Melissa Conrad
Secretary to the Committee
May 28, 2013
Present:
Bob Hicks (Acting Chair), Melissa Conrad (Secretary), Bill Baer, Bruce Campbell, Marko Dumancic, Erick Engelke, Bill Ince, Dawn Keenan, Dave Kibble, Paul Miskovsky, Carl Nagel, Terry Stewart, Jason Testart
Guests:
Ray Butterworth, Lisa Tomalty, Jeff Voskamp
Regrets:
Andrea Chappell, Robyn Landers, Dave Wallace (Chair)
Agenda
- Request Tracker (RT) project update (1:30-1:50pm; Lisa Tomalty)
- Chair’s remarks, approval of the minutes of the meeting of May 2, 2013, and business arising (1:50pm-2:00pm)
- XP support ending in April 2014 (2:00pm-2:15pm; Jason Testart)
- Student email in the Cloud (2:15pm-2:30pm; Bruce Campbell)
- IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, and Organize for Success update (2:30-2:40pm; Andrea Chappell, Bob Hicks)
- Updates (2:40-2:50pm; Various)
- Email (Bruce Campbell)
- Active Directory (Bruce Campbell)
- Green IT (Marko Dumancic)
- IT security (Jason Testart)
- Campus Firewall project (Bruce Campbell)
- Student Printing (Bill Baer)
- Other business (2:50-3:00pm)
- Next Computing Technology and Services Committee (CTSC) meeting
[Will be held Thursday, May 30, 2013, at 1:30 p.m., in Mathematics & Computing building (MC) 2018A.]
Request Tracker (RT) project update (Lisa Tomalty)
Lisa Tomalty provided a Request Tracker project update and product recommendation. Presentation slides, which included the product recommendation, were distributed to CTSC members in advance of the meeting.
The recommended product is Request Tracker 4 (RT4). An integrated request tracker and asset management system is not being recommended as those systems will all be very complicated (in terms of interface) and expensive (in terms of licensing). Request Tracker has a great Application Programming Interface (API) and the asset management system we select will need to have a great API, as well. As a result, people will be able to do what they want/need to do with the systems. One committee member stated that you can hire a lot of coops to help you make these work together for the cost you would have to pay for the integrated system.
Realistically, it will be well into 2014 before asset management is up. If we chose an integrated solution, there would be a period of at least a year where we can’t use Request Tracker 3 (RT3) but the new system is not ready. It is an incremental change to go to RT4 and it can be implemented fairly quickly – current users will be upgraded and people not currently using the central system will be migrated.
The RT admin group would regularly review and make sure RT4 is meeting our needs.
Chair's remarks, approval of the minutes of the meeting of May 2, 2013, and business arising
Chair’s Remarks (Bob Hicks). Pink Elephant has been contracted to provide two, one day training courses titled “Executive ITIL Overview”. The courses will be held on June 17th (Information Systems & Technology (IST)) and June 24th (faculties and the Library). Each IST director, each faculty, and the Library were invited to provide the names of 3 people they wish to send to this course. Names should be submitted to Bill Baer.
The minutes of the meeting of May 2, 2013 were approved.
Business arising
Web accessibility
Chris Read will be asking the Provost for approval to hire an Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) leader or champion for the campus. The Provost will also be asked to make a plea to everyone to get their websites ready for the AODA requirements.
XP support ends in April 2014 (Jason Testart)
Jason Testart distributed a draft memo to CTSC in advance of the meeting. Committee members provided some suggestions such as preparing two memos, one aimed at users and the other aimed at system administrators.
Student email in the Cloud (Bruce Campbell)
Bruce Campbell sought CTSC input on whether there is interest in re-examining outsourced student e-mail options. Committee members unanimously agreed that an investigation should begin as soon as possible.
IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, and Organize for Success Initiative update (Andrea Chappell (via email), Bob Hicks)
IT Strategic Plan (ITSP)
Distributed via email:
Communications
- Campus communication on the recent milestone, completion of the IT directions and identified potential opportunities. Sent Tuesday, May 14th.
- Natasha Jennings, the IST communications person, sent to many mailing lists, included Aaron Miller (for possible post to twitter), and Communications & Public Affairs (CPA).
- Bulletin item expected on Wed. May 15th. Sent to Imprint and anticipate an article.
- Connect-IT Blog posting from Dave Wallace on May 14th.
- Website updated with current info, and 4-page download available.
Remaining project tasks
- Project report
- Complete mapping of potential opportunities to SOs (Andrea and Pam Fluttert). Also, map to University of Waterloo strategies, as per IAP meeting.
- Starting point for ongoing review, progress updates
- Starting point for governance and federated models
Indicators (measurements)
- Begin hand-off of identified indicators to owners, need to set up training (with our consultant) for indicator details.
- Also, map to uWaterloo strategies, as per IAP meeting.
Audit work - Objectives
- Review the approach and results
- Focus on approach to maintaining a sustainable plan in the future
- Clarify IT risks (getting it right ... IT governance and the federated model, access and infrastructure, internal and external IT reputation, etc.)
Enterprise Architecture
Nothing to report
Organize for Success
- IST staff updates were held on May 13th and 14th
- A Human Resources (HR)/IST Director Team Workshop will be held on May 23rd
- Mapping intended to be complete by end of June
- Expression of Interest roles (for IST only) to be announced this summer
Updates
Email (Bruce Campbell)
- We are working at implementing Sender Path Framework (SPF) in order to meet the requirements of Return Path. Once we meet those requirements, then Return Path will help us to deliver more email to inboxes instead of getting delivered to spam folders. Shawn Winnington-Ball gave a presentation on this to University Committee on Information Systems & Technology (UCIST) Friday May 10.
- We are planning to update the O/S on a number of nodes in the mailservices cluster, this upgrade may require some scheduled down time
- We are moving users off of jubilation (retirees) onto mailservices, this is being done with the Computing Help & Information Place (CHIP), expecting to complete this in June
- Connect mailbox moves are in progress. Last week 565 objects were moved, which is equal to 702GB of data.
- The database was recently moved to an external MySQL server which should provide some additional stability to the sendit service.
- We are in the midst of working with the vendor to maximize the stability and load capacity of the service with our existing infrastructure.
- We are developing an upload form that would allow users to choose a password and deliver it verbally, rather then it being part of the sent email. We feel this adds an additional layer of security when needed.
Active Directory (Bruce Campbell)
- Netwrix auditing has been enabled on nexus. A number of steps including retirement of older DCs is required before full functionality is enabled.
- Colin Bell will be developing a proposal in consultation with Waterloo Nexus Advisory Group (WNAG) to allow consensus for changes and communications to be formed at the Advisory Group level. If WNAG agrees to a change, IST would identify an 'Operations Manager' who will be able to pre-approve decisions and start communications with notification to the Governance body.
Green IT (Marko Dumancic)
Nothing to report.
IT security (Jason Testart)
Covered under agenda.
Campus Firewall (Bruce Campbell)
No update
Student Printing (Bill Baer)
Time line for Student Printing Print Management Systems (SPPMS) Request For Proposal (RFP):
- Released Request For Proposal (RFP) Wednesday May 15th; closes June 7th
- One week to review (using BonFire software) June 10th to 14th
- Short list & possible presentations (June 17th to 28th)
- Selection hopefully on or before July 2nd
Other business
None
Next meeting
The next meeting will be held on May 30, 2013, at 1:30pm, in MC 2018A.