Run the Business

Back to School — Back to school activities went extremely well this year, including the historic move-in of the Class of 2012 into The Commons.

More than 5000 additional network connections were activated with minimal issues and up to 2,810 dorm users connected wirelessly.

Helping Helpers — ITS assisted HR-Nurse Recruitment by relocating systems while their offices in the Village at Vanderbilt are remodeled.

Recycling Equipment — Several CRT displays, 31 out-of-lifecycle computer systems, and associated equipment and parts were sent to the Vanderbilt warehouse for recycling.

NES Electrical Renovation throughout Campus—The NES 69 KV project that replaced the main electrical feed to campus and replaced old wooden electric poles with new metal poles is now complete. This project required ITS to move wired infrastructure to the new poles as well. ITS involvement included changes to more than 20,000 pairs of copper cables and more than 1700 fiber-optic strands.

Human Resources — ITS assisted with life-cycle computer replacement for Human Resources and helped contain some malware discovered on HR computers.

Construction Update— ITS assisted with IT infrastructure as well as voice and data port migrations/additions for the following areas:

• Four apartments at the Village at Vanderbilt have been equipped with Vanderbilt University voice, data, TeleVU, and wireless coverage.
• ITS prepared an estimate for voice and data services for a new day care facility at 1817 Patterson Street. Move-in at the site, previously owned by Baptist Hospital, is planned for the 1^st quarter of 2009.
• The Owen Graduate School of Management is completing a renovation in the Old Mechanical Building. In addition to providing wireless coverage, data ports were added for AV equipment and computers.
• The School of Engineering purchased the building at 1025 16^th Ave., South. ITS prepared voice and data services estimates for both leased fiber and Vanderbilt-owned fiber. Deploying Vanderbilt-owned fiber would require approval and rental of 25 poles between the building and the closest place Vanderbilt currently has fiber. The staff move-in target date is March 2009.
• The Center for Teaching renovation and move from Calhoun Hall to the 3^rd floor of 1114 19^th Ave. is complete.
• Calhoun Hall and Benson Hall/Old Central have nearly completed their summer renovation. Infrastructure for future wireless coverage was built in.
• The General Counsel expansion is complete. They expanded into the former location of the Chancellor's Search Committee Office.
• The Army and Navy ROTC expansion on the 1^st floor of 1114 19^th Ave is complete.

QUIT Time —Ahead of the Sept. 1 ban on smoking on the VUMC campus, a regular requisition came in to voice services for a quit smoking hotline. It required lots of extra attention by ITS staff, including providing a special phone number (936-QUIT), extra programming to accommodate submenus, meeting with a VUMC member to explain how to record voice mail, typing up instructions on forwarding calls, and, at the last minute the afternoon before it went live, programming another phone at Health Plus.

This is an example of ITS scrambling to meet custom requirements for what, on its face, was a routine requisition.

Identity Management —ITS presented an identity management overview and strategy session to the Finance and Controllers group. The Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Controller, was very appreciative, calling the presentation "timely and relevant to my folks."

Getting the Word Out —An ITS staffer spoke with Resident Assistants (RAs) ahead of move-in weekend. He familiarized them with ITS help available during move-in and throughout the year. He also referred them to the ITS Security team's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Regulatory Report, cautioned about the Recording Industry Association of America's monitoring of illegal downloads at Vanderbilt, and about the legal alternatives Vanderbilt provides.

United Way Ready — The 2008 United Way campaign infrastructure was implemented approximately one month in advance of the September 26 kickoff. Vanderbilt community members will be able to log in using their VUnetID and e-password to access the United Way campaign tools. The completion was well in advance of Development and Alumni Relation's needs.

Rand Signs — ITS facilitated the installation of two digital signs in Rand. The screens will run Dining Services content and, after hours, serve as cable TVs. They will also be part of the overall Emergency Management Communications infrastructure, able to receive emergency messages if and when they are communicated across campus.

Firewall Planning — Procedures have been mapped out for changes to the MIS firewall and for firewall lifecycle replacements. The procedures will make changes more consistent and efficient.

A&S Deans to Exchange — ITS, along with Arts and Sciences Microcomputer Laboratories MCL), migrated an A&S Excutive Dean and Associate Dean to new Microsoft Exchange email with increased 1GB quotas.

A&S Wireless Review— ITS facilitated Arts & Sciences review of its wireless networking by providing the number and location of wireless Access Points (APs) in A&S buildings and spaces.

VPD Firewalls— The Vanderbilt Police Department Precinct Firewall project is underway. Firewalls are being deployed at all precincts and will total six.

Sprint Coverage— Following two full days of building walk-throughs, Sprint is working on a solution to improve Sprint cellular coverage in university buildings and Plant Operations utility tunnels. Assistant Vice Chancellor for Plant Operations, will receive the proposal.

Digital Signage Emergency Notification—A process is being developed to use digital signage for emergency notification. A successful test was performed with Sarratt digital signs.

LifeFlight Emergency Phone Service—Fourteen LifeFlight team members will receive Government Emergency Telephone Service (GETS) with Wireless Priority Service (WPS) capability. The service, provided by Sprint free to GETS subscribers, gives users priority calling access to a designated phone trunk during emergencies.

Improved Access—ITS is working with Vanderbilt's Real Estate and Plant Operations offices to gain access to the buildings they manage. This will allow ITS staff to quickly enter buildings for routine maintenance and/or during a voice or data outage.

Wireless Backup for VPD—ITS installed a backup data network connection to the Vanderbilt Police Department using encrypted wireless technology. It was successfully tested during the 69 KV project when the fiber to VPD had to be cut and moved.

Network Upgrades—ITS completed upgrades on network infrastructure devices to resolve software issues. More than 800 Cisco data network switches and 21 voice IPX systems were involved. A total of 74 data switches were also upgraded due to lifecycle replacement.

Adobe Flash Server Upgrade—ITS Application Hosting upgraded the Adobe Flash server to the latest revision. This expands Flash capabilities for end users.

Change Management Change—ITS migrated the Change Management Web application from a VUMC server to an ITS server. The medical center quit using the application last year and passed the code on to the university. ITS staff customized the application, adding rich features and more business-aligned data fields.

Cool Data Center—Phase I of the Data Center Realignment project was completed. The project, on which Network Operation Center (NOC) staff and Application Hosting administrators worked together, is focused on finding more efficient ways to cool the thousands of devices housed in the data center.

New Front End Mail Servers—Three VUexchange email front end servers were replaced as part of lifecycle replacement. The servers are used for web email capability, all smartphone Activesync connections, and Exchange environment email routing.

Application Hosting Stats—During August Applications Hosting processed 175 Magic tickets and migrated 46 email accounts from VUmail to VUexchange.

Napster Changes—Online music service Napster ceased its nationwide Napster on Campus program, ending its 4-year partnership with Vanderbilt. However, ITS management persuaded Napster to continue Faculty and Staff discounts for current subscribers and to offer a 33% 3-month discount on Napster-to-Go accounts for new Vanderbilt subscribers.

Operator Services Stats—During August Operators Services received 174,053 in the call center with a 98.4% answer rate. The team completed 14,198 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 266 conference calls were processed.

Change the Business

Unified Collaboration — ITS recently established a proof-of-concept system for forty-two staff in the organization to test Microsoft's Unified Communications technology. This proof-of-concept is an effort to understand and plan for future unified collaboration across all communications technologies including integrated access to voicemail, email, calendaring, instant messaging, and presence awareness. The project team produced a short video demonstrating the agility and spontaneity of unified collaboration. It is being shown to different groups to gauge interest. A production pilot of unified collaboration is expected in 2009.

Operator Services Facilitates Critical Lab Alerts— ITS Operator Services and Call Center have been chosen to support and facilitate escalations of the Vanderbilt Lab Alerts System for critical lab results notification. The Lab Alerts System is designed to push critical and time sensitive lab results to healthcare providers as quickly as possible. When a page from the Lab Alerts System to the responsible provider is not responded to within 10 minutes, Operator Services will be notified by e-mail and by a real-time monitor display to begin the escalation process.  Operator Services tracks down and makes contact with the provider to inform them of the lab result, or instruct them to contact the lab for additional information or instructions.  Critical minutes will be saved by using the Call Center's operators and contact database for this critical patient care activity.

High Speed Research — ITS worked with VUMC Network Computing Services (NCS) to secure funding from VUMC Office of Research (OOR) to provide gigabit network connectivity for the lab of Dr Melanie Ohi of the Center for Structural Biology.  This high-speed connectivity allows Dr. Ohi to exploit the high performance of the Blue Arc research storage system.

More Research Computing Space—ITS storage administration staff upgraded the BlueArc Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliance, adding 64 Storage Area Network (SAN) ports and 45 terabytes of storage space. The Bluearc is a storage array supporting the Vanderbilt research community.

Getting the Pics — A director in the Office of the Dean of Students asked ITS to assist with their obtaining student photos in order to create a "face book" of all current students. ITS responded quickly and enabled the speedy delivery of the photos. ITS also worked with that department enabling their Student Information System to access the same information in order to assist Resident Advisors (RAs) in identifying the students living on their floor.

"It was a rush, high priority project that needed to be addressed quickly in order to provide value to those helping students move into The Commons this weekend," Reas wrote.  "We appreciate your coming through for us!"

Streamlining Kronos — ITS streamlined the process for port and static IP requests for Kronos time clocks. The individuals responsible for doing installs have been made trusted users on our web request page, so they can choose the appropriate .10 subnet.  This streamlines the process, preventing the need for escalation or trouble tickets to the Network Design & Engineering (ND&E) group.

Billing Change — ITS will now bill monthly for virtual machines, storage, and miscellaneous other services previously billed annually. The change puts billing in synch with grant fund disbursement and improves tracking and reporting on these products and services.

Emergency Blue Light Phones—An ITS staffer improved internal processes and technology to enable an easier way to add or change information regarding Vanderbilt's Blue Light Emergency Phones. Changes can now be made much more quickly than in the past. Information displayed in the VPD dispatch area will also be more accurate.

Student Entertainment Boxes — Recognizing that incoming students often bring personal entertainment devices such as Xbox 360, Wii, and TiVo, with them, ITS developed some information about how the devices work (or don't) with the Vanderbilt wired/wireless network. The information was posted on Vanderbilt's Digital Life website and linked to from the ResNet start page.

Change the Business

Podcasts for Incoming Students — Podcasts containing helpful information for incoming students are available at the Digital Life website http://digitallife.vanderbilt.edu/resnet/start.html and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/csotnoc Currently, podcasts about the Vanderbilt residential network (ResNet), the software store (including a Laptop Information podcast), and protecting online identity are posted. Additional podcasts about some undergraduate schools are planned, as are security podcasts. The ResNet site also details discounts available to students.

Auto Exchange for A&S —On July 9, the ITS Infrastructure Development team, in consultation with the College of Arts & Science, implemented software changes that automatically give new A&S faculty and staff mailboxes on VUexchange rather than VUmail.  This applies to new A&S faculty and staff appearing on the HR feed and for those created as special source accounts. 

Law and Owen Firewall Synergy — ITS worked with the Law School and Owen Graduate School to replace their individual firewalls because they were out of lifecycle. Working together, the new firewalls are configured to eliminate the single point of failure the old firewalls represented. Now, if either of the new firewalls fails, traffic will be routed to the other. This gives both schools higher availability with less potential for downtime.

New Tape Backup Library Launched — ITS launched a new Quantum i2000Sclar tape library. The core component of the backup environment, it replaces the life-cycled L700 tape library. The new tape library is a foundational component for future business recoverability for many Vanderbilt departments.

All Server Consoles Now on Protected VLAN — This month ITS System Administration completed the year-long project to move server consoles to a protected and private administration network. This configuration is much more secure than the previous one.

VUnetID Server Goes Virtual — The VUnetID server was migrated to a virtual server. It was previously on an out-dated server for which replacement parts were not available, with a poorly supported operating system. The migration removes some security issues from the old platform and properly aligns the service with modern infrastructure.

Run the Business

Firewalls Appreciated — Paul Sheldon with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and ACCRE lauded the ITS Network Security team's efforts in installing two firewalls.

"Thank you very much for all your help with the firewall. Our problem has now been fixed and we greatly appreciate it," Sheldon wrote. "I can't thank you enough for going the extra mile on this one - not just one rush firewall upgrade but two. Amazing."

Fast Chance — ITS received a request from the Chancellor's office at approximately 4:30 p.m. July 2 for a voice move and data jack activation. Because of its urgency, ITS completed the work the morning of July 3.

Center for Americas — End User Services provided important desktop support to Mitch Seligson and the Center for the Americas. They resolved various desktop issues, provided Vista support, and identified a contract resource who could support Seligson's home systems.

HR More Secure — Network Security met with Vanderbilt Human Resources management and identified possible security risks/concerns in the HR security prolife. Monthly security scans were initiated along with follow-up meetings, resulting in an improved overall HR security Rating.

Gmail Update — Almost 2400 undergraduates have opted to provision VU Gmail accounts.

Coordinating Center Move — ITS assisted with the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center's move from 1207 17^th Avenue to 2525 West End Avenue by providing voice, data, and wireless.

Expediting VMG Request — Vanderbilt Medical Group (VMG) administration requested a rush order to activate a phone line in Medical Center East garage. The line was required for a housekeeping time clock. The request was fulfilled the day of receipt and VMG staff expressed appreciation for the quick turnaround.

New Hardware for Operators — All PBX operators' computer systems have been replaced with updated hardware.  Benefits include better performance for the staff and a single common hardware platform (Dell 755s) for all locations within the Call Center and in the NOC (backup positions).

Virus Scans Updated — McAfee VirusScan data files (virus signatures) updates and scan engine upgrades are now being captured and pushed out to the University and Medical Center repositories by a hosted server within the NOC. This increases the virus scanning capability available to the University and Medical Center.

Software Store More Secure — The Vanderbilt Software Store was upgraded to ELMS v. 4.4 software, enhancing site security. Functionality of the site will soon be enhanced when it merges with the Vanderbilt Store.

VUH Phones — Additional patient phones were installed in Vanderbilt University Hospital semi-private rooms to accommodate doubling up of patients during construction of the Center for Clinical Toxicology (CCT).

MCE North Tower Moves — ITS assisted in moving the Ortho-Rehab Call Center and the Surgical Weight Loss Clinic to new temporary locations in Medical Center East North Tower. Both groups will eventually relocate to 100 Oaks.

RF Bridge for VPD — The Vanderbilt Police Department now has a wireless RF bridge for data network connectivity failover purposes, eliminating a single point of failure. Implemented during the NES 69KV project, it will remain in case the fiber route breaks.

Canonbeams for Loews Considered — Deployment of Canonbeams to provide redundant data connectivity for Vanderbilt employees located in the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza. The Canonbeams extend the network through the air by a laser beam using Free Space Optics (FSO) technology. Costs and necessary permissions to mount equipment are being determined.

Sprint Improving Coverage — Sprint will launch an antenna test as part determining how to increase their cellular coverage in university buildings. Depending on the tests, one solution may be mounting antennas on the Powerhouse Smoke Stack. During the testing is repairing any of their equipment found to be not working.

Digital Signage Podcast — A new podcast directs the Vanderbilt Community to information about Digital Signage, a new ITS service offering. View the podcast at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYSB7Io2cjs

Modem Pool Capacity Management — Network Services reduced their modem pool from six to three. One year ago they had 12. The reduction decreases complexity by enabling removal of a universal gateway and allows more efficient resource use.

Cisco Switch Cuts — During lifecycle replacement of Cisco switches in the Hill Center, the number of switches were reduced by 50%. This was accomplished after a port assessment project was completed.

Center for Teaching Move — As part of the Center for Teaching move from Calhoun to 1114 19^th Ave., ITS established 12 voice and 15 data ports.

Student Life Security Cams — ITS Network Services activated 39 network ports in various campus buildings for Student Life security cameras.

IPX Patch — A patch was installed for testing on the Student Network prior to installation on the Admin Network.  The patch is a fix for the database corruption issue that has been experienced with Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT).

Certifications — An ITS staffer received Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and another received IPX Installation and Maintenance certification. Now all Network Services Specialists have base IPX certification and NEC technician IDs for access to their National Technical Assistance Center.

Operator Services/Call Center — Stats for July 2008: 166,222 calls were received in the call center with an answer rate of 98.4 percent. The team completed 14,182 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 251 conference calls were processed.

Vanderbilt Network Protected — ITS applied a patch to primary Internet-facing DNS servers following a Technical Cyber Security Alert about major vulnerability to cache poisoning (including BIND) with multiple DNS implementations. That is the protocol Vanderbilt uses form Domain Name Resolution. Recent news reports that 60% of corporations are still vulnerable to this issue, whereas Vanderbilt is not.

Web Application Scanning — Two web application scanners were used to evaluate content of several websites on the main Vanderbilt web server. The sites were selected because of suspicious log entries for requests to these sites. The effort was coordinated with the Network Security team. In addition to evaluating the web applications scanners, ITS notified customers of the findings so they could fix their applications.

Applications Hosting Stats — Applications Hosting processed 166 Magic tickets during the month. They preformed 34 VUmail-to-VUexhange mailbox migrations. Two employees attended F5 Load Balancer (Local Traffic Management) training.

New DNS Dynamic Updates Service — ITS rolled out a new Active Directory DNS dynamic updates service for use by the new Exchange server, SharePoint Servers, and SQL clusters. This enables us to resolve namespace problems that the old service record registration and lookups were having for those new services.

Helping Science and Math —Vanderbilt Gmail provisioning was made for the School for Science and Math.

Wee G Patch — After notification by Google of a small security risk and instructions on how to fix it, ITS implemented a security patch for the Gmail application.

Data Corruption Avoided — EMC, a vendor, contacted ITS storage administration about a bug in a hard disk drive deployed within ITS. The bug causes data corruption under specific conditions. ITS responded by quickly scheduling a Flare code patch which identifies corruption potential before it occurs, then replaced the disk drive in question.

Mail Gateways Upgraded — The ITS Electronic Message Administration team has upgraded the Proofpoint Email Gateways to version 5.03. This provides a more granular reputation model, advanced administration Graphical User Interface (GUI), and reporting capability.

Increasing Email Storage — In preparation for expanding the default VUexchange default email storage to 1 GB, ITS Storage Administration completed the expansion of the EMC Clarion and Cisco 9509 SAN Directors.

Change the Business

Vanderbilt Gmail Successfully Launched — Following successful testing, Vanderbilt Gmail for undergraduates was launched on June 18. Eighteen students served as early adopters/testers before the launch.

Amazingly, by 3 p.m. June 20, more than 1,400 Vanderbilt undergrads had provisioned their VU Gmail accounts and by Friday, June 27 the number was up to 1,835 accounts.

Remote Phones — Working together, ITS and VUMC Network Computing Services (NCS) provided Internet Protocol (IP) telephones to remote clinics and off-site medical departments. Because these phones use the existing data infrastructure, they eliminate the need for these clinical departments to purchase separate phone systems. They can use the Vanderbilt voice network for the same cost as departments located on campus.

Podcasts for Incoming Students — Podcasts containing helpful information for new students are available at the Digital Life website http://digitallife.vanderbilt.edu/resnet/start.html . The podcasts, created by an ITS staffer, contain information formerly covered during the Summer Academic Orientation Program (SOAP), which has been discontinued.

Currently, podcasts about the Vanderbilt residential network (ResNet) and software store are posted. Additional podcasts about security, identify protection, and some undergraduate schools are planned. The ResNet site also details discounts available to students.

Electronic Wallboards — ITS is offering wallboards to departments using Automatic Call Distribution (ACD). The wallboard allows a department using ACD to display statistics on call volume, calls waiting to be answered, and departmental announcements. A similar wallboard has been in use in ITS Operator Services for some time.

SMTP Registration — To combat email spam, ITS has begun an email server registration program to identify legitimate servers using the ITS email infrastructure. In March, well over half of the 80 million email messages received at Vanderbilt were spam.

During June 25 respondents completed the survey, helping ITS obtain additional information on legitimate SMTP services across campus. This in turn helps identify compromised on-campus computers which may be generating spam.

Run the Business

New Center Proposed — ITS assisted in preparing the revised application for establishing the Vanderbilt Clinical Proteomics Center for Infectious Diseases and Biodefense (VCPCID). ITS and other participants received a note of appreciation from Microbiology and Immunology staff.

Vanderbilt expects to hear back from the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases regarding the application in August.

MIS Firewall — ITS assisted in upgrading the Management Information Systems (MIS) firewall enforcement points. This enhanced the ITS working relationship with MIS and better enables ITS escalation of Checkpoint issues. Using a new communication approach during testing, ITS and MIS worked through change issues which had forced rollbacks in the past.

Hall Firewalls — Firewalls were also successfully installed in Olin Hall and Calhoun Hall. Three phones were also installed and seven data ports activated in Calhoun.

Medical Ethics Move — Medical Ethics moved to 2525 West End Avenue June 4-5. ITS assisted by moving 25 telephones, activating 30 data ports, and installing one wireless access point.

Surgical Weight Loss Move — ITS moved 21 phones for the Surgical Weight Loss group's recent move.

ITS on the Move — ITS successfully relocated 19 of its own employees from Business and Planning and End User Services to 1207 17^th Avenue South. The new offices are conveniently located just across the street from other ITS Hill Center offices. The move was necessary because of an upcoming 1000 square feet Hill Data Center expansion and the need for more work space.

Eighteen phones were moved, 24 data ports activated, and two wireless access points (APs) installed.

Dean's House — The Dean of Freshman Commons Residence Project is complete. ITS installed five phones, activated 20 data ports, did multiple fiberoptic installations, installed eight cable TV outlets, and installed four wireless access points (APs).

Card Scanned — The Card Office had its first monthly security scan evaluation. Groups subscribing to this service help ITS enhance Vanderbilt network security.

Athletics Using Ticketmaster — ITS worked with Ticketmaster to provide the network infrastructure to allow Vanderbilt Athletics to sell tickets through the vendor. Instead of using on-campus computers, ticket sales computers will connect remotely to machines on the Ticketmaster network to securely sell tickets and run reports.

PAVE Solutions — ITS staffers assisted students participating in the PAVE program, designed to benefit rising high school seniors planning to enter a college engineering, pre-med, science, or technology program.

Some PAVE attendees had trouble logging on to the Vanderbilt network or using their VUnetID. Two Vanderbilt ITS student workers volunteered their time to assist attendees Sunday afternoon June 22 at Barnard Hall. An ITS Service Delivery Manager was also onsite to ensure issues were addressed.

Dean John Veillette was appreciative, writing "your ITS crew did an outstanding job yesterday. Please extend my thanks and appreciation."

Plant Ops Firewalls — Nine firewalls on the Plant Operations Building Control Network are being replaced as part of lifecycle replacement. The vendor will support the new firewalls throughout their life cycle. The new firewall software unifies the network infrastructure by running the same version at the same code level.

Keeping Secure — An ITS monthly security scan alerted Campus Planning and Construction that a service named Bentley had installed Oracle on their servers without notice, creating a possible security concern. They withdrew from the service, improving their data security.

New VPD CAD — ITS assisted the Vanderbilt Police Department in deploying a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. It is a great improvement over their antiquated DOS-based machine, increases their visibility, and features a much more stable hardware platform.

Registrar's Thanks — Betsy Ames with the Registrar's Office was very appreciative of the assistance provided by several ITS departments during the recent move of the office. Betsy said "It went better than I could have imagined" and singled out several ITS staffers for their efforts.

Operator Services/Call Center – Stats for June 2008:  162,820 calls were received in the call center with an answer rate of 98.9 percent. The team completed 13,488 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 264 conference calls were processed.

New VUMail-to-VUExchange Mailbox Migration Tool – ITS Staff has changed the method in which email boxes are migrated from the legacy VUMail system to the VUExchange platform. This new method utilizes a much safer technique than previously used.

New Virtual Server Model Deployed – This month application hosting staff deployed two new IBM x-series class servers for use in the virtual environment. The "x3850 M2" models are designed to handle twice the number of virtual server images in the same amount of physical space, making more efficient usage of the data-center space.

Upgraded Sharepoint to ServicePack 1 – The Microsoft Sharepoint deployment has been successfully updated to Service Pack #1. This Service Pack includes many new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements.

Vanderbilt's Mailgate Master has been replaced – Application Hosting staff performed a life-cycle replacement of the Vanderbilt Enterprise mailgate master. This server is the cornerstone of Vanderbilt's electronic mail infrastructure controlling anti-virus and anti-spam functions. This replacement was needed in order to upgrade the email infrastructure software.

Operational and Administrative updates – 149 Magic Tickets were processed in Applications Hosting; 36 VUmail to VUExchange Mailbox Migrations; another employee obtained the RedHat Certified Technician (RHCT) certification.

Change the Business  

10,000 New Phone Numbers — ITS acquired a new 875- voice exchange from AT&T, giving Vanderbilt an additional 10,000 direct inward-dialing phone numbers. This increases Vanderbilt's total pool of numbers by more than 25%, from 38,800 to 48,800 and the available numbers pool more than doubles as it increases from 7,000 to 17,000. The 10,000 new phone numbers beginning with 875- will be active by the end of June.

This is a very important accomplishment considering the low availability of number blocks and the importance of available phones to support Vanderbilt's continued growth.

New Identity Manager — Vanderbilt's new Identity Management system is scheduled to go live Sunday, June 1. The system authenticates Vanderbilt users against their authorization to restricted systems, websites, and networks. This launch will be transparent for the great majority of Vanderbilt users. The project team worked for more than a year to plan, prepare, and implement the virtually seamless cutover to a new enterprise system.

VU Gmail Testing — Though not yet widely available, the successful implementation of VU Gmail as an option for undergraduate students is a big win. ITS partnered with Google to provide this service that many students were seeking as an email option. A subset of students is currently testing VU Gmail with an expected rollout very soon.

10Gbps Research Connection — ITS received approval to install a 10 Gbps connection for Research and Education. Detailed project planning is beginning, with completion scheduled for fall, 2008.

Minimizing Disruptions — ITS worked with the Housing office to assume management of the internet protocol (IP) space behind their firewall. This allows them to move from a self-managed, statically assigned IP address to a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) addressed, ITS-managed IP space.

This reduces the burden on ITS desktop support and enables ITS to make changes with little or no impact to Housing end users.

VM Snapshots — ITS launched a Snapshot service for hosted virtual machines this month. Snapshot is an invaluable tool for operating systems with complex configurations. It enables recovery from bad installs or system errors by returning to a previous known good state.

Run the Business

Commencement Streamed — This year's live streaming of Commencement was the most-watched ever. It was streamed to more than 650 client computers simultaneously. The success was due in part to a recent ITS assessment and a re-architecture of the web streaming path over the Vanderbilt network.

Commencement Aid — ITS staff rallied to assist the University Registrar's Office during a key moment of commencement week.

"We had a printer go down in the middle of getting out reports that are crucial to Commencement and I called partner support … who put in an urgent ticket with NDE to change the static IP to a backup printer and their response was really great," said the Registrar's Office staffer. "Their quick response and understanding of the importance of this were wonderful."

 ITS assisted in a $1.65 million win for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital — ITS installed 33 telephones in support of the May 31/June 1 Radiothon and Telethon for the Children's Miracle Network in support of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. In a thank you note to ITS staff, the program coordinator wrote, "It is always such a pleasure working with you all every year. You always provide the highest level of service, and are true experts in your field. Of course, the phone bank is the key to our success with those calling in to make a gift. You do a superb job, and the fact that you extend your services and are on call throughout the course of the Radiothon/ Telethon is a comfort to us as well."

Deer Park Overview — ITS staff, coordinating with staff in the Chancellor's office, just completed a full life cycle replacement of network hardware at the Deer Park Drive residence with backup generator power. The Systems Administrator for the Office of the Chancellor, was extremely appreciative to ITS staff for their efforts on this project.

Virtual Machine Reporting — ITS database administration moved the Virtual Center Management Server (VCMS) database from a local application server to a RedHat Linux based shared Oracle server. Performance metrics reports, previously limited to two weeks of data, are greatly improved. Now years of data can be examined in minutes.

Leveraging IT — ITS is working closely with groups in the Vanderbilt Medical Center to offer our products and services to facilitate communications and collaboration between 100 Oaks, Critical Care Tower, and the 21^st Ave. Medical Campus. Early collaboration between technical teams is certain to offer the best solution to the challenges remote locations offer. Our web conferencing and video conferencing bridge are just a few of the services being discussed.

Back to Life — Dining Services' Event and Catering Manager's cell phone died on the day of The Party during Commencement Week. As this person coordinated almost every detail of the major events, getting a replacement phone quickly was imperative. ITS provided her with a staff phone to minimize disruption. This was tremendously helpful in coordinating Commencement Week events.

Verizon Stats — According to recent figures, Vanderbilt is on target to have 7,500 voice and data Verizon lines utilizing the Verizon discount by the end of May.

Outside the Box — Vanderbilt Police Department was set to begin 3-week InterACT CAD training soon. Prior to training, VPD asked ITS to check the data ports in the conference room where training would occur.

An ITS employee found only one data port. Thinking outside of the box, he arranged to loan them a 24-port switch from ITS inventory and configured it for use during training. VPD staffers were very happy with the unexpected initiative.

People Helping People — During a meeting, an ITS manager had with Dining Services, it was mentioned that Dining Services was having trouble getting a vendor to talk with them about a DVD vending solution (RedBox).

The ITS staffer knew of a RedBox deployment recently at Children's Hospital and put Dining Services in touch with the hospital's LAN manager. This resulted in meetings, conference calls, and much headway being gained. Though outside of normal ITS services, it was a good example of ITS leveraging enterprise knowledge to assist others.

New Firewalls — Financial Aid needed to enhance security of their important data without impacting their day-to-day operation. The ITS Security Team consulted with them and then recommended a department firewall, which was deployed in May. Web servers, workstations, and database servers are now separated, giving them layers of defense.

A new firewall was also installed at the Chancellor's Residence on Deer Park, providing a level of cyber protection for subnet and Voice over IP (VOIP) systems.

Deer Park to IP — Phones at the Chancellor's Residence on Deer Park Dr. were successfully converted to Internet Protocol (IP) phones. They are working well.

Computers Recycled — ITS recycled 86 computers and recently sent another 85 to surplus property. The 171 total computers came mostly from ITS but also from other Department of Administration groups.

Working a Puzzle — Printing Services has three very large, heavy production printers. Vendor support for PC-to-printer communications has been slow. The Heidelberg and Xerox printers use an abnormal TCP configuration and no installation instructions or drivers were available.

Working without documentation, after much trial and error, ITS Desktop Support technical staff successfully configured the PCs and printers to work together.

Wireless for Three Buildings — As Calhoun Hall, Benson Hall, and Old Central undergo carpet, paint, and air quality updates, wireless technology infrastructure is being added.

Post Office Renovations — During Rand Post Office Station B renovations, ITS will eliminate long cables and trip hazards and disconnect unnecessary phone lines.

Canonbeam at Loews? — The feasibility of using a Canonbeam for network redundancy at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza is being studied.

More Digital Signs — Sarratt placed an order for two more digital signs and Student Life has ordered one more as well. The Law School is in the process of deciding the best plan for their digital sign needs.

VPD at 100 Oaks — ITS met with representatives of the VPD and Informatics to ensure all IT needs are considered for the deployment of a VPD precinct at 100 Oaks.

Blue Light Speakers — As part of the ongoing emergency notification assessment, speakers for the "Blue Light" phones are being considered. The speakers could be used for emergency announcements.

IMSP Address Book Migration Tool — Due to the impending retirement of the IMSP server, which stores preferences and address books for Mulberry users, ITS developed a file transfer tool to either directly load authenticated users' address book or generate a file which users can directly import into Microsoft Outlook. This work enables a smoother transition for those users who still need to migrate off of Mulberry by fall semester.

New Mailgates Servers — Two primary mailgates for VU and VUMC were upgraded to new quadcore technology as part of lifecycle replacement. Either server can sufficiently handle Vanderbilt's entire email load should the need arise.

New KMS Server — Application Hosting successfully retired the Microsoft Vista Key Management Server (KMS) running the Windows Vista operating system (OS). Its replacement runs Windows 2008 Standard OS.

The new KMS server activates clients for 180 days. If there is no communication within that period, client machines become unlicensed and enter a 30-day grace period. If not activated against the KMS with the 30 days, the client machines enter a "reduced functionality mode" until able to connect to the KMS server or changed to a MAK license key.

VUexchange Performance Enhancement — VUexchange was reconfigured to address performance issues and to balance mail stores between two mail servers.

Enhanced VUexchange Disaster Recovery — Applications Hosting upgraded the Replication Manager software used to rebuild the VUexchange environment in the event of a disaster. Replication Manager coordinates the entire data replication process from discovery and configuration to management of multiple disk-based replicas.

Dedicated Test Network — ITS implemented a dedicated test network to separate production from test servers. This adds an additional layer of security and a quality assurance check for network-based changes in future.

Applications Hosting Stats — During May, ITS Applications Hosting processed 119 incident tickets and performed 26 IMAP-to-Exchange mailbox migrations.

Operator Services Stats — During May, Operator Services received 159,985 telephone calls, with an answer rate of 98.5 percent. The team completed 13,328 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 234 conference calls were processed.

Phone and Data Moves — Ahead of Global Health Care's move from Medical Center North to 2525 West End, ITS re-cabled Suite 750 for voice and data. A 48-port switch was also installed behind the VUMC firewall, two access points (APs) were installed for wireless, 27 telephone moves/adds/changes were done, and 40 data ports were activated.

A new Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) call center was installed for the Coumadin Clinic in Medical Center East.

A new Automatic Call Distribution call center was also installed for the Cosmetic Surgery Center at 6050 Medical Center East.

Phone technicians moved lines for 22 Peds Access Center agents from Medical Center East to 3401 West End Ave. This is the first Vanderbilt call center to upgrade from TDM Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) phones to Internet Protocol (IP) ACD phones. The upgrade was a complete success with no outages for users.

Using Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) for voice, 62 phones and 110 data ports were moved for the Department of Alumni Relations relocation to Loews Vanderbilt.

ITS assisted in moving Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety (VEHS) to their new office in Medical Center North by moving 24 computer systems and 3 network printers. ITS DOA Desktop Support made sure all systems were up and running, minimizing downtime. Efforts toward that end included testing all ports prior to the move, verifying static IP addresses would be provided by the Medical Center, and setting up all computer systems, conference rooms, and printers. Because of these efforts, most users were up and running 1 hour after leaving their former office.

Run the Business

For the Children — ITS programmed a phone bank and an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) split to handle calls during the Ronald McDonald House "Calls for Kids" telethon April 12. Approximately $150,000 was raised. During the event 512 calls were received, of which 497 were answered. ITS also assisted in negotiating with AT&T to waive 1-800 number charges for the 25 phones set up for the telethon.

Blair to Exchange — As of April 21, all new faculty and staff at Blair School of Music immediate receive Exchange email boxes when their accounts are provisioned. This frees Blair IT resources from manual provisioning and furthers the effort to move all faculty and staff to Exchange which has an integrated system of email, calendar, contacts, and Microsoft Live access.

Servers Moved — The ITS Network Security team facilitated Vanderbilt Management Information Systems' (MIS) move of 41 servers out of SunGard and back onto Vanderbilt grounds. Of those, 38 servers were relocated to the Hill Center and three went to the VUMC data center. The effort went very smoothly in a very short timeframe.

PCI Compliance — Working closely with Vanderbilt's Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance Taskforce, ITS delivered necessary technical information ahead of schedule in support of this enterprise project.

VC of Health Affairs Assisted — ITS facilitated set up, testing, and implementation of an on-call LAN Manager line for the Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs office. This involved forwarding to long distance cell phone numbers and coordinating bill-by-number functionality instead of using a V-Net code. This helped streamline the office's technical support.

Phone Rush — Within 24 hours of the request, ITS performed rush installation of phone lines in Langford Auditorium for the Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs' State of the Medical Center address. The short notice was necessitated by a delay in completion of Langford.

Dean's Residence — IT infrastructure in the Dean's Residence on The Commons is nearly complete. Move-in is scheduled for June 1.

DAR Move — ITS assisted in moving the Department of Alumni Relations (DAR) to 2525 West End by provisioning 30 phones and 40 network port activations.

More Wireless — Wireless coverage was extended to the Community Partnership House and Molecular Biology.

Deer Park Updates — At 211 Deer Park, ITS completed lifecycle replacement of data network equipment and rehabbed the cable TV equipment rack. Voice over IP (VoIP) is pending next month.

VPD Firewall — ITS presented precinct firewall options to the Vanderbilt Police Department to securely network the various VPD precincts across all areas at Vanderbilt. Decisions have been made, and purchasing and deployment plans are underway.

Reclaimed Phones — Approximately 349 unused university phones and phone numbers were recently reclaimed. In addition, 34 voice mailboxes were deleted. This is in addition to the hundreds of VUMC phones recently reclaimed.

Sprint/Nextel Coverage — Work has begun to identity areas of the university campus that are having Sprint/Nextel coverage issues. The Stevenson Center, North and West Halls, Morgan and Lewis Houses and Branscomb are being surveyed first. This is in addition to expanded in-building coverage assessments in VUMC that are also underway.

PBX Pager Deployed — A new version of our PBX pager software has been deployed. It adds new features for scheduling of pager forwarding requests for the Vanderbilt Operators. It enables template creation for pagers. One feature, the ability to warn operators if they are creating circular links between pagers, should significantly reduce manual operator errors.

Interface Upgrade — The interface between Vanderbilt and Acquis was upgraded to use IP connections instead of serial port connections. This makes the system more robust.

NetTracker Upgrade — ITS Database Administrators upgraded the NetTracker web server Oracle client and NetTracker Oracle database versions. Several patches were implemented to increase the security of data on the system. NetTracker supports data log capture and reports for the Vanderbilt website.

Streaming Media Enhancements — Streaming Media infrastructure components have been rearchitected to improve network bandwidth capacity. This improves preparedness for streaming upcoming events, including Commencement.

Co-hosted Server Patches — Co-hosted web servers were patched to meet current RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 standards. The patches enhance server performance and security.

Application Hosting Stats — During April, Application Hosting performed 11 IMAP-to-Exchange mailbox migrations and processed 151 service desk tickets. One staffer obtained Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification while another upgraded their Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer status to 2003.

Operator Services – Operator Services stats for April 2008:  206,921 calls were received in the call center with an answer rate of 98.3 percent. The team completed 18,282 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 328 conference calls were processed.

Change the Business

Virtual Snapshots — ITS just released the Virtual Machine snapshot service. It provides snapshots (recommended weekly) of a customer's operating system disk (hard disk drive) for $150 per year. The snapshots, available only for virtual machines, help recover from a bad change or intrusion by reverting to a previous state.

ITS created virtual server snapshots for several customers, including several for the Law School. The snapshots prove very beneficial. In one instance, hours of rebuilding effort were saved by restoring a SharePoint test environment from a previous snapshot.

Vanderbilt Websites Security — ITS hosts web sites for many different departments with various levels of expertise in web site development and maintenance. During an incident investigation, ITS administrators identified potential sites open to vulnerabilities and notified their owners in an effort to prevent further incidents.

School of Medicine Virtual Server — ITS facilitated the installation of a virtual server for the School of Medicine. It will function as a test server for the school's new web environment, which features Drupal content management.

Emerging Trends — ITS Service Delivery and Project Management (SDPM) Director Cindy Frank attended the Gartner Emerging Trends conferences and maintained a blog during the event. The blog gives a glimpse into some emerging technologies on the IT horizon, including cloud computing and 3-dimensional printers.

Digital Natives — Two engineering students from Matt Hall's CS292 computer science course submitted podcasts hoping to be part of the Gartner Digital Natives panel discussion. While the students were not chosen for the live panel, a few clips of their submission were used during the 55-minute session.

Change the Business

Virtual Classroom — Nursing students and faculty used the Centra Live collaboration tool to enhance online learning. Centra Live is one in a suite of ITS collaboration tools. It offers web-based discussion space, document presentation and collaboration, and uses Voice Over IP (VOIP) technology for audio conferencing as well.

VU Information Officer Kathy Rivers wrote "the program replicated typical classroom interaction that brings together voice, data, video, and graphics in a structured online learning environment for up to 200 simultaneous users."

The Centra Live virtual classroom enables instant surveys, questions and answers, and student feedback. Students from various locations can go to the same website and "tour" it as the instructor uses a markup tool to point out interesting areas.

PowerPoint presentations are compatible with the technology. All classes using the technology are recorded and posted online in case students miss a class or need to access the information.

Podcast Studio Goes Live — ITS created a new podcast studio for broad use at Vanderbilt which has already seen use by the undergraduate and graduate students in the CS292 course, "Beyond the One Way Web" currently being taught by Matt Hall. The podcast studio is an example of enabling new ways disseminate knowledge.

Podcasts Instruct — ITS continues to use our new podcasting studio to enhance instuctions supporting our many products and services. The latest podcasts are for the Software Store. Check them out!

New DOA Database System — ITS implemented a new and improved software and hardware data collection system for Division of Administration (DOA) supported departments. The old system was sufficient for snapshots but not accurate for departments continuously updating hardware and software. It generated lots of traffic through the ITS firewall and required manual inventory updates and report generation. The new system maintains the inventory in real time (with some manual input), has one master SQL-based inventory database, and records hardware/software changes each time a user logs on. It provides a more scalable network solution and database platform as our DOA support base grows. The system provides robust on-line real-time reports and requires much less manual input and reconciliation.

Digital Signage Website — The new ITS digital signage website is available at http://its.vanderbilt.edu/digitalsignage.php .The site, designed to be largely self-service, instructs users what is involved in acquiring digital signage and how to request estimates. Digital Signage replaces traditional signs with electronic signs such as LCD or plasma panels.  It allows targeted programming in public areas. Content can range from information, entertainment, point-of-purchase advertising, cable TV, or a combination thereof. It's considered "green" because it prevents one-time use signs from being thrown away. Content can be scheduled and quickly updated.

Run the Business

Identity Management Rearchitected — The launch of a new online identity management infrastructure has been placed into production. The new Identity Manager is replacing the legacy account provisioning system as an enterprise identity solution. It is more stable, more reliable, easier to maintain, and better documented than the legacy system. It will eliminate full 9-digit SSNs for the account claiming process and replace problematic custom-built enduser tools, provide better monitoring and reporting of account provision activites, enable multiple security risk tiers for more secure accounts, and lay the foundation for a centralized authorization framework.

DNS Migration — Vanderbilt's Dynamic Naming System (DNS) was migrated the weekend of March 16-17. The new system is running a fully integrated DNS/DHCP/IP Management solution and went in with zero downtime. There were only six errors reports in over 29,000 records throughout 430 separate domains that were converted. This includes an upgrade from BIND8 to BIND9, a redesign of how the DNS topography was architected, and introduction of a new management layer – using Diamond IP.

Currently, ITS is serving up over 1.5 million DNS queries per hour without any issues. The transition was transparent to the vast Vanderbilt community, and the entire Internet.

River of Hope Radiothon — The River of Hope Radiothon at Monroe Carrell Jr. Children's Hospital raised $270,180 March 6-8. The Radiothon was part of the seventh annual Children's Miracle Network (CMN) Radiothon. Children's Hospital is one of 22 founding hospitals in the CMN. ITS set up a phone bank of 12 phones plus a dedicated line for the DJ table. ITS also coordinated 1 ISDN circuit and 1 analog line through AT&T. A service technician and network technician were on standby for the event. More than 2,250 calls were received during the radiothon.

A&S Wireless — The first phase of the Arts & Sciences wireless project is complete, with the Alumni Lawn, Library Lawn, and outdoor areas around the Stevenson Center getting improved wireless coverage. Phase Two, which addresses common areas of the General Library, is underway. Completion scheduled in April.

Sharing SharePoint — ITS set up SharePoint test sites for Informatics and the Division of Trauma in addition to the other pilot SharePoint sites across campus. Informatics is testing the ITS SharePoint environment before deciding whether to purchase their own SharePoint environment. Trauma is testing the blog functionality and hopes to eliminate departmental emails by using announcements on SharePoint. Both are testing this month and will determine whether to buy licenses in April.

New Mailgate (VUmailguard) Feature Deployed — ITS deployed Proofpoint Dynamic Reputation (PDR) this month. PDR uses a combination of local, predictive behavioral data and globally-observed reputation-analyzed by powerful machine learning algorithms-to block incoming connections from malicious IP addresses. This process will help decrease the amount of SPAM that makes it through the mail gateways.

New Nagios 2.10 in production — The AppHosting team migrated the existing hosts and service configurations from the old Nagios monitoring software to the new version that went live on Friday March 28^th, 2008. The quantity and quality of the checks is a great enhancement to ITS and Vanderbilt. The server is performing very well considering that it is an extremely trim server compared to the current server.

40 Computers — Desktop Support installed 40 new computers for Procurement and Disbursement Services.

Chancellor Announcement — ITS worked in partnership with Public Affairs to enable web streaming, website changes, and electronic communications supporting the announcement of Vanderbilt's eighth Chancellor.

Ophthalmology Move — ITS installed 49 new telephones and is moving 107 others as part of Ophthalmology's move from the 8^th floor of Medical Center East to the new Vanderbilt Eye Institute facility located by Capers Garage.

Critical Care Transition — Jennifer Keen, ITS Service Delivery and Project Management Assistant Director, has been named Telecommunications Element Leader for the VUMC Critical Care Tower transition team. Jennifer will assist in planning systems, training, and occupation of the building, including the entry of patients on opening day. She will coordinate all ITS work associated with the facility (start-up budgets for VUMC departments in the building, planning infrastructure, coordinating all adds/moves/changes, and coordinating ITS staff for patient move day. The Critical Care Tower is the third bed tower currently under construction. 

Wired Commons — Voice and data installations for the last new Peabody Commons dorm are complete. ITS is currently completing cable TV installation.

Operator Services — During March, Operator Services received 161,655 calls with an answer rate of 98.2 percent. The team completed 13,645 pager modifications supporting patient care and processed 227 conference calls.

Construction Update:

• An estimate was made for Housing to lease four Village of Vanderbilt apartments equipped with voice and data networks.
• An estimate is being developed for a temporary Mail Services trailer to be set up on Lot 77 or 80 for the first month after students arrive in the fall. This will enable Mail Services to receive and distribute the large number of packages students receive during that time.
• The Center for Teaching is planning a Summer move to the 3^rd floor of the 1114 19^th Ave Building (formerly Bill Wilkerson).
• The Army ROTC is moving from the 3^rd floor to the 1^st floor of the 1114 19^th Ave Building. The move provides extra space for drill practices, adding classrooms, data labs and a virtual shooting range.

Campus Planning More Secure — All seven Campus Planning servers have been moved behind the Plant Operations Firewall to enhance information security. The collaboration between Campus Planning, Plant Operations, and ITS has been a great success in making this happen.

Development and Alumni Relations Move — ITS assisted with the successful move of Development and Alumni Relations to the seventh floor of 2525 West End Avenue by providing infrastructure and coordinating voice, data, and wireless. This was the final phase of the move, which began in January. The new space has room for 50 additional staffers who will move from Baker Building and the 4^th floor of 2525.

Commodores Win — Vanderbilt Athletics ticket staffers were attending different NCAA events and no one was available to answer the phones. Manager Eric Jones contacted ITS and asked how to transfer the calls to the Business Office. ITS staffers created a special schedule for telephone redirects enabling the ticket office to maintain business as usual in unusual circumstances.

The Eyes Have It — The Vanderbilt Eye Institute move March 28 meant their phones would be shut down from noon until 5 p.m. that day and during the morning March 31. Manager Sandy Owings contacted ITS. She was advised that, through the institute's Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), calls could be routed to Notify MD during that time. ITS staffers also recommended that special scripts be set up at Notify MD to notify callers that the office was moving and to fax messages to the institute. Sandy was extremely appreciative, saying "I appreciate you thinking outside of the box."

MS Project 2007 Server deployed — As part of the SharePoint rollout, MS Project 2007 is now online and appears to be working as described. This will offer new functionality in managing project information in SharePoint.

Sitemason Disk Space Addition — Additional disk space was added to the virtual machine providing the web service for Sitemason. This will keep Sitemason running smoothly as departments continue to utilize its services.

Server Decommissioning — Seven physical servers were powered off and removed from the Hill Data Center to be prepped for disposal. Most of these machines have been replaced by "Virtual Machines."

Change the Business

A Great Migration Begins — ITS assisted in moving 25 phones for Peds Rehab to their new 100 Oaks location. A great deal of site preparation was required, including installation of the IP-PBX switch. IP phones are being used for digital phones at the location.

Change in the Weather — The Plant Operations Weather Data Station was installed on top of Featheringill Hall. Network Services did not detect interference to networks, voice, data, or wireless.

Network Scanning Service — Proactive network security scanning is helping to identify and remedy network security trouble spots.

Ten Vanderbilt departments recently signed up for network security scanning. The scan rates the department's vulnerability to network attacks and compromises. Five is the highest (worst) risk rating and 0 is the lowest (best). The Law School currently has the lowest risk rating at 1.9%.

Campus Planning was scanned in December and their risk rating was 4.6. They have since lowered it to 2.7, a 41% reduction.

Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) reduced their 4.5 % December rating to 2.8 (38% reduction). Emergency Medicine Systems lowered their original December rating from 4 to 2.6 (35% on production systems and 4.4 to 2.6 (41%) on development systems.

Virtual Machine Snapshots — As part of the Virtual Machine (VM) Hosting service, Application Hosting enabled VM snapshots. This enables collocated virtual machine customers to take "moment-in-time" snapshots of their running virtual machines. This can be beneficial when recovering from, for example, a bad software install or system administrative error.

Copper Curtailed — ITS worked with numerous departments to identify and disconnect unneeded copper circuits previously supplanted by fiber data connections. Included were point-of-sale locations in the Dining Center and Commodore Card Office, Heart/Lung Dump Machines, and ITS. Thirteen circuits were disconnected in the Dining Center alone.

Run the Business

Internet 1&2 SLA — ITS added a Service Level Agreement for Internet 1 & 2. This presents a clear, concise, and measureable description of Internet services offered to the customer. ITS can now match perceptions of expected service with actual service support and delivery. This aids in future improvements and capacity planning. The agreement can be viewed at http://its.vanderbilt.edu/services/data/ in the Quick Links box.

Educause Survey — For the second consecutive year, ITS is participating in an Educause ECAR study of students and IT in higher education. By participating in this research, Vanderbilt receives institution-specific and aggregate study data. This helps ITS track attitudes and information technology use to better plan and support students moving forward.

Managed Storage Webpage — ITS added a Managed Storage webpage, including a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This SLA presents a clear, concise, and measureable description of Managed Storage offered to the customer. It helps match perceptions of expected service with actual service support and delivery. Service Delivery Managers will be better able to address missed deliverables and can work with Application Hosting to improve process and customer service.

Desktop Support — ITS Desktop Support upgraded Office of Contract and Grant Accounting (OCGA) computers to Microsoft Word 2007, installed nine new systems for Procurement and Disbursement Services (PDS), and set up and configured a training environment for the VU Police Department.

Phone Moves — ITS assisted in the Development and Alumni Relations move from the 4^th to the 7^th floor of 2525 West End Avenue. A new fax line (call forward virtual) was installed in the Hill Center. A new emergency notification phone number and information mailbox was set up for Operator Services. The changeover from single line to Dterm phones in Operating Services is complete. Analog adapters for call recording have also been installed in Operator Services and are working.

Firewalls — ITS security discussed a soon-to-be-deployed managed firewall program with Real Estate and VUPD. It was well received. ITS also offered five options to Campus Planning for their firewall solution.

Operator Services — During February 172,694 calls were received in the Operator Services call center with an answer rate of 98.1 percent. The team completed 12,883 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 233 conference calls were processed.

Data Mining — To help support Student Life's data mining needs, ITS system administrators implemented a SQl Server Installation Services (SSIS) package to run a T-SQL query and export the results to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file.

Server Security — System administration updated operating system security patches of the web infrastructure, improving Internet security.

App Hosting Stats — Applications Hosting processed 170 Magic tickets during February and migrated 13 email accounts from IMAP to Exchange.

Unified Communications Pilot — Applications Hosting is performing a pilot run of the Microsoft Exchange 2007 server environment. Achieving email functionality has been fairly simple, but integration with the Vanderbilt environment has been challenging.

New Groove — ITS has provided a Groove 2007 backup environment to the users of this collaboration tool. This enables users to back up their workspace data using virtual technology, a more ecologically conscious hosting option.

The old Groove backup server, which had exceeded its lifecycle and was running software no longer supported, has been decommissioned.

Bryant Switches Replaced — Lifecycle replacement of Bryant Building network switches is complete. ITS replaced 136 network switches this year and 844 total over the lifecycle. One year remains in the first 3-year network equipment replacement cycle.

CRM Solution — ITS Service Delivery Managers needed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution to track clients, contacts, and products. They also needed to maintain data in a consistent manner. QuickBase by Intuit was chosen for versatility and ease-of-use. This application provides a centralized location for all client information, enhancing information sharing and client tracking.

Certifications — One ITS staffer achieved Cisco CCDP (Design Professional) certification while another achieved the CompTIA CTP2007 (Convergence Technologies Professional) certification.

Also, two staffers attended VMWare Certified Professional Certification, six attended an Implementing & Maintaining SQL Server 2005 Database course, two attended Redhat System Monitoring and Performance Tuning and one attended Legato Networker training.

"Five Minutes with Freddy Butson, Operator Services Representative" as printed in the Children's Hospital Staff Newsletter

When Freddy Butson makes announcements over the loud speakers, he comes across as positive and energetic. To meet him in person, one can clearly see that the energy and optimism in his voice reflects who he is as a person.

Butson started working at Vanderbilt one year ago as an IT-operator, answering questions over the phone and giving announcements at the Children's Hospital. Before coming to Vanderbilt, he worked as a singer/entertainer, moving back and forth between Nashville and New York. In 1995, Butson decided to settle in the Nashville area.
About a year ago, a friend of Butson told him about Vanderbilt and an opening they had for an IT-operator. Butson applied, and got the job.

A large part of Butson's job is customer service. "I do think it is not just customer service, but customer caring," he says. "I just want to be part of helping someone. People are not numbers. You really have to care about people in this job."

In the future, Butson wishes to be even more involved with the Children's Hospital because he believes that the work done here is admirable.

"Do you know Patch Adams?" Butson asks with laughter. "That's the type of person I would like to be."

Change the Business

Podcast Studio — Vanderbilt ITS turned a former office into a podcast studio to better accommodate this increasingly important form of communication. The studio features a smart board, high-quality microphones, a blue screen backdrop, sound deadening insulation and drapes, a high-quality webcam, cordless lavaliere microphones for interviews, a cordless presenter for advancing PowerPoint frames, and a desktop computer. The computer has a variety of software for producing podcasts, including Camtasia Studio, SnagIt, MovieMaker Pro, and MusicMaker. All equipment is mobile for easy configuration. The room can be scheduled through Exchange (Hill 237 conference room) or by contacting Kathryn Foote.

Bandwidth Increase — ITS increased Internet 1 bandwidth from 360 to 495 MB. The change was made to address increased traffic on the I1 connection. ITS is closely monitoring I1 to see how peak traffic periods are affected.

Seeing Green— An article about virtualization at ITS appeared on GreenerComputing.com. Matt Hall, Assistant Vice Chancellor for ITS was quoted in the article, available here: http://greenercomputing.com/printer.cfm?NewsID=36470

Seeing Green Too — Another article about server virtualization and its "green" effect in saving energy appeared on InsideHigherEd.com. Esfandiar Zafar, ITS Director of Application Hosting was quoted in the article, available here: http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/04/virtual

Streamlining Communications — Vanderbilt Children's Hospital had a huge need to streamline communications. ITS helped create an auto-maintain email list. VCH staff can now auto-populate mailing lists with data from the VUnetID database. Staffers have already received training and this is in use.

Gigabit Path for Genetics — Working with NCS, the Medical Center Office of Research, and the Center for Human Genetics Research, ITS coordinated the implementation of a 24-port gigabit network switch on the 5^th floor of Light Hall.  The switch opens a gigabit network path between the Blue Arc high-performance research storage system and the soon-to-be-installed Solexa gene-sequencing device.

Gigabit Paths for VUIIS — Working with NCS, the Medical Center Office of Research, and the Institute of Imaging Science, ITS coordinated the implementation of seven 24-port gigabit network switches on the four floors of the VU Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS) facility. These switches will open gigabit network paths between key VUIIS systems and the Blue Arc high-performance research storage system as well as allowing gigabit-speed communication within VUIIS.

Storage for VUIIS — ITS set up a 10.92 TB share on the Blue Arc for data generated by the Solexa gene-sequencing device to be installed in Light Hall. The Center for Human Genetics Research (CGHR) is testing connectivity to the space in preparation for installation of the Solexa device near the end of March. This technology is associated with the DNA Databank. 

IP Phones — Internet Protocol (IP) phones were installed in Loew's Vanderbilt and the Law School. Installation of these IP phones furthers the plans for IP telephony and unified communications at Vanderbilt.

Pertrac Software System for Investments — The Office of Investments needed an application providing a common platform for information sharing, contacts, and documenting due diligence. ITS helped deploy CMS Pertrac and integrated it with VUexchange, SharePoint, and the SQL database cluster. ITS also hosts the virtual machine running the application. The Office of Investments now has a customer-centered solution which reduces time spent tracking and documenting. They also save money by leveraging the ITS shared enterprise infrastructure.

Exchange Backup Enhancements — System Administrators implemented Legato's Exchange Backup product which reduced the backup window for Exchange servers from more than 17 hours to just more than four. The change also freed up 1 TB of tier 3 disk space for storage.

Run the Business

SMTP Mailgates 100% Balanced — ITS System Administration has finished production load balancing of the SMTP mailgates. This is a huge step in providing seamless availability to email users. It also gives ITS flexibility to scale to future needs without changing any public-facing mail destinations.

The mail load is now evenly distributed among multiple mailgate servers, resulting in smoother operation and less disruptions from activity bursts.

SpeedTest — In response to inquiries about Internet speed on campus, ITS will point questioners to a site, www.speedtest.net, where users can go to test the performance of their bandwidth connection. Speedtest.net measures the performance of a connection to a predetermined set of internet servers. The test measures upload and download speeds from the user's computer. ITS will provide instructions on how to do the testing, which usually takes just a few minutes. Information about peak internet usage times on campus is provided, along with benchmarks of expected on-campus speeds at different times of the day.

Digital Life — Vanderbilt ITS received a gracious thank you letter from the Vanderbilt Computer Society for ITS sponsorship of their VandyLAN party recently. More than 350 people turned out for the party, in part for a chance to win prizes funded as part of the ITS Digital Life initiative.

Army Gifts Update — ITS shipments were part of more than 350 gifts sent to soldiers in Iraq for Christmas, at least two for each soldier affiliated with the Al Kisik base, including those stationed in northern Iraq. Decorations and other care package items were also sent, contributing to "a truly festive holiday atmosphere," according to our colleague and U.S. Army Chaplin Bob Baima.

AIMWorX Upgrade — On Jan 5^th, AIMWorX was upgraded to version 5, service pack 5a. The upgrade went off without any problems.

ResNet Now Part of Digital Life — The Vanderbilt ResNet (Residential Network) website, which had been located off the general Vanderbilt web site, has been integrated into the ITS Digital Life website. Files were updated at that time. The move will drive students seeking ResNet information to other important information and offerings on the Digital Life site.

Sitemason Migrated — Sitemason was successfully migrated to new hardware with additional resources improving overall speed of the environment. Successful testing led to a successful migration.

Staff Move — ITS helped coordinate the move of Cancer Center research staff and their voice, video, and data network needs to 2525 West End Avenue.

Nursing School Access Resolution — ITS assisted the School of Nursing with VUnetID creations and extensions for University Community Health Services staff.  This was a very time-sensitive issue, and successfully enabled staff to retain access to Vanderbilt network and systems.

ACD Installed — An Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system was installed for Medical Genetics. ACD is an effective telecommunications tool for evenly distributing incoming calls to a group of people. Any customer service function is an ideal candidate for an ACD.

ADA Installed — An Analog Digital Adapter (ACD) system was installed for operators for a new recording system. Used in conjunction with D-term phones, ADAs allow the use of analog machines such as fax and basic answering machines. The ADA units eliminate the need for an analog line at every operator station, saving money on cabling, ports on an analog circuit pack, and conserving slot space on a PBX shelf.

Desktop Management and Support — The Desktop Support team is in the process of assuming desktop support for Nurse Recruitment in addition to the other departments they currently support in the Division of Administration.

More Desktop Management and Support — The Desktop Support team is also creating a group within Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for reporting and monitoring. This will allow us to see if machines are not updating. This is one of many key reasons a centrally managed desktop support team works for certain areas.

Server Co-Location Update — The co-location webpage has been revised. Other outdated co-location information was removed so now ITS has one up-to-date source for this information: http://its.vanderbilt.edu/colocation.php

Working Smarter — ITS donated and installed a SmartBoard in room 200 of Benson Hall.

Network Technicians at Full Staff — Three Network Technicians were hired to fill vacant positions. The ITS Technician Group is now fully staffed again.

Technology Transfer — Technology Transfer combined their space in the 1207 17^th Ave. location. ITS assisted in their move from the third to the first floor. They were very pleased with the service provided by the ITS team.

Treasurer Office Moved — ITS also assisted in moving the Office of the Treasurer from the ninth to the tenth floor of Loew's Vanderbilt Plaza. The move went well and was on schedule.

Weather News — Planning is underway for installation of a weather data antenna on either the Student Recreation Center or Featheringill Hall.

Gym Improvements — Wireless and wired technology will be installed in the Memorial Gym basement and first floor, including the locker rooms. This should help with recruiting.

St. Augustine Voice and Data — Planning is underway to provide voice and data connectivity for St. Augustine's Chapel. The original A-frame will remain, with a new facility built around it.

Loew's Future — Communication Equipment Rooms are being developed in the Loew's Vanderbilt Plaza as Vanderbilt departments occupy more areas. These provisions for future growth should help ensure efficient network services.

Library Archive Annex — Voice and data solutions were presented to Paul Gherman for the Library Archive Annex located at 600 21 St Ave. After discussing all of the options, including comparisons to the Sharondale Archive Annex, it was decided to duplicate the Sharondale services. The property will be added to the new Building Control Loop (BCL) during the BCL firewall replacement project.

NEC Onsite Rep — An NEC Sales Engineer is now onsite at Vanderbilt to assist with NEC equipment related issues as they crop up. He has already been a tremendous help with Digital Signage.

Application Hosting Update — Applications Hosting processed 179 Magic tickets during January, and migrated 23 email boxes from IMAP to Exchange. Two staffers obtained Redhat Certified System Engineer (RHCE) certification.

Operator Services Statistics — During January, Operator Services fielded 185,626 phone calls, with an answer rate of at an all time high of 98.3 percent. The team completed 13,785 pager modifications supporting patient care and processed 211 conference calls.

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Building a Bridge — Using the ITS Video Bridge multipoint control unit, a Vanderbilt researcher participated in an uninterrupted all-day video conference with three other researchers at three other institutions across the country.

VUcal Retired — The legacy calendaring service VUcal was retired at the end of 2007, after being phased out the last half of the year. Oracle ended support of Corporate Time 5.4, upon which VUcal was based, on that date. Microsoft Outlook/Exchange is a recommended new calendaring solution.

Load Balancing Update — The next step in load balancing the core network traffic, migrating the email “mail gate,” was completed. Four proofpoint appliances were moved from the core network to the load balancing network with no loss of email.

Coming Changes — Some coming changes involving ITS with potentially significant impact on the community:

• Scala, the Digital Signage software provider, is working with ITS to develop an Event Management Systems (EMS) interface. EMS is the system that details room scheduling by building.
• Recommendations for the Vanderbilt Policed Department command van have been submitted and will be presented to Chief Lynch by Captain Cunningham.
• Plant Operations is exploring adding a Weather Data device on campus.  Network Services will be meeting with the Plant Operations team concerning this and to make sure campus wireless communication is not adversely affected.

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Vanderbilt Risk Management Moved — ITS assisted in Risk Management’s move from Oxford to Loews by activating 29 ports and installing a wireless network and 19 Internet Protocol (IP) phones.  This was additionally complex in that we moved a VUMC department into a Vanderbilt building sharing our network and then, working with the VUMC security group, set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) back to the VUMC network to accommodate medical center users.

Christmas for the Troops — ITS participated in sending boxes for the troops in Iraq for the holiday season. US Army Chaplin Bob Baima said more than 70 boxes were received from different sources, enough to provide every soldier affiliated with the Al Kisik base with a gift, even those stationed remotely. ITS previously sent four boxes which were received in November.

Toward Better Vision — Enhanced Call Processing (ECP) and Automatic Call Distribution systems have been installed for physician referrals at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. The split has a higher priority level than the regular number. It addresses concerns by referring doctors that their patients were waiting too long in the hone queue.

WSUS Upgrade and Virtualization — The Windows Updater Service known as “WSUS” has been upgraded to version 3 and put into production on a Virtual Machine. This provides easier reporting and more granular access control to run reports on the service.

Backup Issue Resolved — ITS storage administrators diagnosed and fixed a problem that was causing SCSI reset errors on the backup server. During the past few weeks the problem began occurring on the secondary storage node also. The problem was determined to be a setting on the storage area network fabric ports for half the drives.

NetTracker Moved — The NetTracker database which tracks and reports on log data for the Vanderbilt web service has been moved to the EMC Storage Area Network (SAN). The move into a much more stable environment also resulted in a much needed and planned increase in performance. 

Technical Expertise — ITS assisted in the interview process for the hiring of a technology specialist within the Vanderbilt Police Department. A well-qualified candidate accepted the position and begins work in February. The department was appreciative of ITS involvement in the process. 

PerTrac Hosting — ITS is hosting an application called “PerTrac” for the Office of Investments. Pre-installation tasks were completed, including changes in Active Directory, MS Exchange, Sharepoint, MS SQL, and a new Application Server. The vendor will install the rather complex application onsite in January.

MajorDomo/Listserv Replacement — The replacement application for the list.vanderbilt.edu server replacement was brought up to test capacity after passing several security scans and mitigating specific security concerns. It can now be put on a publicly addressable IP address space, enabling testing.

Mac Anti-Virus Updates — VirusScan 8.6 for Macintosh OS-X v. 10.4.6 and v. 10.5 (Tiger and Leopard) are now available on the Vanderbilt ITS website, along with documentation. Everyone on the antivirus email list was notified. 
 

MIS Moved — ITS eased the move of many MIS employees from the Home Ec building to the new BMG building across 18^th Avenue from The Commons by activating 29 ports and installing a wireless network and 5 Internet Protocol (IP) phones. Because this is a new building with space leased by Vanderbilt through the Office of Real Estate, ITS had to install Vanderbilt network infrastructure services to the building including a fiber optic cable from the Hill Center to the BMG building, establishing a wireless network, 29 data ports, and a total of 19 IP phones.

Application Hosting Numbers — Application hosting processed 136 Magic tickets during December and migrated 52 email accounts from IMAP to Exchange.

Operator Services Numbers — During December Operator Services answered 167,702 calls with an answer rate of 98.3 percent. The team completed 13,397 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 167conference calls were processed.

Baker Building Move Planning — Planning has begun for the planned move of the Registrar’s Office to the Baker Building after Commencement. A new center for student financial services is being created by moving key departments to the Baker Building.

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Virtual Infrastructure — Virtualization continues to have a significant positive impact on the Vanderbilt ITS infrastructure. (Virtualization means using software to segment "virtual" servers to act as standalone servers. Many virtual machines can exist on one physical server.) Virtual wins:

• ITS staff moved virtual machines from the Stevenson Data Center to the Hill Data Center for facilities maintenance.
• On short notice VMWare was used to create a virtual machine for a Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services training class.
• ITS used Physical To Virtual (P2V) technology to automatically convert a pre-existing physical operation system to a virtual one. This worked flawlessly.
• Because the Owen School of Management server environment is virtualized with ITS, technicians were able to perform metric gathering and reporting statistics, helping to properly size Owen CPU/Memory allocation for their email spam blocking.

ITS expanded virtual resources by adding two ESX Physical servers, one in the Intel Production Cluster and the other in the Co-Lo cluster.

More Efficient Phone Moves — At ITS request, communications company Boe-Tel, a vendor, will begin listing jack identification numbers on drawings when they test them prior to moves. This will save time for ITS analysts and benefit ITS technicians. The jack IDs can be added to working blueprints, enabling techs to link them to extension numbers, individual names, and room numbers.

Improving Trauma Phones — All D-term phones in the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital operating rooms and two at the control desk have been modified so that the trauma line displays on them. Now when a trauma call comes all of these OR phones rings and can be answered. The lines are restricted to "answer only" to ensure they remain available. Several solutions were discussed but this was the least expensive and best met the goal of ensuring the trauma line is answered expeditiously.

Toward Changing the World — ITS has sponsored a laptop through the "One Laptop One Child" program. The OLOC program strives to provide connected OLPC laptops to children in developing countries. A second OLPC laptop will be sent to ITS for display in the ITS 2^nd floor lobby to illustrate the innovative technology used to deliver low cost technology to children around the world. Program information is at http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php .

The technology being used in the OLOC laptop is unique and innovative. ITS participation provides our community opportunities to see how technical innovation impacts the global community, and also has a beneficial impact on a child's life.

Streamlining DNS Requests — Application Hosting developed a new web-based "DNS [Domain Name System] Registration Request" web page. Vanderbilt MIS staffers are serving as beta testers, submitting their DNS requests using the tool. The requested are automatically formatted and entered into Magic.

Direct Connection — Network connectivity was completed between Hill Data Center and the VUMC data center. This enables Management Information Systems (MIS) to move production services from Inflow to the VUMC data center.

Increase Network Bandwidth for Research — A new gigabit switch was installed on the fifth floor of MRB III by VUMC Network Computing Services and is ready for use. It was funded by Arts and Sciences.

Josh Carlson of NCS and Roy Hoffman of the Center for Structural Biology will be working with Drs. Eichman, Krezel, and Stubbs to coordinate times for migrating their computers from the present 100-megabit switch to the new gigabit equipment.  Because of computations in progress, the migrations will likely occur in early to mid December.

Sharepoint Training — Approximately 36 ITS staffers attended Sharepoint training. Two different training sessions were held, each lasting 2-1/2 days. Approximately 36 more will receive training in January.

SharePoint Implementation — ITS is creating an information web site and web forms to automate creation of tickets for requests. Both are active but still in beta format.

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Responding to Security Incidents and Events — The ITS Incident Response Team investigates an average of 22 security events and incidents each month. These investigations include but are not limited to computer attacks against Vanderbilt computing resources, system investigations, and e-discovery requests. Responses are collaborative efforts involving many other Vanderbilt IT resources.

The ITS desktop support team spends significant time working with network security and with customers affected by the incidents. When someone's computer is affected, desktop support provides a loaner computer to use while they rebuild the affected computer, including data recovery and restoration. This enables a measure of productivity during the recovery process.

Voice and Data Stats — Vanderbilt ITS now maintains 31,098 phone lines. This number increases by approximately 169 per month. Voice service requests are up 15% from last year and data service requests are up 100%. Although the number of users is increasing, phone repairs are down approximately 10 % from last year.

Web 2.0 Application Winners — Prizes were awarded for the top three entries in the Web 2.0 Application contest hosted by ITS. Aaron Thompson won first place for an application which would enable students to rate Munchie Mart foods. "Web 2.0" refers to a new generation of websites that treat the web as a platform, harness collective intelligence, and create data in a clean, rich, environment. Watch the announcement on YouTube and take a tour of the application.

Promoting Safe Downloads — ITS continued its campaign against illegal downloading by placing an ad in the Dec. 2 issue of InnerVU. The ad header reads "One call you do not want to make" and continues with text representing the student telling the parents that "they" (recording industry) want $3000 to settle or more if it goes to court. An asterisk points to this text: "During the Fall 2007 semester, at least 9 Vanderbilt students settled with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Others will likely be going to court." The ad provides the VUmix web address with the catchphrase "making legal easy."

Sarratt Ports — Facility managers in Sarratt had problems with some data connections not working. ITS sent a technician to test and repair the ports. Most problems were from normal wear and tear. All 88 ports are now working.

Cold Fusion Upgrade — The Cold Fusion on the Apphost2 server was upgraded. This enables Housing to move to an enhanced version of their Student Information Systems (SIS). Enhanced SIS allows views into the newly modified MIS Student Information and Student Billing Systems, and provides Housing staff with critical student information.

Global Navigator — The transition to the new Global Navigator (GNAV) 6.0 is complete and the old Navigator has been decommissioned. GNAV is an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) call center management system.

Police Leadership Infrastructure Move — ITS assisted in setting up the Vanderbilt Police Department top officers in their renovated space in the 111 28^th Ave. building.

ASAP Phone Upgrades — The ASAP Clinic received a new Automatic Call Distribution split for their billing department and their caller's menu was update. Four new agent phones were deployed and two new Global Navigator accounts were set up.

SANs Firmware Upgrades — Firmware was upgraded in the 9509 Storage Area Network (SAN) Directors for proactive maintenance. Although an unexpected reboot occurred during the upgrade of the first Director, the redundancy provided by the second Director ensured operation continuity.

Backing Up — ITS is evaluating tools for backing up and restoring business unit data. Avamar, evaluated this month, successfully backed up and restored data, including in the virtual environment.

App Hosting Stats — Application Hosting processed 125 Magic tickets last month and migrated 90 IMAP email accounts to Exchange.

New ResNet Home — After some final testing, the ResNet [Residential Network] webpages will reside on the Digital Life website at http://digitallive.vanderbilt.edu/resnet.

Construction Update — Planning is underway to run VU/ITS fiber optic cable to the BMG/Sony Building in preparation for the move there of Management Information Systems (MIS).

Plans are being made to clean up unused low voltage cabling in the tunnel between the Powerhouse and Buttrick Hall and the tunnel between Buttrick Hall and Calhoun Hall.

Moves in the planning stages include Risk and Insurance Management to the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza, the Office of Investments to Loews (10^th floor), and Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) from the Baker Building to Loews. The latter involves 52 staffers.

Commons Storage Space — Discussions are underway to increase Commons Center storage space for equipment being taken to and from the Network Operation Center (NOC). Both short and long-term storage are being addressed.