Data Centre Dialogue 3

On 3rd and 4th December 2012 I'm delighted to be chairing the Econique Data Centre Dialogue conference in Reading. The range and calibre of the speakers is excellent and I look forward to a lively debate on some of the key issues and challenges in this area at present.

My own session at the conference is about Innovative, sustainable and cost-effective power management where I'll share some of the interesting approaches we have taken in St Andrews to keep our data centre electrical energy costs as low as possible.

Further details can be found at the link below
http://www.econique.co.uk/datacentredialogue3.html

DatacenterDynamics Awards - Finalist

I'm thrilled to announce that yet again, the University of St Andrews has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.

 

Category: Innovation in IT Optimisation 

Project Name: ICT Transformation At The University Of St Andrews.

I face the judges later this month and the winners will be annouced at the Awards Ceremony on 13th December... watch this space

http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/awards/europe

 

 

Eduroam - available worldwide!

Probably one of the most useful and best kept secrets in the education sector is the eduroam wireless roaming service. I've heard it's the fastest growing internet hotspot and it is now available in 50 countries. 

Visiting another educational, research or related institution, opening your laptop and being instantly connected to your home network - logging in with your own institution username and password.

There is an excellent introductory animation 'What is eduroam?', created by AARNet (the Australian research and education network), on Youtube:  What is Eduroam ? which is worth viewing if you are not familiar with the service.

Janet UK operate the service in the UK and futher details can be found at https://www.ja.net/products-services/janet-connect/eduroam

IT Geeks

An interesting article by the BBC! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20325517

Finally, it's cool to be geek or a nerd.  Whether you agree or not, you can't live without us!

At a recent CIO Harvey Nash event a few weeks ago, the CEO, Albert Ellis, indicated that our sector is the future and definitely the industry to be in.  He also said there was a massive skills shortage.  He also shared an interesting alternative of my job title of CIO: Chief Innovation Officer? Absolutely! 
...or maybe CIO: Career is Over?




Mark Zuckerberg - geek

Steve Jobs - geek

GOLD Award for St Andrews

Further to my earlier blog regarding the University of St Andrews Data Centre I was notified today that we have achieved the British Computer Society GOLD CEEDA standard.  We are the first University in the UK to achieve this standard.  Not only this, we are the first public sector organisation to achieve this accolade. 

This is a fantastic recognition of our commitment towards energy management and is in alignment with the University's sustainability strategy - to become carbon neutral by 2016. 

Achieveing this standard was not trivial - all aspects of our project and operation were thoroughly investigated through an intense audit process. 

Many thanks to all those University staff involved in this project and to those involved in the accreditation process.  When we decided to go down the route of accreditation, those involved indicated  that receiving a bronze award would be our target.  To achieve gold – particularly as an organisation in which ‘IT’ is not its core function is fantastic.  I'm delighted for my team who have demonstrated a great passion and commitment to continually improving our energy efficiency. 

This is a very positive reflection on the skills, expertise and professionalism of all of the staff within my IT Services team as the assessment process also looked more widely at how we deliver various aspects of our service.

Well done University of St Andrews!
 

For more information about the award, visit:  http://ceeda.bcs.org/

University Hacking Attacks and Data Breaches

There have been a number of very high profile hacking incidents affecting US and UK Universities with the most recent being widely reported in the media.

From my experience, University computing environments tend to be far more heterogenous than would be found in a business or corporate setting and the management of systems more distributed making security an even greater challenge. This combined with the very fast Internet links into Universities make them good targets for hackers or spammers.

There are a number of things we can all do to reduce the likelihood of an incident. I've listed a few below which is not exhaustive by any means:

• Regular internal and external penetration testing should also be encouraged to ensure the external posture of Internet facing systems is known and remedial action taken where required
• Regular patching of systems and applications to ensure software is maintained at current and supported levels.
• An information security policy which is maintained and widely known throughout an organisation
• Basic good practice around access and identity management including firewalls, anti virus and anti malware solutions.

There is some very good advice available at  https://www.getsafeonline.org which I would encourage everyone involved in the support of IT to read. It's also written in a way that all ICT users can make use of the advice across a wide range of areas.

BT Openzone - University of St Andrews

Following the expansion of the University's wireless network to all campus buildings and all University owned accommodation (including bedrooms) we wanted to be able to leverage this asset further. By working with a third party it was recognised we could provide wifi services to a greater range of campus visitors by separating our academic wifi requirements from our public requirements. This was also essential to ensure we remained within the terms of our contract with Janet UK our network provider.  

BT Scotland Director Brendan Dick said: “BT is really excited to be working on this project with the University of St Andrew, bringing a 21^st century technological advantage to a historic town. It will not only provide widespread wireless internet access for visitors to university sites, but has the potential to be extended out across the town benefiting local residents, business people and visitors.

“A public BT Wi-fi network would be a major new asset to help enhance the visitor experience for the thousands of tourists, shoppers and golfers who make a significant contribution to the local economy. The University of St Andrews is to be commended for its vision and its wish to make sure that its local community can also reap the benefits of its technological development. We look forward to working closely with the university on the project in the months and years ahead.”  

We launched this service today on a small part of the campus and will roll this out further to all areas of the campus before the end of the year. This will provide members of the public, visitors and non academic conference delegates the ability to access the Internet.