Information Technology Services activities spring 2019
Information Technology Services (ITS) continues to be extremely busy and this past quarter was no exception as we worked to continually provide new or improved services for the campus. Additionally, we provided vital upgrades to our campus technical infrastructure and continued to work diligently to develop applications and services in support of research technology needs.
New/changing services
ITS activated the larger academic data storage system, called “U” drive, for students prior to the start of the spring semester. The U-Drive supplements the existing G-Drive that all students have; however the U-Drive provides students with additional local storage. U-Drives provide an additional 5GB of local network storage for an entire academic year, which is ideal for students who are working with data files that require faster input/output for image manipulation, graphics, CAD systems, etc. Most of this work would occur in computer labs or in the BingView (VDI) environment. U-Drives utilize higher speed disk space dedicated to software applications needing faster input/output rates than Google cloud services can provide. Specifically, we are seeing a significant improvement in response times for CAD, GIS and fast analytics users. Initial class requests were for 1,268 students in 29 classes.
The new room/event scheduling system Infosilm, known as B-There to users, went live on Jan. 1. This completed the first phase, six-month effort to move the campus space management system from a retired legacy system (Resource25). Phase I of this project went well due to the dedicated effort of many entities on campus. Work has begun on Phase II of the space management/scheduling system, Timetabler. Timetabler will build the course scheduling calendar for all academic classes and will go into production this summer.
The intra-University credit transfer for students in the bachleor of social work program was completed and went into production ahead of schedule. This process needed to be in place prior to March 15, 2019, and enables students to apply for this program that begins in fall 2019.
The Harpur Accelerated MBA program modified the exclusion query for its accelerated degree program in response to student requests. Prior to the change, students were experiencing frustration in finding the correct listing of majors for their intended degree. Now, students in the Harpur Accelerated MBA program are able to easily list majors that are excluded from applying for major B93 that conforms to the SUNY Academic Program Enterprise System (APES) database.
The Applications Team completed a project to create a database for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences to house sanitized biopsy data for research purposes. The new database is housed in the clustered MS-SQL environment with enhanced access permissions. Pharmacy students are now able to create and connect to complimentary databases for use in their analyses. This process provides pharmacy students with the data needed to enhance their studies while protecting the individual medical data being utilized.
Eduroam is now the preferred wireless connectivity software for all University students, researchers, faculty and professional staff. Eduroam is a secure, world-wide wireless internet access service developed for the international research and education community. By migrating all users to Eduroam, when students, researchers, staff and faculty travel to another location that supports Eduroam, they are able to easily utilize the host wireless system using their Binghamton credentials. They are linked back to Binghamton with full access, no matter where in the world they are connected.
The Information Security Team continues to deal with phishing attacks on a regular basis. Information campaigns are continually being revamped to inform users of our network to be ever vigilant as phishing and spear phishing attacks will continue.
Upgrades to technical infrastructure
Telecommunications and Networking are now planning Phase II of the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) project for the campus. Phase IA of the DAS project significantly improved the cellular signal in the basement of the entire University Union building and Academic A. Phase IIB, scheduled to be completed this summer, will see the DAS installation in Broome Hall basement. Installing DAS in each building is a lengthy process and necessitates extensive negotiation with wireless providers.
The ITS Systems Team performed hundreds of system software patches or updates this quarter. Additionally, they work closely with the operations staff to continually replace aging servers and storage devices. The majority of this work is done well before the business day begins. Our goal is to provide the University maximum system “up” time.
ITS worked closely with Physical Facilities and Educational Communications to complete a minor renovation of the POD in LN-G103. This work entailed the removal of computers, furniture and existing flooring, and installation of a new floor. The furniture was re-installed along with all the computers. All renovation work was done over the Winter Session with no impacts to students or their studies.
ITS staff has completed 77 projects thus far this fiscal year and is actively working on 91 other projects, with anticipated close dates scattered over the next year and a half. Demand for ITS support continues to grow as evidenced by the over 120 project requests submitted in the first nine months of this fiscal year, compared to 111 project requests for all of last fiscal year. We also continue to plan for several large-scale projects beyond the normal influx of projects that will keep ITS staff busy for months to come.
ITS support to the University
Help Desk staff received almost 2,400 requests for assistance ranging from simple password re-sets to servicing laptops. Top requests for assistance were: passwords, Blackboard, University-owned computers, phishing scam impacts, Banner, student printing and shared network drives. Additionally, Help Desk staff scanned and scored over 100 academic tests in the past three months. Student printing needs continue to increase with almost 2 million pages printed in the last month and a half.
Operations and infrastructure staff continue to work on several key capital projects including the renovation of Onondaga Hall, Engineering Building, Hinman Dining Hall, Science 2 physics wing and the basement of the pharmacy building. As with the majority of work ITS does, the work is critical to the success of future occupants yet is practically invisible to the occupants of the space. All of this work is on schedule.