May 2009

May 13, 2009

Projects Recently Submitted for Approval

Approval History

No projects were brought forward for review this month. The background on projects previously reviewed by the UTC can be found here.

Emerging Policy Issues

Report Cards with Sarah Hughes

UTO is developing a standard form report card that will be used by departments to communicate their level of satisfaction with UTO on a monthly basis. The report card will consist of a dashboard interface and will include monthly priorities set by each department, CRM case statistics, a description of projects currently in development, and issues the department may be concerned about. An assigned Relationship Manager will meet with each department to review each month’s report card and to ensure that department goals and expectations are being met.

IT Risk Assessment Audit Committee Report with Adrian Sannier

Adrian will summarize the findings of the IT Risk Assessment that was conducted by ASU Internal Audit and presented to ABOR at its last meeting. The assessment presented the results of a questionnaire that was sent to business office managers from around the University posing questions about IT security in distributed units.

1:1 Consulting Team with Adrian Sannier

UTO is contemplating the formation of a 1:1 consulting team. Its purpose would be to meet with leaders of academic programs to consult with them on changes needed to support the more effective use of student owned devices over common computing resources. For example, the team might help a program figure out how to institute a required or recommended "buy," beef up wireless bandwidth in critical classrooms, remove barriers for software or content distribution, or provide faculty training in the creation of podcasts or other digital content.

Change Management with Shawn Bryan

Feedback regarding ASU’s Change Management System has been positive with only one main complaint – the volume of the Change Notification messages. UTO will work to provide the option to receive a weekly digest of consolidated messages for Pre-Approved and Low-Impact Changes instead of individual notifications. UTO would also like to provide subscribers to the Change Management System with the ability to control the types of notifications—Pre-Approved, Low Impact, High Impact, Emergency—they receive. We are also looking into posting a calendar view of scheduled changes on System Health.

The UTC’s feedback is requested.  

New My ASU Features with Leah Lommel

Leah Lommel will demonstrate the new Student Grades and Faculty Classes box on My ASU, followed by a preview of upcoming design enhancements for students scheduled for the end of May and a glimpse into future plans for faculty/staff.

Virtualization Coordination with Robin Manke-Cassidy

Virtualization is not just for the data center any longer. Desktop and application virtualization play a key role in sustainability, mobility, security, and financial savings for the institution. UTO is soliciting members for a virtualization working group. This group will work on projects for end-to-end virtualization. Many of you have begun to evaluate or investigate desktop virtualization technology. This is a great opportunity to come up with one solution for the University.  

Mainframe Relocation with Bob Nelson

The ASU mainframe currently hosting ASU's Advantage system is on track to be relocated to the Arizona Department of Administration Data Center over the weekend of May 22. In preparation for this relocation, a dry run will be conducted this weekend beginning Friday at 6pm and is projected to be complete by midnight on Saturday. During the live relocation, scheduled to begin Friday May 22, the Advantage system is projected to be unavailable from 6pm Friday, May 22 through 2pm Sunday, May 24. The transition of ASU's Advantage system to ADOA is expected to go smoothly as we have already completed two tests to iron out any potential issues.

For more information, visit UTO Labs. 

Data Center Outsourcing with Bob Nelson

UTO is investigating the feasibility of relocating ECA/ECB to hosted facilities within the Phoenix Area that will accommodate growth, improve reliability, redundancy, scalability and better facilitate disaster recovery and continuous operation. A data center migration of this magnitude will require multiple phases, extensive planning, coordination and financial support. 

The initial charter/phase was to engage an outside consultant to assist us with establishing a high-level estimate of one-time and ongoing costs. This phase was completed on May 4th. The results will be presented on May 14th for approval to proceed to the next phase of preparing an RFP. 
 
Our goal, assuming an award is made, is to relocate to the new facilities in the December/January timeframe.   

Future of Blogs & Wikis with Max Davis-Johnson

ASU has outgrown its current blog and wiki service, the one we launched as a beta in February 2006. While many students and faculty have used our service successfully in the past 3 years, external services like Blogger, Twitter, and Google Sites now offer superior services and we're finding it hard to keep up. The new services offer improved editing tools, more intuitive interfaces, customizable templates, enhanced multimedia features, upgraded commenting and/or collaboration features, better group blogging and/or permission controls, and the ability to post to your blog from your mobile device.

The UTC's feeback on the continued use of this service is requested. 

Update on the Selection of a Network Strategic Partner with Adrian Sannier

In June 2008 ASU released an RFP seeking a network partner. The scope of the service requested included providing the University with all network communications services management and operations personnel, technical support, training, equipment, supplies, materials, systems, and effort necessary to perform the contracted network services at a level of quality that consistently meets or exceeds the University's expectations. In November 2008 Qwest's application to bid was accepted and negotiations began to identify risk, define value, analyze past performance, and create a viable financial model.

Strategic Technology Initiatives

Amazon Kindle Textbook Pilot with Kari Barlow

ASU is participating in Amazon's Kindle texbook pilot this Fall. A select group of students enrolled Dr. Ted Humphrey's Human Event course will receive their textbooks not as bound books but on a brand new Kindle DX instead. The Human Event is a two-semester course required of all Barrett Honors College students that covers a wide range of material from approximately 50 different sources. The Kindle's performance will be evaluated against a control group of students that work with traditional paper-based texts.
 
ASU is one of five universities participating with Amazon in the Kindle pilot. Others include Princeton University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
 
For more information, visit ASU News.

UTO Google "Dog Food" Project with Adrian Sannier

Over the summer, the UTO will be switching its internal email service from MS Exchange to Google Apps. UTO employees will use Google Apps for email, calendaring, instant messaging, video chat,  docs and spreadsheets, and Sites. The goal of this project is to understand how suitable Google Apps is as a potential replacement for Microsoft Exchange, to understand the value of using the same messaging system as the students and to learn about any drawbacks to the system for use by staff and faculty.

ASU on Facebook with Leah Lommel

ASU launched ASU on Facebook earlier in the month. ASU on Facebook is a Facebook application available to the ASU Community. Students can use the application to connect with other students in their classes, find students from their same hometown, or interact with instructors and/or members of clubs and organizations. Leah Lommel will review ASU on Facebook's current
features, adoption statisitics, and next steps for encouraging new users to add the application to their Facebook page.  

Status on All UTO Projects

The status on all UTO projects can be found in UTO Labs.