Committee meeting - June 13, 2013

Melissa Conrad
Secretary to the Committee
June 25, 2013

Present:

Dave Wallace (Chair), Melissa Conrad (Secretary), Bill Baer, Bruce Campbell, Andrea Chappell, Marko Dumancic, Erick Engelke, Bob Hicks, Bill Ince, Dawn Keenan, Dave Kibble, Robyn Landers, Paul Miskovsky, Carl Nagel, Terry Stewart, Jason Testart

Regrets:

None

Agenda

  1. Chair’s remarks (Dave Wallace) [1:30pm-1:40pm]
  2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of May 30, 2013 and business arising [1:40pm-1:50pm]
  3. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (Bruce Campbell) [1:50-2:00pm]
  4. Cell tower update (Bruce Campbell) [2:00-2:05pm]
  5. CUCCIO meeting and CANHEIT report (Dave Wallace) [2:05-2:15pm]
  6. IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, and Organize for Success update (2:15-2:30pm; Andrea Chappell, Dave Wallace, Bob Hicks)
  7. Updates (2:30-2:45pm; 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)
  8. Other business (2:45-3:00pm)
  9. Next Computing Technology and Services Committee (CTSC) meeting
    [Will be held Thursday, June 27, 2013, at 1:30 p.m., in Mathematics & Computing building (MC) 2018A.]

Chair's remarks

CANHEIT and Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) meeting (June 8-12)

  • CUCCIO members heard an interesting presentation by someone looking at Net+ on behalf of their group.
  • The Ontario Association of Computing Services Directors (ACSD) met with the president of ORION to discuss concerns.
  • The Chair thanked all the people who presented at CANHEIT. The feedback was very positive.
  • The next CANHEIT will be held in Prince Edward Island (PEI).

Approval of the minutes of the meeting of May 20, 2013, and business arising

The minutes of the meeting of May 30, 2013 were approved.

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (Bruce Campbell)

In advance of the meeting, Bruce Campbell distributed a draft charter for a Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Remote Desktop Services Pilot project (PDF).

Greg Parks, Information Systems & Technology (IST), will be leading this project and will get started right away. Parks will be invited to the July 11th meeting to provide additional information. Campbell will send out documentation in advance.

Cell tower update (Bruce Campbell)

The cell tower (monopole) has been approved. There has been an item in the Daily Bulletin. That item and the links for Buildings and Properties, and Board of Governors meetings are available here:

Next steps are contract negotiations with the company and in parallel, the company will need to get municipal approval. This involves an easement and other things, including building permits. Hopefully, construction will be well underway by this time next year.

CUCCIO meeting and CANHEIT report (Dave Wallace)

In addition to the comments under Chair’s Remarks, Wallace also noted that CUCCIO members met with representatives from Apple Canada. The (lack of) future plans for OS X (server) were discussed. Additional information will be shared if/when it becomes available.

IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, and Organize for Success Initiative update (Adrea Chappell, Bob Hicks, Dave Wallace)

IT Strategic Plan (ITSP)

We really need to get started on the audit. We are waiting for Deloitte to give us a timeline and for them to dedicate resources.

Chappell presented at Leadership Forum and also at CANHEIT. Wallace will do a short presentation at Senate. In terms of project work, some potential opportunities are being mapped.

Enterprise Architecture

There was a recent presentation at an IST Professional Development Session. A recording of the Enterprise Architecture presentation.

There was an Enterprise Architecture panel at CANHEIT which is a very good sign that we are moving in the right direction.

Organize for Success

A lot of work has been done. All staff have been mapped into roles and the full organizational structure was presented to the Staff Relations Committee on Friday, June 7th. IST Directors and the Executive Officer are now meeting individually with staff. This all leads up to two staff meetings on June 19th and 20th where the full design will be shared with IST staff. After these all staff meetings, each new group will meet to discuss the structure in more detail.

A review of the definitions:

  • Incumbency: At least 60% of the position remains unchanged.
  • Expression of interest process: How staff will apply for re-purposed roles, open to IST staff only.
  • Open competition: For vacancies and any “net new”, the regular recruitment process will apply (as per Policy 18).

Largely, we are making do with what we have but there will be some opportunities for campus IT staff.

Updates

Email (Bruce Campbell)

Active Directory (Bruce Campbell)

Nothing to report.

Green IT (Marko Dumancic)

The group met recently and is working on a revised charter. They hope to have the revision complete and to CTSC for review before the end of the Spring term.

IT security (Jason Testart)

  • Windows course ran successfully.
  • Thinking about active directory and taking things to the next step and things that aren’t in Active Directory (AD) right now, like certificates.
  • Windows XP “end of life” note went out to technical staff. Testart will send something out within the next week to the wider campus community. Mike Patterson is working on something that can identify active Windows XP clients.

Campus Firewall (Bruce Campbell)

Prior to the meeting, Campbell distributed a summary of progress reviewing hosts in each orgunit. Bruce will be doing follow-ups with various groups, as required.

Student Printing (Bill Baer)

  • 5 submissions have been received, for 3 different products.
  • A selection will likely be made in early July.
  • The Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) will receive a status update on June 17th.

Other business

N: storage

IST provides N: drive storage on central netapps for academic support areas, and also faculties and academic departments upon request. At present, the following is available on central netapps:

  • 10 gigabyte quota for employees
  • 1 gigabyte quota for students
  • Redundant system with servers in 2 buildings

Increased quota can be provided upon request and review.

Residence wifi is being upgraded

All wireless and wired networks are being replaced in the residences and the university’s residence network is being added to Columbia Lake North.

Sending mail to @uwaterloo.ca

When sending email to userid@uwaterloo.ca, the sender will not get a bounce back if the recipient has moved to a different unit or if they have retired and retained their connect account. For staff who have moved units, it is expected that they would forward on the email as appropriate or reply to the sender, stating that they have changed positions, and providing the new contact information. However, the ability for retirees to retain the “@uwaterloo.ca” email does complicate things and this will be reviewed.

Future agenda item

Audit Reporting. Notes will be compared and a unified approach to audit responses will be discussed. The auditors may be invited. David Kibble will lead the discussion.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on June 27, 2013, at 1:30pm, in MC 2018A.