Welcome to the Office of theChief Information Officer
Updates
05/25/2013
Office 365 - The move from AEMS to Office 365 will be complete by the end of July.
04/25/2013
Network Ops - Updates have been made to the Network Operations Manual to include a goal of ubiquitous wireless access on campus, in support of the mobile strategy.
03/15/2013
New Policy - The Internet Domain Name and Address Policy was unanimously approved by the committee.
02/08/2013
Identity Management - AIC endorsed the Identity Management roadmap model and the creation of an official committee for permanent committee to govern identity management at the University of Texas at Austin.
12/20/2012
Office 365 - AIC unanimously endorsed the charter for the Office 365 task force.
11/15/2012
Inventory Policy Endorsement - AIC endorsed new inventory policies that will allow for better tracking and encryption of electronic devices.
10/01/2012
AIC Priorities - AIC will focus on the wireless network, architecture for open systems, and the web environment as three of their top priorities for the academic year.
08/29/2012
The University of Texas thanks AIC Committee members for their excellent service to our University and welcomes our new members. We are looking forward to a great year in IT at UT.
08/08/2012
Qualtrics - AIC endorsed the exploration of Qualtrics as a new survey tool available to campus.
05/29/2012
Box.net - AIC endorsed pursuing a contract with Box.net to provide cloud file sharing services to campus.
04/16/2012
Laptop Encryption - 93% of UT laptops are currently encrypted.
03/12/2012
Box.net - UT will engage in a pilot of Internet 2 or Box.net.
02/28/2012
Cloud File Sharing Task Force - The Charter for the Cloud File Sharing Task Force has been developed and the search is on for task force members.
02/06/2012
Wireless Trends - The UT campus saw a 47 percent increase in wireless connect hours and a 22 percent increase in number of devices from last fall.
12/13/2011
Intersession Outages - The intersession outage schedule for campus has been developed and approved. Contact ITS for details.
11/22/2011
Data Storage - User acceptance tests of the new data storage software will be complete in December and full launch is expected in the spring.
11/11/2011
BYOD - In recognition that campus users bring their own devices to campus and that each of these devices requires security, AIC members have developed a series of device security briefs for campus. These briefs will appear throughout the ITS website.
10/27/2011
zOS - An upgrade of the University mainframe took place this year on October 2. All systems were tested post-update and deemed operational. The upgrade was a complete success.
10/27/2011
UT Backup Project - Based on positive results of the pilot, Crashplan licenses and storage appliances have been purchased to safeguard data security and integrity at UT. UTBackup was selected as the name for the implementation of the new service.
10/27/2011
Laptop Encryption - In accordance with UT Systems policy, all campus laptops are expected to be encrypted by December 2011.
10/21/2011
Student Printing - At the request of students, ITS will phase into the labs the use of the double-sided printing option as the default printing option for printers.
08/23/2011
vDesk, Phase 3 – AIC voted unanimously to approve the charter for Phase 3 which will focus on determining the cost effectiveness of offering vDesk as a service to campus.
08/23/2011
VoIP – Recommendations from the task force will be presented to the Executive Committee for endorsement so that a final decision can be reached during the fall 2011 semester.
08/23/2011
University Data Center – The final migration of equipment took place on Sunday, August 7, 2011. The almost year-long process included nine significant moves and over 850 pieces of gear.
08/23/2011
Course and Learning Management Evaluation – Responses from the final two vendors (Blackboard and Instructure) are being reviewed.
08/23/2011
Desktop Back-up Tool – The project plan and cost estimate for CrashPlan are pending with the final cost estimate being worked out by Purchasing.
08/23/2011
Cloud Services Task Force – The charter was approved by the Operational IT Committee. Next steps are to break into working groups and oversee the roll out to campus.
08/23/2011
ITS Applications Customer Service Survey –There were 89 responses, including 3 governance groups, out of 123 surveys distributed. The survey findings support that the team is focused on campus priorities. Details will be available after the presentation to senior management on Monday, August 15.
08/23/2011
Administrative Systems Master Plan (ASMP) – The ASMP now has a blog where progress, decisions and feedback are posted on a weekly basis. The plan is expected to be available by mid-October 2011.
07/15/2011
Enterprise Whole Disk Encryption – There was a 44% increase in the use of SecureDoc encryption in June. 25-30% of all university-owned laptops are now encrypted. The date for compliance with the laptop encryption policy has been extended until 12/31/2011.
07/15/2011
Desktop Back-up Tool – 15 units on campus are currently engaged in a pilot of CrashPlan. Five other UT campuses are also testing CrashPlan. A detailed project plan and cost estimate for launching the service to campus will be presented at the August AIC meeting.
07/15/2011
Central Data Storage – UT accepted a bid to provide more than a petabyte of data storage to campus. Rates are in review and a fall 2011 implementation is expected.
07/15/2011
ITS Applications Customer Service Survey – A survey to determine customer priorities and rank those priorities on all ITS Applications’ services is being conducted. Responses from individuals, IT governance committees and other service stakeholders are due by the end of the month.
07/15/2011
Administrative Systems Master Plan (ASMP) – Deloitte was chosen as the contract vendor for the ASMP. All groups and subgroups will continue to meet through September. The plan is expected to be ready in the fall 2011 semester.
06/17/2011
Virtual Desktops (vDesk) for Computer Labs on Campus - The vDesk Phase 3 meeting has been rescheduled for July 14, 2011.
06/17/2011
UTmail - A total of 24, 700 UTmail student accounts have been created since the launch in mid-April. The project team has begun meeting in preparation for the planned roll out of UTMail for alumni later this summer. Key stakeholders for the project met on June 15, 2011 for a briefing and to discuss communication and support needs prior to and during the roll out. The next project team meeting will be in mid-July.
06/17/2011
Enterprise Whole Disk Encryption - An open meeting for campus-wide IT staff was scheduled on Friday, June 17, 2011 to discuss an incident related to the Secure Doc implementation. Despite the incident, about 30% of University owned laptops are now encrypted.
06/17/2011
Central Data Storage - The project steering committee met on Tuesday, June 14, 2011. The next steering committee meeting is scheduled for July 26, 2011.
06/17/2011
Course and Learning Management Evaluation - Four additional focus groups were conducted the week of June 13-17, 2011. All usability testing for the evaluation phase of the project is now complete. All data gathered to-date was presented to the project steering committee at their meeting on June 17, 2011.
06/03/2011
University Data Center - University Operations’ TRecs machines moved Saturday morning and were working by early afternoon thanks to TRecs technical staff. Since October, 650 machines have been moved and 300 new machines have been installed with very few incidents or unplanned service losses.
06/03/2011
Course and Learning Management Evaluation - Testing in Usability Labs continues through June 17, with volunteers from a broad cross-section of campus participating. About 70 students, faculty and staff testers are exploring the new LMS options and providing in-depth feedback.
06/03/2011
Exchange 2010 Migration - Later this month, ITS will begin upgrading the Austin Exchange Mail Service (AEMS) to Exchange 2010. The upgrade includes new hardware that will greatly improve the speed of the service, a more intuitive web interface and 2 GB of mailbox storage for faculty and staff at no additional cost. Anyone interested in learning more about this upgrade and seeing a brief demo of the new web interface is encouraged to attend an FYI next Tuesday, June 7, 2011 from 10:00 -11:00 a.m. in ACES Avaya Auditorium.
05/27/2011
The Data Storage Request for Proposal (RFP) review team continues to review vendor responses.
05/27/2011
The CASA project charter has been approved, moving the project into the implementation phase.
04/20/2011
SecureDoc implementation continues. A message from the Provost and CFO was sent this week to all faculty and staff noting the laptop encryption requirement.
03/07/2011
Enterprise Whole Disk Encryption - SecureDoc deployment is in full swing and ITS is currently working to install it on all of its Mac laptops. There are two SecureDoc technical sessions for TSCs this week - visit TXClass and sign up for TX700.
03/07/2011
CASA - The project team is developing the charter for implementing the recommendations that CASA produced and were endorsed by OIT.
02/24/2011
vDesk - The steering committee is working on the executive summary and closeout for Phase II.
02/24/2011
New Data Center for the University - ITS is focusing on the 'phase 5.5' move on March 12. This is the last big move, involving about 125 devices, a combination of ITS and customer devices.
02/24/2011
Central Data Storage - The project team is currently making revisions to the Storage Platform Request for Proposals (RFP) based on feedback from the project steering committee.
02/11/2011
AIC endorses the Network Operations Manual in their February meeting. Next steps are to work with the remaining governance committees for final endorsement in July.