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Quick Notes
Staff Milestones
Dennis Punch, Senior Project Manager - 5 years
Joan Weeks, IT Analyst - 5 years
Debbie Gardner, Project Manager - 10 years
Ed Lester, IT Analyst - 35 years
Staff News
 | | Christopher Sedore |
Congratulations to Christopher Sedore, CIO and vice president for information technology, who has been named to the newly created position of associate vice chancellor for academic operations. Recently approved by the Board of Trustees, Sedore's appointment is effective immediately. He will be the senior leader in Academic Affairs charged with ensuring that the division's central units are both highly effective and efficient, and that the academic schools and colleges and their faculty and students are well served by the Academic Affairs administrative support units. See Inside SU for details.
 | | Anne Breed |
Please welcome Anne Breed as a new administrative specialist for Enterprise Application Systems. Anne comes to SU and ITS most recently from her work as business manager at commercial developer James Henry Development. Anne and her husband Kerry enjoy skiing and spending time outdoors with their sons Jackson and Gavin. Anne will be focusing on many areas, including integration and collaboration with the ITS Business Office. She will be located in 224 Skytop Office Building and can be reached at x3814 or anbreed@syr.edu.
 | | Nate Huse |
Nate Husehas joined Administrative Computing Services (ACS) as a computer consultant. Nate comes to ITS from the Whitman School of Management where he was a technical support specialist providing hardware and software support to faculty and staff. Nate has a Bachelor's of Arts in Graphic Design from SUNY Oswego, and a Master's degree in Library and Information Sciences from Syracuse University. Nate's new role will be providing primary IT support to the Comptroller's Office and associated departments, as well as the office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction. He can be found at 621 Skytop Rd, Suite 130, and contacted at x3404 or nrhuse@syr.edu. |
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Free ITS Calendar!
All 12 months of 2012 in convenient vertical alignment to facilitate month-to-month planning. 8.5" x 11" format, PDF, ready for printing, or uploading to your device.
Download here |
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IT Professional Development
Staff on the cutting edge
Training & Education
Congratulations to Susan Watts, for achieving Advanced Leader Bronze recognition from Toastmasters International. To be eligible for this award, a member must have achieved the new competent leader award and the Toastmasters International Competent Communicator Award. Watts also had to serve at least six months as a club officer and participate in both the preparation of a Club Success Plan, as well as the district-sponsored club officer training program. Watts finalized the requirements by conducting presentations from the Leadership Excellence Series, including a Visionary Leader presentation on 10/3/2011 and a Developing a Mission presentation on 11/13/2011.
Publications
Lee Badman resounds with his remonstrative righteousness as a blogger for Network Computing.
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Professional Development Opportunities
Resources that might help you sharpen your edge
Free training for Cascade technical developers! Hannon Hill is offering FREE training for Cascade technical developers. For details on dates and times check their website. January and February classes are already full. Contact Eric Mumpton x3160 or emumpton@syr.edu if you are interested. Mumpton says, "with the limited dates (1x per month) and seats (for SU, max of 2) it would be good information for people who may be planning to get started with Cascade at some point this year."
Higher ed web and social media conferences. For a list of some of the top web and social media conferences for higher education, check out collegewebeditor.com.
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Tech Updates
Keeping current with software, systems, issues and devices
Network Wiring Services (NWS) strikes again! The Goldstein Alumni & Faculty Center is now equipped with robust AirOrangeX coverage suitable for large numbers of client devices, and can easily handle events that require muscular wireless capacity. Another place on campus where you can bask in that 802.11n goodness!
The Syracuse University official mobile application was launched for Blackberry devices on January 19 and can now be found in the Blackberry App World. The app has been available for Apple iOS and Android devices for several months. To date, the app was been downloaded on more than 4,000 devices among the three platforms: 3,248 iOS, 720 Android and 38 Blackberry.
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ITS to help explore the State of Now
Connectivity a key element of iSchool conference
ITS is supporting the iSchool's State of NOW / #140cuseconference on April 19 at the Schine Student Center. Attendees will explore how the power of real-time web communications can disrupt businesses, change lives and create serendipity. This prestigious event is part of technology guru Jeff Pulver's "140 Characters Conference" series. The #140cuseevent will provide a platform for the worldwide Twitter community to listen, connect, share and engage with each other, imparting a fresh outlook on how the real-time web can be used to do something meaningful.
"The power behind all social media and technology today is connectivity. Without proper connectivity, we wouldn't be able to hold such a conference here," said David Rosen, a graduate student in the Information Management program and the conference organizer. "ITS is helping us make sure we're able to provide a seamless connectivity experience for our presenters and attendees. We look forward to working with them on #140cuse, and on future endeavors."
Lee Badman will be coordinating the ITS effort to provide client support during the event, and is working with the ITS Network and Wiring Services group (NWS) to prepare the Schine Underground by upgrading its existing network environment to ensure reliable wireless networking for the several hundred expected attendees.
For more information and to register for the event visit http://140cuse.com.
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IT Out and About
Connecting with the campus and beyond
This spring semester:
The Enterprise Application Systems Security Team sponsored two FAST refresher courses in December for Information Coordinators and Data Custodians across campus. Stephen Wowelko, from the security team, led the well-attended sessions. Other Application Security team members were present to help facilitate and answer questions. The feedback from the 100 or so attendees was very positive and the EAS Security team looks forward to having similar refresher courses in the future.
 The Master's degree in Library and Information Science with School Media specialization, offered by the iSchool, was ranked first in the Student Services and Technology category of the U.S. News Top Online Education Programs for 2012. The ranking was determined by evaluating the various technologies available to students, such as live streaming of classes, online access to learning management systems and digital library services. Professor Ruth Small, Director of the School Media Program says, "I have always been very impressed by the level of support provided by our outstanding instructional design and IT staff and this was recently reinforced by our number 1 ranking." For details, visit the iSchool News page.
The Newhouse School and HootSuite formed a new, international partnership to help prepare students for digital and social media jobs of the future. This is the first-ever higher education partnership for the Canadian company, which now boasts some 3 million users. Under the direction of Dr. William J. Ward, a.k.a DR4WARD , the Professor of Social Media at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, students will receive the same training, including video-based lessons, case studies and testing, as professional subscribers to HootSuite University. See Inside SU and Marketwatch for details.
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Secure 'cUse is Here!
Enabling smart choices for information security
Secure'cUse, ITS's security awareness and training program for SU students, faculty and staff is up and running online and in print. The program will help the SU community understand the risks to individual identity and data as well as to SU's information assets as a consequence of living in a connected world.
"The users of SU's various networks and computing services are the front lines in our defense against information security threats," said Christopher Croad, SU's director of information security. "Secure'cUse is designed to enable students, faculty and staff to recognize and make the right choices when it comes to protecting our digital systems and identities."
The program focuses on six topics: preventing device theft, preventing identity theft, social media awareness, computer viruses, copyright infringement and password safety. The first two topics are now available at http://SecurecUse.syr.edu. The site has articles and tips for students, faculty and staff, as well as downloadable fact sheets and posters to print, hang up or hand out. Secure'cUse's live Facebook feed is available, as are live updates from The National Cyber Alert System operated by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team.
The campaign has spread across campus with the first two topics featured in posters and digital signs in residence halls, Bird Library, recreation facilities and other buildings. The upcoming Connection Clinics in the residence halls, run by the ITS Service Center, will focus on identity theft.
Follow Secure'cUse right now on Facebook and Twitter for tips and advice for keeping information safe and to be informed of internet scams.
For more information contact Mani Gauri at (315) 416-3359 or mkanika@syr.edu.
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SU's new VPN environment is ready for action Collaborative ITS effort triples capacity, enables more reliable and secure remote access
Ryan Elstad and Andrew Joncas of the ITS Core Systems Services (CSS) group, in collaboration with the ITS Networking and Information Security groups, recently implemented a redesign of SU's Virtual Private Network (VPN) environment. This new VPN configuration allows for more than 750 simultaneous VPN users (triple the capacity of the old VPN), with more available on demand. The new system provides service-level redundancy and is housed in the VMWare ESX virtual environment in the Green Data Center, which increases availability should an outage occur.
Along with the redesign, a new version of the Syracuse University Remote Access (SURA) client has been released for Windows users and offers improved connectivity and security. SURA provides secure access to Syracuse University computing resources from locations away from the campus networks. It both installs and configures the SU VPN connection as well as maps network drives and printers, makes remote desktop connections, and simplifies Outlook Web Access (OWA) email access.
The new SURA client allows multiple users behind a NAT (network address translation) router (such as a home router) to establish a VPN connection to SU simultaneously using technology called SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol, aka Secure Socket Layer, or SSL VPN). The new functionality only works when the newest version of SURA is installed on computers running Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems. This is a big improvement for students who wish to connect to their SU files and printers remotely from a shared off-campus internet connection such as in an apartment or coffee shop.
While the prior SURA clients, and other IPSec (IP Security)-enabled clients for Apple and Android operating systems are still supported, it is recommended that Windows users upgrade to the new version of SURA. Information, set up instructions, license and restrictions, and the file download are available on the ITS Downloads web page.
Users who do not already have and would like to get remote access need to follow the Remote Access Authorization process. Complete information is on the ITS website.
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CallXpress® coming in April
More than voice mail, new system enables unified messaging
SU's new unified messaging system - CallXpress® - will be activated in early April, 2012. Starting then, calls to the SU voice mail access number (3-2527) will be directed to the new system. CallXpress includes a new feature called Simple Unified Messaging (Simple UM), which allows users to receive an email notification and a WAV file of each voice mail message.
The Telecommunications team is finalizing details. "As soon as the activation date is firm, and final technical issues are resolved we'll get the word out," said Ron Kurdziel, director of Telecommunications. "Support staff and Telecom's administrative contacts across campus will be notified first by email, followed closely by an email to Deans, Directors and Department heads, units using menu boxes, and users who share mailboxes ("generic" mailboxes)."
"Next, messaging will appear in MySlice, a story will be published in SUToday, followed by emails to end users. These emails may be staggered to spread out the initializations and not overload the system, which can handle up to 48 simultaneous callers," Kurdziel said.
Communications will direct employees to theTelecom website (telecom.syr.edu; now under construction) for instructions on setting up their new voice mailbox, quick reference cards, FAQs and other important information.
According to Kurdziel there are a few things about CallXpress that should be kept in mind:
- Voice mailbox extensions will be converted from 4-digits to 5-digits. Depending on the user's extension number, a "2" or "3" or will be added to the front of the existing voice mailbox numbers. (e.g., if the phone number is 443-1234 and the current voice mailbox is 1234, the new voice mailbox number will be 31234).
- Keypad navigation will change to enable full access to system features. Reference guides will be available on the Telecom website.
- Old voice mail messages cannot be converted to the new voice mail system but will be available on the old Octel voice mail system after activation of the new system (by calling 3-2578) until the end of the academic year this May, at which time Octel will be deactivated. Special arrangements to make copies of selected messages can be made by sending an email to voicemail@syr.edu.
Each employee will need to initialize their own mailbox before they can use the new system. This can be done at any time, preferably before the system is activated in early April. Once the new system is activated, any user who has not already done so will be required to initialize their mailbox the first time they dial into the system on 3-2527.
Initialization will take only a few minutes. Users dial into the system, enter the introductory security code and follow a brief tutorial to set up and personalize their mailbox with a new security code, and record their name and a new greeting. After the mailbox is set up, the tutorial will continue with some shortcuts and tips for using the system.
Employees who have initialized their voice mailbox and who want Simple Unified Messaging (Simple UM, which generates an email notification and a WAV file of each voice mail message) will need to send an email request to Telecom at voicemail@syr.edu. The request must include the name, campus telephone number, and SU email address of the voice mailbox owner.
SU contracted with Newcastle Communications for the installation, ongoing maintenance and support of CallXpress. The system has been installed and configured on four Windows servers in the Green Data Center and Machinery Hall Data Center. The mailbox price charged to user departments for CallXpress will be the same as it is for Octel.
CallXpress will replace SU's "end-of-life" Octel Voice Mail system, which was installed in 1998. Avaya, Octel's manufacturer stopped making and selling the system more than five years ago, and stopped maintaining the system last July. There will be no future enhancements for the Octel system.
If you have questions about the conversion, or want more information, visit SU's Telecommunications department website at http://telecom.syr.edu. Or contact Telecom at 443-4730 or voicemail@syr.edu.
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IT Connections is published monthly by Information Technology and Services at Syracuse University. Please submit story ideas and news items to Chris Finkle.
 
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