General announcements from Elizabeth Mathis:

• Elizabeth invited everyone to stay after the Network Manager’s meeting to attend a presentation and question and answer session about the Ecora Documentor and IT Auditor products. Tom Gillum of Ecora will offer the presentation.
• Update/explanation of Authentication project and announcement of John Watson as the new Authentication Team Project Manager.
• CleanSlate software is being used at TCL. The purpose of the software is to preserve the settings of a computer, specifically in a public lab setting. We have a site license for the Columbia campus only. Handouts are available for additional information. See Barbara Koski if you are interested in a copy of the software for use at the regional campuses.
• The SACS Committee will be on campus during the first week of April. Preparations have begun for the visit.
• An updated virus protection file (4118.dat) is available on Plato.
• The hardware contract is out for bid this week. An award is expected by the end of March.

Remarks from Dr. Hogue:

• Dr. Hogue discussed budget concerns, specifically noting that 50% of the salary expenditure in the budget goes to positions outside Computer Services. This is an indication of how decentralized IT is throughout the University. The next checkpoint for the budget will occur at the end of March when the House sends the Budget to the Senate.
• As preparation for possible 5% or 15% budget cuts, administrative and academic departments are participating in reduction exercises.
• Dr. Hogue outlined the CS strategy for reduction exercise. This strategy consists of three main points:

1. "On the Horizon" – This includes what know about University-wide unfunded or underfunded mandates, new project costs and planning, and other issues on the horizon for CS.
2. Internal Options – This includes evaluating operating efficiencies and reducing expenditures. Current open positions are frozen and this freeze may be indefinite.
3. Institution-wide opportunities – This includes evaluating the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the IT structure and scrutiny in all areas of operation.

• Dr. Hogue announced that Elizabeth Mathis has joined a budget discussion group as a representative of the CS staff.
• Dr. Hogue attended a Commission on Higher Education meeting this morning and informed everyone that a proposal for the SC IT Institute has been approved. This means a net gain of 1.35 million dollars to spend between now and June 30, 2001. For CS, it means there is $700,000.00 available to fund the NOC, to work on the infrastructure for video transmission over the Internet, and provide $200,000.00 for Internet 2 connections.
• Dr. Hogue indicated that a possible deal on an equipment donation from a vendor might be nearing closure.
• Dr. Hogue closed his remarks and introduced Lorie Edwards.

 

CSD Organization presentation from Lorie Edwards

• An Academic Services Department has been created and Chris Brown from AIS will lead this group. Chris is the CS Point of Contact for Blackboard issues.
• Helen Epting is the new manager for IT training and support. Miriam Mitchell will work in a more technical position, as is her desire.
• John Watson is the new Systems Manager.
• Ronni Wilkerson will handle firewall support.
• The position of Security Officer will be moved to Communications.
• The organizational structure of Communications is:
• Elizabeth Mathis is Assistant Director of Communications and Manager of Desktop Support
• Lori Butts is Manager of Control Center, Records, Technicians, and GRIN
• Dan Gallagher is Manager of LAN/WAN group
• Harry Catoe is Director of Regional Campuses
• Bill Mowery is Security Officer and Manager of the NOC
• Fred Goebeler is Manager of Planning group
• Jim Curtis is Manager of Telecommunications
• Janet Stokes is CTS Office Manager
• Lorie discussed her plan for improving communications between the various offices and regional campuses. This plan includes:
• The formation of a Notification Task Force
• A re-design of the CS web site
• A consolidated control center
• Use of the Project Definition Report
• Project Status updates

 

Communication between the campuses and CSD discussed by Rick Jordan:

• Rick made a copy of the list of Communications managers available to everyone. The list includes phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and beeper numbers for each manager.
• The concerns about notification have been heard and a Notification Task Force created in response. The Task Force team includes managers and is researching how best to get information out to everyone and reviewing exactly what information each area would like to have. Rick explained that we currently do not have a way to monitor network and Internet connectivity problems until after the fact. Software is being reviewed to alleviate this problem and provide us with the necessary tools. Rick asked for 3 or 4 volunteers to help with the Task Force and received many responses. He will provide more information for those interested after the next Notification Task Force meeting.
• A question was raised concerning the ability of the new software to be cross-platform. Rick responded that he was not certain at this point but that it was certainly a goal, and reiterated that the software was in the process of being tested and evaluated.
• A question of the status of goals for reliability and redundancy was raised. Rick introduced Dan Gallagher and allowed him to answer the question.

 

InfoAve and Internet Performance Issues discussed by Dan Gallagher:

• Dan informed everyone that bandwidth had been increased to 45 meg guaranteed, burstable to 50 meg. This is an increase from the previous 15 meg, burstable to 30 meg and should, in conjunction with other measures being taken, help improve Internet performance.
• Enhanced performance options include the cache engine. The cache engine is as close as possible to 100% functionality and currently, 46% of Internet requests are going to the cache engine instead of the pipe.
• Dan discussed Internet 1 and Internet 2 and explained that on Internet 1 we have ~23 meg coming in (requests from us) but ~36 meg going out (information downloaded from us.) He explained that information going out and coming in should be more balanced and is more balanced on Internet 2. The issue has been identified but no causes have been established yet. An IP meter dedicated to monitoring Internet traffic is in place to help identify where the traffic is. Dan cautioned everyone to make it clear to anyone asking that the monitoring is only for types of traffic and specifics are not being monitored.
• Dan discussed advantages of a Student Network, including:
• Increased performance for students
• Eliminating possible security risks from having students on the same network as administration
• Dan discussed the issue of dual paths or redundancy in the commodity Internet service. He discussed having a redundant Internet Service Provider and the goals for this. InfoAve is not a Tier 1 Internet provider. Options for a Tier 1 provider are being reviewed.
• Dan discussed the CiscoWorks software, a management tool for monitoring network status and usage. It is a proprietary program and is very complex. Cisco is offering assistance and the software is being evaluated to determine if this is the right tool for us. Dan noted that site-specific information and notification are goals in this area. A tool we can use now is available at (need URL from Dan). This is MRTG, a traffic analyzer that is monitoring our usage. He will post information so that everyone will know what to look for and cautioned those looking at information for "CSD Annex" that the information is not being properly reported at this time.

 

Closing remarks from Elizabeth Mathis:

• Elizabeth wanted everyone to know that the Network Manager’s Meeting belongs to everyone and the format is not set in stone. She noted that her request for suggestions and information is sincere and asked for more involvement from all the Network Managers.

The attending managers made general comments and the meeting adjourned at 3:20 with the introduction of the Ecora representative.

The next meeting is scheduled for March 1, 2001.