Project Archive
This page lists projects that have been completed. In some cases, projects resulted in new services.
| Project | Description/Outcome | Completion Date | Attachments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 802.11n Support | Purchase necessary support equipment to test and begin offering support for draft 802.11n v2.0 on campus. Additional funds will be needed in the future for monitors/analyzers. | December 15, 2007 | |
| 802.1x -- Wireless | Transition campus wireless users to 802.1X authentication from web-redirect (restricted.utexas.edu). Non-campus users will continue to utilize web-redirect (guest.utexas.edu). This is more secure, supportable, and scalable technology. Development/Capital | September 18, 2007 | |
| Abra TED servers | Additional servers for TED scaling | August 31, 2007 | |
| Adabas SQL Gateway | Enable SQL queries of the Adabas database on the mainframe. | February 29, 2008 | |
| Antivirus Migration | This project has been created to assist campus to migrate from Symantec Antivirus & Firewall products to Microsoft Forefront and ClamXav products for Windows and Mac clients. The project is sponsored by Terry Tatum in ITS. | September 25, 2009 | |
| Application Registry | Build a framework for registering campus applications. This will allow us to track their compliance with several audit and security practices. | April 7, 2007 | |
| applytexas server refresh | One applytexas server is coming to end of life and needs to be replaced with a new Sun T2000. | June 30, 2008 | |
| AppScan Enterprise Implementation | This project is the implementation of Appscan Enterprise software on campus (an upgrade from the current SecurityXM software), which will enable improved application security scanning. This is a project that we have already committed to but it was delayed to late August or early September because it is dependent on SQL Server 2005 and also requires professional services from Watchfire. | October 30, 2007 | |
| Austin Exchange 2007 Upgrade | This project involves the upgrade of Exchange from version 2003 to 2007. | June 30, 2008 |  |
| Backup data storage expansion | Tivoli, Oracle RMAN, and Network Appliance SnapVault backups for ITS and departmental contracts all reside on a large nearstore device which is nearing capacity. | February 12, 2008 | |
| Bandwidth Awareness Tools | A collection of tools to increase awareness of bandwidth consumption: 1) Bandwidth notification tools which enable user to configure thresholds for automatic notification to more intelligently manage their bandwidth and potentially avoid 2nd class status (email, IM, SMS?). Linked to various login and contact information databases (eventually including NETcontacts). Default configuration to notify user's official email which they may disable at web site if they do not wish it. Phase 1 public networks. Phase 2 (uncommitted) includes department networks. 2) Pilot an XML interface for student projects to create their own tools to view their bandwidth consumption. | March 30, 2009 | |
| Blackboard Dev/Test Infrastructure | This project will focus on implementing a development and testing environment for the Blackboard service. | September 30, 2008 | |
| Blackboard storage hardware additions | This is additional storage for the Blackboard service plus a secondary fiber card and replacement of aging disk shelf controller modules. | January 31, 2008 | |
| Blackboard Upgrade | Blackboard upgrade to version 7.2 | July 1, 2007 | |
| Blog Pilot Program | A pilot program to begin building a blog service for campus that can support blogs for faculty, staff and students. This project has received 1 Virtual Machine (VM) for Production Blogs and 2 VMs for Test. The initial number of blogs will be limited by these VMs. We anticipate being able to support 3000 with this current hardware. The system will be EID authenticated. The previous pilot solutions did not scale to thousands of users and hundreds of instances. This project would acquire both the hardware and software needed to implement the first phase of such a solution for campus. | April 6, 2009 | |
| Border Quarantine Disables | Change procedures/software to quarantine hosts. | December 1, 2008 | |
| C.A.P. Web Initiative | Cold Fusion, ASO, and PHP | August 31, 2007 | |
| Campus Storage - Phase 1 | Develop recommendations for storage solutions involving Cat I data as well as longer term data center storage vision. | September 1, 2007 | |
| Core Wireless Upgrade | Replace existing end-of-lifed wireless core equipment (WLSM), with new vendor acquisition (WiSM). Requires re-development of all wireless business software/processes. And modification of all operations software/procedures. Lifetime of two years expected. Capital/Development | December 31, 2007 | |
| Daylight Saving Time | This project will research the impact of changes to the timing of Daylight Saving Time (DST). This change affects many operating systems and applications that interact with dates and time. The project will include the technical research as well as the development of appropriate communications to the user community. | March 30, 2007 | |
| Digital Certificates Implementation (Managed PKI) | A managed public key infrastructure based on dual-key VeriSign certificates that enable certificate-based encryption and signing functionality for faculty and staff. Students may be included at a later time, but it's not within the scope of this project. | April 1, 2008 | |
| Distributed Antenna System (DAS) | Establish unified cellular coverage for the UT campus. | February 28, 2009 | |
| Distributed Vulnerability Scanning Services | GOAL: Provide a tool to the campus TSCs, allowing them to conduct credentialed vulnerability scans on their systems whenever they like. The ISO will still conduct vulnerability scans as usual, but providing a distributed, credentialed scanning option will help reduce false positives and will provide a need real-time vulnerability scanning service. | July 1, 2008 | |
| ESX RAM Upgrade | Purchasing RAM upgrades for the ESX servers in one of the data centers would effectively increase their capacity by 50-75% while only costing ~32% of the original cost the servers. $11K to upgrade both servers in data center to 32GB of RAM. | October 31, 2007 | |
| Eudora Migration | Develop planning and communication around the move of Eudora from a vendor-supported product to an future open source offering. Information Technology Services (ITS) staff will monitor the move of Eudora to the open source software model and what this means to end-users. Because the university's contract for a licensed, supported version of Eudora expired on April 30, 2007, end users and system administrators may choose to consider alternatives to using Eudora as a primary e-mail program. | May 31, 2007 | |
| Extended Warranty for CX500 | The CX500 warranty ends February 2008. We need to purchase extended warranty. | January 31, 2008 | |
| FAC Wireless Upgrade | Upgrade 4 year-old wireless system in FAC to better handle heavy loads. | June 13, 2008 | |
| Fiber Diversity | Create geographically diverse fiber paths from the fiber concentration points to two NOCs. | May 29, 2009 | |
| Filer Refresh and Consolidation Project | Update of older, underperforming units and consolidation of Reasons for project: Netapp filers for increase management, flexibility, and reduce maintenance cost. This would also help us achieve CAT I compliance for filer infrastructure. Deploy clustered V3170 heads with attached storage. This option would offer the storage and expansion options necessary to support Oracle, Webspace, Web Central, and Blackboard. This option also includes the hardware necessary to connect to WES SAN resources. Only enough disk for Oracle, Webspace, and Web Central would be purchased in 2008/2009. More disk would need to be purchased in 2009/2010 to accommodate Blackboard, and anticipated growth in the Oracle service. This option involves the purchase of (2) V3170 clustered filer heads and (3) drive shelves populated with 300GB drives (for roughly 7TB of useable storage). 5 TB of high-performing disk and 17TB of existing SATA storage will be migrated to this hardware once purchased. Phase I implementation: Migration of Oracle as a Service and Webspace. January 2009 to March 2009. Phase II implementation: Migration of Web Central. March 2009 to May 2009 Phase III implementation: Migration of Blackboard. January 2010 to March 2010 Dependencies: Downtimes for involved services. Purchase of additional disk as services migrated. Resource Commitments: Unix Group FTE (200 hours), AS Blackboard Resource (20 hours) | May 30, 2009 | |
| Help Desk - Hard Drive Destruction Process | Process to regularly destroy hard drives. Complete programming of the Remedy Form for the process, train help desk. | October 31, 2007 | |
| Help Desk - Remote Assistance Application | An application that allows end users to request remote assistance, granting the Help Desk access to their system. An example of a potential solution would be the Bomgar product, http://www.bomgar.com or WebEx. The quote is based on the Bomgar appliance which could be installed either in the data center, or in our rack in FAC. | November 16, 2007 | |
| Help Desk - Wireless Headsets | Wireless Headsets for Help Desk Staff | September 28, 2007 | |
| Improve Capacity of ESX Infrastructure | Virtual servers are a service that is taking off in ITS. More and more testing, development and production services are being virtualized. This is a service that will be a key for ITS in the not too distant future. In order to meet the coming demand, we need to expand our current infrastructure. The VMware admins in the WES group propose adding 4 new ESX servers. Two would be added in one data center to bring the pool up to 4, and 2 would be added in other data center to replace the two 32-bit only machines currently running ESX. They would be pooled with the incoming Remedy virtual hosts bringing the number to 4 as well. | October 31, 2007 | |
| innoWake natclipse Pilot | innoWake is the author and publisher of natclipse, an Eclipse plugin that provides an integrated development environment for the NATURAL programming language. This pilot will determine if natclipse is compatible with the current, mainframe-based NATURAL development and runtime environments, does not introduce security vulnerabilities, is production-release quality, and receives a favorable endorsement from the developers who evaluate it. | November 30, 2007 | |
| IPSec in Austin Domain | Test and implement IPSec in the Austin Domain | November 30, 2007 | |
| ISORA - Phase I (preparing for roll-out) | ISO Risk Assessment tools | April 9, 2007 | |
| ITRC Retirement | We need to migrate the remaining content within ITRC to the new ITS Web site and retire the ITRC site. | December 20, 2007 | |
| ITS computer life cycle refresh | Ongoing life cycle tech refresh of ITS computers and laptops | May 31, 2007 | |
| ITS Printing Service - Phase 1 | Replace the old Print Relay System with the Uniprint software from Pharos, including integration with existing assets and processes. Phase I is focusing on functional replacement of the PRS capability, | May 7, 2007 | |
| ITS Printing Service - Phase 2 | Provide a means for subsidized student printing for departments. | October 1, 2007 | |
| ITS Web site redesign - Phase 1 | Design and implement a new ITS Web site | September 7, 2007 | |
| JwebAgent | Java implementation of webAgent - already developed now testing and rollout | December 31, 2007 | |
| Kuali Enterprise Workflow Investigation | This project is an active investigation of the open-source Kuali Enterprise Workflow system and supporting elements of the Kuali ERP "Rice" infrastructure. As an investigation, this project will address the following criteria: 1. It will assess and demonstrate the feasibility of implementing Kuali core services (workflow, service bus, notifications) using ITS systems infrastructure on a small scale. 2. It will provide an initial assessment of Kuali's compatibility with the technical and business foundations of the UT ERP, with specific testing of points of integration with UT's mainframe, WebAgent and Java systems architectures, workflow management systems and processes, and general ERP business rules. 3. Finally, it will prepare for a proof-of-concept pilot of the Kuali core services, defining the requirements and specifications for production adoption should feasibility, integration and ERP reinvestment plans call for that work. The precise scope of the project in terms of precisely which Kuali elements should be implemented at first and how much enterprise proof-of-concept work should be done (for example, creating a mock-up functional app to feed documents to the workflow system) will be defined in the initial phases of this project. | May 16, 2008 | |
| Lansa Phase III | Produce a production-quality application hosting environment and a plan for continued management and rapid adoption of new technologies. Include a plan for the division of labor between ITS-Applications and ITS-Systems. | April 15, 2009 | |
| Mailing List Service | This project will upgrade the previous ITS mailing list service with an improved service including a Web interface to subscribe, create, and manage mailing lists and several different language options for the user interface. | August 31, 2007 | |
| Mainframe encrypted transmission options | Development of additional encrypted transmission options for mainframe datasets - sftp, s-tunnel, IPSec | August 1, 2007 | |
| Mainframe Green Output | Enhance secure non-printed mainframe output options. This includes enhancements to current offerings as well as new features. | April 18, 2008 | |
| Managed PKI (Pilot) | A managed public key infrastructure based on dual-key VeriSign certificates that enable certificate-based encryption and signing functionality for faculty, staff, and students | May 1, 2007 | |
| Medium Building Gateway Spare | We need lab and spare set equipment to support a new model of switch/routers introduced by Cisco. The old product will be discontinued. | June 13, 2008 | |
| Multi mode fiber restoration | Preventive maintenance plan is to replace all 528 old AT&T connectors (epoxy), with new connectors. | May 1, 2007 | |
| MySoft Mpower | MPower is another phase of the MySoft project. The MySoft tech team will work closely with Telecom and the Telecom business office to customize the MySoft application to better meet the needs of UT Austin. | March 19, 2008 | |
| MySQL replication partners for UMBS & Webmail databases | UMBS & Webmail backend databases are currently running on single machines. MySQL can be set up to replicate data to another server for failover purposes. | June 13, 2008 | |
| Netapp filer replacement | Replace Netapp F740 and F810 filers | September 1, 2007 | |
| Netview Replacement | The version of Netview we currently license is unsupported and is beginning to show interoperability issues with OS upgrades | September 30, 2007 | |
| Networking - PRC Upgrade | Add second core router for PRC network and upgrade second connection back to campus to 10G. Second 10G moved to DWDM project. | February 1, 2007 | |
| Networking - server upgrades | Server upgrades (Netflow, DHCP, DNS, RADIUS) | August 1, 2007 | |
| Oracle Grid Control | Deploy Oracle Grid Control to facilitate management of more Oracle installations within ITS. | March 15, 2008 | |
| Pandemic Flu Planning | One of the most dangerous risks to the university is that of a pandemic influenza attack and/or an infectious virus that strikes the university community. Most campus departments have completed, or are in the process of completing, their planning. We are not only behind in our planning, but many campus groups have made assumptions about what technology services will be available and have based their plans on these assumptions. We need to create an ITS pandemic flu plan for levels 0 - 5 of the flu stages and aggressively communicate this with campus so they can adjust their plans accordingly | April 30, 2008 | |
| Public Network Report 2008 | Pay consultant for a Spring '08 analysis of wireless usage on campus. | August 20, 2008 | |
| RACF Tools | Development of distributed RACF tools for management of users, passwords, groups allowing restricted access to datasets | August 31, 2007 | |
| Rack upgrade | Upgrade obsolete server racks in ITS data centers | October 31, 2007 | |
| Re-design of Active Directory | Redesign Active Directory infrastructure to accommodate new technology and address existing hardware warranty issues | December 1, 2007 | |
| Refresh storage hardware supporting utdirect & imaging | NetApps F840 hitting End of Hardware Support March 2008. We need to investigate either upgrading or re-architecting the current storage setup for these services. | July 31, 2008 | |
| Remedy - Phase 1 | Upgrade Remedy application from 6.3 to 7.0. Provide for all existing customized functionality in 7.0 that was developed for 6.3. | May 1, 2008 | |
| Replacement hardware for UNIX Oracle Services | Replace db.cc.utexas.edu single V880 with two T2000 servers. | March 31, 2009 | |
| SafeBoot Service | The protection of data assets has become more critical due to the release of SPB-1. SafeBootŪ Device Encryption? is a scalable, enterprise-wide security solution that uses access control and encryption to prevent unauthorized access to or use of PCs, laptops, and tablet PCs, as well as data on their hard disk storage devices. This project would be focused on implementing SafeBoot as a central service to the university. | May 30, 2008 | |
| Second SAN | Installation of a second SAN, migration of some services, and reconfiguration of backups. | August 1, 2007 | |
| Splunk Log Collection and Data-mining | This product essentially offers us the equivalent of a Google search engine for all of the wonderful logs we generate.. With Splunk, we can automate actions and notices (e.g., drive failed, incident occurring), can troubleshoot issues faster, can provide Operators and Help Desk staffers with valuable information in real-time (reducing escalation needs), can save many man-hours in log retrieval for ISO requests and e-Discovery issues, can eliminate one-off log monitoring tools and scripts that are currently in place now, offers a whole new perspective on user web behavior, and offers us new options wrt business intelligence and transactional analysis. Ultimately, this product is extremely flexible and would allow us to use the data we have in ways we never thought we could. This tool also allows for permission federation and will accommodate the complex UT hierarchies. It could even allow UT-Austin to provide various monitoring services to other UT campus. ----------------------------------------- Targeted ITS project ----------------------------------------- Log collection and data-mining tool for use throughout ITS. Initial pilot will involve only email logs. Deploy one (1) new log processing/data mining servers (Sun X4450). One (1) Sun V120 could potentially be retired. Phase 1: Install new hardware for test & development - August & September Phase 2: Qual - September & October Phase 3: Put server into full production - October or November | August 31, 2009 | |
| SQL Cluster Upgrade | Purchasing and installing a second cluster for installation of SQL Server 2005 | February 29, 2008 | |
| Strategic Planning | This project is focused on developing a strategic planning process for ITS and implementing it within the department. | May 30, 2008 | |
| Student Email Alternatives - Phase 1 Analysis | Investigate the available alternatives for student and alumni email, including external providers (i.e. Google, Microsoft) | December 31, 2007 | |
| Syslog | Syslog management hardware and software | August 1, 2007 | |
| Telecom Diversity/Survivability - IP Trunk Gateways | Allows IP connection to Telecom switch | November 16, 2007 | |
| Telecom-Additional Timing Receiver | Add redundant timing receiver to back up the one for the Telecom IP Core | January 30, 2008 | |
| Telecom-Power System rebuild | Contract rectifier rebuild service for all aging (some >20 years) power systems at SER, MAI, CBA, PRC, etc. | August 31, 2008 | |
| Telecom-Software upgrade to SE10 | Software upgrade for CS2100 Telephone Switch | June 1, 2008 | |
| Telesys Retirement | Project to decommission the Telesys service. This effort also includes the various communications planning and implementation. | September 30, 2007 | |
| TN3270 Software Replacement | The purpose of this project is to replace the end of life software currently utilized on PCs to connect to the mainframe with the new, fully-supported version of QWS3270 Secure. This project will also update the software utilized on Macs as to no longer rely on OSW, yet still provide a secure connection. This will be accomplished by creating new software installers for both PC and Mac, making them available for installation to both departmental desktop administrators and end-users, and ultimately retiring both the OSW and the TN3270 software. | August 31, 2009 | |
| US/WES System Center Configuration Manager Upgrade (SCCM 2007) | Phase 1: determine the feasibility of maintaining the Microsoft systems management path. Phase 2: Install and implement SCCM 2007 to manage and report on desktops and server assets. This is an upgrade of the pre-existing SMS 2003 service used to enhance cross departmental management of computer assets supported by User Services and Systems. | November 14, 2008 | |
| utdirect server refresh | Two utdirect servers are coming to end of life and need to be replaced with two new Sun T2000's. | June 30, 2008 | |
| UTForge Software Collaboration System | UTForge would allow colleges and departments at UT Austin the ability to share code at the source level. | April 15, 2008 | |
| VPN Upgrade | Replace existing end-of-lifed equipment used to operate the campus Virtual Private Network. Replacement completed in June for IPSec. However, the SSL support is waiting for vendor support. Which was pushed to November 2007. | December 1, 2007 | |
| Web Central Storage | NetApps disk shelf for Webcentral | May 1, 2007 | |
| WebSpace application upgrade | The current WebSpace hardware is 6 years old and should be refreshed. | July 31, 2008 | |
| Webspace Oracle backend hardware upgrade | Purchase 4 new servers to handle Webspace's database needs. | June 13, 2008 | |
| WebXM server | Acquisition of new scanning hardware for WebXM service | August 31, 2007 | |
| WES Backup Expansion | We recommend the purchase of a SATA disk array enclosure for the CX500 storage array with fifteen (15) 500 GB drives. This will add 6 TB of capacity to the storage array for data recovery purposes. The estimated cost of this expansion is $20,000. There is insufficient storage capacity as it stands now to maintain a two week backup window as outlined in the Service Level Agreements for Austin Exchange Messaging Service (AEMS) and Austin Disk Services (ADS) and provide for quick recovery in the event of a disaster or simple data restoration request. Our existing backup solution has 11.7 TB of disk capacity across both storage arrays. Currently the data being backed up to this space is: Service Name Size of Data (TB) Space required for backups (TB) Austin Database Services 0.209 2.926 Austin Disk Services 1.214 5.642 Austin Exchange Messaging Service 0.887 3.180 ITS Co-location Services - Virtual (ESX) 0.946 1.892 The result of maintaining a two week backup window for 3.256 TB of data is that we can no longer store full backups on disk but only differential backups. Full backups are now being stored on tape only. This is highly undesirable since it means every recovery request involves reading data from tapes which is a significantly more time consuming operation. We feel it would be beneficial to be able to maintain at least one full backup on disk in addition to tape to address the need for prompt data recov | January 31, 2008 | |
| WES System Center Operations Manager Implementation | Install and implement SCOM2007 to monitor and alert on services and server operations critical to the WES Enterprise Infrastructure. | February 29, 2008 | |
| WES-Austin Disk Services Expansion | Austin Disk Services cluster nodes are nearing "end of life" and should be replaced with newer hardware. Bulkmount and home directory usage continues to increase and we need to plan for further growth in 2008/2009. 10TB of primary storage and 20TB of backup storage will allow WES to meet all anticipated needs for Austin Disk storage for the next year. Rollout of the new servers and storage would be complete in May 2009. | January 30, 2009 | |
| WES-Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS) | WES Sharepoint services needs to be upgraded to MOSS 2007 in order to bring an enhanced feature set to customers and administrators. This service will also need a second physical server to handle added load on the system from new contracts expected once the service price drops in September 2008. | March 31, 2009 | |
| Windows Deployment Services (WDS) | Provide a central locations(s) for deployment of Windows XP and Vista images to campus via the PXE boot protocol | July 23, 2007 | |
| WPA2 Upgrade (wireless 802.1x change) | Currently our wireless system only offers WPA. To be fully compliant with 802.11i security and ensure vendor support, we wish to offer WPA2 in addition to WPA. Besides stronger security, we believe WPA2 may improve reliability of connections for users to restricted.utexas.edu. Conversion scheduled for 8/5/08 7:30am. | September 1, 2008 |
Please contact Information Technology Services if you have questions about a project completed prior to 2005.
