OIT Project Priorities

November 28, 2005

Network and Telephone Operations

"Edge" equipment renewal.

We have a blend of equipment serving end-user network devices, including shared-bandwidth hubs, 10mbps switches, 100mbps switches, and some GE switches. The priority is to remove the remaining hubs which are slow and present security and maintenance issues, and to upgrade 10mbps switches where users needs dictate higher speeds. This year budget and staffing will allow an upgrade of Engineering Tower 10mbps switches to 100mbps, freeing up 10mbps switches to replace hubs where users require less bandwidth.

Level 2 building switch upgrade.

As a part of the backbone upgrade last year, OIT acquired Cisco 3750 switches with routing capability to replace "level-2" (no routing) switches in many UCI buildings. We are about halfway done upgrading these buildings.

Replace Cisco 5500 building switches.

The majority of larger UCI buildings have a Cisco 5500 series router/switch as their primary building switch. The 5500's are known bottlenecks to high speed communication and all should be replaced over time. This year the budget will allow one upgrade, and we are planning to replace the 5500 in Computer Science 1 that serves all of Computer Science. This is one of the highest use switches on campus; others include Berkeley Place, Administration, and Medical Sciences.

Replace voice mail system.

The current voice mail system is no longer supported by its vendor and we have been researching a replacement system. In addition to solving the maintenance issue, a new system can allow web and/or email integration.

Continue to expand and adjust wireless coverage.

In some locations where wireless is heavily used, we are starting to receive reports of insufficient coverage that we need to resolve. The best example is in the Langson Library where many users are concentrated on a few access points. We also routinely have to adjust wireless coverage in new buildings after occupants move in and place equipment and furniture - Natural Sciences 2 is an example of this. We also want to continue to expand wireless coverage in campus office and lab space through cost-sharing.

Infrastructure Services

Enhance email services.

Provide improved performance and increased capacity for OIT Mailbox Services users. Continue our efforts to ensure the hygiene of incoming messages. Provide additional features for OIT Mailbox services users (recent example: personal spam exceptions.)

Extend UCI identity management.

Extend the concept behind UCInetIDs to support tiered affiliations (applicant, donor, alum, parent, visitor, retiree, etc.) Provide electronic access for UCI staff retirees. Provide electronic mail addresses for alumni. Provide easier guest access to the wireless network.

Enhance network and computer security.

Continue to protect UCInet from attacks. Offer greater outreach to campus units and individual users on security issues. Hire a security manager to enhance the capabilities the security organization and provide campus-wide security coordination.

Continue to maintain and enhance other central services.

Enhance existing services as appropriate (examples: recent upgrades to Oracle Calendar, Webfiles, and Webmail.) Identify opportunities for new services (such as instant messaging).

Distributed Computing Support.

Create and market new opportunities for campus units to receive systems administration support from OIT. Identify opportunities for leverage (for example: sharing resources between groups to minimize cost.) Expand outreach to campus units to identify emerging requirements.

Client Services

Academic personnel systems.

Academic Affairs has asked OIT to assume responsibility for developing a set of integrated academic personnel systems. The first project is to adapt the ICS faculty recruitment system for campus-wide use. The intent is to then move on to faculty review and promotion systems.

Electronic Educational Environment.

EEE continues to grow and evolve: new capabilities such as the survey and course evaluation tools must be refined in response to user needs while maintaining other tools and services. OIT and its EEE partners will celebrate the 10th anniversary of EEE this school year and solicit feedback on future directions.

Instructional computing lab support.

Hire an additional staff member to help support SmartClassroom computing equipment and OIT labs. Work with UCI Libraries to expand Gateway Commons lab; work with Student Affairs to create computing space in new Student Center. Deploy system to allow "PayPrint" printing from the wireless network.

Enhance research computing services.

Interact with campus researchers to better define central research computing ("cyber infrastructure") needs; create a straw-man plan for enhancing services. Continue to work with Calit2 and other key research activities (OIT is splitting an FTE with the HiPerWall project that it will supervise - this will increase our ability to provide research support somewhat).

Academic Data Center (ADC).

Install environmental monitoring and emergency cooling equipment; increase cooling capacity. Work with units to facilitate use of ADC for computing clusters and key departmental servers.

Technoexpo 2006.

Jointly sponsor this UCI information technology event with Administrative Computing Services. An important goal this year is to increase the value of the event for faculty and other academic attendees.

Integrated inquiry tracking system.

OIT needs to implement a system to better track queries and problem reports that come in via the Response Center and other channels. Currently, OIT tracks requests using a variety of poorly integrated systems.