IT Services Newsletter #25

We are well into another New Year and its been really busy for both our students (who are now in the middle of exams) and also for some of us (e.g. as we finish off the loose ends from the IT “at risk” period at the start of January). I’m going to try and keep up the idea of a monthly newsletter during 2011. We are also working on a report which we are preparing for the first meeting of the Information Systems Committee (ISC) at the end of January 2011. This report provides a quick summary of some highlights from the last six months in terms of improving services for students and for staff – if you feel that we may have missed something important please let me know – it’s not too late for revisions. It is important that we keep reminding the University that we are continuing to make a positive contribution in various ways to the University’s success.

From the Infrastructure Team

IT “at risk” periodThe IT at Risk period over the Christmas/New Year vacation ran from Friday 17 December through Friday 7 January. There was a lot happening and this has gone reasonably smoothly and without significant inconvenience to students or most staff. There are a few things that are being worked on (e.g. pFact, Salto and Business Objects) and the majority of changes were successfully made.
• Secure Global Desktop – Volatile Windows Desktop upgraded
• SAINT test and team services (not live) a new release of application software.
• Data - Staff Data Storage (G / H Drive) installing new security certificates.
• Windows Update and McAfee Virus software upgrade
• Various services using SQL database software to install security and other software patches.
• Commissioning and re-cabling works Student Central – affecting over 300 voice and data sockets
• Infrastructure changes to the Directory Services
• SFX Upgrades – Library service
• Server Room Switches
• Campus Firewall

Christmas/New Year operationsDuring the Christmas and New Year break we also ran all the services “unattended” and there were no major service interruptions to report. It was interesting to do some usage statistics for the PCs on campus between December 29, 30 and 31 (for 2009) and we’ll be doing the same for 2010 which showed:

Number of logins Number of unique users
Dec 29, 2009 750 425
Dec 30, 2009 650 315
Dec 31, 2009 620 360

Saving EnergyDuring December, Estates safely de-commissioned two air conditioning units in the “old” computer room on JBP Level Zero One. This is a result of equipment failure and also the removal of various equipment and servers over the last year. There will be an energy/cost saving from this but it is hard to measure at this level of detail in the JBP Building. We are working with Estates and Facilities to conduct some more detailed measuring at circuit level (non intrusive) for the two main computer rooms so that we can get a better idea of the energy usage as we plan for further improvements.

From the IT Support and Telecomms TeamThe monthly highlight report (for December) is now available with all the other monthly reports here. The total number of jobs completed in December 2010 was 926 with a completion rate before or on target of 96%. It was also another positive month for customer feedback with just one dissatisfied customer responding to our satisfaction survey. Sara has passed on her thanks to all involved: “What lovely comments - thanks to everyone involved for generating such positive feedback, it's really great to read”.

We held an initial meeting with representatives from all the IT Services teams to look at various management reports from the RMS system and see if we can make some improvements to coding and reporting in time for the next Academic Session. In addition, we now have two academic schools actively using the RMS system for logging activity (SCIM and School of Management). The proposed changes will include the new internal structure/teams as well as aligning the codes with our service level documentation.

There are some preliminary investigations about IP Telephony for the Listerhills Science Park, as various departments move out of that facility to occupy main campus space (e.g. RKTS and SLED) and there is a continuing but smaller amount of activity which needs support.

From the Systems TeamThis is a fairly technical news item but it will eventually have an impact on a number of our systems. The University’s Admissions team has agreed that for the foreseeable future we will continue to only accept ASCII characters from UCAS, not UNICODE. Therefore SAINT, and all systems taking SAINT feeds, do not need adapting for UNICODE . . .just yet. The UNICODE change allows for a much wider range of character sets which can improve personalisation (e.g. when sending correspondence).

Any Other Business
Final Phase of Office Moves (JBP level 01)We are now entering the final phase of minor works and office moves as we complete our plan to co-locate our IT teams together. During the next few weeks, the remaining members of the LSS Customer Services team will be moving to the Customer Services team offices on JBP Level Zero. Work has begin on extending the “submarine” office to enable the IT Support team to move into the vacated and adjoining space with service desk. The IT Systems team will then be relocating to 01.36/01.37 hopefully during February which will provide space for the PC Cluster to move into the newly created student “zone”. In a separate move the student PC clinic will be moving from its current location to a new home in the “student zone”. It is possible that we will also be joined on level zero by others who are being re-located as a result of the School of Health library moves to Level Zero of the JBP Building. This is still under discussion at the moment.