Going for GOLD again (CEEDA)

I previously reported that we were participants in the Certified Energy Efficient Data Centre Awards Scheme (CEEDA).

I'm delighted to report that we were awarded the GOLD standard again for our Data Centre - following our recent audit. 

Data Centre Dynamics made a short film about us, which you can view here:

http://vimeo.com/111534152


University of St Andrews Press Release:

Gold Standard

University of St Andrews recognised for advanced energy efficiency

The University of St Andrews has retained the GOLD award for its Butts Wynd Data Centre by the The British Computing Society (BCS) for CEEDA (Certified Energy Efficient Data Centre Award).

Two years ago, the University became the first public sector organisation to achieve accreditation, and an organisation has to undergo an audit every two years, so in September 2014 a BCS CEEDA Auditor visited the University.

The BCS has now confirmed that, as result of this recent re-accreditation audit, the University has retained the CEEDA GOLD award for energy efficiency across all areas of its Data Centre - and remains the only public sector organisation in the world to hold the Gold standard.

During this latest assessment, for the first time the University was measured against new CEEDA GOLD+ criteria - used to enable feedback and reporting of some of the most advanced energy efficiency criteria available. The assessment looks at the way an organisation approaches energy-efficiency best practice across all areas of the data centre including; IT equipment, procurement and operational processes, cooling and power systems equipment, building control systems and the monitoring and management of energy usage.

The BCS has confirmed that the University has met the new CEEDA GOLD+ criteria.

The University of St Andrews data centre opened in 2011, built at a cost of £2.4 million on the site of the University’s former squash courts, and runs entirely on energy from renewable sources.

The University turned to the CEEDA framework as a way of defining a common approach and standard that would help different parts of the organisation work together, while ensuring stringent processes and continual improvement.

Modifications based on the recommendations from the original CEEDA audit have been implemented, resulting in additional energy savings significantly greater than originally forecast.

Steve Watt, Chief Information Officer explains more about the benefits of undergoing the assessment;

“When we decided to have our facility assessed under the BCS’s Certified Energy Efficient Data Centre Award (CEEDA) framework, back in 2012, the top priorities were the university’s efficiency and sustainability goals – and we were delighted to achieve the Gold award, however we’ve reaped many other benefits since. 

“Not only did the scheme help to meet those goals, aiding in a significant reduction of energy expenditure and carbon emissions, it has also encouraged migration to the facility from across the campus, The kudos of the accreditation has made the job of selling the data centre as the facility of choice much easier, especially as the management of the facility can be seen to follow best practice and there is a clear focus on energy usage reduction, which is a key strategic aim.  The data centre project also continues to generate significant internal and external interest – and the project team have won a number of awards for the innovative methods and practices we adopt.  This has opened new opportunities for learning and sharing best practice with organisations from all over the world.”

You can find out more about CEEDA here:
http://ceeda.bcs.org/

Mobile Working and the Microsoft Surface Pro

BYOD continues to be a challenge for organisations for all the obvious reasons of security, integration and interoperability.

With the emergence of devices such  as the Microsoft Surface Pro, for many SME's and larger organisations such devices provide a real alternative to providing a laptop, especially for executives.

I've  recently started to use a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and have very quickly adapted to it and to Windows 8.1. With the availability of all of the applications I require and a docking station this is very likely to replace both my current laptop and iPad.

Whether the Surface Pro starts to become prevalent as a BYOD candidate remains to be seen but in the corporate world where CYOD is an option this device will likely quickly gain ground as the executive device of choice. Its slightly heavy however its small enough to easily fit in a briefcase without the bulk of a laptop. The ability to run line of business software applications and to manage the device using the standard toolsets are the two primary benefits in my opinion.

Best Service Desk Award 2014

As I've reported many times, we're a member of the Service Desk Institute and are currently the only University in the UK to hold 3 star accreditation.  Last week our Service Desk team attended the SDI annual conference, which features their annual award ceremony - IT Service Excellence Awards.  Earlier in the year, the team put forward an award submission for the title of Best Service Desk (small team) at the event.  Taking part in the award process was no easy task - writing a 5000 word report, producing an extensive evidence folder, a judges visit, presentations - and making a fun film featuring the Service Desk.  At Tuesday nights award ceremony, the University of St Andrews was announced as the winner of this prestigious award. 

 

The award ceremony was attended by around 500 IT professionals - including companies such as 02, Liverpool Direct, Virgin Media, TopDesk, Telindus and several other Universities. This category was judged by IT professionals from other industries.

I just want to congratulate everyone in IT Services on this success - particularly of course the IT Service Desk team.  

This award is well deserved by IT Services.   In recent years, significant effort and hard work has improved our customer-facing support and services, which resulted in us earlier this year being ranked #1 in the iGrad survey for IT Support.   This of course is underpinned by highly available and robust systems and services to which everyone in IT Services contributes.

Awards such as this provide great external validation that we are delivering our services in a very professional way and are amongst the best in our industry vertical and beyond.


http://www.servicedeskinstitute.com/events/it-service-excellence-awards/winners-2014/

a very happy team!

Award-winning Data Centre

Last year I reported that we achieved Participant status from the EU Code of Conduct for our data centre.  An achievement in itself - as participant status was not easy to achieve.

I was therefore shocked and delighted to be told last month that we had won the 2014 annual award for the category.   Unfortunately I was not able to attend the lavish award ceremony in Monaco, as part of the Datacentres Europe conference!

http://www.datacentreseurope.com/#&slider1=2 

It’s almost two years since we were awarded GOLD CEEDA (Certified Energy Efficient Datacentre Award from the BCS).   Having this accreditation has brought many benefits -  in terms of our own internal management of the DC - and externally in terms of raising our profile and reputation in this field as experts and promoters of Green IT. 

To continue with accreditation, Data Centres are re-assessed every two years.  Work on gathering evidence has begun and the audit will take place later this summer.  The Data Centre Ops Group continue to meet regularly to report on and recommend actions to demonstrate continuous improvement in order to maintain future CEEDA accreditation status and to continue to operate the facility as efficiently as possible.

 

Microsoft Scottish Apprentice of the Year - Sam Foster

Sam Foster, who is an IT Apprentice in my IT Service Desk team, won Microsoft Scottish Apprentice of the Year - at an event recently at the Scottish Parliament.  Sam beat off 450 other nominated apprentices to win the prestigious title.

Sam Foster - Microsoft Scottish Apprentice of the Year

Our first three IT Apprentices joined IT Services in September 2012 (including Sam) - and it’s been a huge success.  Since then, we recruited another four IT Apprentices in 2013 and I’m delighted that we’ve received approval to recruit a further four later this year. 

It’s really important we give these young people the best opportunity and training we can - and I’m delighted that everyone in IT Services has embraced this  - as these young people really benefit from being supported and mentored by a wide range of very talented and experienced staff.

QA (who provided Sam's training in year one) made this great film about him last month.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtzzsLWNkvE&feature=youtu.be

Sam also did a blog:  "How I became Microsoft Scottish Apprentice of the Year", to encourage others to consider an apprenticeship as a great start to a career. 
http://blogs.apprenticeships.qa.com/how-i-became-microsoft-scottish-apprentice-of-the-year/

Press Release: 3 star award for University IT department

Press Release: Monday 10 March 2014

3-star award for University IT department

The University of St Andrews has become the first university in the UK, and the second in the world, to be accredited with 3-star Service Desk Certification from The Service Desk Institute (SDI).

The 3-star rating was awarded following an eighteen month auditing programme by the SDI, Europe’s only support network for IT service desk professionals and leading authority on IT support issues, which noted a significant improvement in the scores each time.
During each audit, nine concept areas were measured covering all aspects of IT Services including leadership skills, policy and strategy, people management, partnerships and resources, people satisfaction, performance results and social responsibility.

The University of St Andrews IT Service Desk team logs between 4000 and 8000 incidents a month, offering support to the University’s 2000 staff and 8000 students, through a single point of contact.
On being awarded 3-star accreditation, Lorraine Brown, the University of St Andrews IT Service Desk Manager, said:

“IT is a fundamental part of every member of staff and every student’s day to day life at the University and we want everyone who uses our service to have a positive experience from the moment they arrive in St Andrews. We believe that our 3-star certification proves our commitment to offering a great service and we aim to use the programme to further aid the continuous development of our IT services.”

The Service Desk Institute’s audit evaluates service desk operations against an internationally accepted global standard for best practice, providing companies with a benchmark to form a baseline for service improvements.

Howard Kendall, SDI’s Master Auditor, who presented the 3-star award to the IT Services team, commented:
"After achieving 2* SDI certification in 2013, it is highly rewarding to see that the excellent strategy and leadership in place and SAITS is playing a major part progressing the service to a 3* customer-led level of maturity. Quality leadership, combined with a new location for the service desk, the appointment of a business relationship manager, the implementation on a carefully planned customer experience feedback programme and the on-going enthusiasm and high morale of staff is clearly bearing fruit. I’m delighted to see St Andrews embracing continuous service improvement and shall continue to follow them on their journey"
ENDS

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Issued by the Press Office, University of St Andrews
Contact Victoria Herd on 01334 462530

Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Device Management Event

I'm speaking later this month at the Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Device Management Event organised by Whitehall Media http://www.whitehallmedia.co.uk/em-mdm/

My talk is entitled "User Experience: The Key to Successful Mobilisation".

I'm going to look at how Universities have delivered BYOD solutions for over a decade with mixed success. From experience, ease of integration with the wireless infrastructure, an identity management solution (to identify and register users) and establishing the correct security posture is key. Ultimately security should be the overriding factor - as any solution must not compromise an organisations security.

The user experience for academic and other university staff now can be a positive one with the ability to use a device of their choice and with true wireless "roaming" throughout the UK education sector and beyond using eduroam.

I will argue that BYOD is about developing an ecosystem which begins at the data centre and expands out from there. Protecting the organisational infrastructure is also critical however getting the balance here is crucial as stifling creativity and innovation is all to easy. Also by putting barriers in place to prevent specific actions or behaviours is a waste of time as people are creative enough to get around such barriers. For example, if you restrict access to certain categories of website many with either bring their own network (BYON!) or utilise free tools to tunnel traffic over http.

The other big change in moving and supporting a BYOD approach is to the support model. The traditional service desk approach is often no longer suitable in environments with high BYOD such as a University. You need to also cater for hardware repairs such as screen replacements, data restorations etc. The demand for accessible power is also a challenge. 

Making it clear what is and is not acceptable is also crucial and this should be embedded in easy to read guidance for all employees.