JOG:

The new Billing, Accounts Receivable & Cashiering System (BARC) project continues.  We are still dealing with the fallout of  performance problems and their solutions.  Testing with both the BARC application and the "Caffeine Mark 3.0" Java benchmark suite indicates that NT/Intel outperforms multiple flavors of UNIX/RISC by a factor of about eight to one.  Here are a couple of data points:

     1. Batch file of about 21,000 transactions - elapsed time:
              RS/6000 w/ dual 332 Mhz processors - 4+ hours
              Desktop PC w one 550 Mhz processor - 31 minutes

     2. Caffeine Mark 3.0 Java Benchmark Suite -relative performance:
              RS/6000 w/ dual 332 Mhz processors - 300 (ave.)
              Desktop PC w one 800 Mhz processor - 9444

Manufacturers  have been provided with these data, but we do not yet have an explanation.  In the meantime we are also testing the performance of Sybase on an NT/Intel platform.

The BARC project team has also experienced several staff transitions.  Further, our Application Systems Manager, Gail Johnson, recently left to become Senior Director of Applications Development and Support at Santa Barbara City College.  Doug Drury has replaced Gail as Applications Programming Manager.  Two new Java programmers have also been recruited and training is in progress.  Current target date for completion of BARC (Phase I) is June.

The Travel Voucher System is in production and has been released to a second set of departments.

Work on GASB Phase I is underway.

Brio Insight, Enterprise & Explorer have been selected as the software to support a new web reporting environment for the Data Warehouse.

The Proxy Service that IS&C runs for the Library is in production for faculty and staff.

UCSB Directory (LDAP) development continues with telephone numbers now loaded.  The addition of students is currently scheduled for February.  We have been struggling with the process for resolving collisions and mismatches in data feeds.

The selection of Professor Mark Aldenderfer as director completes the implementation of the new Office of Information Technology.

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CPG:

The RFP process for our Next Generation Backbone was completed with the selection of Foundry Networks Inc. BigIron 4000 switches for our core and FastIron Workgroup switches for our buildings.  Installation and configuration of the core switches is in progress.

We are developing an RFP to select an alternative to our current Verizon CentraNet service, bids will be accepted for a centralized PBX solution and/or a different Centrex service.  The current plan is to sign a contract for the PBX acquisition or Centrex service by the end of this calendar year and convert to the new system in August, 2002.

We have completed the RFP process for an Interactive Speech Recognition Directory Assistance System.  The selected product was PureRequest from Phillips Voice Request.  We are in the process of acquiring and implementing this system.

We have started the process of developing guidelines for the use of wireless data networks and providing a clearinghouse for existing wireless installations.

The ITPG approved Housing & Residential Services' request to increase the bandwidth between our campus ResNet and UCNet to a maximum of 50 Mbps. Housing agreed to pay any additional UCNet ISP charges resulting from their increased bandwidth use and is funding a project for Communications Services to install Netflow to measure actual usage.  Housing has installed a Packeteer PacketShaper to manage the amount of bandwidth available for Napster and increased their bandwidth capacity to 20 Mbps. The actions seem to be having some success because the inbound and outbound bandwidth levels are no longer saturated.  A graph of current bandwidth usage is at http://sherlock.commserv.ucsb.edu/mrtg/tag08.html .