CIO Blog

OIT Continuity of Operations

A Bottom-Up Approach to Weathering the Worst

The events of April, 27^th, 2011 left an indelible mark on most of us.  While the city of Tuscaloosa suffered terribly along with so many individuals, families, and businesses, the UA campus stood stunned but generally unharmed.   Such a near-miss was a heavy line underscore to the importance and urgency of work already well underway in OIT at the time.  That work is generally referred to as Continuity of Operations or Disaster Recovery planning and preparation.

For OIT, Continuity of Operations refers to our ability to keep as much of the technology as close to full operational status as possible in the face of whatever events may occur.  Disaster Recovery (DR) refers to returning to full and normal operational status for those systems as soon as possible after a disaster event occurs.  These two concepts are different but very closely related.   We have been considering them both over the last two years and have made significant progress in addressing them in meaningful ways.  To be brief, we often refer to the whole effort as DR.

Thinking the Worst
We started thinking about what should be done to be better prepared by considering the kinds of scenarios we might encounter, identifying the most likely disaster scenarios and their relative impact on IT systems and services.  While there are many scenarios that could damage a part of the campus network, those that would have the biggest impact would be events that involved the primary data center.   That facility houses the servers, storage, and primary network equipment that are essential to delivering IT and telecommunications services and applications across the whole campus.  While our general network projects are continuing to improve network resiliency across the campus through redundant connections, there has not been a general redundancy model for data center itself, making it the highest risk for disaster impact.

What Matters Most
We began planning by surveying the services and applications that OIT provides and supports.  Our approach has been to do this in a bottom-up fashion, looking at the most basic services first, those on which all other services and applications depend.  Starting at the foundation, a host of specialized equipment supports various services required for the network to operate.  We have included all of these foundational services as well as primary communications and messaging services (Internet, email, and VPN) in the first phase of our Continuity of Operations project.

We have also identified mission critical applications and determined the physical equipment (servers, storage, etc.) that would be needed to support them.  This equipment has also been included in our initial phase of preparedness work.

A Home Away From Home
The right solution to mitigating the kind of risks we have identified is to create an alternative base of IT operations somewhere outside the greater Tuscaloosa area – a DR site.  We wanted it to be far enough away to reduce the likelihood of the same event affecting both Tuscaloosa and the DR site but close enough that personnel could get to the site within a few hours if necessary.  Since our primary and backup Internet connection circuits currently run through a secured, environmentally hardened, DR colocation facility in Atlanta, it was most practical and economical to select that facility for our DR site.

Recently, we completed the implementation of the foundation equipment at the Atlanta DR site.  This includes three fully loaded equipment racks containing routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, spam filters, servers, and storage.  The equipment has been selected and configured to support the full range of foundation services and to ultimately host mission critical applications capable of being hosted off-site.

Making it Work
Having the equipment in place is one thing.  Ensuring that it will actually work and provide the intended protections is an entirely different matter.  We are beginning now to set up and document the intricate network routing configurations required to enable a fail-over process of network and security functions.  Some of the services run in real-time redundant mode.  Others will require the execution of an automated or semi-automated procedure to transition them in an event.  We will be developing testing protocols for each layer of services.

Once the network transition is assured, we will begin deploying instances of the applications to the DR site and devising the procedures for operational fail-over and fail-back for them.  This work is expected to continue throughout 2012.

In the meantime, we are realizing benefits from the having the DR site in place.  It is already serving as the off-site backup location for our primary storage backup processes replacing a much less efficient tape backup model.  Our email services are also now protected by redundant services in the DR site providing improved operational reliability for that platform.  Later we plan to use the equipment at the DR site for application development and testing and possibly as a reporting platform to ease the load on local systems.

Emerging Technologies Make Learning Easier

From generation to generation, parents feel compelled to tell the rising youth personal reflections from their old school days. These struggles, whether embellished or endured, often involve comments like, “Back in my day we walked 30 miles through snow, to and from school, with 50 pounds of homework on our backs.”

Today’s generation of students will probably have a hard time convincing anyone they ever had to carry 50 pounds of homework, thanks to technological solutions such as e-Readers, which provide a lightweight solution to a “heavy” problem, or online lectures, which afford the opportunity for students to never set foot outside of his/her dorm room (relatively speaking, of course).

Technology has evolved in indescribable capacities year after year. Students are now able to harness the power of laptops, netbooks, recorded lectures, virtual classrooms and much more. Here’s a sneak peak at top, useful technologies for which students everywhere should be thankful (and it may give you some gift ideas for the holidays).

Laptops, Netbooks and e-Readers:

e-Readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, offer customized textbook rental periods, alleviates clutter created from piles of old, unused books and has a lightweight body for hours of comfortable reading and studying. Laptops and netbooks both allow students to take notes while simultaneously surfing the web to find real-time answers/information for vivid classroom discussions, group meetings and more. These luxuries combined provide students with more efficient ways of organization and overall relief for their academic lives day-to-day.

Tegrity

Tegrity is a class capturing system that instructors can use to record lectures for their students. Instructors are also able to capture the contents of their computer screens during lectures. Students can create their own Tegrity recordings, bookmark various content in a recorded lecture, and communicate with each other from inside a Tegrity course while watching recorded lectures.

DegreeWorks

DegreeWorks is a Web-based tool for students to monitor their academic progress toward degree completion. DegreeWorks allows students and their advisors to plan future academic coursework.

This tool:

•   Provides real-time counsel for degree-seeking students
•   Potentially speeds time to graduation and/or streamlines the process
•   Gives intuitive web access to self-service capabilities
•   Allows direct access to multiple related services and advice through hyperlinks to catalog information, class schedules, transcripts, help desk services, & FAQs

The list definitely doesn’t stop here! What are some of your favorite technologies for which you’re most excited about using? Tweet us at www.twitter.com/OITatUA or post on our wall at http://www.facebook.com/ITatUA.

Sincerely,

Dr. John P. McGowan

Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer

Cyber Security Awareness Month in Full Swing

October marks the 8^th Annual Cyber Security Awareness Month founded by the Department of Homeland Security, National Cyber Security Alliance, and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.  This will be the fourth year that the University of Alabama has participated.  Ashley Ewing, UA’s Information Security Officer, will be speaking across campus throughout the month to bring awareness to current issues in cyber security.

The Web seems almost as vital to life as water.  When was the last time you went three days without some kind of access to the Internet?  But just as contaminated water can be harmful, there are risks associated with accessing online resources.  Some of this year’s hot topics include:

• Passwords – Passwords should be mobile.  Change them often, and do not use the same password for all of your accounts.
• Social Networking - Keep private information private!
• Phishing – The University of Alabama will never request personal information (i.e. your SSN, User ID and password, birth date, or any account numbers) via email.  Other reputable institutions (your bank, credit card company, or loan officers) would not email you requesting this type of information either.
• Malware, Spyware, & Anti-virus – Thousands of dollars are spent by both government and private industry to undo the damage associated with viruses and other malicious code.
• Confidential Data (FERPA, HIPAA, PCI) – Any information that contains SSNs, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers,  or patient treatment information in conjunction with an individual’s name, birth date, or other identifier is confidential data.
• PC Desktop Security – Keep your Operating System, anti-virus software, and other software up to date on security patches.

 

To report a security incident, please contact the IT Service Desk (348-5555) or send an email to security@ua.edu .   For more information, please visit http://cybersafe.ua.edu/ or   http://www.staysafeonline.org/.  If you’d like for Ashley Ewing or his team to speak to your group, please call Alyson Lawrence at (205) 348-9809 to schedule at time. We all play an important role in being cyber safe.  Collectively, we can be champions for cyber security and keep our internet safe.

Sincerely,

Dr. John P. McGowan
Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer

Back in the Habit

Clothes, supplies, textbooks…you name it. The list could go on forever. Preparing for heading back to school can jump from fun and exciting to overbearing and stressful in seconds.

Luckily, students getting back in the swing of things with classes will be able to enjoy useful technology resources and alleviate some of the stress. Here’s a peek at some of the things available to you:

ResNet

The Residence Hall network (ResNet) provides student residents with a high-speed connection to the University’s network and the Internet within UA residence halls. It’s available to all students living on campus.

To configure your connection, make sure your laptop is off and use an Ethernet cord to connect it to the ResNet jack (likely orange) in your room. Turn on your laptop and run your Internet connection or setup or wizard—ResNet is a Local Area Network (LAN) with IP addresses assigned automatically. You will be prompted to register your computer the first time you attempt to access the ResNet network. Use the network connection tool provided by the manufacturer of your computer or wireless card to connect to the open UA ResNet Wireless network. For more detailed instructions visit http://oit.ua.edu/oit/services/it-service-desk/resnet/.

Sidenote: Be sure to stay away from using your own wireless router on ResNet. This will degrade everyone’s wireless service.

IT Service Desk

The IT Service desk offers a variety of resources for students. The best part is customer service agents are staffed 24/7 to provide technical assistance! Services and assistance include, but are not limited to the following services:

• myBama access
• Bama, Crimson, and departmental e-mail accounts
• Mobile device configuration (Android OS, iPhone, etc.)
• Computer repair/maintenance/virus removal
• And more…

If you’re having computer issues, never hesitate to reach out to our Service Desk representatives and see what support they can provide. After all, that’s why we’re here. Click here for an inside look.

Free Antivirus Software

Cyber security is an integral focus of our office. We want to ensure that you’re always winning the fight against hackers. The University maintains a site license for antivirus software for Windows and Macintosh workstations and servers. The license covers all University-owned computers as well as computers owned by University faculty, staff, and students—free of cost. Click here for system requirements and further details.

In conclusion, relax! Take a breather. Heading back to school isn’t as stressful as you think—especially when OIT is working around the clock to meet your technology needs. Good luck with classes and here’s to a great semester! For a list of technology resources, visit oit.ua.edu.

Sincerely,

Dr. John P. McGowan
Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer

Technology Resources for Summer Fun

Don’t let summer cause bad technology habits to roll in. Using your UA resources may be a lifesaver for you this summer while you’re taking classes at a local college or needing anti-virus software to keep the summer bugs away.

First, if you’re taking summer classes away from UA, make it a point to stay connected with your research resources and databases provided by University Libraries. To do so, you must be connected to the UA network. Even though you’re miles away, if you connect your laptop or desktop device to the UA VPN, these resources will be right at your fingertips. Before you can use this service, you must first register http://oit.ua.edu/oit/services/it-service-desk/using-the-ua-vpn/register-your-bama-account-for-vpn-access/ your myBama account for VPN access. If you run any of the following operating systems, text and photographic step-by-step instructions are available at http://oit.ua.edu/oit/services/it-service-desk/using-the-ua-vpn/.

• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) & 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
• Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) & 10.3 (Panther)
• Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar)

Second, if you and your friends are planning extended vacations on the beach, at yearly camp sites or on luxury cruise lines, be sure to stay alert when arriving home from long weekends. Summer holidays are popular times for computer viruses to spread. Many users have a tendency to turn off their devices when away on trips. If you fit this category, it may mean you’re not getting newly-released anti-virus patches or anti-spyware updates. We recommend you update anti-virus and anti-spyware scans before opening e-mail or going online after an extended absence. Eligible users have access to these services, free of cost, here at the University of Alabama. To obtain access, visit http://oit.ua.edu/oit/services/software-licensing/mcafee-virus-protection/.

Sincerely,

Dr. John P. McGowan
Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer