Improve customer satisfaction through appropriate applications of TQM principles and the Fish philosophy. In the face of a lean budgetary year much evaluation can be done to find areas for internal improvement and to discuss creative ways to save the College money. In light of this, we will create and conduct an external customer survey of customers in Engineering Administration, an external customer survey of the IT workers within the College and an internal customer survey of MIS employees. Surveys will not only focus on evaluating MIS’ performance but on gauging openness to procedural and structural changes.
Transition IT infrastructure of Engineering Administration into UFAD.
Influenced by changes to the Novell campus site license and the emergence of the Microsoft Campus license, MIS decided to transition to Microsoft based file and management servers. Evaluation of the best technical setup and user experience showed that many benefits are available by using UFAD. As a result, a completely new server and workstation setup will be implemented by the end of FYE2008. This project includes:
Migration of Novell Netware servers to Windows.
The process will first involve a transition of the MIS server (GECKO). This will allow MIS staff to test various settings and to gain valuable experience while minimally impacting external customers. Afterwards, data will be migrated from the main file server, GRAPEVINE, to the remaining Netware servers so existing hardware can be used for the new Windows-based server.
Migration of Engineering Administration workstations.
Not only will workstations be joined to UFAD at this time but a new operating system will be installed (Windows Vista). A new workstation image will need to be created and thoroughly tested to address all compatibility and manageability concerns. Additionally, training customers on the use of the new operating system will be required. After the image has been thoroughly tested and customers are comfortable with the new operating system, it will be deployed.
Migration of a variety of workstation, server, and network management tools.
There are a variety of Novell workstation, server, and network management tools which will no longer be available for us to use once we drop from the Novell site license. As a result, suitable Windows-based replacements need to be found, installed, and configured. This includes such applications as remote patching, remote inventory, remote desktop, backups, and software metering.
Improve the design of the Weil Hall network and start preparations for the transition to wall-plate services.
Four years have elapsed since the design of the existing Weil Hall network. In that time there have been minor renovations on the second, third, and fifth floors, changes in space utilization and occupancy, and new goals in network management. All of these factors added complexity to the network that contributed to Weil Hall’s late placement on CNS’ to-the-wallplate project schedule. There are many projects that can be undertaken to better organize and secure the Weil Hall network and to prepare for the wallplate transition. These include:
Renumber network drops in the 3 rd floor, east telecommunications closet using the campus standard numbering scheme.
Implement trunking on all switches and transition switch IP numbers to a switch management VLAN.
Complete the transition of network devices to a dedicated VLAN.
Complete the transition of Publication Services to a dedicated VLAN.
Install proper wiring in locations that are using workgroup switches or split-pair wiring.
Start preparations to move Engineering’s primary DNS off of 128.227.116.1.
Review, rewrite, and reorganize College of Engineering IT Security Policies.
The groundwork for reorganizing and rewriting the current College of Engineering IT Security policy was laid at the start of last fiscal year. Due to various interruptions and other priorities the work was not completed. The College L2 ISM will reconvene the Engineering security committee to complete this project.
Assess how University of Florida and College of Engineering security policies are employed by units within the College.
It has been a long standing goal of MIS to begin internal audits of College units in order to assess compliance to UF and College security policies. The start of these formal reviews was delayed due to revisions of campus policy, to audits conducted by CNS/Office of Audit & Compliance Review, and to other priorities. It is necessary that we avoid further delays and begin the process by reviewing unit documentation and developing self assessment surveys.
Improve the security and redundancy of the College of Engineering web server.
During this past fiscal year the administration’s web server suffered a minor compromise due to a downloaded and un-maintained PHP script that was installed by a virtually hosted student organization website. This hack uncovered a few weaknesses in the design of the web server and resulted in a complete reinstall of the server. During the reinstall various designs using virtual machines and/or jails to improve the server’s security were discussed. Due to time constraints they were not implemented.
It is time now to implement a more secure hosting environment which uses virtual machines, jails and/or other techniques to better secure the server and prevent a compromise within one virtual host from impacting others. Once this new configuration is created the mirrored relationship between SPIDER and ARACHNE should to be reestablished to once again provide server redundancy.
Develop an alternate College of Engineering homepage designed specifically for internal users.
College of Engineering faculty and staff have repeatedly commented on the awkwardness of the current College of Engineering homepage. As a result, we have long had the desire to design an internal-friendly version of the College of Engineering homepage that uses design elements of the main homepage but provides quicker access to information and links that an internal faculty or staff member would want. However, this is a low priority project.
Improve the computer infrastructure of the Office of Student Affairs’ student tutorial room.
Engineering Administration received computer upgrades at the end of FYE2007. As the new workstations are installed the previous workstations become available for use elsewhere. The Dell GX270 workstations that are being removed from service are significantly better than the computers currently used in the student tutorial room. As a result, we will be cascading the Dell GX270 workstations to the student tutorial room. In the process we will investigate upgraded to new versions of Windows, Microsoft Office, and other applications used in the lab. We will also investigate other improvements in order to better manage the workstation and record usage of these resources.
Complete the Faculty Tenure & Promotion online.
The Faculty Tenure & Promotion online application has been in development for several years. The initial requirements specification and development was completed but beta testing and feature refinement never occurred due to a lack of customer feedback. Late last fiscal year initial feedback was received so progress can once again be made on this project. MIS will continue to work with the Office of Academic Affairs and the Dean’s Office to move this project to completion.
Develop a campus-wide student status data warehouse to contain data from past academic years.
Analysis of the data requests made by the Dean’s Office, Office of Academic Affairs, Office of Student Affairs and others show trends in the types of data required. The vast majority of these requests could be answered if a data warehouse containing historical records from the CSTAT file existed. MIS worked on creating this history during FYE2007 but halted when we determined that there were missing datasets. We will design this warehouse and do initial data loads using available data. An attempt to fill in the missing data using other means will me made during the fiscal year.
Support the reforms in the Admissions and Records Office caused by personnel turnover.
A large amount of institutional and procedural knowledge was lost when Cherylene Boley retired from the Admissions and Records Office. As a result, many changes will occur as new procedures are developed to accomplish the mission of this office. MIS will assist in this process by reviewing current processes, recommending changes, and implementing new processes as required.
Make significant improvements to the research administration and accounting database by unifying the frontends and transitioning the backend to a more robust database engine.
The existing structure of the research administration and accounting database was designed over ten years ago. Overtime new features / changes and the adoption of the database by IFAS Office of Sponsored Programs and University Contracts & Grants have significantly altered this structure. Additionally, we are approaching the end of the second year of the entire University using this database when the original plan was to be transitioned off the database in less than one year. Given all of these factors, the database has been stretched to do things not originally intended and performance is beginning to suffer.
We hope to address performance issues by revisioning the database table structure and moving the backend into a more robust database engine such as Microsoft SQL server or MySQL. During this time the frontend databases will require changes to work with the restructured backend. As a result, the frontends will require a major rewrite. In the process, we will unify the research administration and research accounting frontends so that both databases realize the same performance increases, have a common interface across all offices and provide a single development environment.
Phone:
(352) 392-6000
Fax: (352) 392-9673
College of Engineering
300 Weil Hall, PO Box 116550
Gainesville, FL 32611-6550
