ITS 2016 – A Year in Review
A look back at Information Technology Services' (ITS)
busy year supporting IT at Carleton University.
ITS – A Year in Review
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MESSAGE
FROM THE CIO
Welcome to Information Technology Services' (ITS) inaugural Year in Review. I am pleased to present this report that showcases some of our achievements and undertakings from 2016.
A lot was accomplished last year in supporting Carleton’s role as a leading institution of higher education. While we can't cover everything, we did pull out some themes from this past year that reflect many of our key initiatives.
They include:
• Engaging with researchers
• Supporting teaching and learning
• Providing opportunities for collaboration
• Protecting university assets
• Delivering excellent service
• Resilience
This year also brought with it a new name. After nearly 30 years of being known as CCS, this change is well overdue. In the late 80’s when we first changed from Computing Services to Computing and Communications Services, the name was representative of the services we provided – computers, network, and phones.
Today, our business consists of more than this. The name Information Technology Services (ITS) better reflects our mission to provide enterprise information technology solutions and services to support the learning, teaching, research, and administrative goals of Carleton University.
Carleton has a thriving, knowledgeable and passionate IT community that is committed to excellence and embraces challenge. We are driven to providing technologies and services that benefit the entire Carleton community. I look forward to sharing these opportunities with you in the year ahead!
Denis Levesque, Chief Information Officer
Carleton University
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Canada Research Chairs
Canada Research Chairs
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Carleton University Research Centres
Carleton University Research Centres
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million in sponsored research funding
million in sponsored research funding
Engaging with Researchers
This year Information Technology Services engaged with researchers on campus to provide support, expertise and resources necessary to conduct research computing. Two key initiatives in this area include:
“Working closely with researchers and discussing their requirements motivates us to offer research computing and support services.”
– Sylvain Pitre, Manager Research Computing
– Sylvain Pitre, Manager Research Computing
Engaging with Researchers
New Research Computing Services (RCS) Department
This new department helps faculty and students who are working on projects with advanced research computing needs. These projects generally involve big data, large computational power or modelling that cannot be handled by standard computing infrastructure.
RCS provides researchers with the support, expertise and resources necessary to conduct research computing at Carleton.
Visit the RCS website to learn more about us and view all of our services.
RCDC SPECS:
- OpenStack-based cloud solution
- 60 IBM Power8 compute cores
- 192 Intel, Xeon compute cores
- 352 total cores in the cluster
- 1.8TB storage (128GB per node)
- 60 TB all-flash storage (SSD)
Engaging with Researchers
Launch of the Research Computing and Development Cloud (RCDC)
The new Research Computing and Development Cloud, funded by the Faculty of Science, Faculty of Engineering and Design and ITS, is now available to any researcher who is in need of high performance computing resources.
In 2017 we will continue to engage with faculty to determine how we can support their research efforts.
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students
students
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faculty members
faculty members
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Wireless access points
Wireless access points
Supporting Teaching and Learning
ITS helped in creative and constructive ways to integrate technology into both the classroom and administrative processes to support our instructors’ teaching efforts and to streamline learning for our students.
Classroom Support
MyDesktop, enables easy access to course-related software from personal devices in any enabled classroom. This service can be used as a consistent environment for teaching without the need to purchase, install or configure individual applications. Using this technology, faculty can now engage students in the classroom with more interactive content without the restrictions of a traditional computer lab environment.
1,600 wireless access points on campus:
at one point in 2016, 18,000 concurrent users were connected to the wireless network
at one point in 2016, 18,000 concurrent users were connected to the wireless network
Supporting Teaching and Learning
Wireless Enhancements:
In 2016 a number of enhancements were made to our wireless network. We replaced older access points in academic buildings to new ones, which support a newer network standard, 802.11ac, which provides fast speed and is less prone to interference.
We know wireless is a key technology for teaching and learning and important to our users. Because of this, we are continually improving the wireless techonolgy on campus.
Providing Opportunities for Collaboration and Communication -
New Faculty/Staff Intranet
The intranet is a one-stop secure shop that fosters collaboration as it shares the latest in campus news relevant to faculty and staff. Here they can also access important HR information and personalize their user experience. Check it out at i.carleton.ca
Email moves to the Cloud
Carleton’s on premise Exchange email for faculty and staff was migrated to Exchange Online, which is hosted by Microsoft’s O365 Cloud. This allows for greater flexibility and access, improved disaster recovery, robust security and collaboration opportunities. Learn more
Protecting University Assets
Securing Network Access
Starting in 2016, ITS changed our Internet facing firewall from a “black listing mode” (blocking known bad services) to a “white listing mode” (allowing only permitted services). This change protects our network by blocking hackers from attempting to test university devices for vulnerabilities and trying to exploit them.
Web Application Security
New Web Application Firewalls were deployed to provide increased protection for web-based applications.
In addition, all SSL certificates were upgraded to SHA-2. SSL certificates are an important component to protecting information in transit across networks. This was required due to security issues with legacy SHA-1 certificates, and the actions that browser manufacturers were taking to force the move from SHA-1. This change touched all areas of ITS, and required a significant coordination across multiple teams.
Updates to Carleton’s Password Policy
A comprehensive awareness strategy was undertaken with respect to password security and insecure password practices. As a result, we saw several departments opt in for regular (mandatory) password changes. Subsequently, updates to the Carleton University Password Policy was approved by the Senior Management Committee.
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tickets opened by Service Desk
tickets opened by Service Desk
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wireless coverage in academic buildings
wireless coverage in academic buildings
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uptime of all key services
uptime of all key services
Delivering Excellent Service
ITS is committed to providing the best possible service to all of our customers across campus.
Customer Satisfaction
On behalf of all ITS, Client Services recorded 90% or more on average for each months Customer Satisfaction Survey results.
Award for Service Excellence
The Student Exchange Application project team won a Service Excellence Innovation Award. This is awarded to a team for bringing new ideas into action.
Resilience
Here at Carleton, resilience means overcoming obstacles and challenges to achieve new heights. At the end of 2016 we did indeed face a challenge when we were attacked with a Ransomware threat, which caused disruption to a number of our systems and services.
Through the dedication and hard work of both CSUs and ITS staff, we worked quickly to minimize the threat and recover our services. It's how you respond to challenges that sets you apart and we are proud of how the IT teams rallied.
We were also impressed by how the Carleton community responded. The entire campus was understanding, patient and collaborative
throughout. We truly appreciate the support and professionalism shown by all. Thank you.
The Future is Now
With 2017 already under way we look forward to another year supporting IT within this amazing communtiy that is Carleton University.