Multidivisional and Office of the CIO
ITS adjusts CAB
ITS changed the ITS Change Advisory/Approval Board to make it more effective and less resource intensive. Matthew Mauzy led this effort. A smaller “core CAB” formed and began meeting separately to review and approve low and moderate risk and impact changes. The intent was to make the original CAB meetings more constructive and focused on high risk and impact changes, ITS-wide planning and calendar review.
Working Smarter launches
In November, ITS’ Alison Campbell launched Working Smarter, a quarterly webinar series and a post in each issue of Monday Morning News, to help ITS employees be more productive, organized and efficient with their time.
Information Security & Identity Management
Project automates and secures University record systems
Identity Management began extending the use of midPoint to tackle new projects — the deprovisioning of Microsoft OneDrive and Onyen accounts and the provisioning of an Application Registry. This followed efforts in the spring to begin provisioning and deprovisioning University systems within midpoint.
Operationalizing these processes by provisioning and deprovisioning with midPoint will save the University time and resources and automate previously manual processes. This has been an extremely manual process. Eventually, Identity Management wants to automate all of these systems.
Additionally, these projects will make record systems more secure by quickly adding and removing access from users when needed.
IdM expands centralization of tools
In the last quarter of 2020, Identity Management prepared to release in January an updated version of Improvadmin, which includes migrating the code to a modern Java stack.
The ITS Service Desk, Information Security Office and IdM use Improvadmin as the primary tool to review users’ Onyen and Guest ID accounts and affiliations. Previously, Improvadmin was coded using the Google Web Toolkit. IdM decided to migrate Improvadmin to a modern Java stack including Spring Boot on the CloudApps platform because Google Web Toolkit is outdated.
The migration of Improvadmin to Spring Boot is a part of the IdM’s ongoing effort to centralize administrative tools in one location.
ISO finds new opportunities in its pivot
When the Information Security Office transitioned to remote operations, the team members decided that the best way to reach their audiences was through a multi-channel approach. They reached out via Microsoft Teams and email lists, in addition to using websites. The team also connected with people through its Data@Rest podcast and relied on its strong relationships with campus partners. The transition to remote work presented opportunities the Security Office would not have identified otherwise.
Information Security holds virtual SecurityCon
The Information Security Office’s first virtual SecurityCon on October 9 drew more than 150 registrants for the talks, 20-plus for the Capture the Flag contest and a stable flow of attendees in and out over the course of the panel discussions and keynote speaker.
By learning the nuts and bolts of running a virtual event, the ISO was able to add those lessons to its tool belt and grow outreach and awareness surrounding information security in ways the unit wouldn’t have thought of previously.
Data@Rest releases third season
The Information Security Office’s Charlie Mewshaw and Michael Williams released the third season of the Data@Rest podcast. The season features conversations with experts on topics like social media, biometrics and cloud security.
In conjunction with the release of the third season of Data@Rest, ITS Communications released a video about the making of the podcast. Student workers produced the video.
Program addresses demand for security risk assessments
During the quarter, the Information Security Office completed many successful risk assessments via the Risk Assessment Partner Program (RAPP) that it created over the summer.
The Information Security Office Risk Team, working with Mel Radcliffe and Dennis Schmidt, developed the program after the pandemic increased the demand for security risk assessments, including COVID-19 projects and purchases to support remote work.
A collaboration between the Risk Team and various campus units, the program seeks to develop security skills of the Information Security Liaisons (ISL) and expedite the risk assessment process. ISL partners help gather information from stakeholders and other parties for the risk assessment. They also assist with developing the final risk assessment documents and participate in the peer review process.
RAPP has enabled risk assessments to be completed faster and facilitates an overall improved risk assessment experience.
ISO helps enhance student experience
The Information Security Office collaborated with the Department of Computer Science and several UNC students to develop a secure and successful capture the flag hacking competition for October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
People
Charlie Mewshaw received GIAC Strategic Planning, Policy and Leadership (GSTRT) certification. He is the only member of the Information Security Office who holds this certification. He was tested on his leadership ability to create and maintain strategic security programs that meet the needs of the organization.
Educational Technologies
Teaching & Learning changes name
Teaching & Learning changed its name to Educational Technologies. After being known as Teaching & Learning for nearly 15 years, the division determined it needed a new moniker that provides a clearer message about the expertise the team provides. Along with the name change, Educational Technologies created a new website and a new Twitter handle of @UNC_EdTech.
Digital Services and the Digital Accessibility Office helped create the new website. EdTech was the first website on tarheels.live to go through the new unc.edu address approval process.
EdTech rolls out Panopto
Educational Technologies officially launched UNC Panopto to campus on November 2. Panopto is the University’s new centrally supported video storage and management system. It will replace the current video streaming service, Warpwire, by June 30, 2021. To assist users with updating their videos to the new platform, EdTech has made available an extensive FAQ, timeline and training resources on the new UNC Panopto website.
Sakai upgraded
Teams within Educational Technologies and Infrastructure & Operations upgraded Sakai to version 20.1 on December 3. New features include grading rubrics, an assignment document preview grader, a date manager to batch edit dates across Sakai tools, a combined Tests & Quizzes overview page, and a name pronunciation option for users.
Infrastructure & Operations
Oracle 19c upgrade completed
In November, Infrastructure & Operations completed upgrading the University’s Oracle software to the 19c version from 12.2. The effort began in the summer.
The upgrade monumentally changes the way ITS configures the infrastructure of Carolina’s databases, including enabling ITS to introduce automation. Through automation, Infrastructure & Operations can more easily implement security updates and minimize the chance of errors. Automating Oracle upgrades also reduces the number of employees needed to run testing comparisons, freeing up time to focus on more value-add tasks. Previously, each Oracle upgrade was conducted by database administrators performing manual configuration changes.
The project’s focus on resource efficiency directly aligns with the University’s Carolina Next strategic plan.
Capacity on demand strategy explained
Working with ITS Communications, Infrastructure & Operations’ Scotia Roopnarine in October shared the back story of how I&O improved the ConnectCarolina infrastructure to meet an increase in student registration activity using a capacity on demand strategy.
User Support & Engagement
Help.unc.edu portal gets a facelift
With Digital Services’ Kim Vassiliadis as project manager, ITS gave the help.unc.edu portal a facelift with the December 3 release of a new public Service Catalog. ITS decommissioned the catalog information on the ITS website. With the creation of a public-facing catalog, services can be indexed by search engines and will gain greater visibility. ITS can better manage the accuracy of this content by consolidating the information into one location.
ServiceNow platform upgraded
The ServiceNow platform was upgraded to the latest release (named Paris) on October 29. This was a transparent upgrade for most users. The “My Requests” page now has an updated interface when customers view their open requests and incidents at help.unc.edu. Fulfillers may notice some additional options when creating a report or working a chat.
Service Desk increases reporting
The Service Desk has increased its internal and external reporting functions over the course of the year. It has been creating and running detailed reports on multiple points of operation within its services. This deep-dive reporting enables management to better oversee, streamline and adapt processes in a dynamic way. Along with a master report recording the service call volume, SLA times, customer satisfaction index, first call resolution, wait times and peak hour times, there are also more macro level reports and impact analyses that upper management uses and shares.
The focus on the reporting has enabled the Service Desk to not only better adapt its own processes and resources but has also helped its management analyze its service to other departments and professional schools on campus.
Contactless lockers prove popular
After its initial installation of contactless lockers proved popular with campus customers, the Service Desk prepared in the fourth quarter to install a second set of lockers in January 2021.
During the start of the Fall 2020 semester, it became apparent that the first 15 Luxer Lockers would not be enough to meet demand. The Service Desk installed the lockers during the pandemic to limit in-person interactions for computer services repairs.
In response to the demand, the Service Desk placed an order for another set of 15 Luxer Lockers to add to the existing unit in the Student Union and a set to install in the Tech Shop at the UNC Student Stores.
Enterprise Applications
Automated pass/fail request process
Enterprise Applications and the Office of the University Registrar automated the process for students to request a pass/fail grade. The new online form replaces a manual multi-step process that involved a student downloading and filling out a form and then waiting for Student Administration staff to key in the information to the necessary systems. The automation should eliminate valuable time otherwise spent in the manual aspects of processing at least 29,000 pass/fail requests submitted for the Spring 2020 semester.
Project transforms financial aid
Enterprise Applications and the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid went live with their Financial Aid Process Improvement Project on December 3.
One of the primary objectives of the project was to make financial aid package information available to prospective students at the same time as they are offered admission. An equally important objective was to automate the processes for packaging financial aid as much as possible.
Upgraded TIM
In November, Enterprise Applications completed the upgrade of the University’s Time Information Management (TIM) system to version 8.1. Both the application and the database were upgraded. To the delight of many in the campus community, TIM shed Adobe Flash Player, meaning no more pesky prompts to run Flash.
Communication Technologies
Kicks off phone project
To fine-tune the process, ITS Communication Technologies moved ITS first, in December, in a project to migrate the campus to new and enhanced phone services. Over two to three years, CommTech is moving the University’s VoIP phone system to AT&T from Verizon Business. Verizon Business is eliminating the legacy system that Carolina uses.
ITS Voice Services will reconfigure approximately 19,000 VoIP devices on campus. Features of the new system include voicemail in the cloud; a portal for managing features online, such as call forwarding; and a soft client application that enables users to make calls from the computer using a VoIP service.
Conducts study of network infrastructure costs
The Engineering unit within Communication Technologies completed a study that will help the team provide more accurate budgets to planners preparing to build or renovate buildings for campus departments.
The study analyzed the costs of outfitting a new campus building or renovation with network technology. This includes the basic infrastructure needed to support network communications such as wiring, telecommunications rooms, switches, wireless access points, and access to campus fiber. Prior to this study, the University had never analyzed or even calculated these total construction costs.
Having a better understanding of network infrastructure costs will help the group advise campus leaders on network infrastructure purchases that will meet the needs of faculty and students more pragmatically and economically. It will also help position the campus strategically over the long-term life of the building.
Enterprise Reporting & Departmental Systems
Tableau replaces SAS VA
Enterprise Reporting & Departmental Systems moved the InfoPorte SAS VA content to Tableau. The team had used SAS VA to create the InfoPorte reports under the “Reports” or “Reporting” tabs. Its version of SAS VA, however, used Adobe Flash in report design, and modern browsers stopped supporting Adobe Flash at the end of 2020. ERDS supported users through the transition.
SAS VA and Tableau differ in some report operations.