OIT Technology Meeting - December 2007

Announcements

Joe Sanders and Frank Reda, OIT
Joe and Frank were on hand to discuss the closing of the Computer Repair operation. The bottom line is that the current funding model (cost recovery) is not working and they are losing money each year. Computer Repair has always worked in the red, but the Computer Store was able to cover the losses for a while. When the store's margins decreased, the store had to close, which also meant the loss of a funding source for the repair operation.

The need for on-campus service is recognized, and some sort of replacement service is being sought out. Most likely, an RFI/RFP will be issued to find a vendor to manage computer repair services, though other options are still open. Feedback is being requested. What can OIT do to provide services filling the voide left by closing Computer Repair? What are the most important services? A Sakai site will be up soon to elicit feedback through several methods. Those who prefer not to voice their opinions publically can write/call Joe or Frank directly.

There is no set closing date at this point. Computer Repair will remain in operation until an alternative solution has been found (unless the staff find other jobs and leave before that).

Phil Palanchi, TD
TD has been working on support for multicasting. The extranet routers have been migrated to Juniper. They have made sure multicast to and from I2 and Rutgers is working. Some new tools are available to do real-time diagnostics of multicast traffic. A draft of the Multicast Checklist was distributed.

Galen Work, OIT
HP's new online store should be in operation very soon. It's supposed to be more like what we currently have from Dell and Apple.

Bob Gerdes, OIRT
The Office of Instructional and Research Technology (OIRT) will be hosting their Second Annual Technology Showcase and Game Night on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 from 1:30-4:00pm at their offices in ASB Annex I. Technologies of interest include: Second Life, Leopard, Vista, RU website tools, podcasting, Drupal, online grade submission, NJVid, Saka, eCompanion, Breeze, Elluminate, blogging, RUCore, Eve online, ePortfolios, and Knightline.

Armen Varjabedian, MSSG
Our HP sales rep. is changing. Jenny Lim is no longer on our account and has transferred out to California. Our new account manager has not yet been assigned. If you need quotes or information, you may continue to contact our inside sales rep., who has not changed. Our inside is Maria Meyer (formerly McGrath), 800-277-8988 x15591, maria.meyer[at]hp.com.

The next vendor presentation will be on January 16, 2008 in the Busch Campus Center. Lenovo will be doing a presentation. Details to follow.

Presentations

Central Authentication Services (CAS)
Dave Steiner, ESS
CAS is an authentication service. You can point your applications to it in order to make users authenticate using either NetID or Safeword card, and can differentiate between the two. It does authentication only, not authorization or access control. Any application that uses HTTP can redirect to it. Clients already exist in java, perl, php, ruby, and Apache, among others. Access to the CAS server is controlled via a whilelist, so you need to contact ESS in order to have your server added to the whitelist. Availability of the CAS service has not yet been advertised, but it is available today for those who need it.

The current CAS setup is a failover configuration behind a content services switch, and is located in ASB. Looking forward, they may possibly add locations, but there are database issues to work around. There are also plans to improve the registration process for addition to the whitelist. There is a mailing list on email.rutgers.edu - cas_announcements - it is a low volume list for announcements regarding downtime, upgrades, etc.

Data at Rest Encryption
Beth Binde, IPS
Beth gave an update on purchase of 1,000 licenses of Safeboot encryption software. More information is available in her presentation.

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