ITS Communications Archive


Update on UConn VPN

September 22, 2022

ITS has been in the process of transitioning our VPN service from our legacy Pulse Secure to our new Cisco AnyConnect.  (more…)

Upgrades Completed in UConn Data Center

September 13, 2022

The UConn primary data center is an access-controlled location with the specialized support, equipment, and facilities needed to properly house the servers, storage, and key network elements for much of the University’s critical cyber infrastructure.  (more…)

Expansion of Duo 2FA Protection

August 31, 2022

2FA greatly protects data and applications from compromise by using a second source of validation, like a phone or token, to verify user identity before granting access.  (more…)

Kuali Financials

August 16, 2022

UConn has initiated the project to move Kuali Financials from on-premise to a cloud-hosted solution. (more…)

Microsoft Office 365 Security Update

July 6, 2022

Criminals use stolen credentials to attack accounts and cause harm to organizations and individuals, but there are multiple, complimentary strategies that offer protection.  (more…)

Annual Disaster Recovery Test

May 23, 2022

DR is a critical operational IT capability designed and intended to quickly restore and deliver key services from a remote location in response to the catastrophic loss of our production facilities in Storrs. (more…)

Changes to Remote Desktop Support

April 6, 2022

Desktop support is performed by specialized technicians who directly access individual computers and other devices to resolve technical and other operating issues. (more…)

Kuali Financials Upgrade

March 16, 2022

Kuali Financials is a comprehensive software suite that serves as the University’s financial system of record for accounting and other fiscal operations. (more…)

University PC Refresh Program

January 18, 2022

ITS periodically coordinates a bulk purchase of Windows and Mac workstations that meet our recommended performance, security, and maintenance standards.  (more…)

Financial Aid Data Mart

December 14, 2021

The University’s Office of Student Financial Aid Services produces numerous reports that are required to comply with federal and state statutes. (more…)

Transition to Managed Mobility Provider

November 19, 2021

ITS selected Motus as the new service provider for university-issued cellular phones that will manage all aspects of the process and deliver the extended, 24-hour support that has long been requested by our community. (more…)

Update on New VPN Service

October 26, 2021

AnyConnect is an industry leading and widely used VPN service that ITS selected to replace our legacy Pulse Secure VPN service.  (more…)

Updated University IT Security Policies

October 14, 2021

Regular review and revision of policies is part of evolving a mature information security program that protects systems and data for both our community and the institution.  (more…)

New Concurrent Enrollment App

September 24, 2021

UConn Early College Experience provides opportunities for non-matriculated high school students to take UConn courses at their school. (more…)

Updates to Digital Signage

September 14, 2021

ITS offers Carousel Digital Signage service for the University that includes both large signs, frequently displayed in lobbies, and smaller room signs.  Our vendor announced that their on-premise system would be end-of-life by 2022, at which time our existing service would stop receiving updates. (more…)

Registration of Wireless Devices

August 31, 2021

The internet protocol (IP) addresses for devices on the UConn network are overwhelmingly dynamic and are issued automatically by the network for specified durations.  (more…)

Cybersecurity Review

June 25, 2021

Substantive elements of the University’s information technology cybersecurity infrastructure will be reviewed by Deloitte, an external agency. (more…)

Webinars in Microsoft Teams

June 15, 2021

Microsoft Teams previously offered two main web conferencing features that served two distinct use cases.  Meetings was available for connecting one-on-one or with small groups and Live Events for broadcasting to a large audience. (more…)

Changes to VPN Service

May 28, 2021

The University’s move to a mostly remote learning and working environment over the past year has put a strain on many of our capabilities.  (more…)

Improvements to Webex Events

May 21, 2021

Webex is a cloud platform used for on-demand collaboration, virtual meetings, web conferencing, and videoconferencing.  Many faculty and staff have turned to it for hosting and participating in large presentations and conferences, which are common activities at universities. (more…)

Training on Microsoft OneDrive

May 10, 2021

OneDrive is a Microsoft hosted cloud storage solution available to everyone at the university through our Microsoft 365 licensing agreement. (more…)

Solution for Call Centers

April 12, 2021

ITS is formally introducing the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX) service offering.

When UConn shifted to mostly work from home in March 2020, ITS quickly organized a solution to permit units to answer university phone calls remotely.

(more…)

Updates to IT Status

April 6, 2021

ITS maintains the IT Status page to communicate information about planned and unplanned outages, service disruptions, and other community impacting situations.  (more…)

Electronic Payment Solution

March 30, 2021

ITS, Accounts Payable, and the Office of the Bursar are providing the University with flexible and secure vendor payment options. (more…)

Patch Management

March 24, 2021

The companies that provide our software, such as Microsoft and Google, regularly release updates and patches to add features, fix bugs, and address vulnerabilities.  It is our general operating position that all software should be properly maintained and all relevant patches applied. (more…)

Community Device Programs

March 3, 2021

ITS has engaged in a number of initiatives to help ensure that our community has access to contemporary devices of sufficient quality to facilitate their research, teaching, and learning success. (more…)

Microsoft 365 Available to UConn Students

February 9, 2021

Microsoft 365, which is the rebadged Office 365 service, is a collection of communication, collaboration, and productivity applications that are available through our enterprise-wide education license to all active faculty, staff, and students.  (more…)

New Webex Functionality

February 2, 2021

Use of our supported videoconferencing solutions – Webex, Teams, and Collaborate – increased by over 400% at UConn when we went fully online in March 2020.  (more…)

Results of Simulated Phishing Campaign

January 8, 2021

The ITS Security Office recently initiated a simulated phishing campaign at the request of the Joint Audit and Compliance Committee (JACC).  UConn faculty and staff received test messages this past October that mimicked a common attack. (more…)

Changes to Device Support

December 21, 2020

ITS is simplifying and streamlining individual support services. The Technology Support Center (TSC) is housed in Homer Babbidge Library (HBL) and provides general IT support to faculty, staff, and students. (more…)

Additions to myUConn

December 4, 2020

Since the release of the redesigned myUConn app this fall, ITS and our partners have leveraged features to better support community engagement during this unprecedented semester.  (more…)

File Sharing Services

November 23, 2020

File sharing gives others access to digital media and is a key mechanism for collaboration.  In the past, this was limited to sending, receiving, or accessing information in files, but modern systems also support co-authorship, versioning, and concurrent editing.  (more…)

New integration between Webex and HuskyCT

November 17, 2020

Webex is a university supported videoconferencing application that allows people to meet and engage virtually.  HuskyCT is the university supported and branded Blackboard learning management system (LMS).  (more…)

Pilot of VoIP-enabled Service

November 10, 2020

When the University began delivering services remotely, it became apparent that not all support practices transitioned effectively to this mode. Staff, particularly those who interact frequently with students and parents, needed a way to answer and respond to calls to their office numbers while working off-site. (more…)

Upgrade of PeopleSoft System

November 2, 2020

ITS uses PeopleSoft Campus Solutions (CS) for our Student Administration (SA) system.  This is the authoritative system of record for student academic data, the administrative environment supporting numerous academic processes, and a service portal for students. (more…)

Security Awareness Training with KnowBe4

October 26, 2020

KnowBe4 is an IT security resource available to all faculty and staff at UConn. The integrated platform for security awareness training and phishing attack simulation covers an extensive range of topics and delivers content in varying and engaging formats, such as games, short videos, modules, and even sitcom-style shows. (more…)

Upcoming Security Update

October 19, 2020

ITS is planning to install new security software, Windows Defender for Endpoint (formerly Windows Defender Advanced Threat Prevention), to the Windows workstations of administrative areas in the Managed Workstation program. (more…)

Updated Classroom Directory Tool

October 9, 2020

ITS, Office of the Registrar, and the Center for Excellence in Teaching (CETL) collaborated this past spring to create and populate the classroom directory tool with new content and capability.  (more…)

Kuali Financial System Upgrade

October 4, 2020

KFS is a comprehensive software suite that serves as the University’s financial system of record for accounting and other fiscal operations. The upgrade includes enhanced usability with a redesigned interface, navigation, and search.  (more…)

New Security Initiative

September 14, 2020

Phishing scams are designed to install malware, steal personal information, or invariably accomplish something that will not be in your best interests. (more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

August 24, 2020

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, August 26, and goes through Monday, September 7.

(more…)

Updated myUConn

August 14, 2020

myUConn is the official UConn mobile application that connects our community to a collection of information and services which enhance campus life and online experiences.  (more…)

UConn AnyWare Updates

May 4, 2020

UConn AnyWare is an ITS service that provides desktop virtualization using VMWare Horizon and application virtualization of university-licensed software using Citrix Virtual Apps.  (more…)

Webex Events

April 27, 2020

Webex Events at UConn allows you or a panel to host online events and webinars for up to 1,000 participants and stream for up to 40,000 attendees. (more…)

Web Conferencing Security

April 17, 2020

ITS supports the following web conferencing solutions: Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate, Google Hangouts, and WebEx.  (more…)

Webex Security Enhancement

April 15, 2020

ITS is making a change to Webex tonight, April 15, that will enable better protection of meetings.

The incidence of uninvited and disruptive guests crashing video conferencing meetings has increased. In response, ITS is implementing a change in Webex to better protect against these intrusions. Starting at 10:00 pm tonight, all personal meeting rooms will be “locked” by default. When participants join the locked conference, they will wait in the “lobby” until admitted by the meeting host. The host can admit some, all, or none of the participants. When using WebEx as a telephone bridge, the host will need to unlock the room by pressing *5 to allow entry. Hosts may also adjust or disable the personal lock settings in advance but should be aware of the potential risk.

If a disruption occurs, the host should first expel the participant and then report the incident to techsupport@uconn.edu (please include your NetID and the time/date of the meeting). Below are how-to articles that will help you manage your room and lock settings.

If you have questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at techsupport@uconn.edu.

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Securing Your WebEx Meeting

Adjusting Personal Room Automatic Lock Settings

Managing Participants

Using WebEx as a Telephone Bridge

Change moratorium update

March 31, 2020

The University and its community have proven to be quite resilient over the past few weeks, and many, if not most, activities have shifted to either partially or fully remote. (more…)

IT Guide to Telecommuting

March 30, 2020

Current events have resulted in increased use of systems, services, and capabilities that support remote teaching, learning, meeting, and collaborating. (more…)

Limited Moratorium

March 13, 2020

ITS will have a limited moratorium on activities or efforts that have the potential to disrupt remote access starting Saturday, March 14, through Monday, April 6. (more…)

Classroom Directory Tool

March 6, 2020

The Office of the Registrar has historically offered information about centrally-scheduled classrooms on their website. (more…)

Cisco Webex Board pilot

March 3, 2020

The ITS audiovisual team is working with the Quantitative Learning Center (Q Center) to pilot the use of Cisco Webex Board. (more…)

Concur Update

The SAP Concur project is a collaborative UConn initiative to implement a best-in-class, cloud-based Travel and Expense management service for the university.

(more…)

Network Service

February 12, 2020

Between 12:10 am – 2:40 am on Thursday, February 13, there may be interruptions to internet connectivity while the Internet Service Provider performs planned network maintenance.

(more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

January 16, 2020

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Friday, January 17, through Monday, January 27. (more…)

Self service video conferencing

December 6, 2019

The University uses WebEx, a videoconferencing application that enables online meetings in a virtual room, to host interviews with remote applicants.

(more…)

End of Semester Moratorium

December 3, 2019

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, December 4, through Wednesday, December 18, 2019. (more…)

Student Work Accounts

November 8, 2019

Student employees occupy dual roles at the University.  As students, they have access to information and resources consistent with this academic role.  (more…)

Password Standards

November 1, 2019

Passwords verify your identity, which protects against account compromises and fraudulent access to data and resources.  (more…)

Windows 10 Deployment

October 14, 2019

Up-to-date software and operating systems (OS) on workstations are essential for secure, robust IT operations. (more…)

Data Network Refresh

September 20, 2019

The data network represents a large capital investment in facilities, cabling, and equipment. It is central to the vast majority of university activities, and demands on this vital resource continue to increase over time.  (more…)

Phishing Awareness

September 6, 2019

We typically see a surge in phishing at the beginning of each fall semester.  The trend has continued this year with a substantive increase in emails being launched from compromised university accounts or masquerading as institutional messaging.  (more…)

Self-Service Lecture Capture

September 3, 2019

ITS has expanded self-service capabilities for the Kaltura Lecture Capture (KLC) service. Self-service recording is now part of the standard classroom technology package and self-service live streaming available in lecture halls and large venues. (more…)

Changes to HuskyPrint Service

August 23, 2019

HuskyPrint is a computer printing service with over 30 printers located on all six campuses. It was designed for students but is open to the entire UConn community. (more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

August 16, 2019

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, August 21, through Monday, September 2. (more…)

New private media plugin for Aurora

August 9, 2019

Aurora is a multisite WordPress Service that enables customers to publish websites that meet institutional brand and accessibility standards, have a mobile responsive design, and remain current with security updates. (more…)

Recommendations for Antivirus Protection on Macs

May 28, 2019

When Microsoft suddenly ended support for System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP), ITS implemented ESET Endpoint Protection as a one year bridge strategy and began exploring viable options for long-term antivirus solutions for Macs.  (more…)

End of semester moratorium

April 26, 2019

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, May 1, through Monday, May 13, 2019.

(more…)

Status of P: Drive

December 21, 2018

On Tuesday, December 11, our community began to experience intermittent delays accessing the P: drive. (more…)

End of semester moratorium

December 7, 2018

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Friday, December 7, through Monday, December 17, 2018.  (more…)

ITS Support Strategy

November 5, 2018

A primary way our community interacts with IT at the University is through formal and informal support channels.  (more…)

New Display Name Tool

October 19, 2018

Advance information about a new tool for updating display names in UConn directories is now available. (more…)

Status of 2FA Service

October 12, 2018

2FA prevents unauthorized access to online resources by imposing two independent forms of identification in order for you to successfully authenticate. (more…)

Pilot of HuskyCT Blackboard Ally

October 10, 2018

HuskyCT is the University’s Blackboard learning management system (LMS) used by instructors for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of educational material for courses or programs. (more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

August 20, 2018

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, August 22, through Monday, September 3.

(more…)

Delegated Access Available

May 21, 2018

Delegated Access is now available. It is a new feature in the University’s Student Administration System (Student Admin) that enables students to share access to certain portions of their education record.

(more…)

End of Semester Moratorium

April 23, 2018

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Friday, April 27, through Monday, May 7, 2018.

(more…)

Two-Factor Authentication Service

February 26, 2018

ITS is focused on protecting our community, their personal information, and institutional data as we evolve systems, services, and capabilities.  Phishing and other nefarious activities attempt to circumvent security practices by stealing your credentials and using them to access sensitive information.   (more…)

Update on wireless expansion

January 12, 2018

ITS received funds from the administration in FY17 to expand wireless network service in university administrative and academic buildings. (more…)

End of Semester Moratorium

December 7, 2017

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Friday, December 8, through Monday, December 18, 2017.

(more…)

Phishing education

November 1, 2017

ITS has implemented changes that will help members of our community better protect themselves from phishing emails.

(more…)

Classroom signage

October 17, 2017

New procedures and signage for UConn classrooms is being implemented to keep them ready for teaching and learning.

(more…)

Moratorium

August 23, 2017

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, August 23, through Monday, September 4.

(more…)

MBAM self-service portal

July 17, 2017

ITS has established a self-service portal in our Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) environment.

(more…)

Relocation of UITS Offices

June 30, 2017

Beginning in August, the University is renovating the Gant Science Complex, and before construction starts, ITS offices housed in the building have relocated or are relocating to the following areas on campus: (more…)

Storrs HPC facility

May 5, 2017

Operational changes to the Storrs High Performance Computing (HPC) facility will be effective July 1. (more…)

New IT Community Site

April 12, 2017

ITS has created an IT Community site (itcommunity.uconn.edu) designed to provide our technical colleagues and stakeholders with information germane to their positions and professional interests at the University. (more…)

FEB availability

March 13, 2017

The IBM Forms Experience Builder (FEB) system is available to developers within our IT community. (more…)

Phishing attacks and how to avoid being scammed

January 27, 2017

Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, and credit card details (and, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. (more…)

Update on centrally licensed software

January 20, 2017

ITS has updated centrally licensed software.

Individual software is a general IT resource that impacts every part of our community, allowing each of us to be more successful in our respective roles.  (more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

January 11, 2017

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, January 11, through Monday, January 23. (more…)

All IT Staff Conference

September 19, 2016

We designed the IT All Staff Conference with our IT community in mind; we wanted to create an environment conducive to networking and a forum where IT staff could share their accomplishments. (more…)

Updated Dell Computer Image

August 5, 2016

New Dell computers ordered on or after Monday, August 22nd through the HuskyPC program will ship with Windows 10 (Win10) as the installed operating system. (more…)

New software site license

July 25, 2016

The Schrödinger Small-Molecule Drug Discovery Suite is now available to UConn faculty, staff, and students on all campuses. (more…)

Expanded access to MATLAB

June 10, 2016

Expanded access to the MathWorks MATLAB software will be available to UConn faculty, staff, and students on all campuses, including Farmington, beginning July 1, 2016. (more…)

eSignLive available

June 6, 2016

eSignLive, a web based electronic signature product, is now available for use by university departments, schools, and colleges. (more…)

End of Semester Moratorium

April 22, 2016

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Friday, April 29 through Saturday, May 14, 2016.  (more…)

New firewall policy

April 8, 2016

UConn and many other universities were recently victims of a network attack where unrestricted, Internet accessible printers were remotely activated and used to print offensive propaganda.  (more…)

New email enhancement

March 25, 2016

Plus Email Addressing, also known as sub-addressing, allows you to create variations of a normal email address that will still be delivered to your institutional email account.   (more…)

UConn cable tv going digital

February 23, 2016

While public broadcast and cable television throughout the country were required to transition from analog to digital, private installations like we have at the University did not have this obligation. (more…)

DirectAccess service

February 12, 2016

External access to restricted university resources has traditionally been provided via our authenticated Virtual Private Network (VPN) service.  (more…)

IT Smart: Blackboard’s Portfolio

January 29, 2016

Portfolio is a tool within UConn’s Blackboard learning management system that enables instructors and students to collect, organize, and share completed work.  (more…)

IT service incident

January 7, 2016

On Sunday, December 27th, the University of Connecticut was the victim of an IT service compromise. (more…)

Voicemail system

December 21, 2015

ITS will be replacing the voicemail system for faculty and staff on the UConn Storrs campus. (more…)

Preview UConn AnyWare

December 4, 2015

ITS would like to let you know about an opportunity to preview our new application virtualization service, UConn AnyWare. (more…)

IT community mailing list changes

November 20, 2015

ITS has made changes to our IT community mailing lists.

We maintain an IT Contacts mailing list that is delivered through our listserv environment and includes all ITS staff, university-wide IT staff, and other stakeholders with a vested interest in IT.  (more…)

Integration of exam schedules

November 6, 2015

The final exam schedule for the Storrs campus has, in recent years, been generated within a software package that the university utilizes to manage room resources. (more…)

Report on IT Strategic Plan

October 23, 2015

A year ago, ITS published the final version of our 2014 – 2018 Strategic Plan, a culmination of a collaborative development and review process.  (more…)

Networked Servers

October 9, 2015

The goal of all university IT, both central and distributed, is to ensure the secure and robust operation of institutional IT assets for our UConn community.  (more…)

Blackboard Collaborate available

September 25, 2015

UConn instructors leverage our learning management system, HuskyCT, for a wide range of activities, from supplementing coursework to delivering online classes that extend the University’s reach beyond the campuses.  (more…)

Mass mailing service

September 11, 2015

When rogue email accounts are used to spam the internet, downstream providers typically respond by blocking all email from the source server.  (more…)

Network connectivity

September 4, 2015

During this past week, the university community experienced intermittent outages and performance issues with network connectivity.  (more…)

Start of Semester Moratorium

August 21, 2015

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Wednesday, August 26, through Monday, September 14. (more…)

Mainframe migration completed

July 20, 2015

ITS is happy to announce that the migration of Genesys from UConn to PSR went smoothly and our local mainframe is now decommissioned. (more…)

MSB power shutdown, 8/8

June 29, 2015

A power shutdown in the Math-Science Building (MSB) is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 8th between 5:00 am – 5:00 pm. (more…)

Progress on High Availability

June 19, 2015

Below is an update on our progress developing High Availability (HA) capabilities for ITS systems and services.

HA represents continuous service delivery under normal circumstances and rapid restoration in the event of disruption. (more…)

Re-designed UITS IT Status page

May 1, 2015

ITS has re-designed the IT Status page.

The purpose of the IT Status page is to communicate the condition of systems and services to our UConn community.  (more…)

HuskyTime student time card system

April 24, 2015

The HuskyTime student time card system is now available to the university community.

ITS worked closely with UConn Recreation to develop HuskyTime, a streamlined web-based application that allows students to enter their time into an online time card (more…)

Reminder: Office 365 Town Hall meeting (4/1)

March 31, 2015

We would like to remind our IT community that ITS is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the upcoming migration to Microsoft Office 365 tomorrow, April 1st at 9:00 a.m. in the Dodd Konover Auditorium. (more…)

Office 365 early migration

March 27, 2015

We are offering the opportunity to migrate to Office 365 prior to the university-wide deployment scheduled to start at 5:00 pm on April 10th. (more…)

Office 365 migration update

Below is an update on the upcoming April 10th university migration from our local email and calendar service to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud service and to share strategies ITS is employing to ensure a smooth transition.

(more…)

Office 365 Town Hall Meeting

March 13, 2015

We are inviting members of our IT community to a town hall meeting to discuss the upcoming migration to Microsoft Office 365 and initiate a conversation about support strategies. (more…)

University email and calendar migration

March 4, 2015

Faculty and staff who have accounts on the central university email and calendar service, please be aware of the university migration from our local Exchange environment to Microsoft Office 365, currently scheduled to start April 10th. (more…)

Remote Desktop Gateway

February 20, 2015

The Remote Desktop Gateway server is an authentication and proxy mechanism used widely by off-site faculty, staff, and students to connect to on-site university computers using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).  The University began blocking RDP at the border firewall in 2012 in response to an RDP security weakness.  (more…)

Mainframe decommissioning scheduled for June 30, 2015

January 30, 2015

The mainframe computer, which UConn has used for over 30 years, was one of the only computing platforms available to the UConn community and has historically been used for administrative, academic, research, and personal computing.  ITS has been moving off the mainframe (more…)

Change management process

January 23, 2015

ITS is responsible for a broad collection of systems, services, and capabilities that in many different ways, are important to our community.  Disruptions will periodically occur as we work to maintain and evolve our infrastructure.  ITS has a Change Advisory Board (CAB) that consists of our managers and is tasked with ensuring that substantive changes to IT systems and services follow a standardized process and proceed in a transparent, orderly fashion.  This minimizes the risk of outages or other negative impacts to the community.  A key step in this process involves communicating effectively and broadly with audiences internal and external to ITS.  This crucial step increases awareness among the community of upcoming changes and prompts timely feedback.  To achieve our communication goals, ITS is now publishing scheduled changes on the ITS CAB website.  This new change calendar gives CAB a mechanism to effectively reach a wider audience and gives constituents more opportunity to surface concerns or to illuminate impacts that may have been overlooked.  It also leverages the built-in features of the university events system, such as providing you with the capability to add the CAB calendar to Outlook and subscribe to RSS feeds.  ITS is committed to effective collaboration; we believe that our dedicated change calendar will make it easier for us to deliver information and for you to obtain it conveniently via a mechanism of your choice.

Start of Semester Moratorium

January 16, 2015

ITS will have a two-week moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Monday, January 19, through Monday, February 2.

We understand that this time is a critical period for students and faculty as they acclimate to the new semester.  ITS will defer changes to systems and services that might have a production impact in order to minimize potential outages during this high-anxiety period.  Changes required to respond to emergent situations will be duly evaluated and pursued only if their need is significant.

Institutional support for software

December 17, 2014

UConn Software, formerly the Software Licensing Group (SLG), has a new website: http://software.uconn.edu. This site lists supported products, provides pertinent policies and procedures, and includes a simple form to standardize requests for the group to consider and review softwareto be licensed.

The university group works in concert with ITS to represent community interests regarding the acquisition, distribution, and customer support of instructional, administrative, and research software products.  The core support group identifies common needs and evaluates available software products for broad applicability.  As an advisory body to the University CIO, they help ITS align its finite software spend for the best practical benefit to our community while also providing expertise and assistance on a case-by-case basis to customers.

End of Semester Moratorium

December 5, 2014

ITS will have a moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Monday, December 8, through Thursday, December 18.

We understand that this time of year is a critical period with students and faculty trying to meet end of semester obligations.  ITS will defer changes to systems and services that might have a production impact in order to minimize potential outages during this high-anxiety period.  Changes required to respond to emergent situations will be duly evaluated and pursued only if their need is significant.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have comments, questions, or concerns.

Office 365 design completed

November 21, 2014

ITS has completed a design for the university Microsoft Office 365 initiative and would like to ask for any final feedback.

Microsoft Office 365 is an organized collection of cloud-based business productivity technologies that integrates enhanced communication and collaboration tools.  It is well aligned towards individuals and their ability to personally leverage technology.  Adoption of this architecture represents a departure from the traditional way IT is centrally delivered at the University.  For this reason, ITS has pursued this project methodically and requested feedback throughout the process to ensure that the end product would be robust and also effectively meet the diverse needs of our constituents.  We have now completed a design, which is the outcome of a rigorous internal and external vetting process. You can review the design documentation on our Microsoft Office 365 website: http://office365.uconn.edu/.  As we begin implementation planning, we ask that you send any final feedback to Josh Boggs at josh.boggis@uconn.edu.  Once we complete the implementation and transition project plan, we will no longer be seeking input on the des

Changes to UITS Help Center

November 17, 2014

The ITS Technology Support Center, located in the Math-Science Building M037 and on the first floor (Homer Commons) of the Homer Babbidge Library, provides first contact support and assistance to the university community for the wide variety of services provided by the organization. Our services and their associated support have historically had community centric differences based on major group affiliation (i.e., faculty, staff or student). Unfortunately, this resulted in varied customer experiences and confusion depending on how individuals approached the organization. Based on feedback from faculty, staff, and students, ITS restructured our Technology Support Center at the beginning of the semester to include a mix of HuskyTech student employees and full-time staff. This was done so that all members of our community, regardless of affiliation, would have consistent support options and, more importantly, a high-quality customer experience. These changes have allowed ITS to pursue process and resource efficiency goals while better meeting the individual needs and expectations of our customers.

The past months have validated the preliminary changes, and with your assistance, we are committed to continued development of the Technology Support Center. Your support and feedback remains key to its successful evolution, and we welcome any insights or observations you might share. Please contact Pat Meinweiser with comments, questions, or concerns.

Student Administration Upgrades

November 7, 2014

ITS has implemented selected redesigns of the Student Administration (SA) System to address structural problems that resulted in service disruptions during the registration process.

The SA system is a hub for student information and activity and is widely used by faculty, students, staff, and alumni. They experienced numerous problems with login, authorization, kick-outs, and browser incompatibility.  These service issues were caused by firewall performance, browser connection, and application software issues.  ITS engineered network changes to increase reliability and performance and deployed a new load balancing infrastructure to improve the interaction between client browsers and the SA application.  These fixes were implemented at the beginning of October, and the peak registration cycle has now concluded without the raft of service calls that occurred at the beginning of the semester.  ITS will continue to assess the infrastructure and to make selected changes and upgrades to improve the experience of our community.

End of life operating systems

November 3, 2014

ITS is beginning a series of infrastructure enhancements that may require updating end-of-life (EOL) operating systems on devices that are connected to the network.

ITS announced this past spring and throughout the summer that Windows XP and Mac OS 10.7 were end of life and would no longer be supported.  Older operating systems are not maintained by the vendor and are increasingly difficult to operate in our environment.  We will offer possible workarounds where these exist, but ITS cannot avoid important maintenance in deference to devices with unsupported operating systems.  Unfortunately, such equipment will be increasingly unable to utilize network services over time.

We will be happy to explore options with you.  Please do not hesitate to contact us for information and assistance.

IBM Forms Experience Builder

October 17, 2014

ITS is expanding its enterprise workflow services by offering web form development with IBM Forms Experience Builder (FEB).

The University currently uses many paper-based workflow processes, which can be both slow and inefficient.  Automating these processes by creating electronic workflows using traditional programming languages, however, is both difficult and time consuming.  FEB is a tool designed specifically to develop and deploy data-centric web form applications.  It is simpler to use and far faster from concept to production than older approaches.  With FEB, the Applications and Technology Solutions (ATS) group can produce better results in less time (less cost) and even add advanced functionality such as workflow stages or the ability to track and analyze results.

Additional information about FEB is available at the following location: https://draft.its2023.uconn.edu/.  Requests for form development can be sent to http://serviceit.uconn.edu/.

VPN Update

October 15, 2014

The upgraded and expanded Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, deployed on September 15th, have replaced the old VPN portal. On October 6th the old system, vpn.uconn.edu, will no longer be available.

The new VPN portal is accessible via the Web at https://sslvpn.uconn.edu and via client software for OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android devices. When you transition to the new VPN services, be aware that you will need to re-create your personal bookmarks and that clients receive different IP addresses than the legacy system.

Additional information is available at the following location: http://remoteaccess.uconn.edu.

Update on the university Microsoft Office 365 initiative

September 19, 2014

ITS is now in the design phase of the Microsoft Office 365 initiative. In the research phase, we received significant positive feedback with some questions and concerns from our UConn IT community.  Using this information, we produced a tentative design that was reviewed by the ITS IT Technical Partners governance body.  The architecture is now at a point where we have begun preliminary planning for an implementation.

ITS is searching for volunteers to test Office 365 and provide us with feedback about their experience.  Testers will be given a temporary account and the opportunity to get an early look at the service.  If you would like to participate, send us a message at365@uconn.edu with your name, netID, contact information, and position within the University.  Information about the service and the project is available at http://office365.uconn.edu.

We appreciate your patience and support as ITS continues to make progress on improving services for our faculty and staff.

Updated and upgraded VPN service

September 12, 2014

ITS will deploy an updated and upgraded Virtual Private Network (VPN) service on September 15th.

VPN services have been utilized historically to provide authenticated access to the university network from remote locations and thereby allow customers to safely and securely utilize certain restricted services from outside the university.  Juniper has stopped providing support for the existing hardware, and this has produced numerous problems for our community when they use the old access client.  The new infrastructure will be current, fully supported, and consistent with contemporary approaches and re-architected to double its network bandwidth.  Web access will be available, but there are also clients for iOS, Android OS, Windows, and OS X.  We are deploying the infrastructure in a high availability configuration at two disparate locations to provide a more robust experience than the current implementation.

Additional information is available at the following location: http://remoteaccess.uconn.edu.

Start of Semester Moratorium

August 1, 2014

ITS will have a three-week moratorium on non-emergency network and system changes starting Monday, August 18, through Sunday, September 7.

We understand that the start of the fall semester is a critical period for students and faculty as they acclimate to the new school year. ITS will defer changes to systems and services that might have a production impact in order to minimize potential outages during this high-anxiety period. Changes required to respond to emergent situations will be duly evaluated and pursued only if their need is significant.

Network connection enhancements

July 25, 2014

Update, 1/20/2015: project delayed due to contract negotiations

ITS has procured the installation of dedicated fiber connections from the Torrington and Avery Point regional campuses to the Connecticut Education Network (CEN), a university and state-run regional network provider. These connections, similar to the kind recently installed to support the extension centers in Tolland and Norwich, will permit 1Gbs connectivity between the UConn Storrs campus, Torrington campus, Avery Point campus, some additional extension offices, and the Litchfield County Extension Center. Existing connectivity to the Torrington and Avery Point campuses is currently limited to 10Mbps, which is inadequate to meet either the current and projected campus needs of researchers, teachers, learners, staff, and guests. The greatly enhanced connections are scheduled to be live during UConn’s Winter Recess.

DNS/DHCP administration delegation

July 21, 2014

You may be used to requesting a DNS hostname from ITS, but did you know that we can give schools, departments, and colleges the authority to manage their name spaces and IP networks?

ITS maintains an integrated Domain Name System (DNS), a central repository for mapping Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP), a central service that assigns IP address requests and parameters required for a device to connect to a network. With delegated administration of your DNS/DHCP, you have more control over your forward and reverse DNS zones, DHCP scopes and ranges, and ability to supply/remove fixed addresses and name records. The integration of DNS/DHCP also allows you to dynamically configure network parameters for devices, like printers, which require a permanent IP address assignment and domain name.

If you would like additional information about this capability, please contact Jeff Farese, Network Design and Engineering, at Jeffrey.Farese@uconn.edu.

Microsoft Office 365

July 11, 2014

ITS has launched an initiative to explore a Microsoft Office 365 service offering for the University of Connecticut.

Microsoft Office 365 has the potential to enhance individual productivity and facilitate collaboration. It would provide significantly larger mailboxes, Office sharing and interaction tools, text and video chat, one terabyte of personal cloud storage, and other useful features. We are currently in the research phase of the project and will reach out to request your feedback throughout the process. Your insight and perspective will be critical to the successful development of an efficient design that maximizes the service potential for our community and an effective implementation plan that minimizes disruption during transition.

University Exchange Update

June 27, 2014

ITS and the Law School have combined our mail and calendar environments.

The university Exchange environment was intended to facilitate interaction and collaboration across our community.  Design choices and competing systems have historically made this difficult.  Over the past year, ITS has evolved the central service based on direct feedback from our IT partners.  For example, ITS and UConn Health unified our address books to simplify cross-organization scheduling.  This change was designed to increase usefulness and to encourage broader institutional adoption of the central service.  Migrating the Law School email and calendar system to our central environment benefits both the Law School and the University.  ITS will continue to improve our email and calendar service and will work with units to integrate capabilities or even combine systems.

UITS Printing Services to End

As of June 30, 2014, ITS will no longer provide print services from the mainframe. In conjunction with the Mainframe Decommissioning Project and the University’s green initiatives, all print jobs processed on the mainframe will be directed to Control-D, an online report management tool that is currently in use by many areas.

Control-D provides the option to view reports online and print all or specific selections of the report. Users will have the option to print directly from personal computers as they do today or through UConn’s Design & Document Production Center.

If you have an existing job scheduled that produces a report and have not been contacted by ITS to determine your report distribution requirements please email us at ITS.mainframe@uconn.edu or call Diana O’Donnell at 860-486-1413.

UITS Supports Development of Research-related Mobile Apps

June 20, 2014

ITS Mobile Solutions has hired a Graduate Assistant (GA) to support development of research-related mobile applications for faculty, a change that extends service to researchers and aligns with the academic mission of the University.

Faculty have been requesting support for mobile app development and while the demand has grown, it has remained inadequate to generate sufficient revenue to offset the expense of a dedicated position. We recognized that research teams need this support now and that the institution would be best served by creating a position. ITS will recover a portion of the operating expense from clients through hourly billing, and we will subsidize the remaining shortfall. For more information and to submit a development request, visit http://mobile.uconn.edu.

New Data Service Plan

June 13, 2014

ITS has added a data service option to university-owned iPads and laptops for faculty and staff who are eligible for university cellular services.

ITS Cellular Services has long supported data service and hotspot capabilities for university-owned smartphones and other dedicated hotspot devices. Hotspot allows a device to share its cellular data capabilities with a collection of other devices in its vicinity. This is not necessarily the highest performing or most convenient approach, but it is often effective and economical for modest, infrequent sharing. We have received feedback that it often does not adequately address other relevant use cases. Hotspots will continue to be supported, but the ability to add cellular data plans directly to other university-owned devices will allow the community to select mobile services that better meet their needs.
General information about mobile services and specific information about the features and rates can be obtained by navigating to www.cellular.uconn.edu and clicking on Types of Services.

Licensing Agreement for Adobe Creative Cloud

June 9, 2014

ITS has procured Adobe Creative Cloud for students as both a download and through SkyBox.

Adobe Creative Cloud is a bundle of the most popular Adobe products (e.g., Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, etc.) obtained through an annual leasing agreement.  The normal institutional model for this Adobe bundle consists of an unlimited enterprise license for all faculty and staff with student licensing obtained as a fixed quantity add-on to the base agreement.  Adobe has not historically supported making these student licenses usable through virtualized environments.  These conditions were not a match for our needs at UConn, where not enough faculty and staff require the software to justify an enterprise site license and providing the software on SkyBox, the UConn virtualized desktop environment, is key to maximizing student access.  Working closely with university purchasing and leveraging perspective and information from the UConn technical community, ITS broke new ground with Adobe to negotiate an independent fixed license pool for students with approval to deliver it through SkyBox.  These licensing terms are unprecedented and will  significantly increase student access to the software at a nationally competitive price.  Additional details about the Adobe Creative Cloud bundle will be made broadly available before the start of the fall semester.

Upgrades Completed on Data Center

June 3, 2014

ITS performed successful upgrades to the data center on Saturday, May 31, 2014. During the planned outage, ITS infrastructure staff installed new equipment and performed preventative maintenance. Although some services were disrupted during the outage, access remained to the Network, e-mail, and UConn websites.

Thank you for your patience during the outage. The upgrades are part of a plan to ensure a robust infrastructure that enhances the performance and stability of ITS systems and services.

If you have any questions, please contact the ITS Technology Support Center at serviceit.uconn.edu.

High Availability During Shut down

May 30, 2014

ITS has implemented infrastructure changes to permit high availability capabilities for our services.

Contemporary IT system and service robustness is best accomplished through a three tier model consisting of 1) effective design and professional practices 2) high availability through infrastructure and operating diversity 3) disaster recovery as an insurance strategy using an external vendor specialist.  The first strategy has been our historical approach and the organization is actively pursuing the third strategy.  ITS has added high availability capability by implementing custom network connectivity between our primary data center in Gant and our secondary machine room in HBL.  This multi-site data center capability allows us to deliver virtualized services from two independent locations as a single extended offering.

Our primary data center in Gant will undergo disruptive upgrades to both power and environmentals this weekend that will result in a 12-18 hour loss of services from this location.  By diversifying a number of our generically consumed services between our paired data centers using our new high availability infrastructure, UTIS will be maintaining the following services without substantive interruption during the upgrades to the Gant data center.

  • Networking (wired and wireless)
  • Email (Microsoft Exchange)
  • Authentication (NetID, AD, Radius, CAS, etc)
  • Departmental web content management (Aurora)
  • University core websites (alert, it status, today, uconn)

Delivery from the secondary HBL location will begin almost immediately as the primary delivery location is shutdown.  Any disruption of these services during failover will be extremely brief and should be virtually unnoticed.  Outages have an increasingly disruptive impact on our community and we will continue to pursue high availability as well as other architectural and operational strategies to improve the performance and stability of ITS systems and services.

Spam Filter Improvements

May 23, 2014

ITS has increased the sensitivity of the UCONN email spam filters to more effectively prevent the delivery of unwanted messages.

The university email challenge has always been to correctly identify and prevent the delivery of unwanted messages without misidentifying and blocking wanted messages.  Recent feedback from our community indicated that the system was permitting the delivery of too much spam.  ITS carefully assessed the service configuration and implemented adjustments this morning to improve its filtering performance.  Our tests indicate that this will safely reduce spam delivery by approximately 20%.

Please do not hesitate to contact us or the ITS Technology Support Center if you have questions or concerns or if you believe that your email is being blocked incorrectly.

Access to the University Network Monitoring System

May 16, 2014

ITS has enabled guest access to WhatsUp, the university network monitoring system.

ITS network technicians utilize WhatsUp to monitor the current status of more than 3,000 network devices in our data network.  This tool is not designed or intended to be a generally consumed service at the University, but it is possible that it might be useful for other IT professionals.  We have enabled read-only access to WhatsUp from any campus network.  You may login using “guest” as both the username and password.  Off campus access to this resource requires use of the University VPN service.

Changes to Wait Time on the UITS Support Phone

May 9, 2014

The six minute limit on ITS Technology Support Center phone system hold times has been discontinued.

This limit was originally created to address feedback pertaining to long holds, but it has become clear that it is not the optimal way to deal with this issue and it has the unintended side effect of forcibly disconnecting people who might have preferred to continue holding.  ITS wants to make it easier for the community to access help resources, and so callers on hold will be periodically prompted with three options:

  • Leave a message
  • Create a ticket through ServiceIT
  • Continue to hold

ITS will continue our review of help desk processes to increase call throughput, but in the interim we believe that the range of options above will better meet the different needs of individual callers.

End of Semester Moratorium

May 2, 2014

There will be a two-week ITS moratorium on network and system changes starting today, Friday, May 2, through Friday, May 16.

We understand that this time of year is a critical period with students and faculty trying to meet end of semester obligations.  ITS has imposed significant restrictions on changes to systems and services that might have a production impact in order to minimize potential outages during this high anxiety period.  Changes required to respond to emergent situations will be duly evaluated and pursued only if their need is significant.

Contact Information Now Available for All UITS Employees

April 30, 2014

There are a number of general phone and email contact points that provide access to ITS groups and / or services. When submitting a help or service request, we encourage everyone to contact the organization through either the Technology Support Center or one of the local Service Areas. However, we have received feedback that these mechanisms are not always helpful when trying to contact specific individuals. Now we’re changing that.

ITS is now aggressively ensuring that individual phone numbers and email addresses will be properly available in the University’s online phone book. We will also maintain a staff directory, as we want the community to be able to easily contact us at both the organizational and individual level for all of their IT needs.

UITS Adds Authenticated SMTP To Its Email Repertoire

April 21, 2014

ITS has added authentication support to its Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, resulting in more flexibility and convenience for SMTP users.

Customers that utilize Outlook and Exchange for email already take advantage of authenticated access for outgoing emails, but our generally available SMTP server has not historically supported authenticated access. A consequence of this is that ITS blocks access from off-campus locations to the SMTP server when sending emails. This limitation has required laptops that access the SMTP server directly from off-campus locations to either have a separate configuration using a different SMTP server or to utilize the University’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) when sending email. Enabling authentication capabilities on the SMTP server allows ITS to fully support direct access to the SMTP server from areas outside of our network, limiting complexity and potentially reducing the support needs of our community.

Mail clients configured to utilize smtp.uconn.edu directly can use SMTP authentication through either SSL on port 465 or STARTTLS on port 587. The authentication credentials are simply your NetID and password. Outlook or other clients that use Exchange directly will not require reconfiguration and adjustment  they will simply continue to operate as they do now.

For assistance on configuring ports for SMTP Authentication, users can contact the ITS Technology Support Center by submitting a ticket at http://serviceit.uconn.edu.

UITS Purchases InCommon Certificate Service

April 11, 2014

ITS has procured an InCommon Certificate Service for the University in response to the recent Heartbleed exploit in the OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This service allows us to generate, for all UConn Domains, an unlimited number of certificates (e.g., SSL, extended validation, client, and code signing) that are validated by a trusted Certificate Authority.

Technical staff across the Institution aggressively responded to the recent Heartbleed exploit and updated University servers. Heartbleed attacked an OpenSSL vulnerability in order to obtain private data. It is possible that some certificates were compromised and it would be wise to replace any that might have been exposed. You may replace your certificates at no departmental cost by using the ITS fully subsidized InCommon Certificate Service.

Additional information on the new service can be found at https://draft.its2023.uconn.edu/ssl-certificate-service/.

UITS Discontinues SafeConnect

April 7, 2014

The SafeConnect environment has provided a number of operating and management benefits to the university. It has, however, also generated a significant number of support problems for the community. ITS recently deployed a new version of the environment. It did not adequately address the long-standing support challenges and, after careful consideration of the product and based on direct feedback from the community, it has been permanently disabled. ITS will pursue other, less intrusive, approaches to replace the capabilities that SafeConnect previously provided.

The SafeConnect client that is currently installed on computers will no longer prevent access to the university network and it may be uninstalled at your convenience. If no action is taken, it will automatically uninstall itself after approximately six months of inactivity.

Web Dev Team Releases Events Calendar Update

March 31, 2014

We are excited to announce a new version of the UConn Events Calendar, which can be found at http://events.uconn.edu. The new version comes with a multitude of new key features and improvements, providing a powerful tool to promote events to the University community.

The homepage of the new Events Calendar.
The homepage of the new Events Calendar.

Some of the new key features and improvements include:

  • A brand new look. Out with the old and in with the new. The Events Calendar has never looked better with a new control panel interface and visual display, making the service more streamlined and navigable for users of all kinds.
  • Social media integration. Promotion is everything, and now we’ve made it easier for you to get the word out. Easily share your events to Facebook or Twitter straight from the Events Calendar interface – all with the click of a button.
  • Crosslisting. Invite other calendars to list your event, or to add an event you see to your own calendar.
  • Flag events. See an event displaying the wrong information? You can now flag them, bringing the attention of the organizer to any inaccuracies.
  • Account settings. Calendar administrators have more control over their events, as they can now turn off public submissions and event invitations.

For any questions or concerns about using the calendar and submitting or managing events, please contact the ITS Web Development team at either webdev@uconn.edu or 860.486.0654.

New IT Governance Structure

March 19, 2014

The IT Partners program is a streamlined governance structure consisting of three standing committees that are organized to provide clear roles, to prevent overlapping effort, and to align participants to focus areas. They provide oversight of University Information Technology and Services (ITS) systems and services and are advisory to the University CIO regarding the efficacy of existing or proposed central IT initiatives.

View the governance structure on the IT Strategy website at itstrategy.uconn.edu/governance-structure.

HuskyTech Joining UITS

The following is an announcement from the CIO.

Colleagues,

I am contacting you to provide an update on the ongoing discussions between ITS and SAIT regarding opportunities for integration. The goal of these discussions has been to provide the best practical outcome for the community, and it has become clear that HuskyTech’s excellent service and support to the student community would be complimentary to other ITS support services. Effective March 31, 2014, HuskyTech will report to Pat Meinweiser. Please join me in welcoming this enthusiastic and effective group to the ITS family.

As always, you are encouraged to contact me if you have questions or concerns.

Regards.

Michael.

Michael R. Mundrane, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
University of Connecticut
Phone: 860.486.1777