Information Technology DivisionCompact Planning-2002-06
FYI:
For UPA's overview of the Compact Planning process for NCSU, see: http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/compactplan/index.htm
This year, the university is being asked to submit Initiatives in the following five categories:
- those contributing to achievement of university goals, including diversity, partnerships, and operational efficiencies.
- those contributing to the university's planning for "Student Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment", the focus of NC State's current accreditation endeavor.
- those contributing to achievement of unit-specific goals.
- those improving the unit's performance on selected performance measures.
- those supporting established targets for enrollment growth.
". . .This second cycle of compact planning, which will be completed by the end of the 2002-03 year, focuses on initiatives to be pursued between 2003-04 and 2005-06."
First Iteration for ITD: Collect Ideas from Units and Senior Staff
Initial topics suggested by Sam:
- Help desk
Peer benchmarks & options/alternatives- NC State Portal
Requirements, investigate PeopleSoft portal offering- On-campus HPC resources
- BioGrid initiative
- RedHat Linux initiative
- National backbone connectivity
- New ComTech Network funding model
- Expanded cyber security resources and capabilities
- "On-staff” legal resource
- PDA initiative
- Campus cell-phone/wireless initiative
- Storage initiative
- Enhancements or initiatives with regard to student computing environment
- Desktop or other convergence initiatives
- Improved IT efficiency
- Campus database support services
- Expand distributed support program
Possible additions
- IT literacy (?)
- Codicil with College of Education on accessibility lab (?)
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (?)
- Coordinated Student Services Alliance (?)
Proposals elaborating on topics suggested by Sam:
- Bill -Computing Services
- Harry - Unix & Web Systems
- Jennifer - ComTech
- Stan - IT Fluency
- Susan - Distributed Support
- Tyler - IT Accessibility
Ideas for additional Compact Plan initiatives:
Proposals elaborating on topics suggested by Sam:
PDA-Mobile Computing Initiative
The intent is to move beyond simply using mobile computing in a controlled, classroom environment. Instead, we must provide tools and services that are able to use the advantages that a small, handheld device can provide on this campus for everyone; students, faculty and staff to manage their professional or academic lives, share information, form communities, and more. The intent is to weave a transparent infrastructure that enhances our existing services, and provides a new layer of services that requires very little investment of time to learn.
Three main areas of focus:
- Infrastructure, delivery and access
Delivery points for information, access to data resources for PDA users, via public labs, information kiosks, classrooms and public meeting spaces.
Using our expertise at information kiosk management, our lab support team and our back end server expertise, we can focus on delivery of content using more than one delivery method, including wireless and non-networked situations.
- Content management and delivery for PDA's
Delivery systems for content that simplifies the creation and distribution of content to PDA's. Authorship of PDA content is an additional burden on content authors. Without critical mass of ownership, it is hard to justify the expense of content creation specifically for PDA's.
The intent is to build delivery systems that are easy for end authors to use, where content can be easily repurposed for web and PDA useand accessibility for people using assistive technologies. With more content and services being made available to small devices, we can leverage mobile computing ownership of our students, faculty and staff. In addition, these same types of services and tools will advance ADA accessibility efforts.
- Tools
Content Managment is one primary area for emphasis, but there are other tools and services that we can provide. General catagories are:
- Messaging for PDA's (asynchronous and synchronous)
- Lightweight data sharing
- Archiving (backup)
- Spontaneous format conversion
- Online/Offline Journaling
- Calendaring/Scheduling
- Quizzing
A special note about quizzing -- there are already three groups on campus that are actively working on quizzing tools for PDA's -- all efforts should be made to encourage these developments, and to make the resulting tools work well with other courseware tools.
- Help Desk
o Online access (example, via chat) to help desk person- NC State Portal
o Coordinate with appropriate groups regarding support roles and expected customer needs.
- ITD would
host web and application servers
coordinate campus steering committee- RMIS would
-develop PeopleSoft components
- coordinate content for admin users- DELTA would
- relinquish my.ncsu.edu
- coordinate content for distance users- News Services
- Provide design look and feel
- Would provide ongoing coordination of content management- Other Units
- Student Affairs
- Human Resources
- Library
- Extension- On-campus HPC and Biogrid
- Develop full-blown LSF and/or Sun Grid Engine compute environment using high-powered (CPU) and high-resource (memory) computers
- RedHat Linux Initiatives
o S390. Continue co-development w/ RH to have functional Linux on S390
o Provide RH mirror site.
o Migration of selected services to RH-based environment- Expand cyber-security
o Add additional staff to
- Handle increase cybercrime load
- DMCA notification (Resnet & non-Resnet)
o Add legal expertise to staff- "On-staff" legal initiatives
o handle DMCA
o handle FERPA & HIPAA issues
o handle licensing discussions (ie, have T&C's already done before PO goes out).
o Work with GA to provide system-wide licensing initiatives- PDA initiatives
o IR-based Access Points for internet access
o IR-based Access Points for broadcast of location-specific documents (bluefish)
- JC Raulston Arboretum
- Student Center
o Develop system-wide Avantgo service with campus-specific channels (which could be charged back for cost recovery).
o Develop publishing-model to allow for repurposing of content for various things (PDA, cell phone, browser)
o Network-based HotSync service- Campus Cell-phone/wireless initiatives
o Web-clipping service- Storage Initiatives
o Migration to OpenAFS
o Migration to large-scale SAN or NAS (net appliance) architecture
-DRP
- Lowers cost/MB
o Tape Backups
- Providing it to other units and/or users
o Burn a CD with all of their stuff when they graduate or move on. Done on request and for a minimal fee.- Campus Database Support Services
o Need DBA and 2 DBPs (incl PHP expertise)
o Application programming
o Tools development- Business Cont and Dist. Recovery
o See all of the above- Distributed Support
o Extend to Systems Programmers
o Authenticated SMTP
- Via VLAN to remote users
- Still not a mature technology, ready for prime time
o Expansion of Webmail as a common user interface
- Replace existing application (already underway)
- "Throw away Eudora"- WRAP
o Development to multi-campus functionality
o Use of meta-auth server like radius.- LDAP
o Replace hesiod
o Provisioning for broad use- Calendaring
o Extend service to students- Enhancements or initiatives with regard to student computing environment
o Use of USB-based disk memory units for student to store information/data and easily carry with them.
o Develop and distribute preconfigured OpenAFS client
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Return to list of contributors
The Information
Technology Division has been able to take small steps in the midst of budget
cuts to assess
student's technology preparedness and provide training and intervention
for students who are increasingly
expected to be able to use computers inside and outside of the classroom.
No progress has been made on assessing
faculty expectations of students' computing skills nor of attempting to
expand the current General Education
Requirements to more appropriately reflect the need for our graduates to
leave NC State with a wholistic
understanding of information technology and the issues that surround its
use.
While some time
has been carved out from competing priorities, additional resources are
needed if we are going to
move forward in collaboration with other campus units. Many units have expressed
a desire to work together on this
project, including several colleges, departments and support units, but
there must be an entity that acts as the
"hub" to facilitate campus efforts. ITD's role should be two-fold:
to be the service unit that makes sure basic
information technology competency is met so students are not left behind
by rising technology use expectations;
and to help facilitate collaboration among units on campus who desire to
incorporate IT fluency into their
curriculum.
Immediate needs
include:
- Staff time or contract staff to develop assessment of faculty use of technology
and expectations of students' skills.
- Financial resources to carry out sample assessments to determine actual
skills using tools such as Tek.Xam or
SAM.
- Staff time to develop further collaborations with colleges and other units
so training and intervention can take
place in the context of course curricula.
- Student workers to provide "just-in-time" support for computing
needs.
Initiatives to enhance and improve
efficiencies in provisioning of
computing support in campus units.
Sub-bullets:
-Assist departments in planning for computing support staffing needs,
and when necessary facilitate the sharing of support staff by smaller
units.
-Develop a more wholistic philosophy
on assessing support needs,
integrating it with standardization of desktop hardware and software
configurations.
-Develop a formal program of
"Support Partnerships" with support staff
in departments to provide an increased conduit for proactive support and
better representation of departmental needs back to ITD. (i.e.
Distributed Support without ITD having to "own" the positions)
-Develop a formalized method
of providing training and communication to
departmental computing support staff that targets both technical
concepts and improves the "institutional awareness" of departmental
support staff. A component of these would be to develop a certification
system for staff who complete the training and demonstrate mastery of
these concepts.
-Conduct a yearly planning workshop/retreat
for computing staff in all
major support units (RMIS, ITD, Colleges) to educate each other on the
state of computing initiatives on campus, and to provide an opportunity
for increased communication that has the potential to improve
communication throughout the year. Ultimately, this would improve our
abilities to work together and reduce the incidence of duplication of
effort.
-----
Note: I see this initiative tying in with the initiatives to improve Help desk
services, provide a mechanism for centralized software funding and
provisioning, and the proposal to develop a Shared Student Services
Alliance. Susan
Executive Summary: (See draft of full proposal)
ITD proposes to partner with the College of Education, DSS, DELTA, and possibly other units on campus to establish a facility to support IT accessibility in the university environment. This facility will act as a center-point for (a) production of accessible and alternate format materials (such as providing a captioning service for campus), (b) for support and education on web accessibility issues (as a support mechanism for the up-coming academic regulation), and (c) for research into accessibility issues of campus, national, and international importance.
ITD proposes that this Initiative begin as soon as possible so that it can move forward together with the academic regulation on web accessibility and can begin to provide valuable campus support for web and multimedia accessibility. No money is required for the first stage of this process - where, it is recommended that, the Coordinator of Assistive and Information Technology work with a Task Force to establish the facility, identify its mission and budget, and look for external funding sources (grants and external partnerships). Once the facility moves beyond this initial phase, funding will be required for one full-time position, equipment, and possibly some initial part-time staffing.
The creation of an accessibility support facility will directly impact NC State's Initiatives to support the University Goals identified in 1998 (to increase diversity, increase partnerships, and increase efficiency) and would benefit extensively the University's plan for "Student Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment".
(Note: Lisa Grable, director of Learning Technologies Research Center is drafting a similar proposal for the College of Ed. They have space for the proposed facility now)
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Software
• Establish through University IT committee a team to look at
establishing the central coordinated purchase of selected software
application and recommending/approving process for software acquisition,
distribution and maintenance, distribution, etc.
• Assess potential saving afforded by consolidation of software
licenses that are in wide-spread use among the colleges and departmentsHardware
• ITD recognizes the cost savings that can be realized from
collaborating with other colleges and departments on campus.
• This year we bundled an order of lab workstations with CHASS and
CNR. We were able to save 20-25% per system.
• With savings comes an investment from ITD for the resources
needed to coordinate the purchase and distribution of systems.
• Bundling purchases allows us to have the systems delivered with
the supported ITD Windows environment already installed resulting in
an additional savings in labor costs.
. Establish and prioritize potential projects, partners and goals
for the 390
. For the projects, itemize the costs, resources required and
services provided
Like all institutions our size, we have numerous information systems at
NC State. Our clients, partners and employees exist in multiple
disparate databases and directories. It is time-consuming and difficult
to match users in one system with users in another. This leads to
significant inefficiencies and limits the services we can offer. As we
move forward into wider markets, such as distance education and alumni
services, we need to be able to efficiently offer new services to a
growing and diverse population.What if we could tie all of these disparate systems together, so that
each person had a single identity across all of these databases and
directories? And further, what if we could do this without dismantling
the existing infrastructure, preserving the implementation of the
business rules that led to these multiple systems in the first place?We can, and we should, through implementation of an enterprise-wide
system of identity management and provisioning. Identity management
enables us to provide both standardized and customized services at scale
for the populations we serve. Provisioning enables us to allocate
resources on an as-needed basis, rather than building a massive
infrastructure that is only used by a small proportion of the potential
users.For example, using database triggers, an XML engine, and business rules
encoded in XML/XSL stylesheets, it is possible to automatically feed an
LDAP authentication database in real time from Peoplesoft, transforming
data into compatible formats on the fly. When an employee leaves the
University, triggers could automatically disable access to sensitive
systems, while simultaneously creating access to other services (such as
those offered to employees subject to a reduction in force). When a
student enrolls, they could automatically receive access to the
University's computing labs and library resources, and be given the
option to enroll in other services (such as applying for a parking
permit or purchasing print quota). When a student graduates, they could
automatically be added to the appropriate alumni database, and through
portal technologies, they could provision themselves into other systems,
such as offerings from Career Services. All of these things depend on
being able to follow the person through the enterprise - managing their
electronic identity.ITD has historically been the provider of authoritative authentication
systems for the NC State campus. In partnership with other major service
providers such as RMIS, DELTA and the NC State Libraries, ITD can lead
an effort to develop a comprehensive identity management and
provisioning system.
Tight budgets and growing needs have combined to create a unique
pressure on NC State's employees. It has been necessary to reduce
staffing to accommodate budget realities, and the remaining staff must
find ways to become more efficient. In order to meet this goal, we must
invest in our remaining staff to help them become better able to meet
the increasing demands of supporting a technology-rich environment in a
resource-constrained world. By investing in education and professional
growth, we will strengthen our staff's ability to develop creative
strategies to meet the increased workload. Budget requests would include
money for books, travel & training, possibly targeted at specific
compact plan initiatives.
DE students are at a disadvantage because they do not have access to the
student computing labs where complex and expensive program are available
(ie, AutoCAD, ProEngineer, Solidworks, SAS), particularly when taking
courses that focus on technical, advanced topics. These applications
typically require very powerful desktop computers, are frequently
Windows-only. Supporting the installation and functioning of these
programs on student-owned equipment may be prohibitively difficult.
Further, licensing terms frequently do not allow the University to offer
access to the software on non-University-owned equipment.One solution would be to provide remote access to applications through
Windows Terminal Services. By using Citrix thin-client technologies, we
could provide access to these applications to a wide variety of Windows,
Macintosh and Unix-based systems. This would be a partnership with DELTA
and groups exploring student-owned computing. Budget requests would
include money for servers, software and staff and training.
One area in which we can improve operational efficiency is the campus's
Windows desktop computing environments. Currently, there are many
similar, but somewhat different deployments of the Windows desktop and
associated applications. This creates inefficiencies as efforts are
duplicated across multiple units. In addition, there are many units
without computing support that have difficulty properly configuring and
securing their Windows desktops, leading to liability for the University
as those systems are compromised by hackers. Project would include
partnering with RMIS and the Colleges to continue development of a more
universal Windows computing environment; budget requests would be for
additional staff to fully document the environments and to develop
training for campus staff.
This may integrate well with other initiatives, such as disaster
recovery and business continuity planning, as well as storage needs
(must protect the data that is stored).
Though other technologies often capture the limelight, the need for
reliable basic file services continues to grow. Indeed as the number of
platforms increases and computation is spread among more and more
processing nodes, the growing need for disk space often outpaces Moore's
Law.Recent advances in storage technology have freed us from traditional
limitations due to multiple computer architectures trying to share the
same storage and given use the economies of scale necessary to build
genuine "Enterprise" Storage systems. Such systems would leverage our
existing investment in networking infrastructure, so that they would
perform well at very small scales and for individuals, while at the same
time meeting the storage demands of a cutting edge research institution.The disadvantages of leaving every person and group determine their own
storage and backup strategy are anecdotally well known. Backups are
tedious and are not performed reliably when that chore is delegated to
the users of the computers -- they were hired for other tasks!ITD can implement an Enterprise File System project that would leverage
the low cost per terabyte of modern Storage Area Networks across
multiple platforms and protocols to meet the diverse needs of our
students, faculty, staff and researchers. A research institution of our
caliber can no longer dole out tens of megabytes of storage to a
scientist and believe we are meeting the need.Future work, particularly in genomics and bioinformatics demand that we
be positioned to supply gigabytes, or even terabytes, on demand and at a
reasonable cost. ITD was the first unit to supply every student, faculty
and staff member with networked storage, in the form of AFS space for
each account.ITD can now lead the campus in extending this leadership into large
storage systems accessible from wherever the client is working, either
on the Grid, or a Windows machine gathering data in a lab, or a
Macintosh used in an office.Return to list of contributors
- Continue Disaster Recovery Efforts
Expand computer room space by restarting project to renovate old dispatching area for departmental Disaster Recovery servers (?)
Upgrade UPS to 225 kVA (?) and one additional battery cabinet
Temperature controlled fans for the two main building breakers(should be priority)
One dedicated server for all environmental monitoring (?)
a) Will need to monitor power, AC, and security at SSC, CMDF, and other unmanned sites remotely.
b) Will need to log same environmental data for troubleshooting
problems.
Two additional full-time positions for Support Services Center coverage (?)- Improve Security Measures for Hillsborough Bldg. & Staff
Possible exterior & interior camera's for Hillsborough Bldg and additional lighting (?)
Expand card access coverage to include all exterior doors & major(common) interior doors (?)- Renovate Hillsborough Bldg for additional staff
Expand mezzanine (?)