Committee meeting - February 16, 2017

Darren Bondy
Secretary to the Committee
February 27, 2017

Present: 

Bruce Campbell (Chair), Darren Bondy (Secretary), Trevor Bain, Colin Bell, Steven Bourque, Andrea Chappell, Don Duff-McCracken, Erick Engelke, Lawrence Folland, Bob Hicks, Dawn Keenan, Dave Kibble, Robyn Landers, Paul Miskovsky, Carl Nagel, Jason Testart, Sati Singh

Agenda

  1. Chair’s remarks [5 min.]
  2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of January 19, 2017 [5 min.]
  3. Waterloo Works update (Sati Singh) [15 min.]
  4. IPv6 discussion (Bruce Campbell) [10 min.]
  5. Blacklisting and email security update (Jason Testart) [10 min.]
  6. VPN next steps/timing (Steven Bourque) [10 min.]
  7. Other Business [5 min.]
  8. Roundtable discussion – all [15 min.]
  9. Next CTSC Meeting

[Will be held Thursday, March 2, 2017, at 1:30 p.m., in EC2 1021.]

Chair’s Remarks

  • None.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as distributed.

Waterloo Works update (Bruce Campbell)

  • This is the first term on the Waterloo Works system, which replaced Jobmine.
  • There was a Daily Bulletin article on Waterloo Works on February 1.
  • Certain interview scheduling patterns had caused intermittent degradation in service, that issue is now resolved. The issues impacted scheduling of some interviews, but CECA was able to arrange interviews in all cases.
  • For the best support, inquiries re: Waterloo Works should be directed to CECA.

IPv6 discussion (Bruce Campbell)

  • We don’t have IDS yet for IPv6 but will be exploring new firewall technology in 2017/18.
  • Largest IPv6 use is on WiFi; we have logs that correlate IPs to MACs to people, etc.
  • Wired, ONA is a limitation as it correlates IPs/MACs/ports for IPv4, but not 6. But IPv6 use on wired is not large. We’ll examine additional tools as part of campus network upgrade, if not sooner. DHCP logs can help trace IPv6 address to mac if needed, then ONA for MAC to port.
  • Risk is acceptable, with mitigations in place.

Blacklisting and email security update (Jason Testart)

  • Still being blacklisted at this point.
  • Most of the questions asked recently on the CTSC mailing list regarding  email security were answered with the communication that went out today.
  • A Daily Bulletin article for implementation of ProofPoint will be published on February 27.

VPN next steps/timing (Steven Bourque)

  • We are looking into replacing the current VPN as it is in end of life.
  • Investigating a few different types of technologies and will be reaching out to groups for their input.
  • It will be included in the next budget year; will start planning what we want to do and what we will need to do it.
  • The plan is to have it ready for the end of this calendar year.
  • The upgrade is not intended to make major changes to how it works; mostly looking at ease of use and overall functionality.

Other business

  • Had an inquiry about file storage services from an Associate Dean; emailed UCIST to see if there would be a demand for it?
    • Should IST do more about file storage? Bruce Campbell will distribute email that was sent to UCIST to this committee.
    • Will need to determine if there is a demand for more storage services.
  • In the 2018-2021 timeframe we will start to plan a campus switch and router upgrade.
    • Router upgrade is already in the process of happening.
    • Fleshing out the plan for this now; will bring it back to this committee when it is ready.
    • Will require some effort from people on this committee here with access etc.
  • Request came in last Monday for a generic email address in Engineering; looking for an account to handle request for information from students, contracts etc. Requesting to use robots@uwaterloo.ca
    • Brought it here for awareness to see if there are any objections.
    • Members approve the use of robots@uwaterloo.ca for this request.

Roundtable Reporting

Applied Health Sciences (Trevor Bain)

  • Sent out an email about webX; looking for a room like this where a student can come in to do a presentation quickly and easily.
    • Spoke with Kooras Bookan; Zoom seem to outperform other vendors/systems.
  • Looking into an on premise and off premise Drop Box solution; FileCloud is what we are looking to use.
  • During reading week, ITMS will be updating one of our theatre spaces.

Enterprise Architecture, IST (Colin Bell)

  • Tool you can download from Microsoft for free that works similar to Power BI.  
    • Can only publish via Office 365.
  • Just released a preview version of an on premise SQL server which allows publishing Power BI items. As we test that pre-release, if you have interest in it, please let us know.

Technology Integrated Services, IST (Steven Bourque)

  • Been working out the plans for Office 365; should be able to offer to staff and faculty fairly soon.
    • A communication should be coming out soon that informs staff and faculty about it.
    • Staff and Faculty will have access to the suite of tools except for email.

Environment (Don Duff-McCracken)

  • Working a lot with Parallels for Mac management
    • Ready to deploy to our staff and faculty.
  • Power shut down happening in EV1 in mid-August for 2 weeks. Plant ops has not contacted Steven’s team yet.
    • Lots to consider before this outage.

Engineering (Erick Engelke)

  • Associate Dean for grad studies decided no more skype for thesis work. Too many issues with it.  
  • My department is moving to the DWE building.
  • Preparing for Unit4 when it goes live in May.

Computer Science (Lawrence Folland)

  • Preparing for a chilled water shut down in MC for 3 days.
    • Considering bringing in a generator to run an air conditioner over the 3 days; was hoping it would be cooler than it is supposed to be.

Arts (Dawn Keenan)

  • Starting upgrades of managed desktop machines to Windows 10; encountered small problem with our use of BitLocker.
    • Worked with John, Mike Windows group to find a task sequence to help with that. Some pilot workstations have been successfully upgraded.
    • Hoping to have everyone to be migrated by the end of this calendar year.
  • Planning on asking for a few virtual workstations to encourage staff and faculty to try out Windows 10 before we encourage them to migrate department.
    • Making initial plans to figure out how to call back laptops and unmanaged machines to get those upgraded.
  • Grad lab upgrades prompted some people to ask questions regarding some software licensing; have been talking with Sandra Laughlin about it.   

Portfolio Management, IST (Dave Kibble)

  • Tomorrow afternoon having the IST Strategic planning meeting with this group.

Math (Robyn Landers)

  • Trying to make some headway on revamping our accounts management; a lot is based on what happens with IAMG.
    • Will see how that goes before making any decisions.

Science (Paul Miskovsky)

  • eValuate 2 being tested by School of Pharmacy right now; they had particular needs so we held off until this new version was ready.
  • Have seen a big increase in using Skype for Business for meetings; I have to personally supervise each meeting to ensure that they run smoothly. It would be difficult for many people to run these on their own.

Library (Carl Nagel)

  • Will be creating two new terminal telecommunications rooms.
  • 3rd floor moving up to the 5th floor.
    • Will contact Steven Bourque’s team to discuss wiring for the move.

IT Security (Jason Testart)

  • Re-examining email and email forwarding; gave a similar awareness talk to UCIST about this issue.
    • Small team assembled to look at the different issues we are running into and have prioritized what the biggest issues are and how to solve them.
    • Moving all of the undergrads to Office 365 for email will be a great first step for helping things.
    • Looking at changing the WatIAM field so that if it is set to an @edu.uwaterloo.ca address you will not be able to modify it.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on March 2, 2017 at 1:30pm, in EC2 1021.