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Quick Notes
ITS Staff Milestones
Congratulations to Maureen Reilly, office coordinator, who is celebrating 25 years of service at Syracuse University. |
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NSM gets it in writing
Documentation project enters pilot phase
The NSM Documentation project began in 2007 to establish
documentation guidelines for all areas of NSM (Network and Systems Management) which
would be applied to new documentation and existing documentation when
significant changes to the content are required.
Sponsor Chris Sedore, Associate CIO, says, "Day-to-day
maintenance, resolving operational problems, and disaster recovery all require
good information-working without docs is like walking the high wire without a
net-there is nothing to fall back on."
Cindy Barry, IT Technical Writer & Documentation
Specialist and project manager, is working with NSM staff to create a
systematic approach to documenting the infrastructure that NSM maintains. Key
objectives include a low-impact approach to creating and maintaining
documentation; maintaining consistency of terms and structure; organizing information
within Confluence using standard naming conventions, indexes and labels to
facilitate easy search and retrieval; and facilitating the documentation of
critical systems.
One
of the key challenges as ITS begins to address disaster recovery planning is solid
documentation. Gaps in documentation could bring risk to the department and
University in a recovery situation, as well as during day-to-day operations. In
addition, central and consistent organization of information becomes vitally
important as volume increases over time, and makes it easier to locate, maintain,
and keep documents current. Adequate documentation can mitigate risks, provide
reliable continuity of critical systems, reduce downtimes, and provide
historical records for future reference.
"This
project will allow us to bring all parts of the NSM infrastructure together in
one place and create a repository of documentation that is truly beneficial to
the department and the University," says Barry.
The planning, analysis, and investigation phases of
the project have been completed, and the pilot phase is underway with the DBA group
led by Wade Stringer, IT Architect for Enterprise Systems. Other areas of NSM
will be prioritized and launched in 2008. You can see the current development
of the pilot at Enterprise
Systems Architecture.
For more information about this project, contact Cindy Barry.
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A STAR is born ITS teams with Student Affairs
For the
first time in Syracuse
University history,
students are being asked to play a leading role in setting the future direction
for the University's IT infrastructure, thanks to the creation of the Student
Technology Advisory Roundtable (STAR). STAR, a new group formed by Paul Gandel,
vice president of Information Technology Systems/CIO, and Anastasia
L. Urtz, associate vice president and Dean of Students, is envisioned as a
way to engage the student body in the evolution of an outstanding technological
environment that is aligned with the mission of the University.
The student
leaders of STAR will work with ITS and Student Affairs to assess the state of
IT plans, projects, services, and infrastructure at SU, in the higher education
community, and within the technology industry; ensure student involvement in
setting technology directions and guiding implementations; prioritize, develop,
provide feedback, and continually assess strategic directions and initiatives
that shape the technology environment; and serve as a forum to discuss
technology issues. As the University's vision for Scholarship in Action moves
the institution toward enhanced excellence, access and support, and engagement
with the world, STAR students will be tasked with ensuring that the
institution's technology is likewise improved.
Student members of STAR will have
the opportunity to influence today's choices about new technologies and services,
and to help shape the IT direction the campus takes in the future. Members will
test new technologies and provide valuable feedback that will become part of
the decision-making process regarding future IT services and purchases.
Student members
have been recruited from a diverse pool of applicants by Student Affairs and
ITS staff who serve on the STAR leadership team. Paula Maxwell, support analyst
from Student Computing Services, and Clayton Parker, a
third-year iSchool student, have been appointed STAR co-chairs. Members
will meet at least four times a semester beginning this spring. Subcommittees
may be formed as appropriate to further explore initiatives or resolve issues.
STAR will set and review goals once each semester; these goals will be
compatible with ITS' strategic planning and University fiscal deadlines. STAR
will also produce an annual report describing its activities, status of work
toward goals, and goals for the future year.
"I
am very excited to be engaged directly with students to address technology
issues on campus. This is a great two-way communication stream to gather input
on current initiatives and understand desired future direction," says Maxwell.
Seth A.
Tucker, director of the Dean of Students Office in the Division of Student
Affairs, adds, "As technology has increasingly integrated into our daily lives,
it has deepened its impact on student life issues. Syracuse University
students very much appreciate the opportunity STAR affords them to proactively
plan for this integration."
For more
information on STAR, contact Paula Maxwell.
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Picture it with Gliffy for Confluence Diagramming made easy
If you use Confluence, you may have noticed a new link in the upper right corner of the pages named "Add Diagram."
This link launches a new diagramming tool called Gliffy. Gliffy for Confluence allows users to embed diagrams directly into any Confluence page without the need for an image attachment. This product is easier to use than Microsoft Visio while still providing solid diagramming functionality. Some of the features of this product includes the ability to: - Insert a variety of shapes, connectors, arrows, colors, and text;
- Adjust fonts, shapes, colors, background, and page size;
- Display the diagram on the page as an expandable thumbnail or other size options;
- Create hyperlinked text to any URL or email address.
The code is saved with the page with edit rights assigned via the page rights. Instructions and a sample diagram can be found on Confluence in the ITS Confluence User Information space. This space was created for all content developers and contains helpful instructions about using Confluence, FAQs, new update notices, training information, and Confluence administrator contacts. For more information about this article, contact Cindy Barry.
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From the CIO's Desk Paul Gandel, vice president for Information Technology/CIO
While
snow is still on the ground and the weather stinks, in theory, Spring is just
around the corner (yea right!). This is also the time that we tend to focus on
money matters. On a personal level, tax time is here, and from an ITS
perspective, next year's budget is being prepared. There isn't much we can do
about taxes, so let's focus on next year's ITS budget.
While
I've often been accused of being a "glass half-empty" type of person, I remain
fairly optimistic about next year's budget picture. We will have our challenges,
but overall the budget picture looks pretty positive.
We
have made good progress in obtaining additional base budget funding from Central
Administration to support the variety of programs and services that the University
community is asking us to provide. The largest and most reaching project is our
Network Master Plan where over $30 million of new University funding will be
spent over five years to upgrade our entire network infrastructure. Moreover,
the way this project was financed gradually builds up our base budget funding
for networking so that we will be able to maintain and update the campus
network well into the foreseeable future.
Networking
isn't the only area where the need for additional budgetary support has been
recognized by the University community. As some of you may know, for each new
technology classroom the comes online, we receive funding to support the ongoing
maintenance. This coming year, the amount we receive for each classroom will go
up to reflect the increased cost of resources necessary to maintain these
classrooms. Another area where we have faced lack of resources to meet rising
cost is the maintenance fees for our enterprise wide software such as
PeopleSoft and Blackboard. These maintenance fees have been growing by
approximately 10% a year, while our operating budget was only increasing at
about 1.5% a year. Needless to say, this leaves us with a considerable
budgetary shortfall each year. The University recognized this problem and is
now providing the necessary funding supplements to cover the yearly maintenance
increases for enterprise software.
This
year, we also received funding to start new projects: Cascade, our new Web
Content Management system; OnBase, our new document management system; an
effort reporting systems for grants; and a new video surveillance system for
the University. All these projects carry the active partnership of other units
on campus and strong University-wide financial support.
Improvements
to the budgetary picture have come from more than just new resources. We have
done our part as well. Efforts on the part of everyone in ITS have helped to decrease
our costs and improve our efficiency. We have reduced our hardware, shut down
unused services, virtualized many
systems, and will eventually trim our operational costs by switching to
commodity hardware for some applications. With the implementation of TeamDynamix
to manage our projects and tasks in the coming year, I suspect we will find
additional ways to improve our overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Of
course, not everything is rosy despite my new-found optimism. We continue to face
challenges where the demands for our services far outstrip our financial
resources. Nevertheless, I truly believe that by working together creatively,
we can overcome these challenges. If an initiative is important enough, then we
will find the means to make it happen. It's our version of "faith-based
funding."
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IT Professional Development
Below is information about the professional development activities in which members of the University's IT community have been involved. Those who want more information about the various topics and events can e-mail the participants.
Training
Kimberly Hewell from NSM attended an Outlook class offered through New Horizons on February 27 in East Syracuse, NY.
Seminars
Peter Morrissey from NSM attended a Team-Building,
Mentoring, and Coaching Skills for Managers & Supervisors seminar by Fred Pryor Seminars on January 16 in Syracuse, NY. Conferences
David Hoalcraft and Ted Rozelsky from AASC attended a one-day Nercomp Special Interest Group (SIG) event on "Help Desk Manager's Toolbox" on February 5 at The
College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
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IT Connections is published monthly by Information Technology and Services. Story ideas can be submitted to Cindy Barry by the third Wednesday of each month. |
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