Information & Communication Technology Infrastructure Strategy

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gla.cs/ipsc/it-strategy-final-05/2006-02-15/1 FINAL UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

Information Policy and Strategy Committee - Monday 21 November 2005

Information & Communication Technology Infrastructure

Strategy

Technology Review Group October 2005

Executive Summary

This Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure Strategy sets out a medium to long-term vision of how the ICT infrastructure will develop to support the University in its increasing dependency on Information Technology (IT) and help enhance the performance of the University in achieving its mission. The ICT strategy consists of the following elements: • A vision and set of guiding principles to shape the strategy

• Building blocks for the technical (IT) infrastructure

• A framework of processes to guide the implementation and evolution of the strategy

• A methodology for implementation of University wide activities

• A mechanism for enabling the most effective use and support of information technology and systems through timely and effective training

Integral to the ICT Strategy is a rolling three-year IT roadmap presented as an appendix for ease of annual update. The roadmap identifies the proposed work programmes that would be required to meet the strategic aims of the ICT strategy and includes budgetary estimates of cost for each of three financial years (current year and two subsequent years). This appendix will be updated and presented to IPSC each year for approval.

The strategy as a whole is intended to provide a clear articulation of the evolving ICT infrastructure to permit effective planning of central and faculty development.

The University IT Strategy is the set of documents comprising this ICT Infrastructure Strategy and the Faculty IT Strategies.

Introduction

The University’s ICT Infrastructure Strategy underpins the Information Strategy and identifies how IT resources can be utilised in such a manner that they are made to work towards the greater organisational objectives. The strategy is also a key element in the realisation of the University’s Strategic Plan. Technological provision must be well planned and well targeted to get good value from the investment. The ICT Infrastructure Strategy is designed to achieve this as it provides a framework and set of processes for maximising the effectiveness of limited budgets.

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The Technical Review Group (TRG) a group formed to report to IPSC on IT related issues, prepared this ICT Infrastructure Strategy

The rate of change of technology churn shows no signs of abating, indeed rather the reverse. The IT industry displays an increasing drive towards technology integration and “personalisation”. The widespread deployment of PCs in the early 90’s was the first step in the chain. This is the context in which the IT Strategy is set.

In formulating the ICT Infrastructure Strategy, the Technical Review Group (TRG) has:

• Engaged with faculties so that the ICT Strategy is based on clearly evidenced needs

• Drawn from the recommendations made by Information Strategy Working groups

• Taken account of feedback received

• Taken account of external influences or initiatives

Vision

“The University will provide a feature rich, integrated, supportable and secure technological environment that provides staff and students with seamless, any time, any place, access to the Information Technology resources that support and enhance their activities”.

This environment may be categorised as follows:

• Persistent – through an infrastructure that provides the facilities, security and support structures that facilitates “always on” services • Transparent – through services that are integrated, easy to use and

reliable

• Dynamic – will remain relevant in line with technological advances • Borderless – accessible from any where, at any time and to anyone

within prevailing technology and security limits • Flexible – within agreed frameworks

• Community based - to enhance learning, teaching, research and administration activities

Guiding Principles

The University is committed to the following set of guiding principles • The University recognises the strategic importance of information

technology and is prepared to invest in the continual development of its IT resources

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• The University will develop and communicate policies and strategies that will govern the use of IT and provide direction on support of IT resources

• The University sees value for money as an important consideration in all IT investments and will seek to take advantage of economies of scale and solutions that reduce overall support costs wherever possible

• The University will implement industry standards, best practice and supportable solutions

• The University will promote an ICT Service ethos supported by the most appropriate technology

• The University is a major research led institution and as such places demands on the technical infrastructure

• The University will seek to maximise the opportunities offered by external funding where the activities to be undertaken can be properly resourced in terms of staffing and which dovetail with the IT roadmap

• IT resources must be of a high quality, secure and universally available to authorised users

• The University recognises that support overheads must be addressed when costing IT investments

• The University will increasingly adopt IT to support its core functions, users will become increasingly IT aware and expect access to feature rich, reliable, secure, integrated and easy to use services

• Users will increasingly require access to IT resources via a variety of devices including personal computers, portable computers, PDAs and other mobile devices

• Communities will be established to promote effective consultation, knowledge transfer, sharing of best practice and avoidance of duplicated effort

• The University recognises the need for user and IT support staff training

Technical infrastructure to realise the vision

The following are the strategic building blocks that must be in place to establish the technical infrastructure that underpins the vision:

• A pervasive communications infrastructure that must continue to be developed

• Standard platforms to host services with server and file store consolidation where practical

• A system for identity management, namely a directory service that links architectures as the basis for many future developments

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• A security framework to preserve the integrity of the University’s information assets and systems

• A secure and consistent desktop environment as the norm for standard IT activities

• A set of standard applications for University wide functions that are site licensed wherever feasible

• Integration of standard applications, core services and infrastructure to provide a feature rich IT environment

• General Information Technology policies and guidelines covering security, core service direction and standards

Strategic infrastructure direction will be to support and improve a set of

generic core services, identified in the Roles and Responsibilities of the Central and Faculty Staff Working Group as being the responsibility of Computing Service and including:

Core Infrastructure services:

• The campus network supporting high speed Local Area Networks, Routing services and external connectivity with ClydeNET and SuperJANET

• Flexible network access services including;

o VPN over Broadband and GPRS/3G networks o On campus self service facilities

• Web servers/caches

• DNS services and IP address management

• File store services including backup and retrieval services • E-mail relays, servers and SPAM filtering

• End user personal communications services including standard e-mail and diary management

• Network Directory services for network operating system and resource management

• Network Directory service integration to synchronise relevant information between directories

• Authentication and authorisation systems providing near ‘single sign on’ and federated services between authentication domains including partner institutions

• Serviced Desktops providing a secure and productive environment for administrative, academic and student support

• Information Technology security services including policies, advice, training, best practises and incident handling

• Help Desk service

• Virtual Learning Environment to support new methods in learning and teaching

• Application support and training for standard packages • Training programmes for IT support staff

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• Negotiation and management of University-wide agreements e.g. Microsoft and other software licences

All of these services will be the subject of Service Definition Agreements (reference Service Levels and Expectations Working Group). This set of generic core services will be augmented in response to demand and changing technology and will provide the basis for faculties and departments to develop added value or subject specific services.

Examples of new services that will be developed within the planning horizon are

• Portals

• Virtual/Managed Learning Environments (VLE/MLE) • Web Content Management Systems (CMS)

• Records management

• IP telephony and other integrated communications solutions • Unified messaging

• e-Science support services

All of these institution wide developments will depend on the core infrastructure elements to underpin their delivery and support. All services, whether centrally or faculty provided, will require to be

monitored and managed effectively in order to maximise service delivery to the user community and reduce the support burden on IT support staff.

Process to realise the vision

The Technical Review Group (TRG), a group of nominated technology experts from AIMS and each faculty who have the authority to speak on technical issues, developed and maintains the ICT Infrastructure strategy.

TRG operates by establishing short life working groups of experts to

investigate and report on various technologies as and when required and make recommendations to IPSC on the costs, timing and manner of technology adoption. TRG reports will be published on the Web for a period of

consultation allowing time for formal stakeholder feedback before they are submitted to IPSC for approval.

Working in partnership to identify, research and evaluate technologies that are potentially important to the University’s ICT strategy results in a broad

consensus, helps develop commonality of purpose and promotes standard practice for implementation. This process enables faculties to develop their IT planning in a way that interlocks with the University ICT Strategy and is consistent with it.

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TRG and the Information Strategy Development Group (ISDG) cross link, with ISDG providing strategic direction on faculties’ needs and TRG proposing technological solutions that may shape the aspirations of ISDG. The critical importance of working partnerships to effective service delivery is being augmented by the continued development of links with the wider

distributed support community through the Distributed IT Forum organised by the Computing Service Deputy Director for Distributed Support.

Management of Process

The implementation processes of many IT infrastructure activities are major projects affecting the entire University. For such projects TRG is the natural Programme Board as it is representative of all faculties. The TRG ensures openness and transparency in the work of the Project Teams.

Awareness and training

In a rapidly evolving technology environment there is a need for continual development of skills so that the University can fully realise the benefits that proper and confident use of technology can bring. This truism applies as much to IT support staff as to those using technological solutions as a tool to perform their daily work.

Computing Service, The Staff Development Service and other training

agencies currently offer a range of courses from introductory to task orientated and will continue to develop new courses and appropriate delivery methods in response to user feedback and evolving needs. Whilst such training is essential, these courses are designed to meet end user requirements.

Commensurate resources must be targeted at IT support staff allowing them to engage in continual professional development so that they have a recognised level of skill before being able to undertake certain tasks. There is an obvious analogy with the function of staff recruitment where there is a requirement to attend a recruitment course before serving on an Interview Panel.

Roadmap for IT evolution

The roadmap is a summary of developments underway in the current year and looking forward to the next two years. They are explained and costed in Appendix 1.

The developments are being done in a particular order because of dependencies of one area on another. Collectively they are crucial activities that underpin IT service delivery and enhancements e.g., the introduction of Portals, Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and content management all of which the

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University recognises as important developments. The availability of external funding also has an obvious influence on the timing of some developments. The details of the roadmap are presented as an appendix to facilitate annual update.

Appendix 1 - Roadmap for IT Infrastructure Development

This Appendix details the work programmes required over a three year planning horizon to meet the aspirations of the ICT strategy. The planning horizon includes the current financial year and the two following financial years. Appendix 2 provides a history of previous work programmes.

Note that in the summary tables for each year, items that currently do not have funding allocated are highlighted in italics.

Roadmap 2005/06

The items for 2005/06 have been extended and modified to take account of new strategic priorities and the opportunities presented by changes in the external environment and funding

Enhancement of Building Networking Infrastructure – Status Ongoing

Continue to improve the network infrastructure within University buildings through the replacement of ageing equipment. The

benefits will be dedicated bandwidth to the desktop, particularly for researchers, and specialised research facilities and enhanced

Network security, quality of service and management tools (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group, e-Science and the Grid working group, University Strategic Plan 1.6.3). Network Segmentation (continued) – Status Ongoing

Continue to implement Network segmentation to limit the exposure of key services and provide inherent containment measures against hacking, viruses, worms etc. (Ref. Information Strategy

Information Systems Security Working Group and Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5) IP Only Network – Target summer 2006

Work with the community to phase out proprietary network protocols in order to reap the benefits of high-speed routing

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services. (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Campus Backbone Network Upgrade – Target summer 2006 Replace backbone routing equipment in order to deliver increased bandwidth to support more demanding applications and enhance security, quality of service and management tools. (Ref.

Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Directory Integration – Status ongoing

Continue to develop the infrastructure that will provide secure authentication and authorised access to IT resources for the individuals who are entitled to use them. New developments will include JISC sponsored ‘Shiibboleth’ federated services and Public Key Infrastructure ‘PKI’ investigations. (Ref. Information Strategy Authentication and Access Control Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Serviced Desktop for Staff and Students – Status ongoing

Continue to develop solutions for desktop system management that will improve security, productivity and reduce the support

overheads so that some resources can be redeployed to added value activities at the faculty/departmental level (Ref Information

Strategy Working Group Common Baselines and Delivery Platforms; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Flexible Access Provision – Status ongoing

Continue to develop flexible access solutions to allow staff & students to use their own personal systems to access IT services in accordance with the University’s Universal Access Policy (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Software Licence Policy Management – Status ongoing Implement the recommendations on software licence policy management to reduce the University’s exposure to the risk of litigation. (Ref. Implementation of Software Licensing Policy approved by Court)

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Replacement of Proprietary Video-Conferencing Technology – Status ongoing

Build on the success of existing University provided video conferencing and teaching facilities by replacing obsolescent and proprietary systems with industry standard equipment that provides compatibility with the rest of the academic community. (Ref University Strategic Plan 3.3.6)

Service Sustainability – Status ongoing

Service sustainability is about designing and improving services to ensure that they are:

• Robust and resilient

• Scale to meet user demand and legitimate expectations over time

• Provide continued high performance, availability and reliability

• Provide service assurance metrics that indicate when improvements, upgrades and replacements are

required. Nb this implies that suitable funding is made available to for example effect server upgrades and replacements when required. This would be analogous to the agreed workstation four-year replacement cycle. • Are supportable and secure

Designing sustainable services will require a higher initial

investment however the expectation is that over the lifetime of the service the benefits in terms of the service levels provided will be greater and overall costs in terms of management and other support costs will be less. All to often services evolve from a basic level supporting a few users to a critical mass with many watersheds along the way that require significant support efforts, service downtime for upgrades and user dissatisfaction during periods of poor service performance. The IS and ICT strategies provide a framework for a new approach to service delivery and continuity. (Ref Information/Continuity Security Working groups)

Lifecycle Replacement and Enhancement of Student Clusters – Target summer 2006

Continue to replace workstations that have passed their useful life (over 4 years old) to ensure that reliable, up to date workstations are available and to improve the workstation to student ratio. (Ref.

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Information Strategy Provision of on-Campus Student C&IT Facilities Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.6) Patch Management Service

Implement the TRG working group recommendations on ‘Patch Management’ for Microsoft and other operating systems and

applications. The benefits will include improved desktop and server security and a reduction in the staff effort required to deal with compromised systems

IT Staff Training

Implement the TRG working group recommendations on training for IT support staff. The benefits would be improved skill sets, IT staff morale and productivity

Improve e-Science support Network – Status Ongoing

Build on existing relationships between the National e-Science centre, e-Science researchers, GRID computing systems

administrators and other GRID support personnel to establish an e-Science support team that will provide a significant support network for GRID computing at the University

IP Telephony Pilot – Status ongoing

Investigate and gain experience of IP telephony solutions in-order to assess the potential benefits and problems associated with a move from traditional PABX solutions to IP telephony (Ref CS/E&B/Telecomm Committee joint project).

Refine ClydeNETs Five-year Plan

Submit ClydeNETs five-year plan to the funding council to obtain funding to upgrade the ClydeNET communications infrastructure in-line with SuperJANET 5 developments. This will be pivotal with respect to the University’s external communications requirements and e-Science research aspirations. (Ref ClydeNETs Five year plan, UKERNA Guidelines for allocation of SuperJANET funds to Regional Networks in Scotland)

Summary of Costs for 2005/06

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Enhance Networks in University Buildings

£100K University Network segmentation £100K University

Campus backbone network upgrade

£410K SRIF-3/LTIF

Service Sustainability £100K University

Video Conferencing replacement

£200K LTIF

Flexible Access £40K University Student clusters £500K University Patch Management £10K University Software licence policy

management

£50K University IT Staff Training £50K University

Totals University

950K

Other 610K

Roadmap 2006/07

The items for 2006/07 will be extended and modified to take account of new strategic priorities and the opportunities presented by changes in the external environment and funding

Continue to improve the network infrastructure within University buildings through replacement of ageing equipment. The benefits will be dedicated bandwidth to the desktop, particularly for researchers, and specialised research facilities and enhanced Network security, quality of service and management tools. (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group, e-Science and the Grid working group, University Strategic Plan 1.6.3) Network Segmentation (continued) – Status Ongoing

Information Systems Security Working Group and Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5)

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Campus Backbone Network Upgrade – Target summer 2006 may slip to 2007

Replace backbone routing equipment in order to deliver increased bandwidth to support more demanding applications and enhance security, quality of service and management tools. (University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Directory Integration – Status ongoing

Continue to develop the infrastructure that will provide secure authentication and authorised access to IT resources for the individuals who are entitled to use them. New developments will include ‘Shiibboleth’ and ‘PKI’ investigations. (Ref. Information Strategy Authentication and Access Control Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Serviced Desktop for Staff and Students – Status ongoing

Continue to develop flexible access solutions to allow staff & students to use their own personal systems to access IT services in accordance with the University Universal Access Policy (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Service Sustainability – Status ongoing

Service sustainability is about designing and improving services to ensure that they are:

• Robust and resilient

• Scale to meet user demand and legitimate expectations over time

• Provide continued high performance, availability and reliability

• Provide service assurance metrics that indicate when improvements, upgrades and replacements are

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required. Nb this implies that suitable funding is made available to for example effect server upgrades and replacements when required. This would be analogous to the agreed workstation four-year replacement cycle. • Are supportable and secure

Designing sustainable services will require a higher initial

investment however the expectation is that over the lifetime of the service the overall costs in terms of the service levels provided, management and other support costs will be less. All to often services evolve from a basic level supporting a few users to a critical mass with many watersheds along the way that require significant support efforts, service downtime for upgrades and user dissatisfaction during periods of poor service performance. The IS and ICT strategies provide a framework for a new approach to service delivery and continuity. (Ref Information

security/continuity working groups) Improve e-Science support Network

Continue to develop e-Science/GRID support network

Implement Disaster recovery and Business continuity solutions for Core infrastructure services

Expand the Boyd ORR DR site to include systems that will provide DR and BC solutions for critical services. (Ref Information

security/continuity working groups)

Review workstation replacement Policy in-line with TRG report on ‘Student Clusters’. Implement University decision on the level of Central Cluster provision versus Student Laptop provision. IP Telephony Pilot – Status ongoing

Review IP telephony Pilot and investigate alternative IP telephony solutions. It is expected that alternatives to traditional

handset/PABX IP solutions will emerge.

Extend dark fibre contracts for communications links to the Glasgow teaching hospitals.

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The University provides (leased) high-speed communications links to Yorkhill, Royal Infirmary, Gartnavel, Southern General, Victoria and the Dental school. The contracts for these leased circuits will terminate from April 2006. We wish to extend all the leased circuits such that they co-terminate at an agreed future date (target 2016) to provide for service sustainability and predictable annual rental charges. (Ref Universal Access working group)

Review File store and Server consolidation strategy

Report on the effects of the Storage Area Network (SAN) file store consolidation and server consolidation strategy and define future strategy

Review of Computer room provisions on campus

Server and file store consolidation, Service sustainability and HPC cluster provisions are placing heavy demands on existing computer room facilities including space, floor loadings, electrical

provision/protection and air conditioning/handling. A review of existing provisions is required to determine whether or not University strategies with respect to Disaster recovery, Business continuity, service sustainability and e-Science is likely to be compromised by inadequate computer room provision. Unified messaging review

Investigate and propose strategic solutions for end user access to integrated e-mail, diary management, telephony, fax, IM and other forms of personal communications.

National Middleware Initiatives

JISC is planning to announce a roadmap for the rollout (from summer 2006) of national middleware services based on the open source, open standards Shibboleth framework that will integrate with institutional directories to support robust authentication and authorisation services for staff and student access to institutional services and also datasets and other sources of electronic

information which are held externally. It is intended that the X.509 certificates used by Grid middleware will be integrated into the national middleware initiative. Whilst HEFCE have allocated £3.2M for the rollout of Shibboleth in England, SHEFC have not indicated, as yet, that there will be commensurate financial commitment for Scotland. Unless external funding becomes

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available in 2005/06, we propose tracking such developments with a view to implementation in 06/07.

ClydeNET development – Status ongoing

Commence implementing ClydeNET upgrades to take advantage of SuperJANET 5 improvements in bandwidth and resilience. These upgrades will follow ClydeNETs five-year plan developed in 2004/2005 and refined in 2005/2006. (Ref ClydeNETs Five year plan, UKERNA Guidelines for allocation of SuperJANET funds to Regional Networks in Scotland)

Activity Cost Source

£100K University Network segmentation £100K University

Campus backbone network upgrade

£410K SRIF-3/LTIF – if slippage

Service Sustainability £100k University Disaster recovery/Business

continuity

£50k University Flexible Access £50K University File store and server

consolidation

£100K University Student clusters £500K University Extend dark fibre contracts

for teaching hospitals

£20K per annum onto CS unavoidable expenditure University ClydeNET Upgrades £870K covering 4 years SHEFC/UKERNA Totals University 1020K Other 1280K

Roadmap 2007/08

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The items for 2007/08 will be extended and modified to take account of new strategic priorities and the opportunities presented by changes in the external environment and funding

Continue to improve the network infrastructure within University buildings through replacement of ageing equipment. The benefits will be dedicated bandwidth to the desktop, particularly for researchers, and specialised research facilities and enhanced Network security, quality of service and management tools (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group, e-Science and the Grid working group, University Strategic Plan 1.6.3). Network Segmentation (continued) – Status Ongoing

Information Systems Security Working Group and Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5) Serviced Desktop for Staff and Students – Status ongoing

Continue to develop flexible access solutions to allow staff & students to use their own personal systems to access IT services in accordance with the University Universal Access Policy (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Service Sustainability – Status ongoing Continue to provide service sustainability Improve e-Science support Network

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Continue to develop e-Science/GRID support network

Implement Disaster recovery and Business continuity solutions for Core infrastructure services

Continue to provide DR and BC solutions for critical services. (Ref Information security/continuity working groups)

Implement University decision on the level of Central Cluster provision versus Student Laptop provision.

IP Telephony

Possible start of replacement project for University PABX telephone system

Unified messaging

Implement University decision on unified messaging system. This could integrate various forms of personal communications i.e., e-mail, diary, fax, telephone and IM and provide users with a more flexible and productive approach to personal communications handling.

Computer room enhancements

Implement decisions on Computer room review ClydeNET development – Status ongoing

Continue implementing ClydeNET upgrades to take advantage of SuperJANET 5 improvements in bandwidth and resilience. These upgrades will follow ClydeNETs five-year plan developed in 2004/2005 and refined in 2005/2006. (Ref ClydeNETs Five year plan, UKERNA Guidelines for allocation of SuperJANET funds to Regional Networks in Scotland)

Activity Cost Source

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Network segmentation £100K University Computer room enhancements New Builds University Service Sustainability £100k University Disaster recovery/Business

continuity

£50k University Flexible Access £50K University File store and server

consolidation

£75K University Student clusters £? University Unified Messaging £75K University

ClydeNET Upgrades £870K covering 4 years (2006-2009) SHEFC/UKERNA Totals University 550K (+) Other Part of 870K

Appendix 2 – TRG short life working group reports

The following TRG reports have been produced:

• Report on Professional Development of Distributed IT Support Staff • Report on Software Audit Tool

• Report on Student Clusters • Report on Patch Management • Report on Platform Flexibility

• Report on Multimedia Communications

Future TRG reports will include

• Report on E-mail, Diary Management and unified messaging direction

• Report on Domain Name Service and IP address management direction

• Report on Apple OSX requirements and support • Report on Linux requirements and support • Report on Open Source Software solutions

• Report on Authentication and Authorisation services on campus and with other Institutions

• Report on Network and Information systems security • Report on e-Science support

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• Report on Flexible access provisions for teaching, research and administration support

Appendix 3 – ICT Infrastructure Policies

This Appendix provides links to the relevant ICT Infrastructure Policies that support the ICT infrastructure strategy.

Core Infrastructure Policies

• Connection Policy- for connecting systems to the University’s

campus network

• Universal Access Policy- for the provision of Universal access to

the University’s Information Technology resources

• Wireless LAN Policy- for wireless network deployments

Core Services Policies

• Incident Handling Policy- for handling security incidents and

breaches of information security policies

• Monitoring Policy- for network and systems monitoring

• Bastion Host Policy- for the configuration, ongoing security and

management of servers

• Sys & Net Admin Guidelines- for system and network

administrators

• Password Policy- for creating and maintaining strong passwords

Appendix 4 – Roadmap History

This Appendix details the work programmes for previous years. Where entries appear in successive years this will be due to one of the following:

• The work programme was not funded and has been rolled over Or

• The work programme requires more than one year to complete

Roadmap 2003/04

The items for 2003/04 were early responses to the Information Strategy work of 2002/03 and external influences.

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Implementation of second access point to the SuperJANET academic network to mitigate the loss of the primary connection (Ref. Information Strategy Resilience and Business Continuity Working Group, mitigation of single point of failure; University Strategic Plan 1.6.3)

Network Segmentation – Status ongoing

Begin implementing Network segmentation to limit the exposure of key services and provide inherent containment measures against hacking, viruses, worms etc. (Ref. Information Strategy

Information Systems Security Working Group and Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5) Information Systems Security – Status complete

Establish a University Information Security Team to spearhead the implementation of an Information Security Management System to protect individual and University information assets (Ref.

Information Strategy Information Systems Security Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5)

Yearly Lifecycle Replacement and Enhancement of Student Clusters – Status complete

Replace workstations that have passed their useful life (over 4 years old) to ensure that reliable, up to date workstations are available and to improve the workstation to student ratio. (Ref. Information Strategy Provision of on-Campus Student C&IT Facilities Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.6) Directory Integration – Status ongoing

Provide the infrastructure to enable secure authentication for access to each of the services that individuals are entitled to use e.g. portals, VLE, content management systems, information resources, e-mail, the network, etc. (Ref. Information Strategy Authentication and Access Control Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Enhancement of Networking for Researchers – Status ongoing Improve the network infrastructure for researchers to provide dedicated bandwidth to the desktop and to specialist research facilities. (Ref Information Strategy Working Group e-Science and the Grid; University Strategic Plan 1.6.3)

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Software Licence Policy Management – Status ongoing

Investigate and propose solutions to demonstrate university wide compliance with software licensing policy (Ref. Implementation of Software Licensing Policy approved by Court)

Activity Cost Source Status

JANET Access resilience

£143.5K SRIF-2 Complete Information Systems

Security

2 posts University Complete Student clusters £500K University Complete Networking for

researchers

£100K SRIF Complete

Roadmap 2004/05

The items for 2004/05 represented the priorities articulated by a wide range of constituencies in the University and address many of the recommendation of Information Strategy working groups.

Implementation of SAN – Status ongoing

Procure a scalable network storage facility to consolidate file store and provide efficient and effective data management including reliable backup (Ref. Technology Review Working Group; University Strategic Plan 1.6.3)

Implementation of HPC Cluster – Status complete

Provision of a generic high performance computing facility to augment other more specialised systems in the University and enable smaller groups to enter the e-research field. (Ref Information Strategy Working Group e-Science and the Grid; University Strategic Plan 1.6.3)

Enhancement of Networking for Researchers – Status ongoing Continue to improve the network infrastructure for researchers to provide dedicated bandwidth to the desktop and to specialist research facilities. (Ref Information Strategy Working Group e-Science and the Grid; University Strategic Plan 1.6.3)

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Network Segmentation – Status ongoing

Information Systems Security Working Group and Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.5) IP Only Network – Status ongoing

Work with the community to phase out proprietary network protocols in order to reap the benefits of high-speed routing services. (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

Platform Flexibility – Status ongoing

Enable faculties and departments to connect any devices to the Campus network that meet minimum University requirements for technology, security and authentication in order to meet their specific IT requirements (Ref University Strategic Plan 3.3.6). Location Independent Networking (LIN) – Status Complete

Computing Service was awarded funds by UKERNA to participate in a national trial of location independent networking (LIN). The trial. LIN is a co-operative initiative amongst the academic community with the aim of enabling staff visiting a participating institution to make use of the networking facilities there to gain access to services and facilities at Glasgow e.g. e-mail.

IT Staff Development – Status complete

TRG will establish a working group to investigate professional development of IT support staff and make recommendations (Ref University Strategic Plan 4.3.2, 4.3.3)

Active Directory – Status complete

Implement a Campus wide Microsoft Active Directory service to improve the serviced desktop and Microsoft server environments (Ref. Information Strategy Authentication and Access Control Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4)

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Continue to provide the infrastructure to enable secure

authentication for access to each of the services that individuals are entitled to use. (Ref. Information Strategy Authentication and Access Control Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4) Serviced Desktop for Staff and Students – Status ongoing

Develop flexible access areas to allow staff & students to use their own personal systems to access IT services in accordance with the University Universal Access Policy (Ref. Information Strategy Universal Access Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.4) Replacement of Proprietary Video-Conferencing Technology – Status ongoing

Build on the success of existing University provided video conferencing facilities by replacing obsolescent and proprietary systems with industry standard equipment that provides

compatibility with the rest of the academic community. (Ref University Strategic Plan 3.3.6)

Software Licence Policy Management – Status ongoing Implement the recommendations on software licence policy management to reduce the University’s exposure to the risk of litigation. (Ref. Implementation of Software Licensing Policy approved by Court)

Lifecycle Replacement and Enhancement of Student Clusters – Status complete

Continue to replace workstations that have passed their useful life (over 4 years old) to ensure that reliable, up to date workstations are available and to improve the workstation to student ratio. (Ref. Information Strategy Provision of on-Campus Student C&IT Facilities Working Group; University Strategic Plan 3.3.6)

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E-learning development

The Glasgow Environment for Learning (GEL), which is provided by ‘Moodle’ a public domain VLE application, has been

implemented on a number of dedicated servers for early adopters to commence developing material for the start of session. GEL

(Moodle) makes extensive use of the pervasive (NDS) e-Directory service for authentication & authorisation. GEL will be further developed to take account of feedback received.

IT Staff Training

The working group established by TRG to investigate training of IT support staff and make recommendations has now reported. Its recommendations specifically focus on staff training and are the subject of a separate paper to IPSC. Given the strength of feeling about this topic, failure to make some provision for staff training would undoubtedly adversely impact morale.

Activity Cost Source Status

Implementation of SAN & HPC cluster

£350K SRIF 2 Complete Location Independent

Networking

£5K UKERNA Complete Networking for researchers £30K SRIF 2 Complete Student clusters £500K University Complete E-Learning development £20K University Complete

Flexible access provision £50K University Started – part funded 12k Replace video conferencing

kit

£200K University Started – funding 05/06

Directory Integration, Active Directory

£40K University Not Funded Software licence policy

management

£50K University Not Funded – TRG report

IT Staff Training £50K University Not Funded Prepared by: Rolly Gilmour

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Information & Communication Technology Infrastructure Strategy