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IT Update


Updates
Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and an early spring is predicted. Regardless of the weather, IT continues with AWS – MRP workstreams, updates to the infrastructure, readying the second floor of Hale, evaluating IT services and much more. The updates are organized by the strategic goals within the IT Strategic Plan.

The Deputy CIOs continue to rethink the organization of their respective units. The overarching organizational chart is available here.

Goal: Modernize Infrastructure 

  • Upgrade the university network
    • Networking and Telecommunications Services (NTS) continue to focus on networking for the remaining floors in Hale Library. The second floor opens after Spring Break.
    • Upgrades on the DHCP environment were completed.
    • Projects in Progress:
      • Move locally managed DHCP in Throckmorton to Blue Cat.
      • Transition host IP addressing from public to private space in Vet Med complex, Throckmorton, Pittman and Davenport.
      • Wireless upgrades in Ackert and Large Animal Research Facility
      • Baseball Stadium renovation
      • The south end zone expansion of Bill Snyder Family Stadium and other athletic venues.
    • Planning continues for the:
      • The McCain Expansion 
      • Multicultural Center
      • K-State Polytechnic projects
  • Modernize the data center
    • Staff are making progress implementing our cloud first strategy with the data center relocation options.
    • Out of the original 1300 virtual machines in the data center prior to the fire, 524 remain to be migrated.
    • VM migrations from HP Cluster and vBlock are heating up. Hoping to completely be off the HP Cluster by April 1, 2020.
    • In progress and upcoming migrations: critical services on the HP Cluster, ImageNow, K-State web pages
    • KSRE applications have migrated from on-prem to cloud successfully. Database moves are remaining and scheduled for March.
  • Develop the cloud and hosted computing strategy
    • Cloud Center of Excellence minutes and other information is available on the Cloud Center of Excellence webpage (eID/password required). Amanda Tross and Kurt Zoglmann serve as co-chairs.
    • For the ERP systems, IT is focusing on optimization and stabilization. Upcoming operations include the Oracle database upgrade. The maintenance window HRIS and KSIS, was 10 pm, Feb 8 through 6am, Feb 9. The upgrade was completed by 12:59 am, Feb 9. 
    • For the webMethods transaction hub, progress is continuing to move to the hosted SoftwareAG iPaaS solution 

Goal: Re-architect Enterprise Applications

  • Define and implement enterprise customer relationship (CRM) strategy.
    • CRM project – The next Town Hall meeting will be March 2 at 3 pm. Checkout the website for more information.
  • Identify tool(s) for enterprise-wide forms management.
    • The ImageNow contract is currently under review.

Goal: Evaluate IT Service Delivery

  • Improve IT assistance. Perform a comprehensive IT support process improvement project.
    • The ITS staff are reviewing ITIL principles and developing a process for evaluating services.

Goal: Improve Enterprise Security

  • Establish cybersecurity awareness and risk management
    • Improved security – password requirement changes are coming soon.
    • Cybersecurity Awareness Training was completed by 6,407 employees. In the coming months, Cybersecurity Awareness training will be offered on a more frequent basis.

Comparison of Phishing Scams and Compromised eIDs 

YTD 2020 YTD 2019 YTD 2018
Compromised eIDs 130 55 39
Phishing scams 165 131 63
Phishing scam tickets processed 486 314 263

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