Information Services and Technology (IS&T) FY08 Q2 Report ... · IS&T FY08 Q2 Report April 14, 2008 Page 4 o Partner with ISDA and SAIS to finalize systems’ health criteria definition

Information Services and Technology (IS&T) FY08 Q2 Report For the months of October 2007 – December 2007 Distributed April 14, 2008 Office of the Vice President for Information Services and Technology: Jerrold Grochow, Vice President for Information Services and Technology Christine Meholic, Director of Student and Administrative Information Systems Don Montabana, Director of Client Support Services Theresa Regan, Director of Operations and Infrastructure Services Wilson D’Souza, Director of Infrastructure Software Development and Architecture Allison Dolan, Director of Human Resources and Administration Angie Milonas, Director of Finance Diana Hughes, Special Assistant to the Vice President Christine Fitzgerald, Strategic Communications Manager Steve Winig, Manager of Relationship Management and Project Management Programs Table of Contents

I. OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT..................................................................................................3 II. STUDENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS .................................................10

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report

April 14, 2008 Page 2

III. CLIENT SUPPORT SERVICES .......................................................................................................14 IV. OPERATIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES ...................................................................26 V. INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND ARCHITECTURE ..............................33 VI. IS&T FINANCIALS ..........................................................................................................................36

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


I. Office of the Vice President

The major focus of IS&T leadership during Q2 FY08 was towards developing the FY09 IS&T Budget and Strategic Plan. In parallel with these activities, IS&T leadership worked with the consulting firm of ClockTower to begin to outline and develop metrics based budgets for the organization.

The office of the Executive Vice President initiated a major Capital Planning project for all departments and the IS&T leadership team played a key role in developing components of the plan for all IT related areas.

Based on the review of IS&T’s overall needs for HR services and the assessment of the most appropriate organizational model, IS&T kicked off a search for a new Director of Human Resources. Other Q2 accomplishments: IT-SPARCC • Revised membership, reviewed charter • Conducted annual review with Provost and EVP

Relationship Management • MIT community engagement (selected examples)

o Continued liaison work with existing clients Team has established relationships, at different levels, with 10 of the 23 (43%)

MIT organizational entities (Schools, Deans, VPs, etc) covering 95 of 192 DLCs (49%)

o Engaged by conduct a survey of Student Systems Steering Committee (SSSC) members to gather feedback in order to inform the evolution of the committee and its work

o Represented IS&T at ACCORD meetings (with other IS&T reps) o Active participant on the MIT IT Capital Plan Project o Connected Urban Studies with Alumni Association to discuss alumni-student-faculty

discussion groups o Collaborating with Facilit ies to develop an IT Strategic Plan o Conducted several meetings with DUE to plan for technology upgrade for transcript

microfilm o Established Client – IS&T connections (selected examples) o Connected DSL and SAIS regarding Time and Attendance Systems o Chemistry with DITR and NIST to address IP issues o CBI with Server Operations o MIT Museum with Mobile Devices o Facilit ies with Mobile Devices

• Specific collaboration efforts with IS&T (selected examples) o Continued RM integration with IS&T directorates by inviting service providers to RM

team meetings to discuss the service, client feedback, strategic direction, etc. DCAD, Survey Services, Server Virtualization, eCommerce, Energy Initiative,

Google Service, ATIC lab, eCommerce, etc. o Collaborated with Student Systems Vision Project, ISDA, and DCAD, to conduct and

publish the results of an investigation project into MIT’s departmental administrative systems - includes tools used for faculty administrative purposes

o VOIP o Residential Network Wiring with DSL/Housing

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


o Partner with ISDA and SAIS to finalize systems’ health criteria definition for MIT Capital Plan project

o Engaged by CSS to help plan and facilitate a Software Licensing Focus Group o Working with IS&T’s HR team, facilitated the creation of an HR calendar o Partnering with OIS to determine ongoing model for construction and renovation

projects: Sloan School, PDSI, NW35, the Cancer Research Center, and the new Media Lab.

• Specific collaborations outside of MIT o Continued collaborating with other universities and industry programs via the

Relationship/Account Management Community of Practice to share best practices and lessons learned. The Community of Practice includes Bose, Stanford, Cornell, and MIT. A separate, local, CoP has been created with Bose, Eaton Vance, Endeca, and MIT

o Presented RM: Stronger Partnerships to Inform IT Planning at Educause 2007 • Communications and other projects

o Developed and published an IS&T Services Usage matrix to illustrate clients’ use of published IS&T products and services.

o Conducted cross-directorate IS&T focus group to discuss integration of RM function within IS&T and to receive feedback on the program

o Presented the quarterly RM Update to VP staff to discuss RM clients and review new service opportunities

o Completed a survey of existing RM clients Project Management • Facilitated the implementation of the VP Staff project portfolio review process which

included the roll-out of a one page project snapshot and director summary across all IS&T functional areas

• Partnered with the IS&T functional areas to define and begin to implement the organizational rollout of the project and portfolio management system, PPM6

• Appointed to facilitate the Cross Directorate Project Planning Initiative • Continued providing PM consulting to existing projects, including but not limited to:

o Several IS&T Big Initiative Proposals, Converged email and calendaring, VoIP, Client Support Services Organization, and Vista release project

• Collaborated with members of multiple IS&T functional areas to define system health criteria. The criteria was utilized by all participants in the MIT IT Capital Plan Project

• Continued transitioning responsibility for project management methodology adoption to the IS&T functional areas o Identified a project management contact in a majority of the IS&T functional areas

• Continued to share the methodology, checklists, and templates with other MIT departments, higher-ed institutions, and interested companies

Strategic Communications • Continued training and acclimation of new Communications Officer – included introduction to

the IS&T organization, work processes and key contacts within IS&T and some areas of MIT. • Communications and Outreach Consortium – worked closely with Boston Consortium

representative, Brandeis University and Boston College to launch the IT Communications and Outreach consortium group -- a branch of the Boston Consortium. The kickoff meeting took place on November 6, 2007 at Brandeis University and included participation by 11 Boston area schools.

• Events -- IS&T hosted our 1st All Hands meeting of the fiscal year on October 10 with a focus on the IS&T big initiative projects. Coordinated outreach with key groups (AIM; AAC-II; Asst Deans) for MITvoip and event logistics for the MITvoip community forum – including scheduling, email invitations, and review and feedback of presentations.

• Communication Plans -- engaged and worked with all areas of IS&T on communication plans for major projects and also for various software release efforts. Q2 focused on plans

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


around VoIP (ongoing); Vista (ongoing); MIT Wiki Service; UROP Phase 3 (collaboratively with DUE); Student Systems Vision (SSV); Email and Calendaring; Thunderbird; Mobile Devices; Leopard; IT Energy (ongoing); and IT Security – 1st time use of infinite corridor screens and LSC movies for informational publ icity of data security practices and Data Breach process overview and development of DIRT (Data Incident Response Team).

• Print Media/Brochures/Newsletters – Produced September/October and November/December is&t newsletter for MIT Community; and researched options for internal newsletters. Produced three Digitalk columns including interview with Jerry Grochow and Larry Benedict on copyright concerns and wrote article for the Tech on IS&T’s new energy tricycle.

• Projects – Continued working on content and review of content management system (Alfresco) for production of the IS&T Website (designs completed in June; requirement gathering for CMS completed by December and decision for CMS by end of January 2008); Print Branding project – worked with internal team to review and give feedback on several design rounds producing template options for folders; postcards, table banners, posters, brochures, back-to-school materials etc.; Internal Newsletter: kicked off project with outline of work and options, outreach to IS&T staff and draft proposal/mockup; IS&T/MIT Signage: completed signage on IT Energy Tricycle; completed signage on IS&T fleet of vehicles and began work to define needs for signage for phase I of the Athena Clusters; and Electronic is&t newsletter: began research on what other MIT publications are doing for electronic newsletters and developed project plan.

• Training – completed InDesign training for Manager of Strategic Communications and Communications Officer building on skills to bring most design work for marketing materials in-house resulting in long term savings. Attended Conference on Women in Business and Leadership at Babson College.

• FY09 Strategic Planning and Budgeting – participated in development of the IS&T FY09 Strategic Plan and developed FY09 Operational plan for IS&T Communications including a full year budget proposal.

• IS&T Staff Survey – participated on Communication working group from staff survey work. IT Energy Initiative • Presented a session on the Greening of IT at MIT at the Massachusetts Digital Government

Summit 2007, an annual event to foster discussion and dialogue on the use of information technology as a strategic tool for managers, executives and policy makers at the state and local government.

• Worked with Course 1 Faculty and students to locate the pedal powered Athena laptop at the Stata Gym.

• Gave a “Leading Green” talk sponsored by the Students for Global Sustainability to the MIT Community.

• Presented IT energy projects to faculty and the behavior change task force • Completed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the IS&T tricycle for approval by

MIT EHS. • Wrote monthly is&t newsletter Computer Currents columns and updated web content

VoIP Initiative • Complete transition of tier 1 support to CSS:

o Tier 1 support migrated to CSS. Voip-pilots-support email l ist deprecated, support now through [email protected], or extension 3HELP.

o Vendor training for support and network administration completed. • Complete Production Network Element Deployment

o Patch to VoIP telephone firmware received, it enabled the Session Border Controllers to be: put into production. The SBCs were later removed from production call flows because of call blocking and/or drops while under load. Waiting for resolution, problem

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


is being looked at by the vendor. VPN provides partial solution to the security issues introduced by not having an SBC in place.

o Iperia Voicemail System put into production o Re-branding to MITvoip (from Sylantro, Iperia) in process.

• VoIP Transitions o Planning for Sloan, Resource Development, and Industrial Liason Program departments

complete. Deployments beginning the last week in January. Sloan likely to take 6-8 weeks to

complete deployment. o Rough schedule for future deployment:

Buildings W20, W31, and W32 in the April-May timeframe, to take advantage of the on-going cable-renewal effort.

Libraries, HR, and perhaps other departments in the June and July timeframe • Outreach and Communications:

o Paper on MITvoip accepted for NERCOMP, another paper submitted to the IEEE Sarnoff Symposium on Communications

o Three IS&T VoIP IAP sessions scheduled: SIP Fundamentals, Personal SIP Workshop, and Building VoIP Applications.

o VoIP Advisory Board meeting scheduled for February 5 Other Projects • Facility IT Strategy Development • Developed IT Strategy Development process and framework. Identified 4 key strategic

themes (Incorporation of mobile technology, Knowledge management, Project Management and Training). Facilitated strategy discussion sessions with the previous and new leadership team. Project on hold awaiting decision by the new Directors.

• Computer Space Task Force • Facilitated discussion on the needs and analysis of computer space based on work done by

the CSTF. Assisted in the development of materials for discussion and approval of the Bates HPC facility renovation project.

• IT Policies, Security • Provided guidance and mentorship for the development of the Data Breach Incident

Response Process, policy template (Policy, Rationale, Implementation, and Implication) and newly organized policy drafts.

• Employee Supervisor Relationship (ESR) • Conceptualized and developed justification for Employee Supervisor Relationship project.

Secured sponsors (Assoc Provost, HR VP). Project work is to be done via separate projects that require the ‘relationship’ information due to (re)prioritization.

• Center for BioMedical Innovation • Established a new relationship with a relatively new and evolving center. Explored a new

servicing model. • Personal Identity Information Program • Identified risks associated with Social Security Numbers in the institute. Compiled data,

applications and processes associated with the SSN highl ighting potential exposures. Developed framework for the program to address key risk areas. Delivered numerous presentations to various groups including Audit Committee, ASPCC, SSSC and AIM. Established and staffed a new institute-wide PII Program.

• High Performance Computer Center (HPCC) • Developed HPCC project charter, goals, guiding principles, approach and preliminary

high-level timeline. Drafted concept team goals and membership. Initiated discussion with other institutions and organizations regarding various aspects of HPCC.

• Cisco Telepresence • Coordinated meetings and discussions on Cisco’s Telepresence system and MIT’s potential

implementation. Currently working the detai ls of the technical requirements and logistics.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Some of the commitments for Q3, FY08 include: IT-SPARCC • Host the Provost and EVP for a review of IT-SPARCC at the November meeting • Begin discussions of prioritization and resource planning • Charter a team to develop proposal / evaluation of HPC data center for MIT. Conclude

Bates discussion/decision. Relationship Management • Publish results from the RM Client Survey • Interview and hire a new Relationship Manager • Present the quarterly RM Update to VP staff to discuss RM clients and review new service

opportunities • Continue conducting cross-directorate IS&T focus group to discuss integration of RM function

within IS&T and to receive feedback on the program • Continue to partner with OIS to determine how to handle construction and renovation

projects Project Management • Revamp and publish the PM web pages • Participate in a PM 101 Seminar sponsored by the Office of the VP for research • Complete the organizational rollout of the project and portfolio management system, PPM6 • Reestablish the IS&T Project Review Process • Draft the PM 101 for Executives Class • Establish a project management steering committee with representation from all IS&T

functional areas • Identify any additional PM services that would benefit the IS&T organization • Ongoing activities:

o Facilitate the VP Staff project portfolio review process o Continue to provide coaching and mentoring on the IS&T project management

methodology and key project management topics of interest o Continue to offer on-demand Project Management workshops on key topics of interest o Continue facilitating regular IS&T project reviews o Maintain the toolkit and make updates as required o Continue to transition the adoption of the project methodology across the IS&T functional areas o Continue to share the methodology, checklists, and templates with other MIT

departments, higher-ed institutions, and interested companies Strategic Communications • Plan for 2nd IT Communications and Outreach consortium meeting scheduled for March 26 at

the Boston Consortium headquarters at Olin College. • Print Branding Project – complete project with delivery of templates for brochures, posters,

postcards, folders etc. by January with tutorial of templates in mid-January. • NERCOMP – As Institutional representative assist with any presentations planned for

annual conference in March; and attend annual conference in Providence, RI on March 10-12. • IS&T Internal Newsletter Project – led by Communications Officer – based on outreach and

feedback from IS&T staff, develop an IS&T Newsletter that is focused on internal IS&T information (e.g. projects, staffing changes, organizational changes, etc.) Target January 2008 for pilot of the initial product and GO LIVE in mid-February.

• Electronic is&t newsletter – led by is&t newsletter editor – continue to explore options for offering the current community facing is&t newsletter in an updated electronic version. What are the resource implications and any barriers or concerns? How and when to implement? Plan to implement in late spring.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


• Communication Plans – project communication plans for Q2 FY08 some include – VoIP (ongoing – implementation and print materials key in Q3 – Welcome packets); Thal ia; Stellar; Email/Calendaring project, VMWare, MIT Regional Optical Network; SSN/PPI; Vista (final) and Admin IT.

• Events/Outreach – plan for All Hands meeting in April; plan and coordinate for IS&T Community Forum to be held on February 13 including services trade show; IT Energy lunch which was postponed until spring; and outreach within IS&T at functional manager meetings.

• Signage – finalize phase I of Athena Cluster signage/branding. • Newsletter – deliver the is&t newsletter for January/February in the new print design and

prep for March/April articles; Digitalk columns and launch of internal newsletter. • HR Director search – participate in interviewing of finalists for the HR Director position. • Training – participate in Dreamweaver training to enable publishing of IS&T weekly

internal newsletter on the web site. • Email Management – develop proposal for improved management of both broadcast email

messages to the community and also email sent to the is&t mail l ist helping to reduce “spam” type messages.

IT Energy Initiative • IAP session on the Greening of IT at MIT • Hold first Power Lunch for students/faculty • Complete N42 plug load inventory with UROP • Site Visit to APC Data Center in Billerica • Assist Taeminn and Jerry with HPCC technology options

VoIP Initiative • Complete transition of tier I support to CSS

o Continued mentoring of tier 1 and tier 2 support o Begin collection of support statistics o Vendor training for support and network administration

• Deployment of Production Network Elements o Session Border Controller o Iperia Voicemail System with MIT Configurations o Complete Configuration System Capabilit ies o Complete re-branding to MIT VoIP (from Sylantro, Iperia, etc.)

• Publish six month deployment plan, complete deployment methodology o Determine final roles and responsibilit ies for provisioning and configuration o Deployment walk through – Office of Development Research

• Conduct significant community outreach o Community Forum o VoIP Advisory Board Meeting o Several DLC meetings

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


II. Student and Administrative Information Systems

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The quarter saw completion of twenty-six Student System Vision (SSV) workshops, in addition to numerous related advisory and data-gathering meetings. Institute-wide stakeholder participants included DUE, DSL, Academic departments, IS&T and other organizations, as well as several student focus groups. The first SSV workshop report was finished and posted on the project’s wiki, and all other reports are currently in production, scheduled for completion by the end of February ’08. A preliminary outline of the SSV Final Report was undertaken as well. A series of End-to-End Workshops is planned for early to mid-February. UA Phase II finished, including an Admissions Statistics Report and a Biographical Database Extract. UA Phase III began with plans to complete user testing for transfer functional ity, development and user testing for Reply Study, and development for a print version of E3 Card. Application-through-Early-Action reading and decisions processes were concluded, and Early Action decisions released online. A new ISO hold requirement in MITSIS was also implemented. In Q3 FY08, Regular Action reading and decision processes will be supported and Regular Action decisions will be released online. A Spring Search campaign from Stargate wil l be completed for the first time, as well as a PowerBuilder rewrite. The Student Built Apps project was also del ivered during the quarter. Upgrade and support patch plans were developed for Student Systems, and old MITSIS equipment was retired at the end of December. During the upcoming quarter, SAIS will continue to develop and improve capacity plans for MITSIS environment, and replace older IBM servers with new HP servers. Benefits Open Enrollment updates, Annual Salary Review Phase I Enhancements and eSDS Version 2 were completed, while improving HR Payroll systems and processes under the direction of the HR Payroll Coordinating Body. ECAT3, a new e-commerce portal for MIT’s top suppliers (including Office Depot, Invitrogen, Westnet, AlliedElectronics, and Mill ipore), was implemented. EHS Inspections and the Merchant Services Implementation projects were launched. Other administrative team activities included applying year-end SAP Support Packages, completing evaluation of IXOS client viewer for Windows Vista and XP and rollout, and migrating SAPweb Self Services applications from ITS to OAS. Daptiv PPM6 was implemented to improve SAIS’ resource and project management. With All ison Dolan transitioning out of her position as Head of IS&T Human Resources, Christine Meholic was named to serve as Mentoring HR Director and to lead the search committee to find a successor. Annual performance evaluations will be conducted during the upcoming quarter.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


SAIS Metrics – Q2 FY08 (October - December 2007) Public Production System Primetime Availability (%)

Production System Changes (#)

SAP (# of transports) ................... 290 MITSIS .......................................... 24 WebSIS ......................................... 52 Undergrad Admissions ................. 34 Other Admin Apps.......................... 26

. Internal Resource Allocation (%) Based on actual reported effort; Admin from Daptiv, Student from resource model.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Support Tickets – Administrative Systems

Support Tickets – Student Systems

Karen Schmidt ! 3/31/08 12:01 PMDeleted:

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Projects Started in Quarter • Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) • Merchant Services Implementation • EHS Inspections • Plant Maintenance Custodial and Grounds • Undergraduate Admissions Phase III • ECAT vendor migration • Disaster Recovery Test April 2008 Planning • SISTIM Suspense Pay Processing • Double Majors • DSL PE Registration • Macintosh SAPgui 7.10 release project • MITSIS Hardware Replacement

Projects Completed in Quarter • Undergraduate Admissions Phase II • Benefits Open Enrollment • Year-End SAP Support Packages • Student Built Applications • UROP Phase 3 Pilot roll out • Admission through Early Action Reading and Decision • Annual Salary Review Phase I Enhancements • eSDS Version 2 • SAPweb Self Services applications migrated from ITS to OAS • ECAT3 III. Client Support Services

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Q2FY08 continues the story line where we’re chal lenged to balance increasing customer demands (in services offered and in the speed in which issues are resolved) in the face of fixed resources. We are using the next two quarters (Q3/Q4) to review in detai l each CSS line of business to develop appropriate metrics, rationalize costs, as wel l as identifying improvement opportunities in process efficiency, etc. The following report outlines both what was accomplished during Q2 as well as some of the individual chal lenges the respective CSS units faced during this period. There were some singularly noteworthy achievements this past quarter, among them:

• The hosting of a Software Licensing Focus Group in November with key customers across the Institute to understand their specific requirements; this will be followed up in Q3 with a focus group tasked with discussing appropriate chargeback strategies.

• The submission and granting of three Big Initiatives

• The successful support for mobile devices; increases in requests for assistance continue to increase and we need to stay ahead of this area of explosive growth.

• VoIP telephony support rolled out to existing clients • We added a new Macintosh coordinator and a second mobile devices consultant.

Detai ls for each CSS line of business follow below:

Karen Schmidt ! 3/31/08 12:05 PMDeleted: Section Break (Next Page)

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report

March 28, 2008 Page 13

Software Licensing and Distribution (J. Hunt) The second quarter of FY08 saw the completion of several key projects as well as the launch of a number of new releases: Completed Projects:

- Windows Vista Recommendation and Project Completed (2 years in the making) - Kerberos for Windows 3.2 - TSM 5.4.1.2 - FileMaker Pro 9 - RHEL 5 - Email and Calendar for Windows Mobile and Palm OS

Launched Release Projects:

- Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard Release Project) and communicated to community in conjunction with Apple's release on October 26.

- Virtualization Evaluation Project: Parallels vs Fusion - iPhone Release Project

Worked with OIS to provide the following download sites:

- MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard) for early adopters - Acrobat Professional 8 site added functionali ty to detect departmental affil iation

Hired the following staff:

- Patrick McNeal started as Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Andrea Sullivan began in VSLS and caught VSLS up on billing - Matt Sullivan began as our second Mobile Device Consultant (September)

Proposed and approved to proceed with two IS&T Big Initiatives:

- Next Generation Mobile Information Services - Software Distribution and Licensing System (SDLS)

Other Notable Accomplishments:

- Hosted Software Licensing Focus Group in November with key customers - Prepared and submitted FY09 budget proposal for software area - Began transition of Autodesk (AutoCAD) distribution from Architecture to VSLS - Began working with OIS on iPass renewal decision - Met with VP Finance's Office to confirm VSLS recovery model met with MIT's overall financial

philosophy - Worked on MIT SPSS license - Got current on VSLS bill ing

Challenges for the Software Area

- Our most significant chal lenge continues to be the balance between resource limitations and increasing customer demands, especial ly around project management for release projects and the two big initiatives. For example, we still do not have a planned release project for Dreamweaver 9 support and the TSM release project needed for Leopard Support has been delayed by four weeks.

- Lack of resources to simplify VSLS processes. We have got the various pieces working well, but now need to make them similar enough so that work is easier and more consistent for the staff.

- The FY09 Budget preparations took a great deal of time of time to prepare and caused two major projects to practically come to a halt, namely the Supporting WIN.MIT.EDU and SDLS Big Initiative.

- Mobile Device requests for help continue to increase and even with the addition of Matt in September, we struggle to meet existing demand for help.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


- The IS&T Website delays continue to impact our ability to clearly communicate information and access to software to our customers that the Software Grid was to have provided in June. We have put off major improvements to the VSLS web site, Software Download Site and PFD information in expectation of having a better frame work with the software grid.

- License negotiations continue to take unpredictable amounts of time. The SPSS deal seemed to be close to completion back in November, but is stil l unresolved by mid January.

- Lack of ownership from a support perspective for Mathematical applications that are crucial from to academics and research success such as Mathematica, Maple and Matlab.

- Our software pricing decisions range as widely as the license terms governing each product. Our customers want a clearer and easier model that they feel is fair or advantageous to them. We have historically made what we considered the best decision at the time as we added new products to the available suite, which has resulted in our current state. This is a challenge we will be working on for quite a while.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Training, Consulting, and Publications (Jane White) In general, Q2 of FY08 was a significantly operational time period for these teams, some highl ights are as follows:

- ATIC deployed the new FileMaker database to track their web accessibility review work. - Three Pubs tech writers (Mark, Lee and Esther) did a presentation/workshop on Documentation

to Training Partners in November (cross-departmental and cross-functional collaboration. - Training team supported Procurement’s rollout of ECAT3, including live sessions and online

demos. - Training & Pubs met with OSP to discuss next steps in COEUS documentation and Training

(following successful deployment of COEUS-Lite in FY07) - Carole Trainor joined the Training Team, replacing Irina Vainstock who transferred to the VoIP

Team; Dave Conlon filled the last open consultant's position in DCAD; Areth Foster-Webster left DCAD (MIT) leaving an open web application developer position in DCAD; Katherine Wahl joined the Usability Team in a new half-time position.

- TCP Manager and Team Leads completed goals in Halogen (next step stil l pending) Much of Jane’s time was occupied by FY09 budgeting and planning, the replacement process of the DITR Manager position, as well as some work on Facilit ies IT Planning (before everything changed with the new administration. Jane has also been involved with work on the Training Alignment Team's strategic planning and stakeholder’s interviews.

Key chal lenges for the quarter. Those have been:

- The persistent delays to the CMS, including the inability to reassign resources - The drain of DCAD resources to IS&T projects (even when cost-recovered the demand is for

short turnaround by the same individuals) - The need to recast IS&T's allocation of support resources to projects as we now seem to be

outnumbered.

Process and Performance Management Reporting (R. Smyser)

- Increased the number of active process dashboards from 9 to 15, broadening coverage of the CSS l ines of business that use RT to manage their work. New dashboards created for Athena, DITR-VPF, Software Mobile Devices, Network Requests, and TNIS.

- Rebuilt reporting of Call Center ACD performance in the new eOn system. ACD reporting had been down since the Spring 2007 Daylight Savings Time switchover.

- Created three more client satisfaction snapshot survey engines, increasing the total l ines of business surveyed regularly from 2 to 5.

- Partner Report Card prototyped for the VP for Finance queue managed by DITR. Linda Lancaster is enthusiastic about the effort.

- Finished a working version of the IS&T Public Facing Measures site, http://web.mit.edu/ist/about/measures, presenting selected quarterly report measures in an attractive format for public consumption, with historical data and descriptive text.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Project Management - Pilot of PPM in CSS completed. Implementation of eProject / Daptiv PPM is underway.

Migrated the CSS major projects snapshot tracking from Excel to PPM in time for the January VP-Staff review. Conducting just-in-time training of Managers and Team Leads as warranted.

Challenges Ahead

- DCAD adoption of PPM will require moving the metadata for over 160 active projects from dotProject to PPM, with little prospect of scripting or automation. SWRT is also planning to use PPM in its release projects.

- Anne Denna and Rob Smyser are beginning to systematically appraise CSS lines of business, starting with those that have revenue forecasts, such as Hardware Services. Our goal is to create sound models as the basis for rationalizing costs and for identifying improvement opportunities in process efficiency, etc.

- All CSS lines of business need to couple their business models to active process dashboards. Also, more of the RT cases that IS&T creates need follow-up with snapshots surveys to catch shortfal ls in service and document the good work we are already doing.

- RT reporting would be helped enormously by a presence of even basic case data in the Data Warehouse. This work has been discussed for a very long time and is stil l not done.

CSS Support Services (B. Goguen, O. Thomas)

Help Desk:

Hardware/Software Repair - Gigabit switch deployed to allow rapid backup of client data during repair process - RAID backup server brought on-line and actively used - Planning and work begun on expansion of repair center space into the loading dock

ECAT3 Launch - Support for Office Depot/ECAT3 through Help Desk rolled out - Office Depot personal lists project delivered in time for rollout

Hardware Recommendations Core Team - Helen Rose, Steve Burke, and Stan Diamond added as community participants - Hardware recommendations updated for Vista support

VoIP tier 1 and tier 2 support model developed and turned on

Wikis.mit.edu support and provisioning model developed and turned on

Open Enrollment - Help Desk provided support for the Benefits Open Enrollment period. • Comparing 2007 to 2008 OE support, HD provided significantly more support: FY07 total

HD open enrollment tickets = 35; FY08 total HD tickets = 340 (289 of the 340 were certificate related; 179 certificate questions were from Lincoln Lab staff).

VIP Help - Commenced process of transitioning from VIP Help to DITR + support for the senior level MIT administrators (expected end date, 1/31)

Business Help - Hosted a breakfast meeting for business appl ication community; highl ighted Hyperion web tool and plans for improved business help services

Emergency Continuity - With long power outage, tested eOn's (ACD) remote connectivity to relocate help services to

W91 for an afternoon - Instal led two analog phones in Call Center to ensure we had phones with power during future power outages

Tools and Process Improvements

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


- Completed license with Bomgar for remote access troubleshooting tool; server now in-house and being configured

- Presented poster session at EduCause in Seattle about our use of an internal knowledge base to support a Knowledge Centered Approach to technical support - Prepared awarded proposal for Big Initiative dollars to continue work on a more sharable

collection of knowledge

Staffing - We continue to struggle with student staffing; impacted by student workload

- Lots of examples of effective work from home procedures, but still felt very stretched at times in the call center

- Kate Lindberg joins Help Desk as new receptionist - Larry retires (Planning underway to address very short notice retirement of Larry Egan with regards to the Team Leadership of the Repair Center) - Commenced process of trying to backfil l for staff (Larry Egan, Barbara Johnson)

ACCORD - Oliver joins Libraries' GIS planning group (3) - ACCORDiacs partners meetings (2) - Presentations to sponsors, Undergraduate Administrators - Faculty survey component developed

Projects - Classroom committee work kicks off, including looking at clusters - Deliver Athena utilization metrics to Phil Long - Hermes Big Initiative kicks off

- Libraries AskUs review - IT Partners training review

- MIT Libraries printing/copying/scanning renewal project - MIT Museum go-live (September 18th) - SAVE printing campaign part two under way (change new account defaults, power save)

Fall Readiness - Materials review with Tank Design

Challenges Going Forward - Finding and retaining enough on-duty resources - Rolling out additional support for business help community - Rethinking our product marketing and "retai l ing" relationship with Apple given latest developments

- Continue to make progress on Hermes given everyone's operational responsibilit ies

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


DITR: (H. Dietrich, B. Campbell, C. King, B. Murphy, P. Curtis) SLAs: (H. Dietrich)

- The SLA count decreased by one with the Center for Transportation and Logistics contract ending; Tom Coveney left DITR are became the full time employee for CTL, the work moving with him

- In October, Kyle Pope left and that placed a significant "management" responsibility on Hans since he had kept a lot of the SLA inner workings closely held.

- We have established two "server" SLAs that had previously been provided free of charge. - In October we started our interviews for the four consultant positions we had vacant, three for

the DITR+ positions and one to replace Tom Coveney. The 3 for the DITR+ were filled by the end of December. The replacement for Tom is stil l in process.

- We are trying to place more emphasis on team members to charge for short-term service work. We seem to be doing a lot of follow-up work for free.

- We currently have 32 SLAs with DLCs and 7 server SLAs (Mac and Linux). Athena Clusters and Laptop Loaner Program (B. Murphy)

Accomplishments

The Athena Cluster Team’s primary accomplishment this past quarter was to resolve the remaining issues generated due to the move of OEIT into DUE. Responsibilit ies for particular areas such as B37, 4-035 and The New Media Lab have been resolved out and documented. Personnel changes within OEIT initial ly required additional support to OEIT while vacancies there were filled; this is now complete. In addition, The Cluster Team has deployed and or upgraded 53 public cluster machines and 10 DLC Athena Machines. There remain an additional 27 machines in public clusters to be upgraded and are on hold pending:

- W20-575C – Network upgrade is currently under way which will enable faster machines in the Win-Athena environment in this area. Existing 10 megabit service in this area prevents an upgrade with any significant benefit.

- E51-075 - It had been agreed that a portion of this room would be turned over to SHASS. This would require a re-configuration of the room and the decision was made to hold off on upgrading machines until plans are finalized.

At the request of the Finance Team Athena bi l l ing has moved to a quarterly bill ing cycle. The intent of this change is to provide IS&T (as well as Departments) with the ability to more easily forecast charges and revenue over the year.

A donation of 10 retired machines was made to Easton High School. I believe Gerry has received a Thank You letter from this School. Laptop Loaner Program

The program provided 120 laptops to 4 courses and various individual requests and events over Q2. We have also retired 60 of the older laptops and purchased new models to support additional requests.

Admin Desktop renewal (B. Campbell)

- Total Q2 Deployments: 206

o Apple iMac Desktop: 51 o Apple PowerBook Laptop: 10 o Dell Optiplex Desktop: 112 o Dell Laptop: 17 o Dell PowerEdge Servers: 3 o Dell Printers: 13

Admin IT Program (C. King)

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Accomplishments AdminIT completed 82 Preventative Maintenance visits covering 7 DLC’s this quarter. New clients receiving their first round of visits were CECI, CMRAE and EOP. The MIT News Office signed up in Q2, bringing the client base to over 850 computers in 55 DLCs. The AdminIT Program provided follow-up IT support to its clients, making more than 40 on-site visits to provide additional assistance.

Preliminary assessments of cases generated at the helpdesk show several instances of an average 20% decline in cases generated after the DLC joined AdminIT, namely– Aero/Astro, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Chuck King is now working with Rob Smyser on further analysis to hopefully corroborate this success story.

Staffing Issues AdminIT has one member or another of the three person team out on disability or sidelined with health issues for the last 18 months. With two staff we have not come close to meeting our obligation in making rounds. At the end of Q2, Patrick Connelly was hired to replace Patty Keough, restoring staffing levels to 3 FTE bringing us back to a full complement... He will replace Patty Keogh’s spot on the DITR roster. We are now at full staff for the first time in nearly 18 months.

Challenges The AdminIT Program is at capacity with 850 machines promised to visit twice per year. Even with three staff it is a stretch to try to complete 1700 visits in a year. In Q3 we will start to use software tools to allow remote inventory to reduce the time per visited machine. AdminIT will moderate demand for follow up visits by establishing a practice of charging clients at short term SLA contract prices for assistance that fal ls outside of the scope of the Preventative Maintenance visit. An AdminIT Program Breakfast Meeting will be scheduled in Q3 to re-engage with DLCs that may have grown distant during the staff shortage. DITR+ (P. Curtis)

The bulk of Q2 activities for the DITR+ team were spent as follows.

- Interviewing and hiring of 3 Level II Consultants to backfil l for the DITR SLA positions to be vacated by Pat Curtis and Michael Bryan. The 3rd Consultant hired is for The DITR+ team (Jessica Smith)

- Working with the current VIP Help team of John Hose, Mark Van Dyke, and Barbara Johnson for introduction and transition of support to the current VIP clientele.

- Finalization of the DITR-PLUS client list (a ‘l iving’ list). This will add new clients to the existing VIP help community.

- Knowledge transfer from current VIP staff to DITR+. This includes machine IP’s, server passwords, RT queues, etc.

- Q2 Budget forecasting w/Anne Denna. Cost Center assigned for DITR+. - Major success was with the identification of office space for team in 77 Mass Ave. We now have

an office in 35-338. We are awaiting lock change and keys. We will need some improvements to existing network connectivity in the room (LAN) as well as immediate area (WAN)

Telephone Client Support (J. Tarasenko) Accomplishments for Q2 FY2008

- Completed Iperia and Sylantro vendor training. - Continue weekly trainings with CSS VoIP special ists Dennis Baron and Elliot Eichen - Assumed Tier 1 support for VoIP telephones in addition to traditional phones - Actively involved in work of VoIP transition coordination and “tiger” teams for Resource

Development and Sloan transitions.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


- Continued to identify detai led specifications for implementation of the Proxy methodology into the TNIS Bil l ing system and develop necessary procedures. The first bill ing is expected at the end of February (depends on data being provided by DLCs).

- Working with OIS (TNIS team) re: loading network switches/activated ports data into the Controller database for the following buildings: 14, E28, E40, E70, N51, W91 (this is more than 2500 transactions that would need to be entered into the system manually by TNIS managers).

Challenges

1. While the learning of this new technology is going well, the level of expertise is stil l lower than with traditional telephones; CSRs are much more comfortable with VoIP support and their skills grow each day.

2. Vendor training will be lost eventually without additional access. 3. Our inability to provide the same level of support to our VoIP clients (as compared to

traditional telephony clients) when new service is requested is frustrating for clients and us; there are currently too many layers between request and execution.

ITSS: (T. McGovern)

Accomplishments - Completed agreement on Data Incident Response process - Established Data Incident Response Team - Responded on three data incidents (all proved negative) - Facilitated agreement on repeat infringers letters (OGC, DSL, etc.) - Finished draft policies for all currently needed IS&T policies - Offered/supported Quick Starts for Computer Awareness - Retained GIAC/FCGA certification for one staff member - Completed design of new Security web site - Published nine issues of IST-Security-FYI newsletter plus one Special Issue on Phishing Alert - Provided Awareness materials for Infinite Corridor slide show displays - Provided support to OGC for 19 subpoena received from RIAA - Established new precedent for departmental use of FileMaker to store sensitive data (OME, et

al) - Began to do work in support of the General Counsel's litigation requirements, initial ly in

response to DMCA - subpoenas on staff / MIT owned machines, and later for pre- litigation evidence preservation - Completed our search for someone to fill our open position (final acceptance and arrival in Q3)

Missed Opportunities (reprioritized due to more urgent things) - We did not complete the IS&T Policy website - We did not complete coding and rollout of the DMCA repeat infringers process - We did not complete the configuration and rol lout of network flows for incident detection - We did not complete planning for Security Awareness Month -- so MIT didn't see one of these

this yr. - We did not complete the conversations across campus to determine the future technical

directions - of incident detection for IS&T

Challenges for Q3

- Establishing an atmosphere within ITSS (perhaps beyond) where work prioritization is done professionally, competently, fairly, transparently and is communicated widely

- Completion of Q2 Missed Opportunities before we take on any new "great ideas" - Explaining copyright law, and the RIAA's strategy & methods, to students remains very

difficult - Looking ahead, we will need to invest in MITizing the new staff member - Case management for security, stopit, dmca and infoprotect all cross many boundaries, and - reaching some kind of philosophical consensus for each of these will take a lot of time

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


- Resisting the "Tyranny of the Inbox" -- last message in = most important message.

Data Appendix: Comments on CSS Measures (See Below)

• Help Desk Client Satisfaction scores were below goal (4.5) in two of three months in Q2, with a

similar decline in the percent saying they are satisfied or very satisfied. Examining the comments associated with the lower scoring surveys, there is a noticeable uptick in failures in process execution or case resolution. If there is a common element among these cases, it’s client impatience with inconsistent messages about how to get something done, or being directed to solutions that don’t actually work.

• Call Center performance shows a nearly 20% increase in calls offered per day, and an increase in agents’ avai lability of only 6%. As a consequence, the Wait time before the call is answered is well above target and almost doubled over last year, and as a result the Abandon Rate has also deteriorated under the increased call volume. Agent avai lability should be at least 40 hours per day to improve performance under these call volumes.

• Topics in Help Desk consulting cases have swung away from the historical pattern of mostly email and network cases towards more business and hardware cases. The growth in business cases partly comes from problems with accessing Open Enrollment, which everyone does at this time of year, and so case volumes when there is a problem will be high. A change in web page layout put the Help Desk contact information above that of Lincoln Labs, so Lincoln Lab staff called the Help Desk and got help, where previously they may have been handled locally. More trouble came from the ECAT 3 rollout, where clients are just not finding it as easy to do what they used to do in the older system. The increase in Hardware cases is harder to pin down to one root cause, but it appears that a side effect of the recent emphasis on laptops is coping with their relative fragility. There is long litany of laptop-related cases with fai l ing batteries, broken LCDs, DVD drives, and keyboards, etc. In addition, even the best prepared departmental help desk will tend to send their hardware cases to PC Service for the repair.

• Looking at the Top DLCs generating cases, Lincoln Labs rise on the list was due entirely to their troubles with Open Enrollment, mainly with certificates. Sloan is one of those DLCs that despite its level of local support stil l sends its hardware repairs to PC Service; that said, hardware cases at Sloan are only 31% of the volume.

• It is difficult to drill in to the spectrum of hardware involved with all these cases, as two-thirds of cases do not have the Hardware / OS / Software fields filled out. Making these into required fields in RT would certainly move us towards more usefully reportable data in this area.

• DITR’s Admin Desktop deployments and AdminIT’s preventative maintenance programs are suffering. Preventative Maintenance visits were well below target from being short-handed all year and from taking a long time per machine during the inventory step. Desktop deployments are spending more time than planned migrating user data across more systems than they were planning to do.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Selected Process and Performance Measures for CSS Lines of Business

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


IV. Operations and Infrastructure Services

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This past quarter saw the completion of a busy and exciting year for Operations and Infrastructure Services and IS&T, and a variety of new opportunities and chal lenges as we turn the calendar ahead to 2009. We welcomed Anne Silvester to the organization as the new manager for server and enterprise systems operations, and she has quickly immersed herself in the MIT environment and learning about its great many talents and diversities. This past quarter also saw the departure of Joanne Hal l isey after a storied career at MIT spanning over 15 years, and we would like to thank Joanne for her contributions throughout her tenure and wish her the utmost success in her endeavors beyond MIT.

OIS completed the instal lation and implementation of the MIT regional optical network spanning Boston, New York City and Baltimore. This represents the culmination of a multi-year effort that began back in March of 2006 with the acquisition of dark fiber from Level3 and uniquely positions MIT’s research and education initiatives for the future. The coming months will see the initial connections to the optical network bring high-speed connectivity to the LNS CMS Tier II project and also provide high speed connections to the National Lambda Rail (NLR) and Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) for al l of MIT. This network will be MIT’s first operated and maintained network beyond our local Cambridge boundaries and will be a new learning experience as we develop our processes and procedures for supporting this network at a distance, and these experiences will prove invaluable as we build our expertise in remote operations for sites such as Baltimore.

Finally this quarter MIT continued to develop and enhance its data center strategy, supporting MIT’s academic, administrative and research computing needs. This past December MIT completed negotiations for the acquisition of 3500 sq/ft of data center space at Markley’s One Summer St facility in downtown Boston. This lease represents the completion of an intense series of negotiations and discussions that spanned the MIT administration’s executive leadership and IS&T. This facil ity is expected to become avai lable for services beginning in July of 2008 and will allow for the relocation of a substantial portion of the enterprise services currently located in W91, thereby freeing up additional space in our W91 facility for additional HPC and collocation customers. There will be a significant build out effort in the coming months in order to prepare the facility for our occupation in July, but we look forward with anticipation to the opportunity to develop a new data center location to help better support MIT’s diverse computing needs.

Q3 Accomplishments by Program

Ongoing Operations Program • Maintained and operated the MIT network, campus backbone and infrastructure services • Monitor network equipment daily and repair fai lures as appropriate – ongoing. (TNIS) • Maintain and operate the W91 and E40 Data Centers (including production jobs for administrative

clients) supporting enterprise and co-location servers. (DOST) o Instal led additional non-HPC servers

Support for Major Building Projects Program Major Building Projects - Provide the MIT campus with timely and dependable delivery of network instal lations and infrastructure, including maintenance and upgrades via professional, cross-functional collaboration. (TNIS, Telephony, NIST, Cable TV, Network Strategies) Accomplishments NW35: Work is ongoing to provide telecommunications and network services for new residence hal l,

NW35, expected date of completion is Aug. 1, 2008 (TNIS) Work is ongoing to provide telecommunications and network services for Ashdown (W1) renovation

by August 1, 2010 (TNIS)

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Cancer Research Center (76): Work is ongoing to provide telecommunications and network services for new Cancer Research Center - completion date December 2010 (TNIS)

Sloan (E60): A plan was implemented to provide temporary tel/data service to the building around the Sloan construction lot. Expected date of completion spring/summer 2009.

Media Lab Expansion (E14): Work is ongoing to provide telecommunications and network services for new Media Lab Expansion. Expect construction to begin in February 2007 and complete in summer 2009. (TNIS)

New Sloan School Facility (E62): Work is ongoing to provide telecommunications and network services for new Cancer Research Center - completion date Summer2010 (TNIS)

Support additional unscheduled large projects. (TNIS) o 600 Memorial Drive (W98) - A plan was developed and agreed upon to provide a duct bank to

the building at some point in the future. Space inside the building was acquired. o FSILG Upgrades of 40 Facilit ies in Cambridge/Boston area.

Campus Network Program Campus Network - Become a trusted partner with the community by providing ongoing support for IT products and services that have transitioned from design, development or pilot status into operations.)A robust wired network is stil l required: streaming media, multi-cast, high-speed requirements, and backbone for wireless network. Accomplishments: Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Q2 Totals Jacks Installed @ rate 158 41 285 484 Labor Hours @ rate 0 60 24 84 MITnet Activations @ rate 242 333 358 933 Resolved Tickets 194 183 121 498 Open Tickets 9 14 43 66 Total of 66 open from before Q2 Total Open Tickets 132 Evaluation of next generation wireless (WiMax) (NIST, TNIS)

o Replace and/or upgrade 1/3 of the existing 2,480 wireless access points (APs). o Replace and/or upgrade 1/3 of the existing 820 wireless APs in residence hal ls.

Work is planned to complete the upgrade to 60 additional TDCRs, approximately 5 in each of 15 buildings, by June 30, 2008. (TNIS) o Design/Engineering Phase: Building 12, Building 10, Building 54 o Construction Phase: Buildings W20, W31, W32, W33, E25. o Completed Renewals: Building E28

Complete work on Facilit ies CRSP project portfolio by June 30, 2008. (TNIS) The list as of January 2007 has over 100 projects. The following projects are underway: o 5-021 Complete o 5-207 Completed o 7-021 Completed o 7-133 Completed o 48 Lab space Completed o 320 Charles Street Wireless; To be completed Feb 1st 2008 o Sloan Field Office o 12-102 Completed o 26-2nd floor Completed o 238 Main Street Reno o 13-2nd floor lab’s o 66-5th floor lab’s o 10-250 renovation o NW17-2nd floor renovation

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


o Wireless request-project in NE80 Create MIT Regional Optical Network. (Lighting Dark Fiber connection to New York and

Baltimore) (NIST) o Completed the instal lation of Nortel optical gear at approximately 25 locations throughout

the northeast. o Completed instal lation of equipment at 32 Avenue of the Americas o Established physical connections to several other regional networks at 32 Avenue of the

Americas o Identified and implemented solution for resolving the remaining fiber connectivity issue in

Albany New York between Level3 and Vermont Telephone. o Completed testing with Nortel of initial network paths across the optical network and

identified and resolved several potential problems. Coordinate with campus projects (Network Strategies)

o Mass Ave: Manhole covers were raised to the new street elevation following the paving. o Vassar Streetcape: Elevation conflicts were resolved in one location resulting in new utilit ies

being rearranged around IS&T existing duct banks. o Cancer Center: A resolution was reached that the existing MIT tel/data duct bank will not

have to be relocated for the new building.

Network Operations Program • Completed negotiation and execution of lease for data center space at 1 Summer St in Boston for the

relocation of enterprise services. • Completed instal lation of the MIT Optical Network • Completed implementation of redundancy for Internet2 connectivity at 1 Summer and 300 Bent St. • Continued planning and design for the Bates optical network. • Completed negotiation and execution of Vmware enterprise license for MIT. • Continued evaluation of 802.11n wireless devices for next generation MIT wireless network • Continued rollout of VoIP using Sylantro/Iperia and preparation for January rollout. • Completed upgrade of MITnet backbone switch in building 24 to Cisco 7609 • Completed implementation of redundant backbone switch and paths for each core router. • Completed upgrade of TLS router at 1 Summer St to a Cisco 6504 • Completed instal lation of redundant TLS router at W92. • Deployed VLAN functionality in additional buildings in support of VoIP rollout. • Completed migration of the MITnet backbone to 10Gb/s • Completed instal lation of SonicWall GMS management system. • Completed instal lation of Cisco MDS switches and Hitachi 9985 SAN in W92. • Continued working with Facilit ies to develop a comprehensive set of As-built drawing for the fiber

optic system. • Completed upgrades and enhancements to the Nagios monitoring system. • Completed initial implementation and design of Altiris management platform.

Server and System Administration Support Program • Completed TSM server upgrades • Began joint evaluation of VMWare Virtual Infrastructure with ISDA and NIST to confirm

suitability for MIT site license and data center use. • Worked with all TSM customers to transition to new TSM service offerings and pricing being

introduced in January 2008. • Completed Oracle contract negotiations, including licensing of Oracle RAC software. • Provided EDI technical resources for go-live of ECAT^3 purchasing interface. • Upgraded Athena AFS cell to OpenAFS 1.4.5 for server stability enhancements. • Completed hardware, OS, Oracle database upgrades for TLO, LFM and Alumni Association. • Completed implementation of initial SRDF configuration • Transitioned Xen-based server Virtualization Pilot to full production service offering with presence

in both W91 and E40 data centers. As part of this process all existing VMs were migrated to being

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


hosted on standard configuration server platforms. • MITSIS and UA Phase2 migrations completed, old VMS and Tru64 hardware has been

decommissioned. • Continued Virtual Tape Library evaluation, currently looking at NetApps, Sun/STK and

DataDomain. • Delivered DWTEST server (replicated DWPROD) for Oracle tuning, table partitioning,

familiarity with load scripts, reduction of backup times • NetBackup DR site work completed allowing for automated failover between sites • Completed deployment of automated. K5login management and Kerberized SSH deployment,

providing consistency in login methods across all servers and automated management for granting and revoking privileged access to servers.

Data Center Program • Shredded all remaining physical check stock from the prior Payroll and Pension systems. • Retired old truck, looking into the use of Zipcars for when an additional is required • Data Center cleaning: performed a thorough systematic lifting of all floor tiles, a complete HEPA

vacuuming of the sub floor areas including all stringers and pedestals, the wiping down of the exterior, and the vacuuming of the interior of all cabinets.

• Completed migration of co-lo clients from old to new cabinets • Continued work on mainframe retirement • Punch list items remain and work is progress completing them. A new and unexpected condition

arose during testing. • The new roof failed its uplift test suggesting that it might blow off in extreme storm conditions. • Completed airflow modeling.

Telephony Program • Continue to finalize the contract & price negotiations with carriers for local, long distance,

international and student traffic. • Maintain and operate the 5ESS • Maintain and operate the IVR system (NameConnector) • Maintain and support the Audio meet-me conference bridges • Maintain and operate the Octel Voice Mail system. • Continue to support and resolve all issues with in-bldg cell equipment. • Continue to assist in the support VoIP issues that are escalated to Tier II and III. • Maintain and operate the eOn ACD system. • Continue to rollout the ACD to new customers, MIT FCU and HR/Benefits are in progress (testing

will be completed in 02/2008. • Customized additional functional ity for the MIT FCU (e.g. Coach, Monitor & Barge-In) • Maintain and operate MIR3. Continue to work with customers to establish the private notification

system (e.g. Lincoln Lab, Medical, Facilit ies, etc.) • Continued attention to internal and external cellular telephone reception. • Continued involvement in/support of the Institute's emergency preparedness. • Participate in new project with the Public Safety Communications Team • Continue to investigate a possible replacement for ICE-9 • Continue to investigate a replace/upgrade to the audio bridge • Maintain and update 5ESS and related services Web pages. • Manage 3500 telephone moves, adds and changes. • Continue support of VoIP implementation • Attended additional Sylantro VoIP and Iperia training. • Continue to participate in the 5ESS Private Switch Owners Associations meetings. • Maintain and support the MIT emergency phones on campus. Modifying reporting mechanisms and

ongoing testing of devices. • Continue to participate with E-board and working actively with them to prepare future

articles/info

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


• finished negotiations with Verizon Wireless for new contract terms/conditions for better discounts on both MIT Corporate phones and employee personal phones...once Procurement signs the contract, we'll start automatically applying the new discounts to all 6,000 + Verizon Wireless contracts

• Completed contract and pricing negotiations with Alcatel/Lucent for 5ESS & Power equipment maintenance and spare parts;

• Coordinated and held ACD Supervisor training for existing and new ACD customers • Make multiple presentations for the directory of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

Q3 Goals by Program (Based on Operational Plan for FY2008)

Major Building Projects • Continue supporting the new dorm construction (NW35) • Complete outstanding items for the W91 data center network upgrade • Continue support for the new Sloan, Media Lab and Cancer buildings • Prepare for summer ground breaking for Cancer building; Existing duct bank coordination • VoIP coordination on Buildings being re-cabled. • Ongoing cabling in Buildings W20/W31/W32/W33 as part of re-cabling effort • Start construction of new TDCR in Building 12 basement room 065.

Campus Network • Continue to coordinate the Vassar Streetscape project and utility relocation. • Continue the Mass Ave roadway coordination. • Continue to coordinate the Vassar Streetcape project and utility relocation. • Continue the Mass Ave roadway coordination.

Network Operations Program • Complete implementation of email redundancy site. • Complete instal lation of optical switches in New York City and Baltimore to support the MIT

optical network. • Complete participation in the Alumni EFL committee. • Continue the build and design of the Bates optical network. • Continue to support the MIT campus migration to VoIP • Sylantro/Iperia upgrades, enhancements and fixes. • Continue implementations of key infrastructure services at offsite locations • Implement securID authentication for access to critical MITnet infrastructure. • Continue the build out and design of the MIT data center at 1 Summer St. • Complete initial implementation of Vmware environment for Linux and Windows hosts. • Complete MIT Email/Calendaring project and begin initial implementation of next generation

environment. Server and System Administration Support • Complete planning for disaster recovery test • Roll out new TSM service levels. • Complete Oracle RAC test deployment. • In collaboration with SAIS, begin migrating vendors to new Merchant Services application

platform. • Complete migration plan for transitioning administrative servers to Markley Group off-campus

data center located at One Summer Street. • Complete NetBackup 6.5 upgrade and migration to new hardware. • Complete migration from “KelleyCode” legacy server monitoring to Nagios. • Complete SAIS/SSIT unsupported IBM335 migrations to new hardware • Work with SAIS/SSIT on MITSIS redesign plan • Work with OSP on local/automated failover, remote DR, possible redesign plan

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


• Working with ISDA on BrioWeb upgrade and hardware migration • Complete following migration currently in progress: PARSLEY, CLOVERLEAF, ROLES/Xen (ISDA Roles web, appl, dbase servers) WILDCATS/PLANKTON (HR forms and FMLA web, appl servers) OVERCAT and OVERCAT-DEV (HR Optix Imaging server) PPL (Facilit ies Keys server) CURRICULA2 (Pivot/Distance web, dbase server) WELLS and WELLS-DEV (Facilit ies Kronos appl, dbase servers) Data Center • Conduct IAP Tour • Complete proxy card audit • Complete the W91 project outstanding items l ist along with any new items. • Participate in the Bates HPC Center project • Participate in the build out of 1 Summer St. Telephony • Get a signed Verizon Wireless contract in place and apply discounts to all Verizon Corporate and

Personal accounts. Increased savings on Corporate Accounts by 4%, on Personal accounts by 2% and al l accessories by 25%.

• Update web pages to reflect new rates for Verizon wireless rates. • Continued support for MIT VoIP implementation (instal l ing a SMDI link to the 5ESS). • Complete re-bid of carrier contracts. Need to highl ight cost savings, sign contracts and present for

approval. • Go-live on the ACD for the MIT FCU and HR/Benefits Continue enhancements to MIT’s emergency communication systems (upgrade to new software release

& implement additional enhancements). Write additional articles on OIS activities and services. (e.g. release of a Data Center evolution to

be completed by Q3). Work with Parlance on automating the NameConnector database. Continue to meet with MIT medical to configure & train MIT Medical on use on MIR3. Continue to discuss with Lincoln Lab on the possibilit ies to add them to the MIR3 servers Continue to work with HR/Benefits to modify the ESS page to include contact information (cell

phone) to provide notification during an emergency. Meet with the DOD to discuss MIR3 implementation for special visiting DOD staff Continue to work with ACD customers providing enhanced training. Work with medical on acquiring a cost effective paging system. Complete evaluation of all existing emergency phones on campus and work with CP & legal to

develop a disaster recovery plan for all residential dorms and any VoIP buildings. Continue working with Nextel on new contract negotiations. Get the SMDI link functional from Iperia to the 5E. Begin Performance Appraisals Begin looking at the audio conference meet-me bridge and provide recommendation on an

upgrade/replacement plan.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


V. Infrastructure Software Development and Architecture

Mission

1) To create, maintain and promote a best class of flexible infrastructure software framework with interfaces that are easily usable by software developers across MIT. 2) To promote simple, flexible and efficient collaboration services among faculty, researchers and students at MIT by engaging with our customers and responding directly to their needs. 3) To ensure technology decisions are guided by a desire to promote alignment and interoperability, allowing our community to innovate with us. 4) Conceptualize and define MIT’s IT Architecture in partnership with ITAG, MITCET, ACCORD, IT-Leads, ISTAB and other key MIT community forums. 5) Maintain an appropriate balance between engaging in development for MIT and the world-at-large.

Key Accomplishments ISDA Headquarters Technology Review Board In Q2, the Technology Review Board reviewed two systems: the Online Subject Evaluation/Who Teaches What (OSE/WTW) project in OEIT, and a more detai led recap of the DCAD project for the Office of Minority Education (OME). The OSE review affirmed support for choosing Digital Measures as the vendor of the proposed evaluation system. The OME review explored the limits of working with sensitive data in the filemaker server environment, resulting in a referral of the client away from a filemaker database on the backend in favor of an early-adopter project using ISDA's imminent local SWL database service connecting to application logic in a filemaker frontend. Team: Content and Collaboration Software Services Stellar 2.1.1 Highl ights in Stellar 2.1.1, being released at the beginning of Q3, include an overhauled sectioning tool, flexible calendaring options, and an improved gradebook. Sections in Stellar can now be configured based on MITSIS data and section assignments can be managed painlessly through a new batch editing interface. At popular demand, we have reintroduced the list view of events allowing users to switch between graphical and list views in the calendar. Enhancements to the gradebook have noticeably improved its performance, making it significantly faster to manage student grades online. Stellar continues to have 67% of the market share of courses eligible for Stellar. In Q2, 293 course sites were created for spring 2008 and 17 for fall 2007. For the spring 2008 sites, Sloan School of Management represented 42% of the sites created. Wiki Service The MIT Wiki Service official ly launched on December 12, 2007. As of December 31, 2007 the service hosted close to 400 wiki spaces in support of MIT classes, administrative units, community organizations, and research groups. The service can utilize both Moira groups and Stellar class lists for space authorization. In addition to regular MIT certificate authentication, the service is a pilot application for the MIT Touchstone single sign on service. Approximately 9% of the registered user base of 7000 consists of non-MIT users, most of whom are participants in inter-university and international projects such as COEUS and I-Labs. CSS Training Services will begin offering Quick Starts in January 2008. November 2007 had the highest activity (both viewing and editing) in the wiki space. Overall, the service grew 20% since last quarter. 43% of that growth occurred in the last three weeks of the quarter, immediately following the formal launch announcement. Team: Data Reporting Services

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Roles The Roles Database has a new web-based UI designed by the CCSS team. In addition, new test and production application servers (virtual machines on a Linux box) were configured, and the new test server is now in use. In addition, a user demo and focus group session was held in December. The Roles Database saw a 3% growth in authorizations since Q1. SAP Finance accounted for approximately 70% of the activity in Roles (creation, deletion or updating of authorizations). Person Service The database schema design for a prototype system for storing 3-part "relations" data, a system intended to provide real-time data about people as well serve as source data for implied authorizations, has been completed. The team also demonstrated a proof-of-concept web UI and back-end web service for a type-ahead person lookup service, the intention being that this will be refined and made avai lable for "Who's Teaching What" and other applications). MITBI/Forecasting & Modeling The Proof of Concept with Microsoft has been completed, and the Hyperion Proof of Concept has been upgraded to version 9. Data Warehouse The team automated the quarterly statistics gathering process and made the DW metrics avai lable via the web. They also added access control to graduate admissions data and added all employee pictures and MIT Id Card magstripe data. The team has been working on the initial phase of the Request Tracker, analyzing the data and creating the data load process. Other DW projects that have been initiated in Q2 are adding Traincasters data (analyze, design and load data), working with HR, EHS, CSS, and SAIS to model Training data to be extracted from SAP and loaded into the DW and Phase 1 of the Singapore project. 122 departments ran 42,242 queries in the Data Warehouse during Q2. This marked a 19% decrease in queries over Q1. Team: Development Software and Platform Services Infrastructure Platform Services Web Services The first enterprise web services were put into production in Q1. In Q2 the team has begun to address infrastructure, establish procedures, standardize on our software and hardware stacks, and create a more supportable environment. MIT Touchstone Phase One of the Touchstone project has gone into pilot. The second phase, called CAMS (to support external users) is being designed and is scheduled to be avai lable for the fal l. Athena A new patch release for Athena has gone out. Planning for Athena 10, the Debian/Ubuntu technology refresh, is moving along and seems on track for a major release for the next fall semester. MIT Chat An upgrade of MIT Chat has been released. MIT Application Platform The MAP working group has been reorganized and has made progress towards defining and adopting the ISDA standard Java software "stack." This is a cooperative effort between ISDA and software developers outside the team. They have also standardized on development tools and begun building out

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


shared instal lations for build tools. They are also working with OIS around standardization of operating systems. Application Administration The team brought on a new consultant, which has doubled our capacity. One of the consultant’s areas of concentration will be VMWare. The team has been building a prototype VMWare instal lation and using it to provide development and test machines to our developers. Applications Group Thalia In Q1 the team rolled out Thal ia Limited Release, a pilot to a larger set of customers. The pilot provided a lot of valuable feedback on the product, and in Q2 the team made usability and performance improvements. The team is gearing up for Thal ia General Release to the MIT community in Q3, after winning an InfoWorld award for being a top educational application. Future work on Thal ia will include integration with Stellar. Web Content Management The IS&T website project has undergone re-evaluation. The team spent two months working with the Alfresco 2.1 release that was originally due in early September. Because the WCM did not meet expectations, the project team has been in negotiations with Alfresco, who then volunteered some high level consulting services to evaluate MIT's needs. As a result of this assessment, the team is reconsidering options for the IS&T website. CSS Pubs has been developing more thorough requirements than originally compiled when the project began, and the team is using these to evaluate other CMS options. The team continues to support MIT Alumni Association using the Alfresco WCM, and has developed a navigation framework library to assist them in their project. In addition, the team is committed to using the Alfresco repository as a back-end for Thal ia and Enterprise Content Management. Team: Security Services Kerberos Team On October 23, 2007 the team released Kerberos for Windows (KFW) 3.2.2. This version met CSS's requirements and allowed the MIT community to move off of the old KFW 2.6.5 release to take advantage of modern Kerberos features. This release includes UI improvements and support for Windows Vista. Kerberos Consortium In the second quarter of this fiscal year, the MIT Kerberos Consortium formally began operations. The Consortium attracted a total of 16 sponsors who have committed $471,000.00 in new external funding. An Executive Advisory Board was formed to prioritize activities, which convened its first meeting in December. Consortium staff will work on the addressing the decided upon priorities throughout the remaining two quarters.

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


IS&T Financials

IS&T FY08 Q2 Report


Documents

Information Services and Technology (IS&T) FY08 Q2 Report ... · IS&T FY08 Q2 Report April 14, 2008 Page 4 o Partner with ISDA and SAIS to finalize systems’ health criteria definition