ITS Highlights

ITS Tweets – VUITS Twitter account launched to offer technology news and information. Tweets include security alerts, new services, changes to services, and outage information. Follow us today and receive tweets on your mobile phone if you enable the text messaging feature. 

High Availability LDAP rollout – ITS deployed a new highly available LDAP service in August to replace the older legacy system.  Directory services and authentication through LDAP for VU and VUMC business applications is now redundant with a much higher level of business continuity. It also has a solid presence on the medical center’s network, which was not previously available. 

White Coat Ceremony Captured – On August 14^th in Chapman Courtyard, the Vanderbilt University Medical School convened the White Coat ceremony to welcome the incoming class of 2014 by presenting them with the white coats traditionally worn by MDs in front of family, friends and Medical School faculty.   ITS has been streaming this event to the web since 2005 and for the first time this year, delivered a Flash-based stream for easy cross-platform viewing by a live audience and a Flash archive for later playback. 

Collaboration Technologies Continue Upward Trend – Audio conferences, video conferences, web-based multimedia conferences, and all collaboration activities are on the increase. The Vanderbilt unified communications pilot has also been well received with nearly 500 users and rising. 

ITS Supports United Way – Vanderbilt’s 2009 United Way campaign needed webpage and authentication changes in order to kickoff on time. Coordinators reached out to ITS and we expedited the changes to a successful outcome. Let the campaign begin! 

Antivirus Update – McAfee antivirus software is available to the institution free of charge for installation on both work and home PCs. McAfee software was recently upgrade to the latest version release, which offers even better protection from the latest viruses and malware. The ITS Desktop Support team also completed an intense project to upgrade McAfee on over 1500 PCs in the Division of Administration. 

Server Moves Support SSN Security – On August 14^th, Six co-located servers belonging to the Commodore Card Office and Dining Services were moved from behind the ITS firewall to behind the MIS firewall. This move accomplished two things.  First, it moved these servers from behind the ITS firewall that is due for life cycle replacement in 2010.  Secondly, moving these servers to the MIS network is the final phase of an 8 month project to prepare for removing the SSN as an internal source of identification.  

Nagios Upgrade – The Nagios systems monitoring service was updated to new hardware to correct performance issues and to upgrade to the latest version, which greatly enhances the availability of the data Nagios collects. The migration went very smoothly and reliability and availability levels are greatly enhanced. 

Dreamspark Available for Students – Dreamspark is a program offered by Microsoft where students may download Microsoft development software tools at no charge. These tools are very expensive to the general public and include software from OS programming to game development. Offering them as a free service to students offers new ways for students to write and develop software programs that enhance their education and research opportunities. The ITS federated identity management service (Shibboleth / InCommon) enables Vanderbilt students access with their VUnetID.

Windows 2008 Active Directory Testing Underway – In collaboration with NCS, Active Directory Windows 2008 testing environment and efforts were kicked off and made available to the community.  Anyone who interested in testing how their applications will perform after Active Directory is upgraded to Server 2008 is welcome to participate in this effort. 

DHCP Migrations – Migrations of DHCP to the new DNS/DHCP infrastructure over 70% complete. 

Franklin Bone and Joint joins Vanderbilt – ITS staff coordinated the mailbox creation and domain changes for the Franklin Bone and Joint Clinic, which was acquired by Vanderbilt in July 2009.  ITS assisted with over 100 mailbox creations, email address changes, shared mailboxes, and other business needs related to IT infrastructure. 

Email Consolidation Podcasts – ITS posted another podcast about the email consolidation efforts. Check it out on the ITS YouTube Channel. 

ITS Homepage Enhanced – The ITS homepage was updated to include service outages as well as scheduled maintenance. A new link to our Twitter account was also posted on the top menu. 

Phone Moves/Adds/Changes – ITS managed phone migrations and changes for many groups in the month of August:

• The A&S Deans Office Advising Center moved into room 225 in the Commons.
• Dermatology moved from three separate locations to Vanderbilt Health 100 Oaks.
• Undergraduate Physics Lab moved to the 3rd floor Physics Bldg in the Stevenson Science Building.
• Added an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) application to the phones in Peabody Graduate Admissions in order to track the volume of calls received by the office.
• Cohen move-in included 35 phones installed and 114 data activations.

 Operator Services Stats – During August 2009, Operator Services received 155,626 calls in the call center with a 98.9% answer rate. The team completed 15,612 pager modifications supporting patient care. A total of 357 conference calls were requested and processed through the call center.  

Construction Update:

1. Planning continues on the Hill Data Center Construction/Expansion Phase 1 project.  Construction is due to start approximately mid October.  The completion of December 31^st, 2009 is still in reach.  The budget for this project is in line with the initial plans.
2. The Library Archive Annex (now named 21 North) is complete and billing has been finalized.  The network operations there are like the Sharondale location as originally intended.
3. Cohen Memorial Hall project is nearing completion.  Access points for wireless coverage and project charging are being finalized.
4. The Freshman Physics Lab renovations and infrastructure complete.
5. Seven new offices were created for the Freshman Advisors in the Commons Center. This space was originally occupied by the Copy Center.
6. The Army ROTC requested estimates to add voice and data to some classroom areas in the 1114 19^th Ave Building.  A few telephone lines were moved.
7. The Bridgewave technology for redundant network services for 16^th Ave. has been installed and activated.  Testing to be done early in September.
8. Work continues on the Sprint University Building Coverage Project.  A final plan is complete.  The pre construction walk through is planned for September 9^th and 10^th.  This will be a 6 to 9 month rollout.
9. Planning is underway for the Old Gym to be occupied upon completion for Enrollment Management.
10. Planning and development in progress for a grant to improve the Hill Data Center space for more efficient energy usage, as well as, to optimize space and cooling. The deadline for submission is September 17^th, 2009.  The award is expected anytime between early Spring 2010 to Fall 2010 for $10,000,000.
11. A new blue light emergency phone is being deployed at the northeast corner of Cohen Memorial Hall.  This phone will be visible on the promenade.
12. A multi-vendor cellular solution RFP has gone out for the Children’s Way Garage.  Proposals were due back on August 27^th, 2009.