ITS updates

Academic Computing and Client Support Services

The Academic Computing area of ITS was busy this quarter supporting the end-of-semester needs of our students as well as preparing for updates to the public computing areas that are taking place throughout the summer.
    • Students printed 6,333,690 sheets of paper in the spring semester, bringing the academic year total to 12,946,032 printed sheets of paper.
    • Use of the virtual desktop infrastructure was up with 11,784 logons representing 1,243 unique users.
    • Configuration and installation of the new EOP Tutorial computer lab with 25 public computers and the addition of a public student printer was completed.
    • The 10 public computers in the University computer lounge were replaced.
    • The 25 Bartle Information Commons Apple computers were replaced and redeployed to the Cinema Department.

Client Support Services is also busy preparing for the upcoming Orientation programs to help advise students on their technical needs when they arrive for the fall semester as new students.

University Enterprise Software

The University Enterprise Software group is hard at work upgrading our campus databases, migrating to virtual servers, and completing work on various projects for the campus.
    • The Operational Data Store (ODS) database that houses the University’s student and admissions reporting data is being upgraded to the latest version, 8.4.1
    • The Banner database infrastructure is being migrated to the ITS virtual server environment
    • ITS will be upgrading the Parking Services software to accept ticket payments online as well as the ability to purchase parking passes online
    • ITS will be upgrading the Identity Management System throughout the summer
    • A letter of intent to purchase a new student recruitment software package has been forwarded to the campus legal counsel

Operations and Infrastructure

The ITS Operations and Infrastructure group has been working on upgrades to both the campus network and to the card access system, in addition to planning for other summer projects to improve services to campus.
    • The campus tape backup system was upgraded to a redundant disk based backup architecture.   
    • Our campus VMWare virtual environment was upgraded from an ESX 4.1 base level to ESX 5.5.
    • The Campus card access system was upgraded to the most current release.
    • The Anderson Center Box Office was moved from the old ProVenue system to a PCI compliant ShoWare ticketing system.
    • A campus virtual computing environment was selected and the order was placed for the hardware to allow operation by fall semester.
    • A Cisco VoIP/presence proof of concept for teaching and learning environments was begun.
    • The network in several buildings was upgraded to allow for the Shoretel VOIP installation.

Telecommunications

Our Telecommunications group is in the process of upgrading the campus phone system to a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system. This new system provides many benefits to campus users including the ability to manage voicemail right from inboxes.

    • 734 ShoreTel VoIP phones were installed to date.
    • The entire Couper Administration Building was rewired for the new VoIP telephone system.
    • Shoretel VoIP telephone deployment included the following locations:
    • Academic B
    • Couper Administration Building floors 1-5
    • East Gym
    • Hillside Community
    • Telecom staff responded to 147 repair requests.
    • 364 work orders for new service and modifications to existing service were completed.