Attended

Sunday, October 7, 2007 Registered and visited with several people from other Universities, found that we are having many of the same support issues. Monday, October 8, 2007 Opening Plenary The Future is So Bright, We Have to Wear Shades This talk was very enlightening, it presented itself as how schools have to really look at emerging technologies and that in the future the students of today will not fit the current structure of schooling and that to survive one must adapt. Sessions Decentralized and Centralized IT Support at Tulane University — A Case Study from a Hybrid Model This session was about a centralized IT department that decided to do a fundamental change to the way it handles projects. It got together with the law and business schools to implement a new exchange server infrastructure. They found that working together brought more than cooperation to the table but a pool of knowledge and skills that now is benefitting everyone. I found that this session was an example of how to work together and things will work out better in the end. Now only if we could do this here. TAG – You’re It! This session was about how Millersville University started a TAG (technical action group) within the Information Technology group. The focus is to have a low level meeting once a month to share information about the Information technology groups own internal projects. This includes things like software upgrades, server upgrades, network changes, project planning, all without managers present. They also use the meeting time as a training session sometimes to present an overview of a technology that is of interest to the whole group. Their example was a training session involving network packets from the pc to the internet with all of the low level details in the middle. After this training, they were more aware of how the network was laid out and what servers, switches, firewalls were involved. Problems were able to be solved quicker. They would also like to use the TAG team to start to investigate and evaluate new technologies and products and then make recommendations to their management team. This was a wonderful session. I highly recommend that we implement our own version of this here at AU. American ITIL They proceeded to go through what ITIL has done for them and why they have done it. It was a good overview of how it can work in an environment. Some of the most important information that came out of this session is the need for us to create a global service catalogue of our services that we provide. As well the need for governance committees both administrative and academic for review of technologies and ideas. One thing that struck me the most was their use of OLA (Operating Level Agreements) and SLA (Service Level Agreements). This is something that we should for sure look into and implement as soon as possible to help make our lives easier. The Magical World of an Information Commons This session was how they took their library and IT department and merged them into a pretty cool building for students and staff. Not relevant to our University. Vista Preparedness at Indiana University I was disappointed with this session as they had investigated the product got their helpdesk ready to handle student questions but never ever looked at it from the staff’s point of view Windows Vista: Implementation Challenges Lehigh University started a group to analyze the Windows Vista effect on their University. They came to the same conclusions that we have found here. There will be problems, some involving major changes to our infrastructure, major compatibilities with software, and end user training. Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Open Source-A Practical Solution This session was about a helpdesk that was unhappy with their current ticket system (Heat) and how they did an analysis of offerings out there and settled upon open source software called RT (Request Tracker), it is a web based php system that works well for them. Ursula or Ariel? Is your Help Desk Application Evil or Good in the Eyes of Your Support Staff This session explained what process they went through to analyze and then send out their request for proposal. They really pushed that the analysis of your own needs and simplifying them is a must. As well when creating an RFP that you keep it simple and straight forward. Overhaul Your Helpdesk Ticketing System The session was about how they chose a Helpdesk system and what they really learned from the process and the problems and plusses that came from their experience. Who’s Really in Your Top 8: Network Security in the Age of Social Networking This session showed how many students out there in the world do not really realize the security risks and tools that can be used to help minimize their risks on social network site and on the internet in general. They are creating surveys that they will use the results to build targeted information to better inform the students what they can do to secure themselves. Virtualization’s Next Frontier: Security This session brought forward how Ringling College of Art and Design is using virtualization to lead to a more secure environment, as well to better utilization of their current computer graphic render farms. They talked mostly about the building of a virtual security test environment to test what attacks would cause them the most grief and how to counter them. Poster Sessions The Dual OS Classroom: If You Build It, Will They Come? This poster explained how they created a work lab containing Apple Macs and used Parallels to virtualize the windows environment. They found that the room was used more as the Apple friendly teachers began to use it more and the Windows platform teachers also liked the systems. They had some hardship in dealing with the need for both an apple mouse and a 2 button windows mouse and other software/hardware problems but in the end it worked perfectly for what they needed. Implementation of Software License Management Support System This poster explained how an University in Japan has created some software to track licenses over the internet for software. Implementing Pre-installation Environment Media for Use in User Support This poster explained how they have used USB memory sticks to create a user support software environment that has reduced the need for always looking for the right tool to do the job on what location. Having it with them at all times has allowed for most quick problem solving to be resolved in the 10-15 minute range when they have the tools at hand. Sessions Is Your Support Services Train Derailing? How One Integrated Software Package Got Us Back On Track The concept of the session was to show how Landesk software helped out their College, the problem was that the session was a sales session for Landesk with no questions being able to be answered how it was working in their environment. It was a disappointment. Desktop Imaging to Achieve Standardization and Application Delivery This session was how George Washington University uses ZENworks imaging by Novell to streamline the deployment of new computers as well as new software and updates. It is a very cool system, if we were a Novell shop then I would consider it for our use. Hopefully more companies will follow their package deployment system example, it works well. Image, Baby, Image! Making PC Cloning More Efficient This session put on by members of the University of Calgary lab support team explained how they are using pre-installation boot environments to streamline the updating of lab throughout the University. It is very neat how they are scripting everything from complete image replacements to inventory checking. Some of the things that they are doing might work her and more information will be gathered from them. Wednesday, October 10, 2006 Encryption Technologies: Testing and Identifying Campus Needs This was a great session, it went though their assessment of encryption software. They explained how they started the process, designed there group structure, needs analysis, and then the evaluation of numerous encryption technologies. Out of this they came to a suggestion of a single product for computers and suggestions for dealing with portable devices. The encryption project her at AU should use their knowledge to advance the project. iS3PACE – Casting the Information Security Spell for Cultural Change In this session they presented this: The challenge is trying to balance the academic tradition of open information exchange and collaboration with administrative requirements for efficient, proactive, and cost-effective security measures. To create such an environment, WVU charged the Information Security Program with the goal of driving the cultural changes required to integrate security standards and practices into daily operations. One of the key components of this effort is the Information Security, Services, and Systems Promoting Awareness, Communication, and Education (iS3PACE) information security collaborative. Several key operating units contribute to the collaborative to ensure the delivery of consistent, coordinated information security directives, guidelines, and practices. They have been very successful and it has created a much more secure environment, with staff and students now understanding why things have to be secure and how to practice good security. Desktop Security in an Academic Environment.... How to Herd Cats Successfully This session described a successful methodology for achieving more secure computing in an Academic Environment where getting the disparate client populations to accept any desktop computer standards can often seem like herding (or training) cats. In a highly distributed, highly decentralized computing environment such as the George Washington University, it is exceedingly difficult to ensure compliance with desktop security measures. This is true whether they are the requisite and almost constant patches or the use of properly configured and updated antivirus and firewall software. Through the use of volume purchasing power, quality service delivery, University wide collaboration and targeted incentives (both tangible and intangible) GWU has moved from knowing very little about the patch and virus/firewall state of its 6000+ desktop computers to being able to remediate vulnerabilities across the enterprise and determine the status of that remediation in real time. This session was interesting, we are using more and more of our Altiris resources that will help us get to this level of knowing how our environment is, getting the word out and having the people more aware of what is going on and why will be the challenge. Closing Plenary Sunrise or Perfect Storm: Technology, Education, and the Knowledge Economy - James Hilton This was a great presentation and I think that AU should consider looking into what he has to say. Schools of the future are going to have to change and he has studied it for a long time and has come to the answer that we have to be like a Google, allowing our knowledge to be searched and presented in smaller bites that students can understand. The old classroom learning is dead, and everyone must change or schools will fail. This was a fun conference and I met many interesting people that have the same issues and problems as we do and it was great learning of new ways that in the future will make our job easier. I would certainly attend this conference again.The conference presents an opportunity for professionals involved in the support of Information Technology (IT) at institutions of higher education to network peers, learn and share ideas about supporting clients and delivering services, and discuss the future of IT support on campus.Academic & Professional Development (A&PDF

Attended

Monday, October 8, 2007 Opening Plenary The opening speaker for the conference was very good. His speech was called “The Future is So Bright, We Have to Wear Shades.” He talked about emerging technologies in the education industry, and different technologies that we should be watching for in the near future. He talked about the younger generation and how they see information technologies differently than most IT workers. Overall, he was a very passionate speaker and presented lots of great ideas and trends. Session 5a – Decentralized and Centralized IT Support at Tulane University – A Case Study From a Hybrid Model This was a very good session. The whole focus of their presentation was on a project for deploying Microsoft Exchange on their campus. Their project was unique in the sense that they have two different levels of IT at their school: Decentralized IT and Centralized IT. Decentralized IT is the department that deals with the user level support. (Helpdesk, PC Support, etc.) Centralized IT is the department that deals with the global IT projects over many Decentralized units. This presentation really hit home, because I have worked in this sort of setup in my previous employment at the Federal Government. I worked in regional IT, which is the same as decentralized IT. We actually worked on an Exchange deployment collaboratively with Corporate IT as well, so many of the things they spoke about I could relate to. It was great to see the differences and similarities with their project as we had with ours. I learned some things that I could have done differently in our situation. It would have been nice to see this presentation prior to our project. Session 5b – TAG – You’re It! Again, this was a great session. The speaker talked in detail about how in their organization, they had a bunch of computing services “Silos”, or independent units basically all doing their own thing with a lack of communication and collaboration. She was frustrated with this situation, and developed something called a TAG team. TAG stands for Technical Action Group. Basically, people from various IT units assemble once a month or more and discuss problems, solutions, projects, etc. They have the means of discussing topics that may affect other units and getting both positive and negative feedback. It sounds like their situation is much like the one we are currently experiencing in Computing Services at AU. There are many units in CS that essentially see the other units as impeding progress. I think that assembling a sort of TAG team here at AU would be mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Session 10a – American ITIL The presentation on ITIL was a fairly high level overview of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL is basically a set of best practices in IT service management. One of the presenters was actually the CIO at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, so he explained how the whole approach to IT has changed since he has been there. It was really nice to see a CIO doing a presentation, and he also had one of his employees with him to show the collaboration between everyone at their school. I did see some of the advantages of implementing an ITIL structure in an IT organization, but I felt that this approach is not best for all situations. The presentation also felt a little like a sales pitch, which made me a little uncomfortable. Overall, it was a generally informative presentation. Session 10b – The Magical World of An Information Commons This session was a little strange. I didn’t really see how it fit in with the rest of the sessions. It was about how the Oberlin College renovated their library. It was an interesting space that they developed, but I didn’t really find it relevant to IT in any way. Session 11a – Vista Preparedness at Indiana University This was a session that Travis and myself were really looking forward to. There is a need to get prepared for Vista here at Athabasca University, and we are currently in a testing phase. We thought that they would have shared a little about how they decided to go to Vista, but it was lacking in content or upgrade justification. The only problem they talked about was that some of their hardware could not run Vista, so they had to negotiate with Dell for good pricing on new computers. They did not talk about the testing process much, or why they were forced to go to Vista. They didn’t really identify any software issues, which is the main concern here at AU and it would have been nice to see how other people dealt with it. The presentation didn’t really provide us with any additional information that we didn’t know already. Session 11b – Windows Vista: Implementation Challenges This session, as well as the previous Vista session was packed. It was interesting that there is this many people having trouble and fears with rolling out Vista to their clients. This presentation was very informative, because their situation was very similar to ours. They talked about different roadblocks that are being encountered in their testing and deployment. They also talked about their mandate to deploy full disk encryption which Vista addressed to a certain extent. I got a great deal of very relevant information from this presentation, and their paper that went with the presentation is full of detailed information that we can definitely use in the future. Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Session 18a – Open Source – A Practical Solution This session was interesting in the fact that they implemented an open source solution for their call tracking software. Even though they were a small group of IT workers, the implementation of a call tracking system seemed like it worked perfectly for them. Even though an open source “free” solution might not work for larger IT organizations such as Athabasca University, it was interesting to see how much could be accomplished using a free program. They have many of the same features (and some nice new ones) that HEAT has with no cost. Session 18b – Ursula or Ariel? Is Your Help Desk Application Evil or Good in the Eyes of Your Support Staff? This session had to do with transitioning to a new Call Tracking System. The call tracking system that they used was HEAT, and they were unhappy with it. This may have been because they didn’t have a nicely customized one like the one in AU, or that it didn’t fit their business process properly. One of the important things that I got out of the presentation was to document your current process thoroughly. Another was to examine your process and see if you are doing things that way because of a limitation of the old program. The new program may have a more streamlined way of doing things. I found this session particularly useful because there was a lengthy question period where many people asked about the different products they evaluated. Session 18c – Overhaul Your Helpdesk Ticketing System This was another session about replacing a call tracking software package. This one was a little different though, because the software that they chose was completely web-based and customers could submit their own tickets and classify them accordingly. I was a little skeptical about people submitting their own tickets and classifying themselves, but from what they say it works pretty well. The one thing that I found amazing is that they have had pretty much full acceptance from the entire organization, not just the IT staff. This is because it is web-based, has an easy to use interface, and has little to no learning curve associated with it. I know that we cannot say that about our call tracking software here at AU because HEAT is a fairly cumbersome program to learn. Hopefully when the web-based HEAT product is released, we can see this sort of impact. Session 24a – Who’s Really in Your Top 8: Network Security in the Age of Social Networking I found this session very interesting and very informative. The session was based on social engineering, and the evolution of internet communications. They did a number of surveys to gauge the students knowledge about social engineering scams and privacy settings on popular social networking websites. I found it very interesting to see how many people actually are aware of these threats. This shows the great digital divide, and how the younger generations are raised with a sense of paranoia, even on the internet. It was actually the younger people that were more proactive about security. Overall, it was a presentation that was very informative and gives me a different outlook on personal security as a whole. Session 24b – Virtualization’s Next Frontier: Security This presentation was about them using virtual machines as test computers. They would create a virtual machine and test its security by hammering it with different attacks, etc. We have always discussed doing testing in a virtual environment, but have never really seen it done in practice. It is nice to see that they are having good results doing it this way, and I am sure that this is the approach we will take in the future when it comes to testing. Session 25a – Is Your Support Services Train Derailing? How One Integrated Software Package Got Us Back on Track This session dealt with a software product that they deployed called LANDesk. LANDesk is basically a complete Helpdesk/PC Support solution for internal clients. It allows inventory management, software deployment, and remote desktop capabilities. In their case, it worked quite well because they had not previously had anything in place. They were mostly impressed with the remote desktop capabilities. In our case here at AU, this would not work. Our remote desktop software is capable of going through home router firewalls, as well as our firewalls. This is a big thing for us because of our distributed workforce. It would be nice to have a fully integrated solution such as the one that they implemented, but it is not practical in our situation. Session 25b – Desktop Imaging to Achieve Standardization and Application Delivery This was probably my favorite session out of the whole conference. They used a product called ZENworks to do their imaging. The approach to imaging was very different from most. You start with a base “package”, which would be windows xp fully patched. You then add on “application packages”. This would save many problems with setup time, as you would just choose the packages that you wish to install, and it would automate the process. There would be little setup time after the fact. I would really like to explore using this process in the future. I would need a great deal of project time to do so, but it may be worth it. Session 25c – Image Baby, Image! Making PC Cloning More Efficient This was another session that was interesting. They had a fully automated imaging procedure using Windows PE (Pre-boot environment). They used this primarily on lab machines. They would reimage the computers periodically, and would do this remotely. It is automated, and all they have to do is check the computers after the fact to see if it was successful. I think that our procedure of putting deepfreeze on our lab computers is more efficient although, and better for our purposes. Poster Sessions There were a couple poster sessions that I found of interest. One of them was called “Implementing Preinstallation Environment Media for Use in User Support”. I found it neat that they had a fully functional bootable windows os with all the support tools that they needed. This is the same concept as Session 25c but not network bootable. This would be easy to make network bootable, and is worth looking at in some aspects. At least for testing. Another interesting on was called “Inspiring Collaboration through the Use of Videoconferencing Technology”. It was relevant just because of what is going on here at AU. They had mostly positive things to say, but when I asked them about technical problems they gave the look of “OH YEAH!” and said that it was hard to categorize any specific problems because it was always something else. Hopefully things go more smoothly here at AU. Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Session 32a – Encryption Technologies: Testing and Identifying Campus Needs This was a very worthwhile session where they explained different encryption technologies and techniques. They had some great data from their testing of the different products, and this is going to help us a lot as we move forward with the decision on an encryption technique for AU. Travis received their testing data after the conference, and this is going to be great reference material for us to us in the near future. They even included pricing information, which is going to give us a good idea of how much everything costs. Session 32b – IS3PACE – Casting the Information Security Spell for Cultural Change It was interesting what they did in this project. It was about promoting security and being aware of threats, etc. Although it was a fun presentation to attend, it didn’t really give me any information that I did not know already. Maybe just some techniques that could be used to promote security, which isn’t the PC unit’s primary concerns. Session 32c – Desktop Security in an Academic Environment: How to Herd Cats Successfully This was a great session where they spoke about the security advantages of having an actively managed security system. They actively manage their workstations’ antivirus, antispyware, antimalware, windows updates, and firewalls. This is an ideal system for a closed computing environment. By closed, I mean that they are all on an internal network. I wish that we could do this here at AU, and we are definitely working in this direction. I am hoping that we can get McAfee working outside of AU. Once that happens, we will have a great managed system in place. We already have Altiris working outside on the internet, so we are moving in the right direction. Overall Conference Impression Even though this was my first year ever attending this conference, I felt that it was a great learning experience. It gave me insight on what other universities are doing in their Computing Services departments. It provided me with different ways of thinking and doing things. Most importantly though, it allowed some of the members of the PC unit and helpdesk to have some time not at AU to collaborate and think of great ideas that could be implemented once we return. I really enjoyed it and I hope to attend it every year or every couple years if possible.The conference presents an opportunity for professionals involved in the support of Information Technology (IT) at institutions of higher education to network peers, learn and share ideas about supporting clients and delivering services, and discuss the future of IT support on campus.Academic & Professional Development Fund (A&PDF