Office of Information Technology News
Banner Upgrade
Banner version 7 was upgraded to version 8 over this past Labor Day weekend. While some areas received new features, most people did not see any changes. The timing of the upgrade was coordinated between the Office of Information Technology and many other University divisions and departments to minimize the impact of extended Banner unavailability.
College of Engineering (COE) Moved to UA-NET in June
The College of Engineering (COE) moved to the UA-NET domain on the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Exchange server. There was no e-mail downtime. For more information, go to http://oit.ua.edu/projects/engineering/index.html.
UA Student E-mail Moved to Google in May
Student e-mail moved from BamaMail to Gmail. Crimson, the University’s partnership with Google, launched the weekend of May 8-10. Student account names and passwords did not change, and mail is still accessed through myBama. During the launch weekend, all mail currently being delivered to student accounts @bama.ua.edu addresses started being forwarded to students' new @crimson.ua.edu addresses, and all mail and address book entries stored on BamaMail were copied to Crimson. There was no scheduled e-mail downtime. For more information, go to http://oit.ua.edu/crimson/index.html.
New Fall 2009 Issue of FrontLine Security Newsletter Available
OIT has subscribed to the quarterly FrontLine Security Newsletter from Computer Security Institute (CSI). This newsletter contains both industry-wide and UA-specific security information. As part of our subscription, this newsletter may only be downloaded from computers on the University of Alabama network. The current issue and archive of past issues will always be located on the OIT Web site.
The 2009 Computer Security Awareness Student Video and Poster Contest
The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force, in cooperation with the ResearchChannel and CyberWATCH, conducted its third annual contest in search of computer security awareness posters and short videos developed by college students for college students. The deadline for submissions was April 30, 2009. The 2009 winning posters and videos are now available to download from the ResearchChannel's Web site: http://www.researchchannel.org/securityvideo2009/.
John McGowan Named Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer
Dr. John P. McGowan is the new vice provost and chief information officer at The University of Alabama. McGowan has more than 20 years’ experience in information technology. Immediately prior to joining the University, McGowan served as vice provost for information technology and chief information officer at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
UA System partners with NASA to build Regional Optical Network
The University of Alabama System in partnership with NASA has purchased dark fiber and networking equipment to build a regional optical network (RON). Within the next couple of months, UA’s connection to the RON will be complete.