Project Theme: Building Capability

What is it? ITS is transitioning from running Atlassian Confluence and Jira on-premises to the cloud-hosted versions. Confluence is a widely used collaboration tool for managing technical documentation in a wiki format, while Jira is used for project management across various divisions within the organization. To make things simpler and more reliable, we are also switching to Microsoft’s tools called Azure Active Directory (AAD) and Microsoft Authenticator for accessing Confluence and Jira. This is the… Read More about Atlassian Cloud Migration (Confluence and Jira).

The purpose of the project is to put a third-party solution in place to allow UNC-Chapel Hill to do capital budgeting, the annual budgeting cycle and associated reporting across the enterprise. Currently, we use resource-intensive manual processes to do the University’s budgeting. This means we have a reduced ability to properly plan for large capital expenditures. The success of this project will be measured by the ability of the University to handle the annual budgeting… Read More about UNC Budget Tool.

Replace the existing campus wireless services contracts (Neutral Hosting) with a new set of wireless provider (Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T) service contracts and implement new campus 5G services. We expect to support a seamless transition away from the current service contract after we establish the contracts and new funding model. The project includes new 5G services and new positions (people and roles) to manage the services on campus. The end result is providing reliable outdoor… Read More about 5G and Wireless Service.

ITS continues to install high-speed fiber connections throughout campus, making our networks faster and more reliable. Projects underway include: Curtis Media Center: This new run of fiber will connect the Curtis Media Center with Carmichael Arena and Memorial Hall. School of Medicine: This project added a new fiber backbone from ITS Manning to MacNider Hall. It will also move the tier one location from Isaac M. Taylor Hall to Marsico Lung Institute. Completion date: April… Read More about 2022 Fiber Projects.

The NetApp AltaVault is reaching the end of its life cycle in December 2023. We need a replacement solution to move identified data off-premise for specified time periods. The replacement solution will be an automated tool that: moves data from on-premise to off-premise, logs the process and expires the data at the appropriate time, allows us to retrieve the data and restore it on-premise when required, and have a cost model that fits the ITS… Read More about AltaVault Replacement (NetApp CBS).

The life cycle of the current Cisco UCS* hardware, purchased in 2015, is coming to an end.  The current hardware does not have modern compute speed, and, as it ages, is more prone to failure. We plan to migrate all work loads to the new server blades by the end of the 2022. *Unified Computing System

This project will implement the ServiceNow Asset Management module. The ServiceNow Asset Management module will be responsible for managing the life cycle of end-point device hardware assets for ITS and SOM Managed Desktop Services groups. Standardizing tracking and reporting on the data attributes relating to ownership, status and location of hardware assets will be helpful to our teams. Benefiting our clients by allowing IT to identify the most at-risk end-point devices in a department that… Read More about ServiceNow Asset Management.

This project will migrate Research Computing’s technical documentation off of the ITS WordPress site. The project will also refresh the content, making it easier to find and read.

The Mass Storage system (also known as StorNext or /ms) is used for archiving research data files and storing very large files, files that are too large to fit within an individual researcher’s or a department’s storage space. This project will move the Mass Storage system to the next generation of hardware.

This project will develop the Enterprise Data Warehouse’s most-used data sets in a more efficient type of schema called a “star schema” data model. The new tables and views will be available for internal use within the data warehouse, enabling the team to better serve customers. Projected Completion Date: March 31, 2023  

This project is performing a lifecycle replacement of storage controllers and disks that are nearing the end of their useful life. As hardware ages, it becomes less reliable, the potential for data loss grows and maintenance costs increase. This project is focusing on replacing: ESMC0 – the hardware supporting Storage.unc.edu and SecNas.unc.edu. ESMC5 – the hardware that provides some primary storage for Splunk and serves as a backup destination for a majority of ITS data.

The University’s phone service is moving from Verizon to AT&T. When the University’s contract ends in 2023, Verizon is discontinuing the service we use. We now have the opportunity to evaluate other providers, save money and provide additional features that support mobile and remote work settings. The move affects all campus phone lines, such as fax lines, conference room phones and main lines.