JOG:

Integration testing of the the Billing, Accounts Receivable & Cashiering System (BARC) system continues.  We recall that Fred Brooks, Jr. advised us a long time ago that one fourth of the time involved in developing a complex new system would be spent doing integration testing ( The Mythical Man-Month, 1975).

Equipment data have been added to the Data Warehouse.  Training classes continue to be well attended.

Employee IDs were changed from SSNs to random numbers on the weekend of June 9.  We have been working through the impact on systems such as A21/PAR and Graduate Student Fee Remission (GSFR).

The Institutional Advancement division shut down their Groupwise systems in favor of IS&C email and scheduling services.  We have also taken over support of two of their servers.  This project is building toward our running all of their "commodity infrastructure" services, leaving only their custom systems for them to manage internally.

UCSB Directory (LDAP) development continues with most emeriti and some special cases (e.g., Education Abroad Program) loaded.   The latest data from Communications Services have also been integrated.  We are currently constructing an RFQ for a distributed, fine-grain, role and policy based authorization system to work with LDAP.  Products from Open Network Technologies, Ntegrity, Oblix, Securant and Netegrity are among the likely contenders.

Portal discussions continue with vendors rated high in Gartner's Magic Quadrant and with IBS (uPortal).

The  replacement of 3990/3390 DASD with an IBM 2105-F20 Enterprise Storage Server (Shark) is complete.  In addition to saving about 90% on electricity, cooling and floorspace, performance in retrieving data from Adabas has improved by a factor of two to three.  The resulting reduction in demand on our UPS also allowed us to ride out a one-hour power outage without shutting down.  This is about the best move we have made since the replacement of the old 3090 with a CMOS machine.
 

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CPG:

Our Next Generation Backbone based on Foundry Networks equipment went into production on August 7, 2001.  Fifteen out of forty-eight links have migrated from the FDDI backbone to NGB.  Twelve of those connections are using our centralized routing services.

Network Wiring Projects – Year 1 – The major contractor work is complete on our first two projects.  Work is beginning on our third building and we are getting estimates on a fourth building and on some minor work in a fifth building.  Some sub-terminal work has been done on the sixth building and we are preparing the documents to go out to bid on that building.  Our original project budgets were based on GSF-based formulas.  The actual costs that we have seen on our first two projects are making us adjust our project budgets up.  Year 2 – A preliminary list of projects was prioritized and submitted for review.  Since the amount of money available for these projects is less than half of what is needed, several of the projects were split into two parts to order the most critical components higher.  We are re-estimating these projects and plan to have a new prioritized list before the end of October.

Network Security – In one year the frequency of widespread attacks has increased from three per day to more than once an hour.  We’ve recorded 1558 incidents between June 1 and August 31 with all but 93 being attacks against UCSB.  Of the 93 attacks initiated at UCSB, 53 were either Code Red or similar attacks on Windows IIS servers.  Our upgraded monitoring computer allows more real-time intrusion detection and investigation through network traffic analysis.  In most cases these methods will notice an attack coming from our network and send a message to a pager within minutes of its inception.

Replacement Phone System or Service - The RFP was released to vendors on July 27.  The proposal deadline is September 28, followed by an evaluation of the proposals and campus consultation.  If all goes as scheduled, the Notice of Intent to Award should occur in the first week of December 2001, with the cutover of the new switch in the first week of September 2002.

The wireless (microwave) link between UCSB and the Santa Cruz Island Reserve is proceeding on schedule.  This will provide a 10Mbps ethernet connection, as well as up to 24 telephone channels. The radio system turnup date is contingent upon the finalization of the Coastal Commission’s approval for the antenna installation on Valley Peak, which looks down upon the Reserve and the Nature Conservancy's facilities.

Communications designs and project budgets have been submitted and progress drawings and specifications are being reviewed for four new buildings. Additionally designs and budgets have been developed for four renovation projects.

Addressable CATV taps for the residence halls have been installed in all buildings.  This will allow CATV activation without a site visit as we can now do with phone service.

Last year we introduced the ability for all residential customers to sign up for phone and cable TV service on the web.  This year they will additionally be able to request changes and removal of their service.