|
|
ICC Meeting: |
IFAS COMPUTER COORDINATORS (ICC)NOTES FROM August 7th 2015 REGULAR MEETINGA meeting of the ICC was held on Friday, August 7th, 2015 in the UF/IFAS Communications Building. The meeting was chaired and called to order by Jimmy Anuszewski at about 10:01 am. PRESENT: At least 30 members participated. Recorded Video: Here. (It's a big file, so give it time ;) ) NOTES: Winnie Lante, Karen Porter and Dennis Brown should be commended for their food/drink accomodations. Report from the chairmanMember news: Let's give a welcome to Spencer Young, who replaces Kamin at Hort Sci. Recap since last meeting: As per his usual procedure, Jimmy pointed folks to the notes of the last meeting, without going into any details. Details about this meeting: I've deleted a lot of the old anchors that were in the minutes due to lack of updates. I suggest searching the ICC site for information that you may be looking for. Security: (previous discussion) I've received several emails from ICCer's in regards to if and when it is appropriate to grant administrative access to computers to users. I'd like to have a discussion starting with my normal practice and would like to know if we have anything in writing that discusses policy. There is a pending policy. Cyber Security workshop is a minimum requirement to have access. FERPA, SSN & HIPPA certification will be required for those with ADMN/L accounts. The common, accepted practice is that unless the computer is a field computer or a computer that will have limited network access, then local administrative access should not be granted. Some acceptions may include a computer that needs software to be executed that requires admin rights each time or constant updates or installations. At that time, the user should only be granted local admin access. Dan stated that he will be developing a written policy that will pertain to this subject. Free Cyber Security Workshop 60 Minutes recently reported that Florida leads the nation in Medicare and tax fraud-crime. Tax refund fraud is the fastest growing cybercrime, requiring only a Social Security number and DOB to do serious damage to an individual's financial and personal well-being. A great way to help yourself not be a victim of identity theft is to register for the Cyber Self-Defense workshop on August 13. The workshop, led by a member of UF's Information Security Office staff, will provide you with easy-to-follow advice and information that you can then share with family and friends. Registration for this 2-hour workshop is available through myTraining. Patching updates... (previous discussion) Microsoft August's Microsoft patches have not been listed yet. The link is to July's. Current risk assessments, along with new information on W10, can be found here. Windows 10 is out but according to various messages, UF doesn't have the licensing issue complete yet, but we are being told this week (as of yesterday, by Joe Gasper). There was some concern that Windows 10 wasn't ready yet, with some different way of using certain apps that we are used to, such as One Drive. Rumor is also going around that Microsoft is already planning on a big update in the Fall. Everyone agreed that we would wait until it was stable. Outlook for iOS and Android still has not met criteria (as of this day) to allow it to be used on UF Exchange system. Native mail apps for Androids and iPhones are still ok to use. Microsoft also released the official version of Office 2016 for Mac. The installer package is available on the IFAS Software server. Adobe There were some MAJOR Adobe Flash updates here (including Flash and Flash Player). Please review them because there were 4 updates to Flash Player alone, during the month of July. Java Java updates were in July for Java 8U51 and Java 7 reached end of life on April of 2015. Apple There have been several Apple updates, including system updates for security, firmware and Java. SAS SAS University Edition recently had an update. Please visit this link. Other An update to the University Apps for students. I applied for access and it was granted within 2 days. Updates as available... Videoconferencing and WAN discussionVideoconferencing topics (previous discussion) Acano released update R1.7 (same version number as previous) July 30th. I have recently used Acano for 3 different conferences involving on campus and off campus participants with no problem, all involving video conferencing and desktop computer end points. Updates as available... End-user Scheduling (previous discussion) Updates as available... Lync updates (previous discussion) I've had several people ask me about the new Skype Business and if it will be available for Macs. The official word from Microsoft is that it will not be available until sometime in 2016. WAN (previous discussion) On Sunday, August 16, during the normal 6am-9am maintenance window, UFIT will deploy a new, stronger certificate for the "UF" wireless system. This system, which is based on the 802.1x standard, uses certificates to assure a secure wireless connection. Most users will see no change in behavior. Please encourage the faculty, staff, and students in your area that haven't used UFIT's automated wireless configuration in the past to visit http://getonline.ufl.edu/ prior to the August 16 upgrade. Users experiencing difficulties before or after the certificate upgrade may contact the UF Computing Helpdesk (352-392-HELP/4357 or helpdesk@ufl.edu) for assistance. Wireless printers (previous discussion) Updates as available...
PolicyContent Management System (CMS) for UF: Entering preparation phase (previous discussion) UF Web released a couple of snap shots of what the new homepage will look like. The PDF of the presentation can be found here. Updates as available. Cloud Services (previous discussion) Updates as available. UF Exchange updates (previous discussion) Unless something has changed or I missed the notes, Exchange Server still hasn't reached 100% compatibility with OWA or Mac's version of Outlook. Have a couple of users that are not able to set up online meetings in their Outlook (or OWA) calendar. Have not found a fix. Notes from last month's SIAC meeting Notes from past meetings are available here. Last update was from June. Last month's IT Directors Meeting Notes IBM Endpoint Management was discussed, ITSM, BigFix and Terminal 4 updates were discussed. You can now view the notes from each meeting at this link. PrintSmart initiative (previous discussion) Santos has created a step-by-step guide for the PrintSmart install. You can find it....on the WIKI! And he's added to it! New 'Trouble-Ticket' Entry Page for CNS (previous discussion) There are still some people that have not completed the required training to fulfill the role requests required by the new Trouble Ticket system. For those of you that have completed the lessons, Dan Cromer wanted to send his appreciation out. Dan announced that he plans on making these tests mandatory for those with ADMN rights. These are the required courses: (courses are hyperlinked to the UF Training Site) PRV800 - HIPAA Please remember to submit a request to your DSA (Department Security Administrator)(normally UF_N_SM_STAFF (Service Management Staff)) after you have passed the courses. Don't know who your DSA is? Click here to find out. It was mentioned that even if you receive a phone call from users within your department, you should still create a ticket (even if you solved the problem over the phone) because the IT specialist will be credited with the trouble shoot. KACE (previous discussion) This has gone the way of the Dodo bird.
ProjectsServices Documentation: Is a Wiki the way? (previous discussion) Would be really nice if more people could contribute to this.  A wiki has been created at http://my.ifas.ufl.edu/wiki/icc/. Everyone in the ICC distribution group should be able to add/edit. OperationsIFAS IT Updates (previous discussion) The guys in IT have been busy traveling the state, installing servers and setting up new servers on East Campus, amongst other things. We'll try to get an update. Don't forget that if you need instructions on OS Deployment, a simplified set of instructions are located on the wiki. (From last month's notes:)We (in ICC) are still waiting on an update for the server migration (if it's happening, how reliable, budget concerns, etc etc). Maybe Dan can give us an update? According to Dan, EI&O's pricing model for their various services and equipment (with the majority of the costs being storage and backup) to migrate IFAS servers to East Campus came in well over $2 million (that's 6 zero's) over what IFAS IT was quoted by Dell. That, combined with concerns over supervisor roles and customer service, have put a halt on the move to their services. Monday, July 13, will be the final discussion with EI&O in regards to the concerns over the move. Dan said unless those concerns are met, we will not be moving our services. Jimmy voiced his concern with the move, stressing that IFAS ICC is accustomed to hands on service and close relations and timely resolutions to problems and that we didn't want to lose that. Jimmy has expressed his concern that $2 million (that's 6 zero's) is a large sum that should be a cause for conern in regards to wreckless spending on EI&O's part.(end of last month's notes) For those watching the video, you can find this section at the 56 minute mark. Since the last meeting, things have taken a 180 and we are now migrating to the east campus servers. After we get a full report from Dan, I would like to open the floor to discussion. My first question would involve IFAS IT and our traditional "take the lead" approach when it comes to innovation. Where does this leave us? Also, I understand that there is still a $250k price difference (5year costs EIO- $187,161/year vs IFAS- $138,702/year) plus we lost some free equipment (approx. $75k worth) that Dell was going to provide us, so now we have to purchase that from EIO? Access, Service and Cost...those are the three major concerns. Dan stated that the costs are still being negotiated and that we would also have a SLA (Service Level Agreement) that would be co-written by Chris Leopold, Wayne Hyde and the ICC. This SLA would ensure that in the event some of those in the supervisor positions leave, the agreed upon policies will stay in place. Jimmy was questioning the integrity of some of those from EI&O, considering that they initially showed no concern about costs or cooperating with IFAS IT until Elias Eldayrie was involved. Dan stated that we have no reason to not trust the interim Director of EI&O. At that point, it was made known that there were other things spoken by the interim Director that proved he had no concern for the integrity of IFAS. Dan then stated that he felt this was turning into a "bitch" session and that he felt personally insulted. Jimmy made sure that Dan realized this was not directed at him personally and that we were all worried about the future state of IFAS IT. Jimmy made it known that IFAS has always led the way for innovation at UF, whether we were developing things or the first to try things, and that we did not want to lose that innovative way. Another concern was that once the move was made, what would become of the space at building 120, where the current servers are housed. Dan stated that he did NOT want to lose that room, especially with the setup required for REC machines. A Sidenote from Jimmy Anuszewski: As Chair of the ICC, I would like to express the fact that there are no personal attacks being made. The concern comes with a history of conflict between certain groups within the complete UF IT family (including IFAS IT). Even with SLA's in place, there have been times when policy or promises have been broken. There is also concern with how a $2.4 million difference in budgets can be negotiated down without loss of quality or service or without that difference in cost being picked up somewhere else (in other words, someone is still paying for it). There are no known provisions for the next purchase in 5 years, which should also be a concern. There are still undetermined costs at hand (such as large virtual servers have still not been determined). Now we have to negotiate what backup servers to buy because it has to benefit UF and not just IFAS (with that, what I mean is that EI&O has different criteria then IFAS IT in regards to machine components) I believe it is within our rights to question decisions that have been made without the input of the ICC and without any explanation to the ICC. From the July meeting, where it was stated that the deal would not happen, to the August meeting where we are being told the deal was made, the ICC was never included in any decisions, yet, in the past, the ICC was ALWAYS asked about even the smallest decisions that involved us. If there was any subject which should be brought before the ICC, it should have been this topic. I feel that we are being rushed into something that didn't need to be rushed. Why the urgency? Why not allow us to see the budgets and spreadsheets? And how do we already make a deal with no SLA even written yet? I understand that Dr.Payne or Dr.Mastrodicasa would not let anything happen to IFAS IT and only want the best for us, but how much do they know or really understand of the situation? My point is not to keep regurgitating the same questions, my point is to make sure that we are all completely and 100% fully informed of the details and kept within the loop. My predecessor was very active in regards to the integrity and health of the ICC and I was voted in after his retirement to do the same. Therefore, I will keep asking questions. New DHCP reservation site created (previous discussion) You are reminded that Santos Soler has created a new DHCP reservation site which you may use to request reservations. Creating guest GatorLink accounts: singly or in bulk (previous discussion) Steve had left this on the agenda in case further discussion was deemed warranted. So Jimmy will leave it here. Wayne's Power Tools (previous discussion) Powertools will be getting updated and fixed as time allows. Public folder file deletion policies and procedures status (previous discussion) Updates as available...
Other TopicsSAS depot updated The SAS 9.4 installation depot (\\ad.ufl.edu\ifas\SOFTWARE\SAS\SAS9.4_32bit ) has been updated to permit installation on Windows 8.1 AND to allow installation on 32 bit Windows installs. FAQs for new hires (should use http://my.ifas.ufl.edu/wiki/icc/) Updates as available... Adobe licensing (previous discussion) Updates as available... Misc. GatorBox (leaving this here) Peer2Peer
That's All Folks! The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 and the next meeting will take place September 11th and Dennis will be heading the meeting. |
