public Cloud Services

DCS Public Cloud Services  

Industry leading public cloud services available from DIR Shared Technology Services are hardened public cloud virtual data center solutions with a focus on aligning the DCS Operating Model with Industry Best Practices, technical and security assurances, and onboarding of public cloud services through AWS, Azure, Google, and Oracle. 

Leveraging Cloud Native tooling, the DCS Public Cloud Service model is poised to align to the value of Cloud Service Providers by evolving capabilities with investment in Service Evolution of the Public Cloud.  Our expanded DCS Public Cloud model delivers IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services with products and tooling built for and within the Public Cloud to leverage the full benefits of Public Cloud services with the security assurances of DCS. 

DCS Public Cloud Services are provided by the Public Cloud Manager (PCM). 

Benefits of Public Cloud Services 

STS Customers can benefit from the following: 

Access to a large variety of services from the leading Public Cloud providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google which includes Government and Commercial cloud environments with a choice of 3 IaaS Service Tiers, 6 PaaS Service Groups, SaaS Service and Contract Management 

• Leverage the best workload hosting strategy for each use case and find the right capability in the right platform at the right Service Tier based on Customer requirements 

• Cloud Center of Excellence guidance and support 

• Program that will keep pace with cloud service provider evolution of capabilities 

• Maximize Public Cloud advantage of capabilities and price inherent in Public Cloud use cases 

• Standardized Instance Scheduling to turn on/off systems to reduce operating expenses within the Public Clouds 

• Managed services support rates based on daily usage 

• Vulnerability Management, Privileged Access, SIEM and CSOC Security service delivered locally while integrated into Security Operations for Enterprise coordination 

• Addition of Auto-Scaling support and PaaS Managed Services 

• Opportunities to reduce run rate with standard scheduled instances, daily pro-rated managed services, and the ability to stand up Reserved Instances 

• Automated Asset Management 

• Asset Tagging 

• Template based deployments for a continuous repeatable process 

• Redundant path direct network connections to Public Cloud from the Consolidated Data Centers based on variable priced capacity sizing options. A private, direct network connection (Virtual Cross Connect or VXC) increases security and can reduce cost 

• Managed virtual network configurations (Virtual Private Cloud or VPC) within Public Cloud based on customer requirements 

• IP address strategy and management fully integrated with Consolidated Data Centers   

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Support Levels: 

Multiple service levels are available for customers to choose from, depending on the customer’s need for management and support: 

• Sandbox 
• Semi Managed 
• Fully Managed 

Sandbox 

This operational model is intended for environments with use cases such as proof-of-concepts, sandbox, and lower lifecycle development and testing activities which can operate with network restrictions preventing communication with the STS Consolidated Data Centers and unsolicited inbound internet communication. 

Native public cloud console access to Public Cloud IaaS services (with minimal restrictions) is available enabling customer flexibility operating in the Public Cloud. 

Customers are fully responsible for services provisioned within the limited support environments, with minimal SCP support provided. 

Semi-Managed 

The Semi-Managed Cloud operational model is intended for environments where the customer is responsible for operating system management, monitoring, application level support and associated incident and change management. This environment allows connectivity through a new Virtual Cross Connect (VXC), or an existing VXC already in use by the customer agency delivering integration of on-premises CDC resources with cloud resources with STS assurances. 

Native Public Cloud console access is available to customers for some of the operational functions and the Public Cloud Manager is responsible for provisioning and deprovisioning; acquiring, installing, and patching the operating system; installing and maintaining antivirus; and performing SIEM logging and critical watch reporting. 

Fully Managed   

The Fully-Managed Cloud operational model is intended for environments where Public Cloud Manager is responsible for all aspects of the service lifecycle including provisioning, deprovisioning, ongoing operating system (OS) support, monitoring, environment maintenance, customer Incident Request, Change Requests, and Work Orders.  Connectivity over a new or previously existing Virtual Cross Connect (VXC) between on-premises CDC resources and cloud resources enables the extension of STS assurances to the hybrid environment.  

Native Public Cloud console access is available to customers for some of the functions for fully managed environments and the Public Cloud Manager is responsible for provisioning and deprovisioning; acquiring, installing, and patching the operating system; ongoing operating system (OS) support; installing and maintaining antivirus, monitoring and environment maintenance; performing SIEM logging and critical watch reporting; incident response, change management, and work orders.  

Platform as a Service (PaaS)  

PaaS services can be procured through the DCS Public Cloud Service Catalog. A Virtual Cross Connect (VXC) will be required for integration between the CDC and the Cloud Service Provider PaaS environments. 

Native Public Cloud console access will be available to customers for some of the functions for fully managed environments and the Public Cloud Manager is responsible for maintenance and enablement of VXC and VPC/VNET; integration between public cloud IaaS services and PaaS service as needed; all cloud deployments; enabling Customer console access. 

Software as a Service (SaaS) 

Some SaaS services can be procured through the Data Center Services program. The PCM will negotiate on behalf of the DIR and Customers to obtain the best possible price and contract terms, which will then be handed off to the requesting Customer and DIR for review and approval. 

The PCM will stand up availability monitors for the service to facilitate functionality and accessibility from each of the cloud regions as well as ADC and SDC, in line with contractual SLAs provided by the vendor. Should an issue arise, the PCM will respond and escalate to the vendor to resolve the issue, and procurement personnel will seek remediation in line with the contract and the SLAs provided by the vendor. 

Microsoft O365 Subscription 

DCS customers can procure enterprise-level Microsoft Office 365 (O365) subscriptions for organizational needs. By procuring Microsoft O365 subscriptions through this program, customers receive discounted pricing based on the DCS enterprise volumes. 

Available enterprise-level O365 subscriptions: 

• O365 tenant administration support to assist with questions/issues 

• Security alerting and incident management 

 DCS provides automation and secure enterprise access to O365 services:  

• Large Volume pricing discounts on a variety of mailbox and O365 related subscriptions 

• Microsoft benefits including Planning Services, Deployment Services, Training Vouchers, and Problem Resolution Support 

• Availability to an environment for testing new MS O365 services 

• Quarterly product optimization reviews 

• Enterprise Contract Management support from DIR 

Texas Imagery 

Many of us use imagery in our daily lives, whether looking up directions or exploring our neighborhood from above. The Data Center Services program provides a cost-efficient and widely accessible mapping tool that meets the needs of state and local governments.  

The Texas Imagery Service is designed to provide high resolution imagery showing the entire state of Texas with its most current coverage. The service provides continuous 6-inch natural color imagery for the entire state. 

Making Texas imagery available to all public entities distributes the cost, making the imagery and updates affordable to all. 

It provides state organizations with a current and consistent data source while offering the highest resolution imagery available for any statewide program through an OGC compliant Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Map Tile Service (WMTS). 

Texas Imagery provides significant cost savings by streaming imagery directly to your GIS or application. There is no need to pay large storage costs for serving terabytes of data. 

For additional details on Texas Imagery Services and a list of Frequently Asked Questions, click here. There, you can also request a trial link to the service to determine if the solution is right for your organization.