| dc.description | Sunday, October 7, 2007
Registered and visited with several people from other Universities, found that we are having many of the same support issues.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Opening Plenary
The Future is So Bright, We Have to Wear Shades
This talk was very enlightening, it presented itself as how schools have to really look at emerging technologies and that in the future the students of today will not fit the current structure of schooling and that to survive one must adapt.
Sessions
Decentralized and Centralized IT Support at Tulane
University — A Case Study from a Hybrid Model
This session was about a centralized IT department that decided to do a fundamental change to the way it handles projects. It got together with the law and business schools to implement a new exchange server infrastructure. They found that working together brought more than cooperation to the table but a pool of knowledge and skills that now is benefitting everyone. I found that this session was an example of how to work together and things will work out better in the end. Now only if we could do this here.
TAG – You’re It!
This session was about how Millersville University started a TAG (technical action group) within the Information Technology group. The focus is to have a low level meeting once a month to share information about the Information technology groups own internal projects. This includes things like software upgrades, server upgrades, network changes, project planning, all without managers present. They also use the meeting time as a training session sometimes to present an overview of a technology that is of interest to the whole group. Their example was a training session involving network packets from the pc to the internet with all of the low level details in the middle. After this training, they were more aware of how the network was laid out and what servers, switches, firewalls were involved. Problems were able to be solved quicker. They would also like to use the TAG team to start to investigate and evaluate new technologies and products and then make recommendations to their management team.
This was a wonderful session. I highly recommend that we implement our own version of this here at AU.
American ITIL
They proceeded to go through what ITIL has done for them and why they have done it. It was a good overview of how it can work in an environment. Some of the most important information that came out of this session is the need for us to create a global service catalogue of our services that we provide. As well the need for governance committees both administrative and academic for review of technologies and ideas. One thing that struck me the most was their use of OLA (Operating Level Agreements) and SLA (Service Level Agreements). This is something that we should for sure look into and implement as soon as possible to help make our lives easier.
The Magical World of an Information Commons
This session was how they took their library and IT department and merged them into a pretty cool building for students and staff. Not relevant to our University.
Vista Preparedness at Indiana University
I was disappointed with this session as they had investigated the product got their helpdesk ready to handle student questions but never ever looked at it from the staff’s point of view
Windows Vista: Implementation Challenges
Lehigh University started a group to analyze the Windows Vista effect on their University. They came to the same conclusions that we have found here. There will be problems, some involving major changes to our infrastructure, major compatibilities with software, and end user training.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Open Source-A Practical Solution
This session was about a helpdesk that was unhappy with their current ticket system (Heat) and how they did an analysis of offerings out there and settled upon open source software called RT (Request Tracker), it is a web based php system that works well for them.
Ursula or Ariel? Is your Help Desk Application Evil
or Good in the Eyes of Your Support Staff
This session explained what process they went through to analyze and then send out their request for proposal. They really pushed that the analysis of your own needs and simplifying them is a must. As well when creating an RFP that you keep it simple and straight forward.
Overhaul Your Helpdesk Ticketing System
The session was about how they chose a Helpdesk system and what they really learned from the process and the problems and plusses that came from their experience.
Who’s Really in Your Top 8: Network Security
in the Age of Social Networking
This session showed how many students out there in the world do not really realize the security risks and tools that can be used to help minimize their risks on social network site and on the internet in general. They are creating surveys that they will use the results to build targeted information to better inform the students what they can do to secure themselves.
Virtualization’s Next Frontier: Security
This session brought forward how Ringling College of Art and Design is using virtualization to lead to a more secure environment, as well to better utilization of their current computer graphic render farms. They talked mostly about the building of a virtual security test environment to test what attacks would cause them the most grief and how to counter them.
Poster Sessions
The Dual OS Classroom:
If You Build It, Will They Come?
This poster explained how they created a work lab containing Apple Macs and used Parallels to virtualize the windows environment. They found that the room was used more as the Apple friendly teachers began to use it more and the Windows platform teachers also liked the systems. They had some hardship in dealing with the need for both an apple mouse and a 2 button windows mouse and other software/hardware problems but in the end it worked perfectly for what they needed.
Implementation of Software License Management
Support System
This poster explained how an University in Japan has created some software to track licenses over the internet for software.
Implementing Pre-installation Environment Media
for Use in User Support
This poster explained how they have used USB memory sticks to create a user support software environment that has reduced the need for always looking for the right tool to do the job on what location. Having it with them at all times has allowed for most quick problem solving to be resolved in the 10-15 minute range when they have the tools at hand.
Sessions
Is Your Support Services Train Derailing? How One
Integrated Software Package Got Us Back On Track
The concept of the session was to show how Landesk software helped out their College, the problem was that the session was a sales session for Landesk with no questions being able to be answered how it was working in their environment. It was a disappointment.
Desktop Imaging to Achieve Standardization
and Application Delivery
This session was how George Washington University uses ZENworks imaging by Novell to streamline the deployment of new computers as well as new software and updates. It is a very cool system, if we were a Novell shop then I would consider it for our use. Hopefully more companies will follow their package deployment system example, it works well.
Image, Baby, Image!
Making PC Cloning More Efficient
This session put on by members of the University of Calgary lab support team explained how they are using pre-installation boot environments to streamline the updating of lab throughout the University. It is very neat how they are scripting everything from complete image replacements to inventory checking. Some of the things that they are doing might work her and more information will be gathered from them.
Wednesday, October 10, 2006
Encryption Technologies:
Testing and Identifying Campus Needs
This was a great session, it went though their assessment of encryption software. They explained how they started the process, designed there group structure, needs analysis, and then the evaluation of numerous encryption technologies. Out of this they came to a suggestion of a single product for computers and suggestions for dealing with portable devices. The encryption project her at AU should use their knowledge to advance the project.
iS3PACE – Casting the Information Security
Spell for Cultural Change
In this session they presented this: The challenge is trying to balance the academic tradition of open information exchange and collaboration with administrative requirements for efficient, proactive, and cost-effective security measures. To create such an environment, WVU charged the Information Security Program with the goal of driving the cultural changes required to integrate security standards and practices into daily operations. One of the key components of this effort is the Information Security, Services, and Systems Promoting Awareness, Communication, and Education (iS3PACE) information security collaborative. Several key operating units contribute to the collaborative to ensure the delivery of consistent, coordinated information security directives, guidelines, and practices.
They have been very successful and it has created a much more secure environment, with staff and students now understanding why things have to be secure and how to practice good security.
Desktop Security in an Academic Environment....
How to Herd Cats Successfully
This session described a successful methodology for achieving more secure computing in an Academic Environment where getting the disparate client populations to accept any desktop computer standards can often seem like herding (or training) cats.
In a highly distributed, highly decentralized computing environment such as the George Washington University, it is
exceedingly difficult to ensure compliance with desktop security measures. This is true whether they are the requisite and almost constant patches or the use of properly configured and updated antivirus and firewall software. Through the use of volume purchasing power, quality service delivery, University wide collaboration and targeted incentives (both tangible and
intangible) GWU has moved from knowing very little about the patch and virus/firewall state of its 6000+ desktop computers to
being able to remediate vulnerabilities across the enterprise and determine the status of that remediation in real time.
This session was interesting, we are using more and more of our Altiris resources that will help us get to this level of knowing how our environment is, getting the word out and having the people more aware of what is going on and why will be the challenge.
Closing Plenary
Sunrise or Perfect Storm: Technology, Education,
and the Knowledge Economy - James Hilton
This was a great presentation and I think that AU should consider looking into what he has to say. Schools of the future are going to have to change and he has studied it for a long time and has come to the answer that we have to be like a Google, allowing our knowledge to be searched and presented in smaller bites that students can understand. The old classroom learning is dead, and everyone must change or schools will fail.
This was a fun conference and I met many interesting people that have the same issues and problems as we do and it was great learning of new ways that in the future will make our job easier.
I would certainly attend this conference again. | en |
