Project team members (from left) Kay Davis, Ken Hudson, Vandana Bansal, Emily Shandley, Neha Agrawal, and Paul Gruhn.

(Submitted by Neha Agrawal, Portfolio Manager, Infrastructure Services)

On March 14, Courseleaf's Course Inventory Management (CIM) module went into service. Last week, the project team held a celebratory lunch to mark the milestone.

This module replaces the custom-developed Course Proposal Form (CPF) application for new course proposals and the custom-developed Course Information Management System application (CIMS) for course edits. Primary goals for undertaking this project was to reduce ongoing maintenance cost, streamline processes, decommission applications with overlapping functionality, provide faculty with a unified interface, and align ITS strategy to invest in cloud-based vendor solutions.

Campus Community Technologies's Academic Administration team, in collaboration with the University Registrar’s office, is leading the Curriculum Planning and Publications (CPP) project, which replaces the need for the following custom applications:

• YCPS online, File Maker Pro and InDesign will no longer be used for Yale College catalog publication
• CPF (Course Proposal Form)
• CIMS (Course Information Management System)

In April 2013, Leepfrog’s Courseleaf fully integrated Catalog (CAT), Course Inventory Management (CIM), and Offering Builder (WEN) modules were chosen as the solution for course information management and catalog publication.

Project Milestones

Courseleaf implementation is a multiyear project with three major milestones:

• Courseleaf Catalog (CAT) went live on June 30, 2013.

This module allowed publication of online course catalog for Yale College. Yale College is now in the second cycle of catalog publication using the Courseleaf CAT module for 2014-15. Courseleaf Catalog replaced home grown applications. YCPS online, File Maker Pro and InDesign are no longer being used for the publication of Yale College catalog. Read more about this milestone.

• Courseleaf Course Inventory Management (CIM) went live on March14th, 2013.

This module serves as one simple solution for proposing, managing and publishing course and program information for Yale College. Courseleaf CIM replaces CPF for new course proposals and CIMS for course edits.

• Courseleaf Offering Builder (WEN) planned go-live on June30th, 2014.

This module will replace the existing CIMS functionality that provides the ability to propose meeting dates and times for preparing the schedule of offerings. The WEN module will completely replace the home grown application CIMS (Course Information Management System).

Collaborative Effort

Team work was essential for ITS to provide this comprehensive solution to our clients. Project Manager Neha Agrawal led the project and coordinated activities with the vendor, and Yale’s technical and functional teams.

Emily Shandley, Functional Project Lead, and Ken Hudson, Technical Project Lead, both played key roles in collaborating with the vendor and provided comprehensive solutions for course information management at Yale.

Ken worked closely with Paul Gruhn, WebMethods SME, and Venkat Veeramneni, WebMethods developer to develop the web services.

Michael DeSalvatore engaged as the Banner subject matter expert. Vandana Bansal is the business analyst. Kay Davis provided change management support.

Thanks to University Registrar Gabriel Olszewski, Associate CIO Vijay Menta, and Academic Administration Associate Director, Technology & Development, Vijayshree Erodula for their continued support and encouragement on this project.

(Submitted by Dave Galassi, Director, ITS Network Services)

Recently, YaleConnect Unified Messaging, a new service offered at no cost to YaleConnect account holders, was introduced to ITS staff and IT partners. Many of you have since signed up for the service.

In conjunction with a YaleConnect account, Unified Messaging combines voice messaging and email into one inbox that can be accessed from multiple devices. Signing up for YaleConnect Unified Messaging will allow you to:

• Access and manage your voicemail, email or calendar from your email inbox, YaleConnect Webmail, or your mobile phone
• View your missed calls via email
• Read or listen to your voicemail messages from your email
• Listen and reply to email messages via phone
• Let a meeting organizer know you’re running late
• Customize caller greetings
• Reduce the likelihood of missing important calls by setting the call transfer option
• Easily reset your voicemail password online

Unified Messaging has the ability to simplify on-the-go message sending and retrieval even if your computer or phone isn’t close at hand.  You may sign up for this free service at any time.

Visit the Unified Messaging webpage and FAQs to learn more about the features the service offers. You can also watch a brief video to learn more about the service.

In coming months, the service will be introduced to other audiences at the university.

(Submitted by Chloe Kennedy Turnbull, ITSM Program Lead)

Did you know you could view ServiceNow tickets with or without the tabs (Notes, Related Records, Resolve Information, etc.)?  All you need to do is click the "Toggle Tabs On/Off" button (seen in the red square below)!  The first screenshot show you the ticket with the tabs and the second screenshot shows you the ticket without.  You can easily switch from one view to another for those times when you feel like a tab and the times you don’t.

With the tabs enabled:

With the tabs hidden:

We Want Your Tips!

Has your team done something awesome in the IT Service Management area? Do you have any ideas for an ITSM/ServiceNow tip of the week? Email Chloe Turnbull. If your suggestion is published, you’ll get a prize.

(Submitted by Chris Kilbourne, ITS Website Manager)

In our efforts to better organize our web content, we have moved the tools and resources in the ITS website IT Professionals and New Employees sections to our new intranet for IT professionals, Tech Connection.

The content that has been migrated includes:

• IT Leadership information, including forums, presentations, town halls, and the IT Strategic Plan
• IT Partner contact information
• Purchasing and policies resources, including  an expenses users guide, mobile phone upgrade information, and travel planning and reimbursement instructions
• ITS PowerPoint templates
• Events calendar posting instructions
• Fieldglass Vendor Management information
• Information Security activities and resources, including HIPAA security awareness, and secure networking standards
• ITS Lunch & Learn information

Redirects are in place so that if you click on links to these resources on the ITS website (or if you have bookmarked them), you will automatically be taken to their new locations in Tech Connection.

In a related change designed to enhance the performance and utility of the Tech Connection website, the home page and several other sections can now be accessed without logging into the Central Authentication System (CAS). Other areas of the site that potentially could contain sensitive information (e.g., proprietary, security-, or product-related), or where we foster candid and detailed dialog (Forums, IT Communities, Projects & Initiatives, IT Partner Messages) will remain behind CAS protection.

The ITS and Tech Connection websites will be featured at a table at this week’s ITS Knowledge Exchange (1-4 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in Kroon Hall). We hope to see you there!

(Submitted by Richard D. Mikelinich, Chief Information Security Officer)

Microsoft released a patch last week to fix the critical Internet Explorer bug. The patch is for all versions of Windows operating systems. Yale ITS released the patch to all ITS managed computers on campus on Friday, May 2. If you have not yet done so, please accept the BigFix message as soon as the notification appears on your screen. Make sure all work is saved and any applications running are closed prior to starting the upgrade process.

If you have not received the patch, please run Windows Update (including home computers) as soon as possible to prevent attackers from installing malware onto computers. Visit the Microsoft website to view instructions on how to manually update your computer.

(Submitted by Philip Rinehart, ITS Campus Technology Services)

Yale ITS is in the process of updating all ITS supported computers on campus to Microsoft Office 2013. ITS Campus Technology Services will upgrade all eligible ITS staff computers in mid-May as a pilot. Shortly thereafter, the upgrade will be automatically distributed to ITS managed computers on campus with approved, pre-configured settings.

Previous installations of Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 will be removed.

The following computers will be excluded from the upgrade:

• Computers running the Yale Budgeting Tool (YBT)
• Computers running Windows XP or versions of Office older than 2007
• Computers running a non-Windows Operating System

Office 2013 includes many time-saving features and a clean, modern look across all your programs. While you will notice minor visual changes, commands and functions are in the same place as Office 2010.  To prepare for the upgrade, visit the lynda.com website and login via CAS to learn more about Office 2013 and what enhancements are available. You may also visit the Microsoft Office Training website to find featured tutorials on Office 2013 applications.

Prior to the upgrade, eligible participants will be sent an email with instructions to prepare for the upgrade. 

The Office 2013 package is expected to be available in the Software Library in June for those who support computers not managed by ITS and would like to upgrade.

(Submitted by Julie McEvoy, Project Manager, Campus Community Technologies)

The PaperCut print management system has been in use on the Yale campus for several years as a campus printing solution and more recently as a sustainability reporting tool.  As a sustainability initiative, PaperCut has provided positive results in reducing the amount of paper used on campus.

However, recent focus groups and surveys have raised some opportunities for improvement – both technical and non-technical. As a result, we have delayed the rollout to additional ITS locations to address current concerns. Continuous improvement of the service enables us to achieve even greater results while enhancing the overall user experience.

What are we doing?

• We are researching technical configuration changes to improve overall system response and performance
• We are updating current websites, documentation, instructions, and FAQs
• We are creating a user group for PaperCut users

Why are we delaying the rollout of PaperCut?

• Address service improvement opportunities
• Improve user experience
• Prepare for service upgrade and expansion

What can you expect over the next couple of months?

• Updates to the Yale ITS and YPPS websites, service instructions, as well as updates to Knowledge base articles in Service Now
• PaperCut user group meetings designed to uncover issues, share solutions, and leverage best practices across the user community
• Updates to reports and how to use them

There are many aspects to the PaperCut improvement initiative, so please stay tuned for more communications and details.  Please contact Julie McEvoy or Heidi Werth with questions.

We appreciate your support of this very important initiative.

(Submitted by Josh Nabozny, Identity and Access Management, Program Director, and Liz Burnell, Identity and Access Management, Director & Functional Owner for the Division of Finance)

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) program would like to provide an update on recent accomplishments and upcoming initiatives and direction.  If you are new to following the IAM program or looking to increase your knowledge, please refer to the IAM website.

Recent Accomplishments

Two releases of the IAM infrastructure took place in the last two months. The first release introduced Sailpoint Solutions’ Identity IQ product as the new provisioning engine of our IAM platform. Specifically, IIQ is the generator of NetIDs, rather than Oracle Identity Manager (OIM).  Provisioning is the process of granting permissions to, and providing lifecycle management, for access to technology resources, services and data. It ensures that creating Yale’s Identity information such as identities (accounts) and entitlements (permissions) is consistent and simple to administer.

In our second release, which took place on April 28, 2014, we turned our focus toward NetID Administration and the day-to-day management of Yale NetIDs and PINs. A value add for this release is a decrease in the amount of time needed to activate a NetID. A NetID can now be activated immediately rather than the 24 hours needed in the legacy environment. Details for these releases can be found in our IAM Executive Summaries.
 
We appreciate the support this effort received from core stakeholders engaged in NetAdmin administrative activities.  Thank you to Yale Shared Services (YSS), ITS Campus Technology Services, ITS Partners, Professional Schools, School of Management and the Law School.

What’s Next

Our next topics for Monday Morning News and other communication vehicles will be information regarding our upcoming Enterprise Directory release as well as expanded scope of single sign-on services to include Active Directory Federated Services. In addition, we plan to highlight the ongoing efforts of the IAM Role Governance initiative and the university’s support of this effort.

How to Stay Informed

For inquiries and questions about the IAM program, reach out to Kathleen Reilly, OCM-IAM Project Communications.   
 
The IAM Program Director is Josh Nabozny and the IAM Director (Functional Owner) for the Division of Finance is Elizabeth Burnell.

(Submitted by Bob Condon, Project Director, ITS)

A sense of accomplishment was evident at a recent celebration to recognize the shutdown of the email.med and Omega servers. A multi-dimensional team of ITS staff and IT Partners worked diligently to move almost 3,000 accounts from these servers over the last three years.

Shutting down this outdated infrastructure, (an aging HP Tru64 Cluster and an aging IBM ESS800 Storage Array) affords the university many benefits, the most important of which is enabling ITS to provide more reliable email service. The Omega server was shut down in March and email.med will be shut down on May 19.

'Tremendous Relief'

At the event, Bob Condon, project manager during the course of the project, thanked all involved for their hard work, perseverance and can-do attitude. Bob also read remarks from Susan Kelley, Chief Technology Officer, and executive sponsor for the email migration project, who was unable to attend. A few highlights from Susan’s remarks:

"The decommissioning of the 'med imap' email system and the websites I will call 'those that would not go away' is a truly significant milestone. This is a milestone with many facets, including:

• Reducing critical risk from running aging systems
• Reducing the work activities required to support these systems and the various hardware and software components they relied upon, freeing up staff time for more progressive pursuits
• Provided the opportunity to remove A LOT of equipment from our ITS data centers, equipment that represented far more space, power consumption and maintenance expense than you likely ever imagined.

And of course most importantly you have provided our community with better capabilities

Email remains one of the most significant applications we support and with your persistence, skill, and focus thousands of faculty, staff and students now have improved functionality and more robust service.

Thank you.  All of you.  

Thanks to the project management and change management team for keeping this multi-year project moving (and financed!).

Thanks to all of the support providers who assisted with client questions and migrations.  Thanks especially for the patience you had to have to schedule around so many busy faculty!

And thanks to the technical staff who made the systems run (both old and new) with impressive reliability, who wrote and supported and tested the migration tools.

Tremendous teamwork, tremendous persistence, TREMENDOUS RELIEF!!! Thanks for a job well done."

Looking Ahead

The next milestone is decommissioning the Pantheon server; we are currently in the final stages of migrating or closing all legacy email accounts.

For questions regarding email migrations, please feel free to reach out to David Logie, Project Manager at david.logie@yale.edu or 203-436-9814.

(Submitted by Chloe Kennedy Turnbull, ITSM Program Lead)

During the IT Service Management feedback sessions, we heard that many of you would like more training and assistance with ServiceNow and the related ITIL processes.

Earlier this year we created an eLearning page on our IT Service Management site, which contains newly revised videos and quick guides. Currently, we are in the process of redesigning the ServiceNow Navigation, Incident and Request course. Problem and Change courses will be updated next.

To further augment these training materials and updated courses we will hold weekly office hours starting Thursday, June 5. Members of the ITSM team will be available during this time to answer questions about the ITSM program, ITIL processes and ServiceNow.

• Having trouble entering some tickets into ServiceNow? Bring examples and one of us will walk you through!
• Have some questions about how the ITIL processes can be better implemented within your workgroup? Come see us!
• Want to work with an ITSM team member to streamline your group’s use of ServiceNow? We can help!

Drop in any time during office hours or make an appointment with a team member and give us some advance notice about what you’d like to discuss so that we prepare to answer your questions. Come visit us and get some help with IT Service Management or just drop in to say hi and see what others are asking about.

ITSM Office Hours
Thursdays, 10:00 - noon
25 Science Park, Room 446

We Want Your Tips!

Has your team done something awesome in the IT Service Management area? Do you have any ideas for an ITSM/ServiceNow tip of the week? Email Chloe Turnbull. If your suggestion is published, you’ll get a prize.

(Submitted by Ed Frey, Director, Vendor Management)

In order to improve our customer service and tracking, Vendor Management asks that all requests for our services, including software, hardware, services, and maintenance renewals, be submitted as Internal ITS Requests in ServiceNow.

All ITS staff should use the Internal ITS Request form. Those outside ITS who do not have access to ServiceNow, or have an inquiry that is not a service request, may contact the Vendor Management team at itsvm@yale.edu.

How to Make a Request

From the home page in ServiceNow select Create a New Request.

Select the Other categories as shown below, assign the ticket to OCIO Vendor Management, and click Order Now.

Please be as detailed as possible and attach any documentation related to the request. 

This process will help Vendor Management distribute our workload and will give you the ability to check on requests to find out who is acting on the request and what progress has been noted.  When the request is complete, you will receive system notification that the request has been closed.

We understand that not all requests can be distilled down to a simple submission, but anything that might have been done via email in the past should now be submitted as a ServiceNow request.

(Submitted by Chloe Turnbull, Project Lead, IT Service Management)

In order to support the recent organizational changes in ITS we will be making some changes this afternoon (Monday, June 9) to the assignment unit names in ServiceNow.

Please note: The organizational changes made to the SSG groups were done on an interim basis so these groups may change again.

The core names of the assignment units have not changed, only the prefix associating them with their (some interim) ITS organization. These changes will not affect templates or reporting, provided people have selected assignment unit names from drop downs/pick lists. People who have created templates or reports by hard-coding group names or patterns may need to update such queries.

Anyone needing assistance with template or report changes can request help from our team by filling out a Service Request and assigning it to "CCT Service Management.

Please see the grid below for a list of assignment unit name changes.

We Want Your Tips!

Has your team done something awesome in the IT Service Management area? Do you have any ideas for an ITSM/ServiceNow tip of the week? Email Chloe Turnbull. If your suggestion is published, you’ll get a prize.

(Submitted by Joyce Lush, Client Team Lead, Research Enterprise)

Congratulations to the RE13 Proposal Development team on its recent successful release to production!

Proposal Development (aka PD) is technology used by research support staff, business offices, and sometimes the investigators themselves, to create and submit proposals to external agencies that fund research. PD’s strengths include development of the proposal budget and providing a single-source of data about the proposal for the investigator, their business office, Yale’s central organizations, and the external agency.

Next steps for the team are a pilot with a limited number of investigators and implementing "system-2-system" integration of PD with Grants.gov for submission of proposals.

A Collaborative Effort

Many people contributed to the success of this effort. Project team members include Jen Pavelec, Bob Davis, Jessica Hammatt, Kirsten Daly, Jozsef Megyola, Mike York, Adi MacCalmon, David Tubis, Sandi Vitale, Betsy Rolfe, Ramesh Gade, Peter O’Connell, Erin Totz, Arvind Mehta, Vinny LaBonia, Dan Franko, Jerry Rezendes, Cynthia Kane, Sonja Beamon Rezendes, Tracy Coston, Cheryl Magoveny, and Laura Kozma.

Among the many other ITS contributors are Roger Kennedy, Joyce Lush, Paul DiBello, Karen Polhemus, Faith Brown, Jason Shuff, Mike Paquette, Amit Poddar, Erik Klingaman, Linda Wilson, Soren Sonson, Kathleen Broderick, Dan O’Connell, Ken Hoover, and Cheryl Boeher. 

(Submitted by Kim Miller, Director, Project Management Office)

As previously announced, the Time and Attendance (TAA) application will be replaced in July with the Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) tool.  We are getting closer to launching this enhanced tool which will provide real-time comprehensive views of data enabling more informed choices about how to effectively utilize ITS resources.  It will also provide an improved user interface to make time reporting easier and more intuitive.

What have we accomplished?

• We have reached out to many colleagues across our IT community for input focused specifically on defining the dimensions of time reporting as well as feedback on the user interface.
• We have completed the business requirements documentation.
• We have built the application and interfaces.
• We have begun to test the application and interfaces.
• We have begun to populate the tool with the data that will enable effort reporting.

Why are we doing it?

• Leverage one tool for managing the ITS portfolio of projects
• Provide a real-time consolidated view of all ITS planned versus actual effort, which will inform and enable decisions on how to utilize our resources most effectively
• Eliminate the need for a separate time-tracking application
• Track the cost of our services and monitor progress toward our goal of reducing RTS to 80 percent

What can you expect over the next couple of weeks?

• Training materials will be made available the last week in June. Beginning the week of July 7 all ITS teams will be trained in how to report their time in the PPM Tool. We are working directly with Portfolio Managers to establish the training schedule for each team.
• We will be sending out TMS Registration information in the near future; once you receive the TMS link, please be sure to register for training.
• Beginning July 1, 2014, all staff and consultants in ITS will be required to report their time in the new PPM Tool.

As we get closer to launch, stay tuned for more communications as project details, training, and support plans are defined. Please contact Kim Miller, Heidi Werth, or your Portfolio Manager with any questions.

We appreciate your support of this very important initiative.

(Submitted by Lynn Van Sweden, Project Manager, Campus Community Technologies)

Congratulations to the FileNet project team on its recent successful release to production on Monday, June 9, 2014. FileNet is among the early adopters of cloud-based, client-facing applications used at Yale.

FileNet is an enterprise content management software platform that has the ability to capture, store, manage versions, categorize, edit, and retrieve critical business documents in a controlled and secure environment. The FileNet functionality remains the same but features increased security and a new interface with an updated look and feel.  The cloud version also offers capabilities such as drag and drop, the My Scans template and browse functionality.

Six Million Documents

The Filenet migration moved 620 users, almost six million documents, existing metadata, workflows, and database lookups to a cloud solution known as Knowledge Capture (KC) Online. Features include integration with webMethods and Microsoft Office, storage level encryption, and single sign-on with our Central Authentication Service (CAS).

Many people contributed to the success of this effort. Project team members include Kazi Ahmed, Wendy Battles, Kevin Brigham, Mike Dunlap, Liz Famodimu, Tony Fappiano, Camden Fisher, Dan Franko, Stephanie Lango, Amit Poddar, Moleek Saxton, and Lynn Van Sweden.  Jeff Campbell, Linda Faust, and Jane Livingston, our executive stakeholders, provided continuous support and encouragement as we moved forward.

Thank you to other folks in ITS who provided expertise during the course of the project: Marcus Aden, Igor Budyansky, John Coleman, Ed Frey, Howard Gilbert, Susan Kelley, Jane Livingston, and Kevin Quiqley. Harold Rose in the Office of General Counsel also provided important insights and assistance.

Thank You to Users

We could not have deployed successfully without our collaboration with current FileNet users during requirements gathering, User Acceptance Testing, and controlled production testing over the weekend of June 7-8. During last weekend’s beautiful weather, our loyal users ensured they could scan and store documents as well as complete other FileNet tasks, sending sign off to project manager Lynn Van Sweden.

Finally, a big thank you to our implementation partner, Integritie, a UK-based organization, which despite different time zones and many evening meetings on their part, helped us to deliver the project on time and under budget.

Thanks to the wonderful FileNet testers in numerous Yale departments, sign off was achieved by 2:38 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, several hours earlier than expected.

The InfoEd and Yale IRES project teams are celebrating the successful upgrade of the IRES application.

(Submitted by Joyce Lush, Director Research Enterprise IT)

The Integrated Research Enterprise Solution (IRES) has been upgraded! This is wonderful news because Yale is now running vendor InfoEd’s standard code, and no longer running Yale-specific code. This means that InfoEd will be able to address issues more easily, and both Yale and InfoEd will be able to spend less time keeping IRES running and more time improving it.

Yale and InfoEd worked together to make key enhancements to the Proposal Development (PD) module prior to rollout of PD at Yale in 2012-2013.  While the enhancements are terrific, the process left Yale running our own unique InfoEd code, and this has been challenging to support. For example, InfoEd had to do special Yale development work for the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) 2013 Forms-C enhancement, and it was ready for testing just a few days before it rolled out (too close for me!).

Yale and InfoEd got together over a year ago to discuss how to address our mutual concern around support of the Yale-specific code. InfoEd already began working on incorporating the PD enhancements into their standard code, and Yale agreed to upgrade to this standard code. It took a long time and a lot of work, but InfoEd version 14 went live at Yale on Monday, April 28, 2014. While there have been some bumps along the road, this was the smoothest InfoEd upgrade ever at Yale and it fixed 79 production defects.

The teams (both Yale and InfoEd) deserve hearty congratulations. The Office of Research Administration / Grants & Contracts Administration team includes Jessica Hammatt, Sandi Vitale, Jerry Rezendes, Laura Kozma, Stephanie Marazzi, Cynthia Kane, Tony Velezis, and Tracy Coston.   The ITS team includes Jozsef Megyola, Ramesh Gade, Stacey Schindler, Mike Paquette, Jyoti Agrawal, Arvind Mehta, Vinny LaBonia, Bob Wolfe, Michelle Cipriano, Dan Franko, Betsy Rolfe, and Joyce Lush.  The InfoEd team includes Jake Green, Erin Driscoll, Wes Hazen, Justin Glass, Caitlin Sheil, and Nacole Simonds.

(Submitted by Mark Kovacs, Director, ITS Help Desk)

On Monday, June 16, the ITS Help Desk successfully implemented a cloud-based solution for automated call distribution (ACD), 8x8. The 8x8 ACD is a virtual contact center (VCC), which works in conjunction with voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone service and a softphone application. This new ACD system provides the ITS Help Desk with multiple benefits, including:

• The flexibility to allow off-site work
• Multi-channel management (queues for incoming calls and voicemail)
• Call recording and monitoring
• The ability to integrate with ServiceNow (coming soon)
• The ability to add IVR (Interactive Voice Response)options that can automate interactions with clients (coming soon)
• Web Callback, an API that can allow forms to be integrated with our website to have clients request a callback (coming soon)

Transition planning was a collaborative effort among several ITS groups. The 8x8 Transition Support Team included:

• James Rawlins, Associate Director, Strategy, Planning, & Service Improvement 
• Mark Kovacs, Director, ITS Help Desk
• Cynthia Welsh, Assistant Manager, ITS Help Desk
• Jack Medoff, Manager, Switching and Transmission Engineering
• Jo-Ann Dziuba, Switching and Transmission Software Engineer
• David Galassi, Director, ITS Network Services
• ITS Help Desk Team

(Submitted by Julie McEvoy, Project Manager, Campus Community Technologies)

The ITS PaperCut print management system team has been working diligently over the past few months to address issues with the services that were identified in focus groups. We have made several improvements and will continue working to enhance the user experience at Yale in the coming months through additional endeavors.  

What has been accomplished:

• We have confirmed that the print server network, CPU, RAM and disk usage have adequate and appropriate capacity for usage.
• A review of the print server environment with Infrastructure, Architecture, and PaperCut showed no glaring issues. 
• Testing confirmed a defect of "lost" print jobs connected to LPR print protocol. Instructions on moving from LPR protocol to SMB protocol are being written, which will correct the defect.
• Testing found a Microsoft Windows defect causing print queues to go offline. We have reached out to Microsoft and have been provided with a private patch to fix the issue. Official release is expected in August.
• A site visit to School of Management showed that a problem printer had incorrect settings on the physical device causing extremely slow printing. The device was reset resulting in improved print speed.
• A review of the ITS Service Page showed inconsistencies and gaps in information. The ITS Printing Service and How To pages on the ITS website have been reworked to provide updated information in a user friendly format. The Yale Printing & Publishing Services (YPPS) website has also been revised. Both websites are now in alignment. This will make information easier to find.
• A review of the Knowledge Base revealed incomplete and now outdated information.  All KB articles have been reviewed and revised.

What you can expect:

• Implementation of a patch on all Microsoft Windows 8.0 and 8.1 machines is planned for August.
• Upgrade of PaperCut to version 14.2 will be implemented this summer.
• A user group meeting will be held in July. Stay tuned for details.

Please continue to attend focus groups and submit issues to the Help Desk so that we can stay ahead of any problems that may arise. Please contact Julie McEvoy or Heidi Werth with questions.

We appreciate your support of this very important initiative.

Once home to more than 300 servers and storage devices, the Becton Data Center awaits a new life, potentially as a learning space.

(Submitted by Lou Tiseo, Director, Data Center Services)

In July 2013, ITS began the final stages of a two-year project to consolidate and remove one of its oldest data centers in FY14, the Becton Data Center. The decision to remove this center was simple, due to aging cooling and electrical systems that would require a $2.5 million capital investment, and demand moving to our virtualization platform. Overall savings on an annual basis for ITS and the University is $65,000 for envirionmental maintenance and another $100,000 for power and cooling usage.

The Becton Data Center was occupied by ITS initially in 1978 as an alternate site for a handful of applications located in another data center on central campus that was decommissioned in 2008. Over time, the Becton Data Center became the home of a fully functional center for ITS and IT Partners with more than 300 servers and storage devices servicing many applications for administration, academic, and research computing. Located next to the Watson building, the data center hosted many tours for students as well.

A project of this size required coordination of staff resources not only from each organization in ITS, but resources from IT partners who hosted their systems in Becton. Infrastructure Services inventoried and analyzed each system to determine its disposition to align with one of three phases: consolidation to another system, migration to virtualization or external service, or a final move event to other data centers for any remaining systems. Any moves or migrations were done with very minimal downtime and were coordinated with our clients and users.

As for the future of this space, ITS has handed it back to the Office of the Provost to use for future expansion of engineering labs.

With a focus on cost, efficiency, and sustainability, the Becton Data Center decommissioning project is another step in ensuring ITS is meeting the proper demand requirements for the present and future of delivering world-class services.

I would like to thank all the individuals that contributed to this project and helped move us to a successful completion on schedule.

(Submitted by Ashley Eng, Director, Information Assurance & Compliance Information Security, Policy and Compliance)

Beginning on July 7, 2014, Information Security, Policy, and Compliance (ISPC) will significantly improve how it conducts risk assessments, including HIPAA Compliance Assessments and Security Design Reviews (SDRs). System owners requesting an assessment will be asked to designate one or more Yale employees as official contacts for each application assessment.

These Risk Assessment Contacts will be given access to an Assessment Portal. The portal will allow a Risk Assessment Contact to:

• Find the name of the Compliance Officer assigned to your assessment— the person you can contact with any questions or concerns about the assessment
• Enter the “System Facts” for the system (previously collected through Qualtrics)
• View documents ISPC has collected related to the assessment
• View network vulnerability scan results collected for the assessment
• View assessment completion progress

Once the assessment is completed, review the assessment outcome and any findings (identified risks in the application or how it is administered) found through the assessment process.

As always, ISPC will work with you to create a remediation plan to address the risks identified in the findings.

Overall, system owners will have direct and real-time access to the progress and results of their assessments.

Questions? Please contact Ashley Eng.