| Objective | Start / end date | More details |
|---|
| Launch videoconferencing service. |
2010 for 18 months. |
The bid has already been submitted. If successful a new service will be launched
in 2010 which will become self-funding as of August 2011. We are also running a trial
of WebEx and funding may be sought to develop this in 2010/11. |
|
Relocation of Bodleian MDX rooms.
|
2010. Costs to be covered by redevelopment budget. |
The movement of the MDX room requires moving all data and voice equipment.
Expected to complete by August 2010. |
|
Launch student internship scheme.
|
2010. |
Provide opportunities for Oxford students to take 2 month placements with OUCS to
work on specific IT projects. |
|
Develop an MIT Kerberos and LDAP authentication/authorisation
mechanism for the podcasting service.
|
2010. |
Provide better access for the growing podcasting service. |
|
Nexus upgrade – Exchange 2010.
|
Aug 2010 to Jan 2011. |
Six month project. |
|
Nexus upgrade – SharePoint 2010.
|
Feb 2011 to May 2011 |
3-6 month project. |
|
Investigate residential networks. |
2010 |
Look at possibility of running a residential network for colleges. |
|
Investigation of network monitoring.
|
2010 |
Begin to consider options for improving network monitoring capabilities in light
of increased size and demand. |
|
Provide a Service Payment Centre outside the On-line Shop
|
Underway. End date - July 2010. |
Provide direct access to online payment for OUCS services |
|
Improve hardware repair and maintenance service
|
Ongoing |
Promote and expand Apple repair centre, and work with Equinox to provide a more
comprehensive general onsite repair and maintenance; investigate and implement
provision of loan machines; provide support for self-service software repair. |
|
Explain, promote, and support good practice in web site management for
the University.
|
Ongoing |
Organize termly technical meetings for web managers, promote open standards, and
expand the Web Design Consultancy by supporting one or two standard CMS
programs. |
|
Provide an Oxford-specific Linux customization based on the Ubuntu
operating system.
|
2010-Dec 2010 |
Integrate authentication with Active Directory into local Ubuntu customization and
promote secure package. |
|
Support search engine for university web sites
|
2010- Dec 2010 |
Investigate and implement use of GSA with Microsoft Sharepoint to index secure
content, and implement indexing of, and secure access to, restricted access web sites
across the University. |
|
Software development support for university research projects
|
2010 |
Establish development team to support university and external projects,
particularly in creation of web-based systems. |
|
Enhance OUCS Data Centre Management
|
2010/11 |
Develop, in consultation with system administrators, appropriate policies relating
to the allocation of space and power to racks, and to ensure secure access to the data
centre. |
|
Develop a Core User Directory service
|
2010-2011 |
The bid to the PICT proposes a service offering data harvesting and
reconciliation; unique identifiers for person records; and a range of data provider
interfaces. |
|
Review and upgrade of OUCS Registration Database
|
2010-2011 |
The OUCS Registration database is a source of authoritative data underpinning OUCS
services but also for use by other University and local services (especially as the
source for email address and SSO username data). The review of the Registration
Database should be undertaken in conjunction with the implementation of a CUD service,
on the one hand, and the continued improvements to the University's access management
services provided by OUCS. |
|
Refurbishment of OUCS data centre
|
2010/11-2012/13 |
Priorities for refurbishment are: a) replace air conditioning system; b) replace
suspended ceiling; c) re-balance the power phasing; d) review UPS requirements; e)
install energy efficient lighting. |
|
Provision of federated storage infrastructure for the management of
research data (pilot)
|
2010/11-2012/13 |
Pilot service that provides an underlying, federated storage infrastructure for
the support for (primarily) research data management services. It is important that
the infrastructure integrates with a) local filestore provision; b) the OUCS HFS
service; and, where applicable, other services such as the OULS repository service. A
small amount of effort is required to follow-up and further refine requirements
identified by externally-funded projects. For the pilot it is proposed to i) re-deploy
the server and storage infrastructure currently hosting the Herald email system; b)
develop a cost-recovery plan that allows for both the end-of-life replacement of the
existing system and the ability to meet future capacity. |
|
Assess demand for a version controlled repository for software
code
|
2010-11 |
Undertake user consultation to establish demand and requirements for a central
source code repository. The implications of offering this on a cost-recovery basis
should be evaluated. |
|
Development of an actionable service catalogue for OUCS
|
2010-11 |
Rationalise the OUCS service listings so that a single "service catalogue" is
readily discoverable and accessible to users (2010/11); Provide a mechanism for
service providers to publish a list of associated service requests, tied to a
self-service request fulfilment mechanism (2011/12) – this could initially just
collect details and create a work ticket for the service team, but should be
extensible to offer fully automated request fulfilment. |
|
Deploy a group management service as part of the suite of OUCS access
management services available to the collegiate University
|
2010-11 |
OUCS is developing a groups management service (09/10), beginning with a
read-only service, in order to support the Weblearn Sakai project, the groupware
deployment, and other services provided by the wider University. Subsequent phases
include a full service for the management of ad hoc groups. |
|
Managing Capacity for backup and Archiving services – Replacement of
Tape Library and dual site resilience (feasibility)
|
Start: 2010/11 for two years. |
The existing Automatic Tape Library is obsolete (13 years old) and needs replacing
if maintenance is to be assured and future projected capacity met. The replacement of
the tape library should be considered together with the possibility of providing dual
site backup/archive servers (within the new data centre) in order to mitigate the
risks associated with having a single HFS installation in the OUCS data centre. Since
the replacement of the existing tape library and any second site installation is a
significant project, it is proposed to undertake a requirements and feasibility
study. |
|
Provision of Web publishing services
|
2010-11. |
The Web Publishing Service (also known as users.ox.ac.uk) provides basic website
facilities for users. However, the service has not fundamentally changed for over ten
years. During 09/10 we will undertake a user consultation; and during 10/11 develop
implementation project for an enhanced service that supports an online, public
presence (consistent with other online collaboration services). Student clubs and
societies; and department websites are likely to be early beneficiaries of an enhanced
web publishing service. |
|
Provision of a mailing list service
|
2010-11 |
Undertake user requirements analysis; identify and implement software meeting
functional requirements to replace Ezmlm; migrate lists and archives. |
|
CMR - provision of high level resilience
|
2010-2012 |
Deployment of infrastructure necessary to support dual site locations for
business-critical services with advent of new CMR. |
|
Integration of WebLearn and Nexus and Development of Assessment and
Feedback tools
|
2010-2012 |
Bringing together key points of integration between WebLearn and Nexus and develop
tools to match growing demands from student services in areas of assessment and
feedback.
This is an ongoing process in response to new technologies and
increasing demands from academic staff for new tools to enhance teaching and meet
student expectations and use of mobile technologies.
Research and implement
technology in response to user needs that provides teachers and learners with
assessment and evaluation technologies that increases the quality and ease by which
questions can be authored and marked. Work will also concentrate on integrating
WebLearn and Turnitin with student administrative systems as an online submissions
system for summative assessment. |
|
Expansion of WebLearn storage capacity, and consideration of storage
of open educational resources.
|
2010-2011 |
Demand for WebLearn has increased considerably after the launch of the new
service, and is also linked to the growing interest in the use of video and audio in
teaching. This necessitates an expansion of the storage and backup of the system
We are also exploring how educational content created can be re-used as resources
to bring benefits to learning and teaching, and the student experience at Oxford.
|
|
Replace Backbone Network |
2011 to 2013 |
The University network backbone will need replacing in 2012, as some of the
present hardware becomes unsupported then. Consultation and planning for this will
begin in 2011. |
|
Completion of Central Machine Room and initial high availability
infrastructure
|
2011/2 – 2012/13 |
Soft fit-out of the new Shared Data Centre, including networking, racks and
initial server infrastructure for high availability. |
|
Nexus capacity planning
|
Aug 2012 |
Anticipated additional storage (e.g. depending on rate of growth of
SharePoint) |
