Information Technology Services activities
IT Strategic Plan for Binghamton University
In fall 2016, Information Technology Services (ITS) hired the Goldstein & Associates consulting firm to define a forward-looking path for Binghamton’s information technology to support the goals and strategies of the University’s Road Map. The strategic plan, which will be formally released in fall 2017, was completed in May 2016. This IT Strategic Plan for Binghamton University is a living document that will continue to evolve as campus needs and priorities change, and as new ideas emerge. The plan included an assessment phase to evaluate the current state of the University’s technology as well as create shared IT governance strategies. The participative process included more than 120 students, faculty and staff, with a similar number of technology-related professional staff taking part in interviews and focus groups. In April, Town Hall meetings were held to share the goals of the plan and to solicit final feedback from the university.
New and updated applications
• Faculty Reporting Tool: ITS responded to a request from the Provost’s Office to update the Faculty Reporting tool. It is now accessible across multiple internet browsers as well as added to the Faculty tab within my.Binghamton for easy access.
• Rewrite of SOOT: ITS staff rewrote the Student Opinion of Teaching and placed it within my.Binghamton for easier access and use by students and faculty.
• BingSwap: ITS developed a new application within my.Binghamton that allows faculty and staff to exchange furniture before it goes to the property control warehouse. Offices can save money by finding “new-to-you” furniture.
• Efficient Access Control: ITS developed a web application to bulk load thousands of identity cards to the access control system at once. The application reduces hours of data entry to support the access control needs for summer conferences, early arrivals and late stays for students, as well as other access control needs.
• Examsoft SAML integration: ITS implemented Examsoft for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on May 19. This new software will be used for exam creation, administration and assessment. The integration will allow students and faculty to access exam resources by using a common userid and password (PODS). This also eliminates the need to create and maintain separate accounts for students.
Collaborations
• For the first time, ITS hosted the NYSERNet.net and NYSERNet.org board meetings in June. NYSERNet is the provider of the research and education network for the state of New York, supporting research and educational activities across private and public institutions.
• In collaboration with the Libraries, ITS upgraded systems and brought several library systems online. Applications on these systems are now running on newest releases. The collaboration with the Libraries also included an upgrade to the Rosetta servers, a server migration and assistance moving several systems off of an old virtual infrastructure.
• ITS imaged and deployed over 160 iPads for the TRIO Upward Bound Program. This was the first time staff used the new JAMF Mac management system that allows for quick setup and cloning of devices, resulting in a saving of significant staff time.
• ITS staff are serving on the newly created Video Monitoring System Review committee. This group reviews video monitoring system (VMS) installation requests from across the University. The committee will balance the use of the systems and the recorded material to improve security on campus. ITS performs installation of cameras if approved.
• ITS has established the Business Intelligence Steering Committee (BISC) to seek advice on the deployment of the SAS Analytics tool. SAS Analytics will replace Hyperion reports and ultimately provide on-demand, dynamic reports and decision-making dashboards to business offices across the University.
• ITS supported the founding of the CIO Leadership Academy in the state of New York, hosted by NYSERNet and SUNY SAIL. ITS staff acted as both faculty and faculty mentors of the program. The inaugural cohort graduated this May.
• ITS is collaborating with the University Union to determine which key control system will work best for University needs. The first trial with the Traka system has ended. Advantages and disadvantages of that system were identified. A second trial using the Morse Watchman key control system has started.
• In collaboration with Physical Facilities, ITS is supporting construction of the new Smart Energy Building. Work completed includes the installation of:
o Structured network cabling
o Fiber optics from the building to the network core
o Data closets
o Door readers
o Data network and wireless access points
• In collaboration with Physical Facilities, ITS is supporting the construction of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences where planning for telecommunications cabling, door access and camera installation is underway.
Support for Couper Administration Building occupants’ re-location
In May, offices within the Couper Administration building were relocated to various areas across Binghamton University campuses. ITS staff from the areas of Desktop Support, Telecommunications, Network Administration and Physical Security were called upon to support the relocation of University staff, deploying replacement telephones to the new offices and updated 911 information for the phone moves. Staff also deployed and installed temporary network and Wi-Fi equipment to the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator to increase the bandwidth in the building for staff relocated to that space. Security access changes were made as well as temporary deployment of new cameras. Desktop Support staff also set up and distributed many new laptops for staff to use in their newly assigned workspaces.
Critical maintenance completed on Technology Maintenance Day
On April 11, 2017, work completed during this day of scheduled maintenance included:
• Patching the learning management system, myCourses
• Moving the Faculty Reporting tool to my.Binghamton along with other updates to the faculty portal of my.Binghamton
• Patching web servers
• Upgrading the Firestone server
• Cleaning up Student H-drive accounts
• Updating to storage array firmware to allow for cross management of Equalogic and Compellent arrays via a common management console
Significant and unexpected challenges were faced during April’s Technology Maintenance Day. To reduce outage impacts to Binghamton University staff and services on future maintenance days, ITS has defined and incorporated change management strategies to reduce the need for emergency recovery after major maintenance.
Additional system upgrades
ITS staff expanded the VMWare cluster by adding two additional blades in support of growing University storage and processing needs. In May and June, to take advantage of the performance of the faster array speeds, ITS began moving the most critical and high-use application servers to new VMWare Compellent storage systems. The main Binghamton University virtual cluster currently contains 200 virtual servers that support academic, business and research functions.
Other completed projects
• Upgraded the data network in the Engineering and Science Building, Science 4, the Recreation Center, and all Information Commons and PODS.
• Designed a hardware map to test outdoor Wi-Fi deployment
• Installed data switches for the renovated art labs in the Fine Arts Building
• Developed an IT staffing model for the Health Sciences Campus
• Participated in the Stress-Free Spring event by providing virtual reality to participants via the Emerging Technology Studio
• Tested RSA two-factor authentication for Windows and Linux systems
• Cleaned data on the Firestone server
• Updated the University’s main web server to https
• Completed CAS integration for the Library ARES room reservation system
• Created a server environment for the Library Inscriptio project
• Completed conversion to NetCobol compiling environment from Microfocus, saving the University nearly $9,000 annually
• Completed SAS administrator training and SAS visual analytics training
• Redeployed Banner workflow in a clustered environment
• Upgraded to DegreeWorks 4.1.6
• Upgraded Medicat
• Improved the BU Box interface for the housing system
• Installed updates and integrations for myCourses and a Blackboard/Ellucian integration associated with myCourses services
• Implemented the Binghamton Advantage Program (BAP) into DegreeWorks
• Migrated RHEL5 to RHEL6
• Migrated Phoebe, Genesee and Chemung to Compellent
• Upgraded the Chemung OS (production Benner server)
• Moved Windows servers to WSUS