Volume 5, Issue 10 Spring & Summer 2022 Edition
Greetings from the CIO
Welcome to the spring/summer edition of the Tech Talk newsletter. As I write this, I am compelled to share a personal story that helps to highlight the dedication of the ITS department. This past year I was diagnosed with cancer which needed to be eradicated with chemotherapy (not a pleasant process). At a time when our dependency upon technology had increased exponentially, I now had to ask my department to do even more while I took some time to battle this disease and head toward recovery. I am in awe of what the ITS department accomplished and the support they provided me during what was a very difficult time for me and for the campus with the continued pandemic. So, with that, please take some time to read about some of our accomplishments and know how thankful I am for my team and my fellow Seahawks. Please encourage your loved ones to get their regular testing done. Go Seahawks!
AWS Cloud for Research:
ITS is in the process of setting up a tenant in the AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud, purpose-built for research. Individual “sandboxes” will be made available to researchers wherein they can deploy services from a portfolio of services we are creating. Researchers will be responsible for their usage and can tie costs back to a grant or their department. This exciting plan will make the startup costs lower than purchasing equipment outright, while offering more resources than we can on the physical campus.
Horizon Moving to Cloud:
To enhance business continuity and disaster recovery, ITS will be moving Horizon to a private cloud in a remote datacenter to ensure its availability. We are in the final stages of testing and plan to switch over soon. In the event campus is inaccessible, this move will ensure students, faculty and staff can still utilize the software for classes and Banner resources. After the transition is completed, we will be increasing capacity within Horizon to accommodate even more people.
myDevices Portal Success:
We are thrilled with the success of the myDevices portal, which allows residential students to register their gaming/entertainment devices without putting a ticket in with TAC for the Network team to manually register the devices. Now students can do it themselves through the portal. This saves time for both the students and ITS staff and is extremely efficient. Over the Fall 2021 move-in weekend alone, over 1,300 systems were registered. To date, approximately 2,635 devices have been registered (since August 2021). Microsoft and Nintendo devices currently lead the pack on registrations.
New UNCW Website:
The website redesign team from ITS and OUR, alongside Stamats Marketing, Inc., has been busy with site architecture, content, development and design for our new website. The site will provide a fresh new design, easier content management, a program finder and “myUNCW,” which is a dedicated section tailored to meet the needs of current students, faculty and staff. To view a demo of the new site in development, watch Website Redesign Town Hall recording. Be sure to check out the Website Redesign site for updates, information and ways you can get involved!
We encourage you to check back frequently, as our IT News & Action Items will be continually updated throughout the spring and summer months. We hope you enjoy this edition!
ITS wishes you a wonderful semester,
Sharyne
