NC State home page

Information Technology Division

Compact Planning-2002-06


Second Iteration for ITD:
Preliminary list of highest priority/most likely to succeed initiatives
Draft descriptions

For UPA's overview of the Compact Planning process for NCSU, see: http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/compactplan/index.htm

1. Initiatives contributing to achievement of university goals

2. Initiatives contributing to the university's planning for "Student Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment":

1. Initiatives contributing to achievement of university goals

ITD would coordinate with appropriate groups regarding support roles and expected customer needs for campus portal:

-----

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 departments

Hardware

• 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.

 

2. Initiatives contributing to the university's planning for "Student Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment":

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 holistic
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.

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:

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)