NextGen Update: Winter Break progress
December sees milestones for Network Upgrade and Rufus Initiative
January 11, 2010
By Sean O'Malley
During winter break, OIT reached several important milestones for its NextGen Network and Rufus Initiative projects, with core and individual network upgrades completed in multiple locations on the Athens campus, and successful contract negotiations for Identity Management and Constituent Relationship Management for the Rufus Initiative.
NextGen Network Upgrade
Over break, OIT infrastructure technicians connected single mode fiber optic links between the network core and central hub sites located in McCracken, Crawford, Gordy, Morton, Grover and Boyd. These links will carry traffic for individual buildings as the network upgrade proceeds. Currently, five buildings have received their individual upgrades:
- HDL Center
- Computer Services Center
- Smith House
- Jefferson Hall
- Martzolff House
Work also is under way in Ellis, Scripps and Lindley Halls.
Once the NextGen upgrade is completed, all buildings on all campuses will have 100 Mbps wired Ethernet to the desktop and high speed, single mode fiber optic connections to the campus network's core.
Rufus Initiative
December was a busy month for the Rufus Initiative, with successful contract negotiations in Identity Management (IdM) and Constituent Relationship Management (CRM). OHIO signed contracts with IBM/Wolcott and Campus Management Corporation (CMC) respectively for the two services. Final negotiations also are under way for the university portal.
Identity Management will provide a single, central, automated and secure way to grant individuals appropriate access to online services based on the role or roles they play on campus. The project team also is looking into using the system to manage personal information across the university. IdM is expected to begin coming online in the spring.
Constituent Relationship Management will enhance student recruiting efforts by managing and customizing communications with prospective students and provide a single technology for on-line admissions applications that will tie directly into PeopleSoft's Campus Solutions. Because CRM is essential to the student admissions process, the new software will come online in tandem with the Admissions module of PeopleSoft this coming summer.
Wolcott's IdM implementation team currently is on site, while CMC's team is expected to arrive near the end of January.
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