EITS Status and Activity Report for June 2013 Prepared by Timothy M.

Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT) 1. Announcements for Faculty and Staff Meetings ArchPass Required for Sensitive Systems Access, Effective June 17th2013. Five systems containing sensitive information on students, faculty, and staff will require ArchPass network authentication beginning June 17, 2013. These systems include Banner, the Banner reporting tools (known as Argos), Identity Management (IDM) administrative tools, the NOLIJ campus document imaging system, and mechanisms for distributed electronic reports (known as SecureReports). Individuals affected by this transition were notified by email during the week of May 21, 2013. The ArchPass is a physical hardware token that is designed to be carried on an individuals key ring, and will generate a random number that is unique to that individual and the point in time when it is generated. When used in conjunction with the individuals MyID and password, this dramatically reduces UGAs risk of inadvertent data disclosure due to compromise or loss of an individuals password. For more information on the ArchPass, please browse to http://archpass.uga.edu on the Web.

2. Support for Student Technology Services Student Mobile App Update includes Student Billing, Library Functions. The week of May 21, 2012 saw an update to the UGA iPhone App for students, with the addition of new features including access to UGA student accounts, services from the UGA libraries, and the Career Center. The UGA app is available through the Apple App store at no charge. The app will continue to be updated periodically with features such as course schedules and registration. Funded in part by the student technology fee, this app is the result of collaboration between the SGA and EITS. For more information on this app, browse to http://mobileapps.uga.edu on the Web. Skillsoft Training & eBooks Replacing ElementK Now Available. The online training and course support service known as ElementK has been replaced by a new product called Skillsoft, as a result of the latters acquisition of the former. Skillsoft provides students, faculty, and staff with an updated offering of instructional materials, online resources, and eBooks to support programs at UGA. For more information, please browse to http://skillsoft.uga.edu on the Web.

3. Support for Academic and Administrative Computing Payroll Document Imaging, Conversion to NOLIJ Shared Platform. EITS is working with Finance and Administration and the Payroll Department to migrate its departmental document imaging to NOLIJ, the shared University system providing these features. This includes the conversion of approximately 5 million image records, with conversions from SSNs to UGAIDs happening as necessary. This conversion work continues over the summer and it is expected that NOLIJ will become the system of record for Payroll documents as of the start of FY14. For more information on the use of NOLIJ at UGA, please contact Danna Gianforte at danna@uga.edu by email. New USG Standards Governing User Account Management. Recently, standards released by the University System of Georgia will require additional management supervision and action regarding the management of user accounts for information systems deployed
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EITS Status and Activity Report for June 2013

across the University of Georgia. The new standards state that employees departing the University should see their access to critical and sensitive systems removed no later than five (5) business days after the effective departure date. Employees changing departments are to have their user permissions changed to reflect their new roles within thirty (30) days of the effective transfer date. Employees changing jobs within the same department should have their permissions reviewed within the same thirty (30) day period. The UGA procedures to comply with this standard are being developed in close coordination with representatives from University Human Resources, Finance and Administration, and the IT Managers Forum. For more information regarding the new USG standard, please contact Access Services at adminfo@uga.edu by email. Decommissioning of the Sakai Platform. Given the Universitys adoption of Desire2Learn as its next-generation learning management system (LMS), the test deployment of the Sakai system will be taken offline, effective June 30, 2013. While there are no official courses being hosted via Sakai, EITS is aware of several offices that are using the Sakai LMS for project management tools and to organize and distribute documents. Individuals who currently have access to Sakai have been contacted and be provided options for replacing their use of Sakai. Individuals who need assistance locating other platforms to replace their use of Sakai are encouraged to contact Shawn Ellis (spellis@uga.edu).

4. Support for Research New GPU Based Computing Resources Available. taff in the GACRC have recently installed the latest in GPU computational resources, which will allow faculty to take advantage of these specialized graphics processors for performing computational research. This includes the installation of 9 Tesla M2070 (448 cores/card) cards and 32 Tesla K20x (2688 cores/card) cards. Software packages are available that can take advantage of these resources, including Matlab, Amber, OpenCV, and BiSS. Additionally, a number of tools are available for the programming of the GPU, such as the NVIDIA CUDA toolkit, OpenCL libraries and the PGI compilers. For more information on how to take advantage of these resources, contact Dr. Guy Cormier at gcormier@uga.edu by email. Cloud Computing Grant from Penguin Computing. The GACRC recently received a research grant of 100,000 core hours from Penguin Computing for its Penguin Computing on Demand, HPC as a Service platform. Tailored to meet the needs of academic research in regards to both platform and usage models, the service provides compelling features to support supercomputing efforts including low latency networks, high memory nodes, and support from experienced administrators steeped in academic research. To take advantage of this grant offering, or to discuss these and other services at the GACRC, individuals are encouraged to contact Dr. Guy Cormier by email at gcormier@uga.edu.

5. Core Campus Infrastructure Upgrades to UGACard Information Security Capabilities. In late May, modifications to the UGACard Number were made in order to improve the information security posture of Bulldog Bucks accounts. Subsequent to this change, new UGACards will have a random number embedded in the card, which will make it more difficult for someone to illegitimately access someone elses Bulldog Bucks accounts. Effective immediately, any new cards produced for students or employees will have this new element. Not only does this change improve security for our Bulldog Bucks financial account number, it also removes the encrypted communication requirement for the UGAID which can now be
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EITS Status and Activity Report for June 2013

safely emailed without the security requirement for encryption. For more information on this change, please contact Danna Gianforte at danna@uga.edu by email. Campus Document Imaging System Migrates from SSNs. The central document imaging system, NOLIJ, will be converted from SSN to UGAID for its document folder identifier on Friday, May 31. Over 2 million document records associated with approximately 150,000 unique SSNs will be converted to UGAIDs after careful collaboration and planning with campus functional units over the past few months. For more information on this change, please contact Danna Gianforte at danna@uga.edu by email. UGA Email Transitions to Office 365 Beginning August 2, 2013. The Microsoft Corporation will begin transitioning UGAs email system from its current Live@EDU platform to the new Office 365 platform, working hand in hand with EITS over the weekend of August 2, 2013. While the impact on email availability is expected to be minimal, the technical work required to accomplish this transition is extensive and could result in intermittent email outages during the 48 hour maintenance period. EITS will be engaging campus Units in an extensive communications and outreach program regarding this change, and more information is available by pointing a browser to http://office365.uga.edu on the Web.

6. Did You Know? Joint SGA, EITS Presentation at EDUCAUSE Southeast Conference. Former student government association president Will Burgess, along with associate CIO Danna Gianforte and EITS director David Crouch, made a presentation at the 2013 EDUCAUSE Southeast Conference in Atlanta, covering the topic of initiating and supporting student-driven technology issues in higher education.

University of Georgia students, faculty, and staff, as well as interested others, may subscribe to this monthly report by sending an email to listserv@listserv.uga.edu with the phrase subscribe vpit-news as the body of the message.

EITS Status and Activity Report for June 2013

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