Telecommunications and Systems Services Department
Self-Study 2004 - 2005
Overview: The department of Telecommunications & Systems Services
provides several essential services for the university including the data
network, telephone network, network and data security, and central computing
servers including E-mail, WWW, student lab, and administrative application
servers. The university’s reliance on technology continues to grow and reliable
network, telephone, and computing services are essential to the university’s
core missions.
Name of Service: Wireless and Remote Network Access
The wireless and remote network access refers to the campus wireless data
network, off campus VPN access, dial-up modem pools, and DSL connections into
the UW campus. Remote access is termed as any access to an Intranet environment
from an offsite or Internet environment. Wireless access at UW is provided using
wireless access points installed in strategic locations around campus. VPN
(Virtual Private Network) and dial-up modems are available for access from off
campus to provide direct access to the UW data network. DSL service is provided
in conjunction with Qwest to any UW student, faculty or staff member that wishes
to use UW as the ISP (Internet Service Provider) to gain Internet access similar
to dial-up. VPN uses a software client installed on a user’s machine to create a
secure, encrypted tunnel for their data to traverse the Internet, an inherently
insecure place, to reach the UW Intranet to access UW network resources. The
dial-up modem pools were setup prior to the availability of broadband Internet
access to the public and are offered to anyone with UW user credentials free of
charge for access to UW network resources and the Internet.
Wireless and diverse remote network access alternatives enhance teaching,
learning, and research.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The University of Wyoming has excellent technical personnel resources
to support all remote access technologies available to campus community. UW was
ranked the 67th most “unwired” college campus by Intel; this accolade refers
only to the wireless network. The university wireless network is composed of
nearly 120 wireless access points with radios running the 802.11g wireless
standard providing 54Mbps of bandwidth to wireless users in the 2.4GHz frequency
range. UW has a very robust wireless network security solution in place to help
protect the UW data network from malicious activities. UW’s VPN access has
improved worker efficiency by allowing them greater access to the resources they
need to complete their work no matter where they are in the world.
Weaknesses: The wireless data network currently only has one data network staff
member responsible and knowledgeable about the system. No ongoing funding has
been identified to support or expand DSL, modem, VPN, or wireless access to the
university’s network. All current funding for wireless must come from
departments who request the services or the Central Student Technology
Committee.
There is often a perception that IT makes changes without notice to customers.
An official communication strategy needs to be developed. Also, backup staff
resources or cross training needs to be enhanced for support of various network
resources.
Opportunities: If funding were provided to allow for continued growth of the
wireless network it would be possible to provide a greater level of support and
availability to the campus users. Installation of a new VPN system in the spring
of 2005 will provide faster and expanded access to UW resources to all faculty,
staff, and students. A newly released wireless security scanner has become
available to UW that will aid in the detection of machines with potential
vulnerabilities including out of date operating systems, lack of antivirus
software, and the usage of a personal firewall.
A complete cost analysis of the UW DSL offering should be conducted. Depending
on the outcome of the cost analysis, UW DSL services should be enhanced and
expanded – or else discontinued.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Without remote access services at UW
it would be impossible for the growing campus environment to be able to conduct
business and use tools on a mobile and/or remote environment that enhances the
learning environment. VPN services allow UW employees to be more efficient in
what they do by giving them access to resources they otherwise wouldn’t have
from offsite locations. Wireless has become almost as important as the wired
network in just the past two years. Wireless has provided the university
community with the tools it needs to be more efficient and provide stronger
learning environment.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Comparator Information: Comparator information was obtained from online sources
and other universities, including Colorado.
Name of Service: Internet Access
Internet Access refers to all data network connectivity beyond the Laramie
campus. This includes access to the commodity Internet (i.e. commercial sites),
as well as research networks such as Internet2 and the National Lambda Rail (NLR).
Internet access capacity has been severely restricted in the past due to lack of
high speed network facilities between the university and Internet Service
Providers (ISPs). For the past several years, the university has had a single
T-3 circuit (45 mbps) for all Internet access. Funding has recently been
provided by the university Plus budget and a grant from the NIH to develop a
high speed fiber ring between Laramie and the FRGP (Front Range GigaPop - a
network peering point in Denver developed by a consortium of higher education
institutions in the Rocky Mountain region).
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The University has excellent technical personnel resources and
funding support for Internet Access. UW was a principle founder of the Front
Range GigaPop in Denver which provides high speed network connectivity to
universities in the region.
Weaknesses: Data communication facilities are limited in Wyoming due to the
small population and limited commercial Internet uses. Much of the nation's
interstate fiber runs through Laramie but has been difficult and expensive to
access. The current staff that supports Internet access and the campus data
network is stretched due to numerous concurrent projects and the need to support
the network 24/7. Current Internet access has numerous single points of failure
which can take down the university's entire network access any moment.
Opportunities: Recent agreements reached with telecommunication companies who
have fiber that runs through Laramie have created an opportunity to develop a
high speed and redundant network between UW and the FRGP where connections are
provided to numerous national Internet resources. A redundant network with
diverse paths eliminates any single point of failure. High speed network from
off campus will make UW computing resources available world-wide as if they were
local. Computing resources include virtual meetings (for example, the Access
Grid and other facilities that support multipoint conferences), real-time access
to UW databases and library resources, and access to UW computing resources (for
example, the student lab system), etc. High speed Internet access becomes more
important each year as remote education (including eCollege), computing,
collaboration, and communication become the key to any successful university.
Value added by TSS providing the service: In the mid 1980s when UW was first
connected to the Internet, the Internet was viewed largely as a future research
tool. Today, UW could not operate without Internet access. For example, email
and web pages are now primary tools for communication and education and are
dependant on the Internet in order to function. Modern advances in remote access
to computing facilities and communications
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Comparator Information: Comparator universities include other FRGP consortium
members including Colorado State University, University of Colorado - Boulder,
Colorado School of Mines, and Denver University.
Name of Service: Data Network
The data network refers to all network connectivity inside the confines of the
UW campus and outreach facilities. This includes all access to sites in Casper,
WY, Cheyenne, WY, and Powell, WY where research and health care facilities have
been built to service the University. The University of Wyoming data network is
composed of several logical layers that provide redundancy, performance, and
reliability to the campus community. The campus backbone uses fiber optic
cabling installed in steam tunnels, conduit and aerial strands across campus to
provide the necessary media to allow for gigabit (1000mb) backbone access. Most
all buildings on the UW campus have a gigabit link into the data network
backbone of campus with all buildings having equipment capable of 100mb speeds.
Remote sites are connected to campus via frame relay links with Qwest. The
effective size of the UW data network in node count currently sits at
approximately 16000 computer nodes and 300 individual network switches and
routers.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The University has excellent technical personnel responsible for
handling all aspects of the UW data network. The University of Wyoming data
network was recognized by the Princeton Review in 2003 as the 13th most
connected university in the country. Existing data network equipment is for
enterprise environments and is technologically advanced. Accessibility to 100mb
data network access across campus has become widely available to all buildings.
Some areas now offer 1000mb data network access to users.
Weaknesses: There are currently only two full-time staff members dedicated to
the data network who do network development and maintain the network 24/7/365.
Operating with minimal personnel makes it difficult for projects to be completed
in a timely manner. Currently there are many locations on campus where data
network equipment shares space with custodial crews and their equipment. This
has led to problems in the past with damage to equipment and even network
downtime. This situation presents a security risk since many of these closets
are left open during times when custodial staff members are working and leave
the spaces open to unauthorized access to data, vandalism, theft, or other such
malicious acts. Funding for the data network is not permanently budgeted which
leaves the network susceptible to unmanageable growth and other unforeseen
maladies. The wiring in many places on campus does not meet current industry
standards (category 5/5e or 6 wiring is the current industry standard, with UW
having largely category 3 wiring installed) and limits users to only 10mb
connections when 100mb connections are available in the existing data network
equipment. Permanent funding for the data network should be identified and
included as a line-item in the IT budget.
Several UW departments install, manage, and operate their own data network. This
has caused numerous problems with troubleshooting problems and implementation of
the network firewall. Looking forward, VoIP cannot be supported on departmental
networks for security, management and other reasons. Thus, VoIP deployment may
be hindered if department continue to operate separate networks.
There is often a perception that IT makes changes without notice to customers.
An official communication strategy needs to be developed. Also, backup staff
resources or cross training needs to be enhanced for support of various network
resources.
Opportunities: By providing a permanent budget for the data network it would be
possible to anticipate growth and future needs and provide a continued service
to the campus community. The addition of more staff to aid in the management and
operation of the data network would help users to have their issues handled in a
more timely manner. The replacement of non-standard wiring in all campus
buildings, in order to provide the highest level of access to the users, is
essential for the future of the network.
Change management should be implemented to avoid service disruptions,
inconveniences, unknown impacts, and to keep the Help Desk and consultants
informed in order to better serve customers and provide timely resolutions. This
opportunity applies to most TSS functions. Problem reporting protocol is
ineffective at times, and IT could improve its processes for more efficient
access from the Help Desk to the appropriate staff so that critical information
may be provided and acted on in a timely manner.
Value added by TSS providing the service: In the early 1980s when UW first began
building a data network it wasn’t apparent that it would become so important to
the day to day function of the university. Now that the world has become
dependant on high-speed network connectivity, the need for an extensive,
reliable and expandable network has become more apparent. In fact, the data
network is imperative for the university to be able to conduct business. For
example, email and web pages are now primary tools for communication and
education - and these services cannot operate without a reliable data network.
Today, most university employees would not be able to provide their job
functions if the data network were to fail.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings and through discussions and meetings with IT
departments in other universities.
Comparator Information: Comparator universities include Colorado State
University, University of Colorado – Boulder, Denver University, University of
Utah, and Arizona State University. The data networks at these universities are
similar in size and functionality to the UW data network. Most all of these
universities have much larger.
Name of Service: General Network Servers
Elsewhere in TSS self study documents are discussions about network servers that
are used directly by end users. Examples include Email servers, WWW servers,
File servers, Administrative application servers (SIS, HRS, Alumni Development,
Portal, etc.), student lab servers, etc. There are a large number of other
network servers which operate ‘behind the scenes’ that are also important to the
operation of the university. Following are examples of network servers and
services in this category. In total, IT operates in excess of 80
production/redundant and development network servers.
- Domain Name Servers - servers both inside and outside the UW network firewall
that provide name resolution
- DHCP - servers that manage and assign IP addresses
- WINS - servers that provide Windows name resolution
- Active Directory - servers that manage Windows user accounts and privileges
- Domain Authentication - servers that authenticate remote access users
- SUS - software update servers that keep campus workstations patched
- Antivirus– servers that keep antivirus software up to date on campus
workstations
- News -- Usenet News server
- Print– servers that provide shared access to network printers
- HEAT – servers that manage the central help desk and user service requests
- Axis – servers that manage the IT billing system, primarily used for telephone
billing
- Legacy Sybase server – used for legacy applications such as budget preparation
- Netgraph – server that provides network usage statistics
- Time – server that provides time services to network computers
- Email gateway – processes email to/from the Internet (including spam filtering
and antivirus processing)
- Ellacoya packetshaper – servers that manage Internet usage and prioritizes
educational and research data over entertainment data (for example music
sharing)
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: General network servers have been highly reliable and thus
transparent to most university users. Many of the services contribute to
significant cost savings for the university.
Weaknesses: Several UW departments operate their own Windows domain controllers
and E-mail servers. While there are good reasons for some of these servers, many
of the servers only duplicate services provided centrally. Often network
security, patch management, and support operations are impeded by the added
complexity and management of this situation.
Opportunities: Some of the general network servers can be leveraged to provide
additional service that make network services easier to access and enhance
overall security. Active Directory can be further developed to streamline user
access to network services (for example, simpler user authentication) and
enhance security (for example, group policies), and central administration (for
example, reduction of separate Windows Domains). These servers can be further
enhanced to automate manual tasks (such as the patching of workstation and
deployment of workstation software) that will save significant resources and
costs for the university.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Many essential network services are
provided that are not readily obvious to the general user – yet these services
are critical to the support of other services directly used by end users such as
E-mail server, WWW servers, administrative servers, student laboratory servers
etc. Some of the general network servers save significant time and resources and
thus costs to the university. Also, some of the services are essential to the
reliable functioning of network and Internet resources.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Name of Service: Network and Data Security
Network and data security protects the network and data from attacks from
malicious users and software. These include viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and
hacking attempts. Attacks on the network come from many sources including direct
attacks, email, downloads, contaminated disks and other portable media, etc.
Network and data security requires a multi-faceted approach to mitigate these
dangers. Also, Network and data security provide a means of encrypting data that
is being transferred to both on and off campus systems.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: UW has not had a major disruption in our network for over a year
because of the measures taken to prevent attacks. The latest wide spread
internet virus/worm attacks have hardly been noticed on campus because of
prevention measures taken by UW. A firewall is in place which prevents most
campus systems from being seen and attacked from the out side. We are doing
intrusion detection that locates campus systems that are infected with mal-ware
and allows us to clean them. IT is pushing the latest security windows patches
to most campus systems which prevents them from being infected. IT provides
anti-virus software to university owned computers and for student and
faculty/staff computers. VPN services are provided to both vendors and users
which encrypts data moving between systems. University data would be at
significant risks without appropriate network and data security measures.
Weaknesses: The University of Wyoming allows many systems to connect to the
university network through direct connections in student residences and other
sites on campus and remotely through dial-up services, VPN, and DSL. These
systems are always a potential source of infection since they are allowed in
behind the firewall. The intrusion detection system is an after the fact system
and is not proactive in preventing attacks. We do not have a good measurement of
the effectiveness of our preventative measures. We do not have assurance that we
are in compliance with the various federal statutes and regulations that govern
the handling of student, medical, and financial records.
Opportunities: The university needs to have a system in place that will examine
non UW owned systems when they connect to the network to ascertain they are not
infected with malware and have the recommended security measures in place. The
intrusion detection system should be upgraded to an intrusion prevention system
that will actively prevent attacks from both outside and inside the network. The
firewall needs to be extended to administrative systems so that only users who
need access to these systems have access. We need to encrypt any sensitive data
the moves across the network to protect privacy and comply with the federal
statutes. It would be beneficial to implement some type of secure card or other
system to insure users are who they say they are.
Value added by TSS providing the service: This service prevents loss of time and
data by preventing attacks on computer systems. We have had attacks in the past
that have taken the network down campus wide for up to 12 hours. Data security
protects university and personal data from falling into the wrong hands. It
insures that when a computer is connected to the network it will not become
infected and will not infect other systems. Proper security is required to meet
the privacy and other standards contained in Federal rules and regulations.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings. We regularly review reported incidents of
successful attacks on other universities.
Name of Service: Computer account administration
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: Information Technology provides user logon account management
services for the University of Wyoming campus on the Central Academic Computer
Server (ASUWLink) and in the central Windows domains. These central accounts
allow for more consistent access to data and information across campus and allow
for increased security. Information Technology maintains a central registry of
usernames for all campus users (newuser). This central registry associates each
person with a username which is the same across almost all of the central
servers (technical limitations of some systems prevent it from being used on all
systems). Having a consistent username limits confusion among users and
increases security by avoiding username collisions between different systems.
The University has excellent technical resources to maintain and support
computer account administration. These resources deal with technical issues,
upgrades and ongoing maintenance in order to provide the highest level of
service to campus.
Weaknesses: The existing system used to allocate and track computer accounts (newuser)
is out of date and has not kept up with the changing needs of Information
Technology. Because it is out of date some processes that could be automated
must be maintained in a more labor intensive manner. This increases the workload
on staff.
The current system relies on Social Security Numbers and Birthdates to link
usernames to individuals across SIS and PeopleSoft HR. Because of the sensitive
nature of this data its use and those users that have access to it should be
minimized as much as possible. Currently the University does not have any
alternative to the Social Security Number as that is the only information that
allows for individuals to be linked that exist in both SIS and PeopleSoft HR.
Ideally each person on campus should have a UW ID which is unique and maintained
across the various administrative systems. This would allow data from different
systems to be linked without the use of Social Security Numbers.
Opportunities: The existing system account administration system needs to be
redeployed using updated technologies. This would allow for more efficient
integration with existing systems and automation of some processes that are
labor intensive with our current system. Information Technology is working to
provide the resources to make those changes during the upcoming year. A large
portion of the existing account management system is expected to be replaced by
the new Banner system. Over the course of the next few years, it is desirable to
implement a single sign-on account management system based on Kerberos or other
similar technologies. Also, affiliates and other parties served by TI who are
not student or employees should be accommodated by the system. Resources from
HR, Academic Affairs and other UW entities will need to be involved for a
successful implementation.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Having centralized computer account
administration facilitates the sharing of ideas and data across campus. It makes
it easier for users to share files and information securely because they can
grant access using a core set of user accounts. Having just a couple of central
accounts that share usernames that are used to grant access improves security
because users do not have unused accounts left behind to be compromised and when
users are no longer associated with the University their accounts can be removed
in one central location. Because each department does not need to do its own
account management there are cost savings to the University because redundant
functions are eliminated. Currently in order to associate accounts to
individuals, personal information is used which has privacy concerns. By having
account management centralized it minimizes those that need access to this
sensitive information.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Name of Service: E-Mail servers
Information Technology provides an email account to all of the Faculty, Staff
and Students of the University of Wyoming. Faculty and Staff have mailboxes on
Microsoft Exchange mail servers that provide calendaring, group collaboration
and email services. Students have mailboxes on ASUWLink which runs SendMail and
web access via webmail with extensive email filtering capabilities.
All incoming email sent to users with accounts on the central mail servers is
automatically scanned for computer viruses and infected files are replaced prior
to reaching the clients mailbox. Anti-spam software automatically evaluates
incoming email and tags the Subject of email rated 50% or more likely to be spam
so the client can use this information to filter messages into a separate spam
folder and automatically evaluates incoming email to try and determine if it is
spam and to provide a rating for the message that the client can use to sort
each message.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The University has a very centralized email system which allows for
many efficiencies and a better overall user experience. Most users on campus use
the central email servers which make it easier for users to find and communicate
with each other. Centralized email allows for economies of scale in computer
hardware, software, antivirus, spam management, training, documentation and
support. Instead of having each department or division maintain their own
servers, software licenses, training and documentation this is centralized to
minimize the costs involved in providing email services. This centralization
makes it easier for users to change departments or roles within the university
and facilitates communication among campus email users.
The University has excellent technical resources to maintain and support the
central email servers and software. These resources deal with technical issues,
upgrades and ongoing maintenance in order to provide the highest level of
service to campus.
Weaknesses: Currently the Exchange email servers for staff are outdated and
overtaxed and that has created some performance problems.
Not all of the University of Wyoming campus uses the central email servers. Some
groups maintain independent hardware, software and support staff for email. In
the past this has created some difficulty in being able to communicate with all
campus users and does not allow for some of the economies of scale that are
achieved with a centralized email system. However, all users have a centralized
"@uwyo" address allowing for communications and some groups may have specific
needs for their own systems.
The current email system is split between multiple platforms with Students and
Staff using different email systems. In times past this has caused some
confusion among users and at times created a disparity in the level of service
provided for each group of users.
Departmental E-mail servers impede global implementation of virus checking, spam
filtering, central calendaring, and a central global address list of user
addresses.
Opportunities: The Exchange hardware and software for Faculty and Staff will be
upgraded during the next year to provide for an increase in email performance.
Students will be migrated to use Microsoft Exchange for email which will provide
a common interface and feature set for both groups of users. This should
decrease confusion by providing a common email experience and make it easier for
students and staff to communicate with each other. Server-side white and black
listing as well as enhanced spam and virus message control is under development
and testing on the central email gateway servers to improve user's management of
spam and virus-removed messages.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Email has become a core method of
communication between Faculty, Staff and Students at the University. It is
required for the day to day functioning of the University. Email is important in
the core teaching mission of the University enhances the ability of Faculty to
interact with Students. Having email provided centrally allows for an efficient
and effective system that does not cause a significant impact on campus users as
their jobs or roles within the University change. Centralized email services
provide economies of scale and enhanced functionality, reliability, and
security.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Name of Service: Student Lab System
Student Lab System refers to the system that manages the servers and
workstations available throughout campus for student use. There are
approximately 1000 workstations located throughout campus in open-use and
classroom labs. The system is served by 7 servers that service Active Directory
Accounts, home-drive storage, roaming profile storage, printing, antivirus,
concurrent license services for applications, and administrative services to
facilitate software installation and building\repair of workstations.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The Student Lab System provides substantial computing resources to
students. The system provides essential basic functionality including Internet
access, Email, Microsoft Office applications, antivirus services and printing
capability. It also provides many curriculum-based applications like programming
languages and statistical applications. Instructors have the ability to request
any licensed software be on provided on the Lab System on a semester basis.
Instructor can also request network storage space for class-related files.
The Lab Computers are secured to provide a highly reliable and available system.
That is, users do not have the ability to make modifications (intentionally or
accidentally) to the computers. Therefore, the lab computers remain in fixed
functional state for the next user. Antivirus is provided on each computer to
protect the student's storage as well as the computer. Computers are patched and
updated nightly as needed. Maintaining administrative control of lab computers
allows us to remotely monitor and update computers efficiently.
The Lab System is somewhat unique in that students have a customizable desktop
that roams with them from lab computer to lab computer. That is, the student's
experience with every lab node is identical. This is facilitated with network
storage space for user home-drives and roaming profiles. Students can perform
work on a lab computer on one end of campus, save their work to network storage
and pick up with that work in same environment on a lab computer on the other
end of campus.
A committee compromised of students, faculty and staff has been setup to fund
and request new technologies for student computing. The committee provides a
direct means for students to be part of the decisions governing the student lab
system.
The Lab System has proved to be very successful. Student surveys indicate high
satisfaction with the lab system. National publications have highly rated UW
computing resources.
Weaknesses: The current Student Lab System requires user to physically visit a
lab in order to utilize the lab system. Remote users cannot current utilize the
student lab system. Remote lab access has been proposed and would greatly
benefit remote users and make lab use more convenient for local users.
In recent years, the Student Lab System has become so highly recognized that its
use has expanded exponentially. More students are using the system. More
instructors are utilizing the opportunities of the lab system to enhance their
classes.
However, the one entity that has not changed in recent years is labor resources
allocated to the lab system. Inadequate resources have caused the development of
the lab system to suffer. With the resources available, we are only able to
attempt to maintain the existing system in its current state without any
improvements. We have several ideas to improve the system; however, more labor
resources are needed to develop them.
The area of monitoring lab nodes for security and availability is lacking. The
lab usage statistics, including usage, software monitoring, and user
demographics would allow IT to better determine the appropriate levels of
deployment of nodes and software that it makes available to students.
We have seen desire among some students and instructors to have increased
storage space available to each student.
We are currently having difficulty backing up student data because of the nature
of the data (a large number of small files) and the limitations of our current
backup system.
Allowing domain trusts with alternate campus domains causes problems with users'
roaming profiles because the profiles are used on non-standard computers that
not administered by IT Systems.
Opportunities: With more labor resources, we have the opportunity to
substantially improve the system. It is important for the lab system to use the
latest technology, so that our students have experience with the most up to date
technologies after graduation.
With computer labs throughout campus, we are exhausting all available space to
place computers. Furthermore, we have computer labs that are not adequately
being used for geographical or accessible reasons. Therefore, we are interested
in developing terminal support for the lab system. Students could use existing
computers or personal notebooks to remotely access the lab system running on
computers in secure, compact location. This allows for the efficient use of all
lab system computers without compromising space – plus makes the student lab
system available for remote access anywhere in the world.
Additionally, we would
like to develop the lab system to work on wireless notebooks for checkout in
monitored areas such as the library.
More resources could be used to adequately monitor the security and availability
of lab computers.
Insufficient storage space could be addressed with funding for an adequate
network storage server or an upgraded to the planned Storage Area Network (SAN).
Exiting problems\limitations with the current backup system are expected to be
resolved with the SAN which has much higher disk speeds and point-in-time copy
capabilities. However, if problems continue with disk backups, an adequate new
backup system will need to be purchased.
To address roaming profiles problems on computers in alternate domains, we could
address the functionality needed by alternate domains and provide solutions for
them without using alternate domains. Eliminating alternate domains eliminates
the roaming profile problems. An alternate solution is to allocate more
resources to develop special code that would only allow roaming profiles to work
on lab computers.
Value added by TSS providing the service: TSS strives to provide the most
reliable and available lab system with the latest technologies. It is important
to provide cutting edge technologies so that our students graduate with an
experience that is applicable to the modern world.
A centralized lab system allows for easier access and convenience to students
because they do not have to use a different system for every class and they can
access their core data and applications in many different classrooms and labs
across campus.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Name of Service: Telephone Service and University Cable Plant
Telephone Services provides telephone service on campus and installs and
maintains all of the telecommunications cable (both copper and fiber optic
cable) on campus. IT operates a Nortel SL-100 PBX that has approximately 6,200
phone lines providing service to university faculty, staff and students. IT also
operates a Cisco Call Manager server cluster that is providing Voice Over IP (VOIP)
telephone service to a limited number of customers (approximately 120) on
campus. The VOIP system is the future of telecommunications.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide faculty, staff and students.
Strengths: The University has excellent technical personnel resources and
provides a value added service to the university community. The VOIP system is
the future of telecommunications on a converged network. With a converged
network you do not have to maintain two separate networks (data and telephone).
With the legacy PBX we install two telephone cables and two data network cables
to every outlet. In addition, when a new building goes up we currently need to
install telephone cable with enough quantity to serve every possible user. This
might entail the installation of a 400-800 copper cable from the utilidor system
to the building entrance. In the future, as network convergence continues via
VOIP technology, the cabling requirements can be cut in half. First, there will
be no need for copper cabling into the building entrance and we will only need
one or two drops for data networking at every outlet (verses four currently).
VOIP also offers additional capabilities such as Unified Messaging, Remote
Office workers and IP Video broadcasting. Unified Messaging is currently being
offered to those individuals with VOIP phones. Unified Messaging combines voice
mail messages and e-mail into your MS Outlook. This also reduces maintenance
costs. In the present system IT operates a voice mail system and an e-mail
system. Under Unified Messaging the voice mail system will no longer be
required.
The VOIP system also makes it possible to offer Remote Office workers
connectivity to the university no matter where they might be located. For
example, a university employee may have a need to work at home or elsewhere off
campus. This is possible today with VOIP. The employee must be at a location
with broadband connectivity to the internet, either through DSL or Cable Modem
service. Equipped with a Softphone (software telephone) that resides on their
laptop or desktop computer, the user can create a VPN session into the
university network and launch the Softphone. This phone can be configured to the
same extension as the employee’s office phone. When the user makes a phone call,
it appears to the far end that the caller is calling from their office. The
Softphone offers the capability to retrieve voice messages or if the user
desires, they can retrieve their voice messages through MS Outlook while they
are also retrieving any e-mail messages. The Softphone also offers business
travelers the capability to save money on long distance charges from hotels. If
the hotel has broadband internet access, then the user has the capability to use
the Softphone to make any long distance calls. This will direct calls back to
the university phone system and then out to the PSTN using UW trunks and
avoiding high cost hotel phone charges. VOIP also offers the capability to do IP
Video. The IP phone can be configured as a video phone with the addition of a
very low cost PC camera. Once configured, the phone will auto sense the
capability of the far end phone for video. If both phones are video enabled, a
video session is launched automatically on the respective PC terminals. Video
conferencing (three or more parties) is just as easy.
Weaknesses: The traditional PBX and voice mail system require separate networks
and maintenance issues. As IT deploys the VOIP network, we will be able to
converge the networks into one reducing the maintenance issues while at the same
time being able to offer expanded services like Unified Messaging, Remote Office
workers and IP Video conferencing.
Opportunities: With VoIP, TSS will be able to offer value added services to the
university. Under the legacy PBX capabilities it is very cumbersome to provide
service economically to Remote Office workers since dedicated lines need to be
leased from the local telephone carrier and extended to the remote office. With
VOIP this will become a standard offering. Eventually, VOIP will allow the
opportunity to eliminate the PBX, voice mail system and all of the associated
copper cable plant saving a significant dollars and resources.
Value added by TSS providing the service: TSS will soon be able to offer Remote
Office connectivity to the university, Unified Messaging (voice mail and e-mail
all in one location) to every employee and the capability to do IP Video. Video
in the past has always been an expensive proposition due to the need to lease
ISDN lines or trunks from the local telephone company. As IP Video is deployed,
conferencing with video capabilities will become as easy as dialing a phone
call.
Name of Service: WWW Servers
TSS operates all centrally supported UW web servers.
Stakeholders: Campus Wide
Strengths: The main strength of the web is to utilize the quick, easy methods of
interaction in just about every aspect of the University Environment in some way
or another. By providing an easily accessible, online web presence to Colleges,
Departments, Units, Professors, Students, Research Projects, Recognized Student
Organizations, Collaborative Projects, Project Surveys, Athletic Teams,
Faculty/Staff Organizations etc…we help to increase awareness about the
University of Wyoming to a magnitude of people. It is now easier than ever to
attract students from all over world and relate to them why the University of
Wyoming is a good choice for their college education. On the same token
students, professor’s and graduate students have unprecedented access to
research and current events which enhances all aspects of learning and research.
Enhances the Learning Environment
By supplementing classes with online learning tools the classroom is enhanced
immensely. Students not only gain a better awareness and understanding of
technology, they can learn at their own pace, save money, collaborate online,
create projects online as well as have instant access to information about the
class, professors, schedules, quizzes, tests, etc…
Also, the learning and research environments can easily be enhanced with such
things as online surveys, online voting, research project collaborative sites,
and informational sites, group project sites, multimedia sites, etc. Imagine
teaching a class not out of a textbook that has current events from 6 months to
a year - to being able to teach and use cutting edge examples from what happened
across the world yesterday.
Each student is allowed a site of their own to spark creativity, learn
technology, or to create a portfolio to help them sell themselves to prospective
employers.
Enhances the Student Experience
We are continually making it easier for students to investigate the University,
apply to the university, find out about professors, find out about projects,
register for classes, drop classes, pay for classes, pay for services, look at
grades, evaluate their performance, and other activities.. Soon the long lines
that form to complete transactions at critical times will simply not exist.
The web gives the students the ability to easily find out about student
organizations, Fraternities, Sororities, campus events, campus seminars and
speakers, enrichment classes, theatre and plays or just meet other people with
similar interests and hobbies at the UW.
Enhances the Work Environment (Makes everyday tedious tasks quick and easy)
The ease with which dissemination of information happens on the web creates a
much more robust environment where entities can cost effectively distribute
information quickly and easily. Using this media we can dramatically cut costs
on paper and printing and get information out immediately instead of waiting for
it in mail. It is a wise use of resources which allows instant, online
submission of requests, gathering of data, and processing of data.
Enhances the Faculty/Staff Experience
Utilization of the web for surveying has dramatically decreased the time it
takes to get meaningful data, what used to amount to someone filling out a
paper, then someone else entering the data into a DB, then analyzing the
database, a week or two job at best, can now be accomplished in a few hours with
online surveys. This frees up the “busy work” time and allows researchers to
focus on the important aspects of their actual research. Along the same lines,
collaboration can take place not only within the UW Community, but researchers
can reach out and collaborate with professors around the world.
Increases communication throughout the College, Community, State, and Nation
The web allows us to shows the state what we do and allows us to serve the
state, giving something back for the contributions that the state has made to
us. Agricultural is a huge part of Wyoming and the University has hundreds of
programs that can be utilized by ranchers to increase their productivity, answer
questions, look at trends, etc…Making these programs accessible online makes it
easier than ever to serve the Ste of Wyoming. The web also helps keep the entire
campus population aware of events and activities at the University.
Another great strength that actually starts to address one of the weaknesses
below is the Web Designers Lab. Getting a few knowledgeable people together to
help those individuals on campus that have been tasked with maintaining a web
site has made strides in getting the University of Wyoming’s web presence to the
professional level that it should be.
Weaknesses: The single greatest weakness of the web environment at UW is the
lack of backing to create a central web development unit that is a one-stop shop
for the upper level Division’s, Department’s, and Unit’s to get a professional,
consistent looking site running. This directly stems from 3 other weaknesses in
the web environment:
- There is a lack of knowledge about the shear number of people that actually
visit the University of Wyoming sites on any given day. People do not understand
the potential audience that they are missing by not having a professional web
presence running online.
- There is a lack of expertise on creating and maintaining a professional web
presence. Students are demanding easy, professional sites from Colleges at the
prospective level. If a site doesn’t work or doesn’t “appeal” to the student,
then it is as easy as a click away to find another school.
- There is a lack of knowledge of exactly what types of things can be done on
the web - from information dissemination - to form submissions - to taking
surveys. People are not aware of all they can do to utilize the WWW.
All of these weaknesses contribute to wasted man power, resources, and money
across the board. The lack of expertise lends itself to a problem having to be
troubleshot by CSS, the PCTeam, and sometimes UPR when the problem is really
just a lack of knowledge.
IT currently provides plain (HTML) web servers and FrontPage extended servers.
Customer feedback indicates that a wider variety of options be available for web
tools, utilities, services, scripting, and authoring. Expanded technologies
should be considered and made available through the central web servers.
Opportunities: The greatest opportunity for the WWW is to increase it’s usage in
many forms. The benefits to using the web are boundless including increased:
- Exposure for the campus as a whole
- Enrollment
- Roles in classroom teaching
- Roles in Research & Collaboration
- Faculty/Staff/Student Awareness
- Technological Exposure and Expertise
- Administrative Task Completions
- Availability of services
The single greatest opportunity for the WWW environment is a Campus Web Content
Department or Unit to help the entire campus take advantage of the full
potential of the WWW in all the areas mentioned throughout this document.
Value added by TSS providing the service:
- Enhances the Learning & Work Environment dramatically
- Worldwide Exposure
- Quicker adjustment to changing needs.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self study was discussed and
developed in TSS staff meetings.
Name of Service: Machine Room Operations
Operations staff the central machine room 24x6. They are the central contact for
problems reported by campus customers. Their function is to monitor central
computers and computer room environment. The computers in the central machine
room consist of a mainframe computer that runs the Student Information System
and computer backup server. There are also approximately 40 servers that provide
essential University services such as campus e-mail, web pages, Financial and
Accounting systems, Human Resource systems, Alumni/Development systems, and
campus Network services. Operations provide printing and distribution of normal
computer output and printing, handling of special forms for various
administrative applications. Operators mount and manage computer tapes for
applications and computer backup processes. Control Scheduling is part of the
Operations staff, they manage and control batch computer processing of
administrative jobs at the request of administrative computer customers.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: Operations excellent technical competent staff are the core of
services provided to the campus.
Weaknesses: Operations is constantly trying to keep up with new technology and
applications. They have very little input into decisions about new system and
applications that they are ultimately responsible for. These changes are
continuous and it makes it very difficult to keep up to date.
Opportunities: Additional tools may be purchased to simplify the operations and
monitoring of the various systems. Further staff training would help the
operations staff to deal with the changing environment. Also, automation and
distribution of existing machine room tasks provides an opportunity to gradually
reduce machine room staffing.
Value added by TSS providing the service: The service provided by operations is
not visible to the campus community but is critical to the functioning of the
business process of the University. Without their services there would be no
student registration, financial aid, payroll or accounting functions.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self-study was discussed and
developed in Operations meetings.
Comparator Information: Comparator information can be found at the State
computer operations (CTD) and comparator universities.
Name of Service: Data Storage and backup
TSS provides data storage and backup for all central UW systems. Presently each
mainframe and server has its own directly attached disk drives for data storage.
All these systems are backed up daily to other disks or tape. Individual tapes
are moved daily to on-site and off-site vaults. For most of the open system
backups are created on tapes in an automatic tape library. These tapes are also
copied to a remote automatic tape library in Cheyenne to provide an off-site
copy incase of a disaster to the central machine room.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: This service protects data critical to operation of the University.
Included are student, financial, and accounting information which in many cases
must be preserved by law.
Weaknesses: The present backup scheme is very functional but also very
cumbersome requiring manual movement off-site of many tapes and in some cases
only one copy of the backup data being made. It takes considerable time to
backup all the data on a daily/weekly basis.
Opportunities: Installation of a large disk storage unit and a storage network
would provide a more efficient way to allow most servers and mainframes to share
the storage array. This would provide improved server response for customers and
more efficient backup procedures to be implemented. We plan to migrate all
backups to the automated tape library that provides duplicate backups in
Cheyenne.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Without these services, the business
of the University would be vulnerable to man-made and environmental disasters,
which could destroy the availability of the University to function.
Self Study process followed: The departmental self-study was discussed and
developed in TSS meetings.
Comparator Information: Comparator information can be found at the State
computer operations (CTD) and comparator universities.
Name of Service: Administrative Application Servers
These servers include the PeopleSoft Financials project which implements
business policies and accounting for all financial transactions at the
University. PeopleSoft Human Resources maintain employment data, including
benefits and payroll for all University employees. The SCT Banner systems, aim
to be a complete collegiate administrative solution and will replace our current
SIS implementation to provide a web based, modern and friendly interface to the
University of Wyoming for both current and prospective students for everything
from class schedules and email to financial aid. The BSR Advance system is used
by the UW Foundation and partners throughout Wyoming and Colorado as a contact
management system of Students, Alumni, potential donors to the University and
current donors to the University, with specific information made available to
individuals worldwide through a partnership with a New York company.
Stakeholders: Campus-wide
Strengths: The breadth of services offered and the expertise necessary to
support them is one of TSS's greatest strengths. TSS manages systems that every
person on campus whether faculty, staff or student, relies on. Financial
transactions are processed; student and employee information is maintained and
customer service is facilitated due to these systems and the people who use
them. Typical uses and required functionality of the administrative application
servers are well understood by the administrators who support them. The systems
receive regularly scheduled, focused attention from the administrators to ensure
that normal operation continues. When detected, an anomaly in the software or
hardware is often corrected quickly due to experience with the system since the
administrators also select and configure the hardware, and networking and
operating system and in some cases the application software. Data backups are
regularly performed so that disaster recovery operations can be performed as
necessary, ensuring limited down time even in worst case scenarios.
Administrators document many aspects of the administrative application servers
including instructions on building, upgrading, troubleshooting and performing
essential administrative processes. The administrators also recommend changes to
improve systems and network configurations related to performance and security,
and determine hardware and/or software requirements necessary to support such
changes, in order to protect data, software and hardware or increase services
availability to campus at large. The administrators have processes in place to
ensure they can be easily and efficiently notified and respond in a like manner,
any time problems are detected.
Weaknesses: Additional resources are required to ensure that at all times
administrative application servers have a fully trained backup, in addition to
the primary administrator. The backup must be familiar with normal operations
and troubleshooting techniques. Due to the numerous, concurrent projects the
administrators are regularly involved with, there are several systems do not
have this kind of personnel redundancy. In certain cases these systems might
experience extended downtime due to this lack of resources. Much time that could
be used elsewhere is spent documenting different aspects of the administrative
application servers and keeping that documentation up to date as specifics
change regularly. More resources are also required for monitoring the systems
for security and operational events.
The administrators would like to become fully proactive in this area but do not
currently have the resources to implement such process. The University contains
numerous departments, schools, colleges, administrative units and other groups.
These groups are all unique and require different types and levels of computing
resources and support. IT does not currently have the resources to provide
support at every point desired across the board; therefore IT response cannot,
in all cases, meet the individual needs of every user.
Opportunities: Assign resources and organize project areas in such a way to
provide redundancy for all administrative application servers.
Procure resources that would allow IT to enhance services that are already
offered, creating a better fit for some groups and create new services which
would add value to the computing environment for campus.
Increase group involvement in strategic planning. Improve and expand server
health monitoring. Improve communication internally and between other groups on
campus. A documentation czar could ensure that documentation is current and of a
consistent quality regardless of the original author and project area.
Value added by TSS providing the service: Many of the services provide core
functionality expected on a modern computer network and are taken for granted.
Without the systems in place to communicate the University's ongoing mission to
students and alumni, manage billing for services rendered, generate payroll,
track employee benefits, and provide a friendly interface to current and
prospective students and customer support, accessibility and productivity would
be impeded in many areas of University business.
Name of Service: Network Servers for Departments and Divisions
This service provides server support for departmental servers.
Stakeholders: Campus - Wide
Strengths: UW Departments and Divisions have a need for computing services that
are unique to the Department. Central management of departmental servers
provides efficiencies and costs saving – and also creates a more stable and
secure environment for the services to operate.
To run any type service on a server there are a few things that are essential
- Environment
- Environment plays a key role in keeping servers up and running. If a server
gets too hot, gets too dirty, or loses power, hardware in the server starts to
fail. A machine room is used to keep temperatures acceptable, air quality high,
and has power generators in place to prevent power outages. Also, well designed
machine rooms provide physical security and server monitoring. It is expensive
and wasteful for each department to provide their own machine room.
- Expertise in building and maintaining secure server
- Servers are much more complicated than the average desktop. To build a server
to be reliable there are many options that must be explored, proper RAID
configuration, proper power redundancy, proper internal cooling, and proper
backup infrastructures all play key roles to name a few. Spending money on
inadequate hardware can be very costly and underestimating the costs involved
after it is in house can push cost up quickly.
- Also, in today’s networked environment there are literally thousands of ways
to compromise and exploit a server. It takes work and ongoing research to learn
how to secure things properly as well as keep up with new vulnerabilities.
Countless hours are spent by IT watching security lists, reading security
articles, patching machines, updating security practices, etc. Duplication of
these efforts across dozens of independent servers not an efficient use of
university resources
- Maintenance infrastructure
- No servers function without occasional problems. Problem notification must
occur as quickly as possible in order to resolve problems quickly and maintain
as much up time for the server as possible. IT has numerous mechanisms to
automatically notify ‘on call’ personnel of failures such as power, air
conditioning, networking, system services, system hard drives, etc. Duplicating
these monitoring devices and solutions is expensive.
TSS has backup personnel to accommodate vacations, retirements and other changes
in personnel that have caused significant problems for departments attempting to
manage their own servers.
Weaknesses:
To make this solution cost effective, IT personnel administer multiple servers
for multiple departments. Personnel resources must grow as the number of
departmental servers grows, however no process has been identified to manage
this process.
Another weakness is the lack of a governing body that realistically evaluates
the costs involved when departments manage their own servers. Often the costs
involved with hardware, software, backups and personnel costs are grossly
understated by departments.
Opportunities:
Expanding this service to offer a complete solution in a well supported, stable
environment for the least amount of cost is a significant saving opportunity for
the university. IT recommends that a governing body be tasked with the
responsibility to assess all departments’ intent to purchase, develop, or deploy
publicly consumed services on departmentally owned servers.
Value added by TSS providing the service:
This service benefits from economies of scale and has the potential for
significant cost and resource savings for the university. At the same time, the
service has the potential to increase server reliability and reduce risks from
inadequate data backup protection and problems resulting from the turnover of
personnel.
