University Information Technology Services (UITS)

United Arab Emirates University

DRAFT Saturday, 19 November 2004

Establishing UITS (2004)University Information Technology Services

• January - March – IT Infrastructure Workgroup Studies Current

Infrastructure, Recommends Formation of University-Wide Enterprise Services Division

• April– Chief Information Officer Hired

• May – November– IT Planning Workgroup Studies Establishment of UITS

• December– University Information Technology Services Launch

UITS & The New UAEU Organization

• Chief Information Officer (CIO) Reports to University’s Chief Operations Officer (Provost)

• UITS Structure: Three Central IT Groups Which Provide Enterprise-Level Services to Entire University Community

Chief Information Officer’s Vision

Focus on Our Customers

• # Students

• # Faculty

• # Administrative Staff

IT Strengths

• UAEU as Regional Internet Pioneer

Major Milestones:

May 1995UAEU launched Internet with Line Speed of 64

Kbps to USAApr 1998

UAEU switched to Line Speed of 2 Mbps to ETISALATMar 2001

Internet Access Speed upgraded to 4 MbpsOct 2001

Internet Access Speed upgraded to 8 MbpsMay 2002

Internet Access Speed upgraded to 10 MbpsSep 2002

Internet Access Speed upgraded to 20 MbpsSep 2004

Internet Access Speed upgraded to 34 Mbps

UAEU - Regional Internet Pioneer

0

10

20

30

40

50

SpeedMbps1

99

5

19

98

20

01

20

01

20

02

20

02

20

04

20

06

Growth of Internet at UAEU

May

1995

Apr

1998

Mar

2001

Oct

2001

May

2002

Sep

2002

Sep

2004

Sep

2006

Speed

Mbps64

Kbps2 4 8 10 20 34 45

Our Challenges

• Highlights of Findings From IT Infrastructure Workgroup

Meeting the Challenges

• UITS to Concentrate on Service Offerings that Meet the Needs of All Customers in a Robust, Scaleable, Extensible and Cost-Effective Manner.

Meeting the Challenges: The Role of Unit IT Coordinators

• Keeping UITS Focused on Customer Needs

• Offices With New IT Coordinators:

• Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

• Office of the Secretary General

• Office of the Assistant Provost for Student Affairs

Meeting the Challenges: IT Functional Area Consolidation

• Consolidated IT Services Based on Common Functions

• Introducing the UITS Directors – Hebatallah Mohamed Ebeid, Director,

Customer Support Center (CSC)– Vacant, Director, Enterprise Applications and

Integration (EAI)– Muhammad Javeed, Director, Infrastructure &

Core Technologies (ICT)

Customer Support Center

CSC Group

Introducing the CSC Group

• Hebatallah Mohamed Ebeid, Director, Customer Service Center (CSC)

• Section Heads– Hanaa Abdel Hamid Youssef, University IT

Service Desk – Ahmad Elhaddad, Training and

Communication Planning

Central IT Service Desk

Provided by the CSC Group

Central IT Service Desk

• Role of Central IT Support• Role of College-Level Staff

– Student, Faculty and Staff Support– Support in Computer Labs– Support for Laptop

IT Training and Publications

Provided by the CSC Group

Meeting Our Customers’ Needs• Provide educational opportunities in support of

enterprise systems managed by University IT Services

• Assist the application team in providing well-written bi-lingual user manuals for their applications

• Manage training needs, workshops and seminars for IT professional development

Ongoing Activities 2004/5

• Establishing a communication pipeline infrastructure

• Developing quality workshops

• Providing Documentation and Training Materials

• Publishing Training Catalog

End User Software Training 2004/5

• Office Productivity Software

• E-mail & Calendaring

• Desktop Operating System and LAN

• University Web Services

• Banner Student Information System

• AIMS Custom Business System

• Other Topics as Needed

IT Professional Development 2004/5

• Customer Service Procedures

• Introduction to Enterprise Applications

• Active Directory Management

• Symantec Anti-Virus Training

• Introduction to the Enterprise Network

• Introduction to UAEU Wireless Services

Enterprise Applications and Integration

EAI Group

Introducing the EAI Group• Vacant, Director, Enterprise Applications

and Integration (EAI)• Section Heads

– Yasser Ramadan Abdelaziz Ahmed, University Web Services

– Hossam Ossam Eldin Attia Hamed Mohammed, Custom Software Development

– Abdelhakim Mahmoud Abdellatif Hejjawi, Banner Student Information System

University Web Services

Provided by the EAI Group

Moving Our Services to the Web

• Blackboard Development and Integration Services

• The AIMS Custom Business Applications Suite (Custom Developed Web Interface to Home-Grown System)

• The Banner Student Information System (“Web For” Products)

Integrated Environment: Blackboard University E-Learning Platform

• To ease:– Student Access to Blackboard

– Managing online courses

– Managing student and faculty records

• We have integrated Blackboard with ACE and the UAEU SIS (Banner)

Bb

Users CoursesEnrollments

BannerACE

Custom Applications Development

Services Provided by the EAI Group

The AIMS Business System

• AIMS = Administrative Information Management System

• Oracle Based, In-House Developed

• Modules Include HR, Finance, Purchases, Stores, Assets, and Payroll

AIMS General Inquiry Module

• Based on AIMS database• Developed a comprehensive general inquiry

module • General Inquiry Module enables all managers and

directors to access all information belonging to their units and staff as well.

• For example, each manager can browse his unit budget balance, requisitions, commitments, purchase requests , employees assets,.. etc.

Custom Systems for Student Life

• Oracle Based, In-House Developed – Hostels Application

• Other Systems: Migrating to Oracle– Gates, etc.

Banner Student Information System

Services Provided by the EAI Group

Web Services Connecting to Banner

• Student Self-Service

• Faculty and Advisor Self-Service

• Common Self-Service

Student Self-Service

• Registration• Add/Drop Class

• Look-up Class to Add

• Student Detail Schedule

• Check your Registration Status

• Student Records• Final Grades

• Academic Transcript

• Account Summary

Faculty and Advisor Self-Service

• Faculty Services• Detail Schedule

• Detail Class List

• Class Attendance

• Class Grades

• Download Class into Excel

• Student Menu• View Student

Information

• View Student Schedule

• Registration Overrides

• Registration Add/Drop

Common Self-Service

• Manage Personal Profile

• Change Long-in Information

• Update Contact Information

Infrastructure and Core Technologies

ICT Group

ICT Group Leadership

• Muhammad Javeed, Director, Infrastructure & Core Technologies (ICT)

• Section Heads– Ahmed Soliman, Enterprise Client Services– Vacant, Business Critical Systems– Manhal Hasan Aq. Ali, Enterprise Networking

Enterprise Client Services (ECS)

Services Provided by the ICT Group

Academic Computing Environment (ACE)

About ACE and Active Directory

ACE is a Model of integrated IT services which are tuned for the Academic Computing Environment.

Model comprises four Major Components Consolidation Standardization Security Communication

communication

consolidation

standardizationsecurity

ACE Services & Benefits

• Single Sign-On for user authentication • 500 MB of secure personal shared storage• Data Integrity as a result of daily user data backup• Access to user data anywhere & anytime• Automatic Windows updates• Automatic Anti-Virus updates• Networked Printing• Secured & Controlled Environment

Business Critical Services (BCS)

Services Provided by the ICT Group

BCS: Highlights of Services

• University E-Mail

• Web Hosting Service

• Application and Database Servers

• Anti-Virus and Anti-SPAM Filtering

• Etc.

Enterprise Network Services

Services Provided by the ICT Group

Highlights of Services

• Local Area Network (LAN)

• Wide Area Network (WAN)

• Wireless Network (WLS)

• Internet

Local Area Network (LAN)

• Multi-Vendor Core L2/L3 25 Routing Switches– Gigabit Ports 704– 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Ports 624– Fully Redundant Processors, Fabrics, PSUs etc.

• Multi-Vendor L2 Edge Switches 550– 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Ports 19,048

Campus LAN

Campus Backbone

Marfa Campus

Internet

E3

34 M

bp

sJimi-2 Campus

Zayed Library Campus

Islamic Institute Campus

Muwaiji Campus

Maqam Campus

Jimi-1 Campus

Tawam Campus

STM1

E1

STM1

STM1

ST

M1

STM1STM

1

1 Gbps

1 Gbps

100 Mb

ps Dubai Knowledge

Village Campus

E1

Campus WAN

2Mbps100 Mbps

34 Mbps

34 Mbps34 Mbps

34 Mbps

34 Mbps

2Mbps

The Wireless• Multi-Vendor Wireless

– 11Mbps - 802.11b Radio APs 470– 54Mbps - 802.11 a/b/g Radio APs 167 (New)

Authentication Servers

Access Point

Wireless Clients

LAN Backbone

Wireless “Cell”

Maqam 1 10.200.0.0 /20

Seh Bin Amar 10.200.64.0 /20

Maqam 3 10.200.16.0 /20

Tawam 10.200.32.0 /19

Building 3310.200.255.0 /24

Maqam 2 10.200.128.0 /20

Markhania 1&2 10.200.160.0 /20

FSO Link

10.200.174.0 /29

FSO Link

10.200.142.0 /29

FS

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10.2

00.2

54.8

/30

FSO Link 10.200.254.0 /30

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Wireless Link10.200.253.0 /29

Wireless Link

10.200.141.0 /29

Wireless link

10.200.173.0 /29

Free Space Optics

RF Wireless Bridges

Free Space Optics Links

Radio Frequency Backup Links

1000 Base-FX Links

10/100 Base-TX Links

CE-590-Cash Engine

Cash Engine

Cash Engine

Kuwitat 10.80.90.0 /24

Cash Engine

4xLRE Switch 2 x POTS Spliter12 x Access Point12 x CPE

Exisitng PABX

72 x Access Point72 x CPE

Maqam 4 10.200.144.0 /20

55 x Access Point55 x CPE

ExisitngPABX

Maqam 5

3xLRE Switch 2 x POTS Spliter

ExisitngPABX

1xLRE Switch 1 x POTS Spliter24 x Access Point24 x CPE

ExisitngPABX

1xLRE Switch 1 x POTS Spliter16 x Access Point16 x CPE

Cash Engine

E1 Link

100 Base-FX Links

Cisco 3550 Switch with 1000Base-Sx

Cisco 2950G-24 Port Switch with 2x1000Base-SX GBIC Ports

Cisco Cach Engine

Cisco POTS Splitter

Cisco LRE Switch

Cisco2950-12 Port Switch

Cisco CPE

Link Aggregations

L4/L7 Switch

Internet Cloud Exisitng Router

Cisco 2950C Switch with 2x100Base-FX Ports

Network Management PC

1xLRE Switch 1 x POTS Spliter13 x Access Point13 x CPE

HTTP,RTSP,NNTP,MMS ...

CSACS

9 x Access Point

10 x Access Point

ResNet - Wireless