Archive for 2017

New monthly technology maintenance plan and schedule announced

by Anonymous in , , , , , , , ,

To provide the best possible service, the Division of Technology & Innovation T&I must regularly update and perform routine maintenance on its systems and networks. Some of these activities require that the affected systems and networks be shut down. While this work is essential, we also recognize that it presents an inconvenience. To enable those who use these systems to better plan for maintenance, we are establishing a new monthly maintenance plan and schedule for performing routine maintenance and upgrades to our services.

The Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) will perform its scheduled monthly technology maintenance on the second Friday of each month starting at 6:00 PM and ending at 6:00 AM the following morning. The monthly maintenance program is a preventive measure that is essential to providing stable and secure systems to the University.

Visit the T&I Maintenance Schedule page for a complete list of scheduled maintenance dates and additional details about this updated practice. Please contact Deputy CIO Herb Aquino at herb.aquino@csuci.edu with any questions about the schedule or plan.

Major campus map enhancements have arrived!

by Anonymous in , , ,

Nov. 13, 2017 - The Division of Technology & Innovation is pleased to share 3 major new enhancements to the interactive campus map that make it better and easier:

  1. visible building labels (can be toggled on and off)
  2. customizable printable maps
  3. interior building maps for the Bell Tower (finally!) 
Try them out at maps.csuci.edu, or watch a short video demonstrating how to use the new features here:



We love your feedback! Feel free to share any questions, problems or suggestions with the T&I Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu. For more information, contact Peter Mosinskis at 805-437-8587 or peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu.

Equifax Breach Advisory

by Anonymous in ,

Given the recent announcement regarding the data exposure at Equifax we wanted to share some good “cyber hygiene” and some resources with you. With 143 million U.S. consumers affected it’s a good chance many of us are impacted.

Equifax has said there is no evidence of unauthorized activity in their credit reporting data bases but that there was potentially unauthorized access to information it stored from mid-May to July of this year. That information included social security number (SSN), dates of birth (DOB), addresses and in some cases Driver’s License numbers. Also reported is that approximately 209,000 consumers credit card numbers were exposed as well as other “dispute documents” for 182,000 consumers.

What can you do?

  1. One of the first things typically suggested after a breach is to access credit reporting agencies and request your records to be sure there are no unauthorized accounts or charges. In this case you may want to consider the other agencies, Experian and TransUnion. Also check your online and credit card accounts for suspicious activity. You can check free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. Check for any accounts or charges you don't recognize.
  2. Be extra wary of scam emails and links. Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails. Equifax will send paper mail to consumers but hackers are sure to use this to conduct Phishing campaigns.
  3. Change your passwords, especially if you have/had an account with Equifax and use similar or the same password elsewhere.
  4. You can check at Equifax here to get information and to check and see if your records are impacted. You can also access your Equifax credit report here which is probably a good idea so you can compare with the ones you get from Experian and/or TransUnion.

How to Buy IT Equipment, Software and Services

by Anonymous in ,

As a reminder, whether you’re buying a single desktop or computer; five iPads; a new system licensed by the Chancellor’s Office; or a major software upgrade for an existing system, all requests for IT procurements begin on the T&I Purchasing web page: www.csuci.edu/ti/purchasing/.

There you will find detailed step-by-step instructions for initiating and tracking your procurement of IT equipment, products and services.

Please direct any questions about the IT purchasing process to the budget coordinator for your department, or contact Peter Mosinskis, Director of IT Strategy, at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu or by phone at 805-437-8587.

Dropbox@CI Migration Deadline Extended to October 2, 2017

by Anonymous in , , , ,

As you may know, in June 2017 the Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) began deployment of Dropbox@CI (powered by Dropbox Business) for faculty & staff to use in lieu of their personal H network drive. Project background information can be found on the Dropbox@CI web site.

We understand that many of you have not been to complete this process over the summer in preparation for the fall semester, and therefore we have extended the deadline to migrate your H drive content to Dropbox@CI to Monday, October 2, 2017.

Still not signed up for Dropbox@CI?
This is what will happen this week:

  1. You will receive an email with an invitation from Dropbox Business with the subject “CSUCI invited you to Dropbox Business”. Please accept this invitation. Visit the Dropbox@CI First Time Users Guide (in Google Docs) for sign-up instructions. 
  2. Once you’ve completed your sign up, please follow these instructions to move your personal H drive files to Dropbox@CI.
Already signed up for a Dropbox@CI account?
You're halfway there! Please follow these instructions to move your personal H drive files to Dropbox by October 2.

Signed up for Dropbox@CI and already moved your H drive files?
Thank you for your cooperation! Over 670 faculty & staff have signed up for Dropbox@CI and many of those have already completed their migration.

Please visit the Dropbox@CI web site for instructions, documentation, and training information. Please make sure to transfer all your H drive content to Dropbox@CI as you will not be able to access your H drive after Monday, October 2, 2017.

Thanks for your help in completing this migration. Please contact project manager Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu if you have any questions.

Email migration to Exchange Online 99% completed - 8/21/2017

by Anonymous in , , , , , ,

I'm pleased to report that the migration from Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure is nearly complete. 99% of employee & student assistant email accounts have been migrated (over 3400 accounts); any remaining accounts will be completed over the next week.

If you are experiencing problems accessing your mailbox after your account has been migrated, please follow these steps:

  1. You should be able to immediately access your mailbox using the "Webmail" link in myCI, regardless of your migration status. (If you experience problems with this, please clear your web browser cache using these instructions for troubleshooting access to your mailbox, and try again; this resolves most webmail access issues). 
  2. Review the instructions for troubleshooting access to your mailbox for solutions to common post-migration issues and answers to common questions. 
  3. Please report any remaining issues by calling the T&I Solution Center by phone at 805-437-8552 or email helpdesk@csuci.edu 
As a reminder, the latest news, project schedule and answers to frequently asked questions can be found on the Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure web page.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this migration. Moving to Exchange Online from email hosted on-premise is an critical step in making sure that CSUCI's employee email system continues to be available anytime and anywhere, even in the event of a campus emergency.

Email migration update

by Anonymous in , , , , , ,

Last week the Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) began its migration from Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure. Moving to Exchange Online is an critical step in making sure that CSUCI's employee email system continues to be available anytime and anywhere, even in the event of a campus emergency.

To date, we have successfully completed migration of 1960 mailboxes, and are currently migrating at a rate of 500 mailboxes every 48 hours. We encourage you to review the migration schedule, which is posted on the Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure web page, to review the dates of your account migration in advance. During your migration window, you can continue to access your email via the "Webmail" link in myCI in the event that your Outlook desktop client is unavailable (see #2 below).

If you are experiencing problems accessing your mailbox after your account has been migrated, please follow these steps: 

  1. Review the instructions for troubleshooting access to your mailbox for solutions to common post-migration issues and answers to common questions. 
  2. You should be able to immediately access your mailbox using the "Webmail" link in myCI, regardless of your migration status. (If you experience problems, please clear your web browser cache using these instructions for troubleshooting access to your mailbox, and try again; this resolves most webmail access issues). 
  3. Please report any remaining issues by calling the T&I Solution Center at 805-437-8552 or email helpdesk@csuci.edu 

As a reminder, the latest news, project schedule and answers to frequently asked questions can be found on the Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure web page.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience and cooperation as we complete the remainder of the migration.

Exchange Online migration begins tonight; Skype for Business update completed successfully on 8/4

by Anonymous in , , , , , , ,

Tonight, the Division of Technology & Innovation begins moving of our campus-based Exchange email infrastructure to Exchange Online, in Microsoft's Azure cloud.

As a reminder, the first group of faculty, staff and student assistant email accounts is scheduled to begin tonight, Monday, August 7, 2017 at 7 p.m., and will occur in batches over the course of eight business days. The group migration schedule has been posted on the Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure web page (myCI login is required to view the schedule).

Please review the Exchange Online Migration Schedule (myCI login is required to view) to find when your email account is being migrated. If you experience any issues with email after your account has been migrated, please contact the T&I Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8552. During the migration, T&I support technicians will be available to help answer questions and resolve issues.

On a related note: on the evening of Friday, August 4th, T&I successfully completed an important pre-requisite migration of all CSUCI Skype for Business (formerly known as Lync) accounts to the new Microsoft Azure infrastructure, in preparation for the Exchange Online migration. If you experience any issues using Skype for Business, please contact the T&I Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8552.

We appreciate your patience and support as we complete this important migration. Please direct and project-related questions to project manager Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu. 

Dropbox@CI migration updates

by Anonymous in , , , ,

Migration of personal H drives to the new Dropbox@CI service continues. The deadline to migrate personal H: drive content to Dropbox is August 30, 2017.

The Division of Technology & Innovation has sent 895 Dropbox@CI invitations thus far to fCI employees, and we’ve completed migrating 544 faculty and staff personal H drives. Please visit Dropbox@CI web site to review the roll-out schedule, and contact the IT consultant for your area for more details.

Due to popular demand, we've also added drop-in support sessions and additional training sessions for Dropbox. 

Drop-in Dropbox support: Stop by the FIT Studio in Solano Hall 1201 on any of these dates to get help with Dropbox@CI and your H: drive migration. Technology & Innovation IT consultants will be on hand to answer your questions and help you with any issues you may be experiencing. 

  • 7/24/2017, 1-2PM, FIT Studio
  • 7/26/2017, 1-2PM, FIT Studio
  • 8/1/2017, 1-2PM, FIT Studio
  • 8/3/2017, 10-11AM, FIT Studio
  • 8/8/2017, 10-11AM, FIT Studio
  • 810/2017, 10-11AM, FIT Studio

Dropbox Training workshops: Additional Dropbox training workshops with expert Dropbox trainers will be offered on 8/1 and 8/22 from 300-430PM. Please register for the workshops at http://go.csuci.edu/dropboxtraining/

Please contact Asha Ramanchandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu with any questions. 

Exchange email migration begins Monday 8/7/2017

by Anonymous in , , , , , ,

As was previously announced, is moving of our campus-based Exchange email infrastructure to Exchange Online, in Microsoft's Azure cloud.

This migration is part of T&I's ongoing commitment to providing rock-solid, reliable and sustainable technology infrastructure for the campus. Moving to Exchange Online is a critical step in making sure that our employee email system continues to be available anytime and anywhere, even in the event of a campus emergency.

With Exchange Online, employees can continue to use Outlook on their desktop and connect to their CSUCI email from their web browser and smartphone. Exchange Online also provides larger mailbox storage, improved security, and a new user-friendly, web-based email interface.

To date, T&I has successfully migrated several groups of test users with very few issues. Migration of the bulk of faculty, staff and student assistant email accounts is scheduled to begin on Monday, August 7, 2017 at 7 p.m., and will occur in batches over the course of five business days. During the migration, T&I support technicians will be available to help answer questions and resolve issues.

Further details on the migration, including timeline, latest news, batch migration groupings, and other details will be available on the Migration to Exchange Online and Microsoft Azure web page.

We appreciate your patience and support as we complete this important migration. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact project manager Asha Ramachandra, asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu or Director of IT Strategy Peter Mosinskis at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu.

Migration of employee email to Exchange Online

by Anonymous in , , , , , ,

The Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) is working on a project to migrate our existing campus-based Exchange email infrastructure to Exchange Online, in Microsoft's Azure cloud.

This migration is a lynchpin in CI's ongoing disaster recovery and business continuity planning efforts, as it will help ensure availability of CI's administrative email system for faculty & staff in the event of damage to our campus data center. Exchange Online also provides greater redundancy and makes email growth easier to manage and afford.

For most users, the migration to Exchange Online will be seamless and transparent. Most users will be able to continue to use with current Microsoft Outlook desktop client (some users of older version of Outlook, Windows or Mac operating systems may be required to upgrade.) Access to campus webmail via myCI will continue to function as normal, and migrated users will be directed to a familiar and updated Microsoft webmail interface. For those of you that use Microsoft Hotmail, the new Outlook Web Access user interface will look very familiar. Visit the Microsoft Outlook Web App support site for more information about the new user interface.

Tonight (6/9/2017), T&I will complete its first migration of a pilot group of 10 pre-selected users to the new Exchange and Azure infrastructure. These pilot users will help debug the initial migration, and provide valuable feedback for planning of the next migration waves. Next, a second group of 10 pilot users will be selected from the campus community for migration to the new infrastructure. If you wish to participate in the second pilot group, please contact Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu to discuss the details.

Once testing is completed, during the next phase of the project, faculty & staff accounts will be migrated in groups to Exchange Online. We look forward to providing additional information to the campus community in the next few weeks about the timing and groupings. Based on the current project schedule, T&I expects to complete the Exchange migration before the start of fall 2017 classes.

Please contact Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu with any further questions about this project, and thank you for your patience while we complete this important migration.

Dropbox@CI migration: training workshops announced

by Anonymous in , ,

Thank you for your cooperation in making significant progress on our rolling Dropbox@CI implementation.

We have sent 636 Dropbox@CI invitations thus far, and we’ve completed migrating 422 faculty and staff personal H Drives to Dropbox@CI. Please visit Dropbox@CI web site to review the roll-out schedule, and contact the IT consultant for your area for more details.

We're also excited to announce a series of informal Dropbox training workshops, scheduled every three weeks starting from 6/20/2017. These sessions will cover how to create, share and collaborate using Dropbox@CI. CSUCI faculty & staff will shortly receive an email invitation to RSVP for these workshops.

Here is the tentative training schedule:

  • Tuesday, June 20 2017, Sage Hall 2030, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
  • Tuesday, July 11 2017, Sage Hall 2030, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
  • Tuesday, July 18 2017, Sage Hall 2030, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
  • Tuesday, August 01 2017, Sage Hall 2030, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
  • Tuesday, August 22 2017, Sage Hall 2030, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM

Please contact Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu with any questions.

We're hiring!

by Anonymous in ,

The Division of Technology & Innovation at CSU Channel Islands has 2 positions currently posted:

  • Manager of User Services
  • Analyst/Programmer (for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions)

More details can be found on the T&I Jobs page.

Fall 2017 major project review cycle now open

by Anonymous in , ,

The Fall 2017 major project review cycle is now open.

During this cycle, Campus units and organizations may submit requests for major IT projects between June 1, 2017 and July 15, 2017.

As a reminder, the Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) has a bi-annual cycle for major project review to help ensure that campus budget, project requests and IT resources are appropriately aligned. Projects approved during the fall cycle typically will begin on or after January 1, 2018.

For details on how to submit a major project request, please visit T&I New Project Requests page.

Vote For Us - We're Nominated for a Webby!

by Anonymous in , , ,

We're so excited that CSUCI's Art Program web site (which launched in November 2016) was nominated for a Webby! The site was designed and implemented by T&I's talented Web Services team.

2017 Webby Awards - We've been nominated. Help us make internet history and vote!

Vote for CI now at http://go.csuci.edu/webby. Hurry, voting ends on Thursday, April 20!

Help improve the campus directory and wayfinding

by Anonymous in , ,

The Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) needs your help to improve contact and way finding information in the online campus directory.

Please take a moment to search for your own contact information in the CSUCI campus directory.

If you find an incorrect phone number, office location or other information in your own (or any of your colleagues’) directory entry, please click the “Request a Directory Change” button in the directory entry, as shown in the animation below:

Animation of how to request a directory change

(Having problems viewing the animation above? Visit the Request a Directory Change web page for detailed instructions)

You’ll be prompted to specify which data is incorrect, make suggestions for corrections, and even choose to be notified once corrections have been made. Once submitted, your change will be sent to the campus directory coordinator for your division, who will review the request, and make the appropriate corrections in CI Records (which will propagate automatically to the campus directory).

Thanks in advance for your help in making it easier to find and contact employees at CI.

Please contact the T&I Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu with any questions about the campus directory.

Dropbox migration update

by Anonymous in , , , ,

As described in the campus global email sent on 3/30, the Dropbox@CI rollout will begin on Monday, April 10, 2017 and proceed in groups according to your building location on campus. Review the migration schedule here. Please note that network shared drives for workgroups (G drive, Z drive, etc.) will not be affected during​ this migration phase.

What happens next?

  1. If your group is scheduled for rollout next week, the T&I Dropbox@CI Implementation team will be contacting you this week with instructions and further guidance. For all other groups, the T&I IT Consultant assigned to your location will contact you at least 5 business days before the beginning of your migration window.
  2. During the rollout period, a Dropbox Implementation team member will be available in your location to help you with your Dropbox account and moving your personal Homeshare (H drive) content to Dropbox@CI.
What do you need to do next?
  1. Review the migration schedule to see when your group/building will migrate.
  2. Please reach out to Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu if the assigned timeframe does not work for your workgroup.
  3. If the schedule works for you, you do not need to do anything. Just wait for the communication from the Dropbox@CI implementation team with further instructions.
Need help or have questions?
Please visit the Dropbox@CI Implementation web site for the latest news and information, or contact Asha Ramachandra at asha.ramachandra@csuci.edu.

IT procurement deadlines for 2016-17 fiscal year

by Anonymous in , ,

This point in the spring term begins the highest volume period for information technology (IT) related purchasing by departments and organizations. Based on data from last year, the Division of Technology & Innovation (T&I) and Procurement anticipate that over 120 procurement requests will submitted between now and the end of the fiscal year (June 30). 

Due to a staffing shortfall in Procurement and to ensure sufficient time for review & processing before fiscal year-end, we kindly request that you submit any IT procurements which will encumber 2016-17 funds via the IT procurement web site (http://www.csuci.edu/ti/purchasing/) according to the following timeline:
  • Custom IT procurements (for non-standard IT hardware, software and equipment) must be submitted by no later than 5PM on Tuesday, April 4, 2017
  • Standard IT procurements (for standard desktops, laptops, iPads, printers, etc.) must be submitted by no later than 5PM on Monday, April 17, 2017 
Any 2016-17 IT procurements submitted after those dates will be processed as time and resources permit. 

For reference:
  • Standard IT procurements take an average of 9 days to process. 
  • Custom IT procurements take an average of 50 days to process. 
  • The "Days to process" metric is calculated from the date of initial submission via the IT procurement web site (http://www.csuci.edu/ti/purchasing/) to the date where the purchase order is issued to the vendor by Procurement staff).  

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work together to overcome the staffing shortfall and complete these year-end procurements as quickly as possible. Please contact me at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8587 if you have any further questions. 

Completed upgrades of CI's web servers

by Anonymous in ,

Upgrades of CI's primary web servers for www.csuci.edu and our academic/administrative web sites were successfully completed Friday night, doubling the amount of available space. We experienced no down time, thanks to T&I's infrastructure team and our partners at LiquidWeb.


Amazon Web Services (AWS) now available for research computing

by in , , , ,

Thanks to a new agreement between CSU Channel Islands (CI) and Amazon, faculty and campus departments now have access to provision affordable, high-performance research computing resources through Amazon Web Services (AWS) on an as-needed, pay-as-you-go basis, including virtual servers, storage and databases and other services.

Because of our agreement, T&I's master AWS account and billing arrangement enables faculty & departments to create their own AWS linked accounts and facilitates management of central billing and cost-recovery by T&I.

CI's Computer Science program is an early adopter of the new service and has already seen a dramatic difference in reduction of processing time for their computing resources. We're glad to share in their immediate success, and excited to share this new opportunity with the CI community.

Please visit the CI Amazon Web Services web site for more details about AWS service and learn how to get started.

goCI v2.1: View your class schedule, grades and open lab computers

by in , , , ,

We're excited to announce that on Monday, January 16, 2017 we officially launched v2.1 of our goCI mobile app.

The updated app now includes the following 3 new modules:

"Register": now you can view your class schedule, grades from previous semesters, and browse the course catalog.

"Pay Now": pay your tuition and other fees for your student account online through the app.

"Labs": view how many computers are available in the open labs on campus (currently only Broome Library labs are listed).

We are also working on an enhancement for the "Register" module that will enable you to find classes in the course catalog, as well as add, drop and swap those classes. Testing is currently underway, and we expect to launch these enhancements in February.

Have a great idea for the goCI mobile app? Let us know! Contact Peter Mosinskis, Director of IT Strategy at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu

Technology & Communication is now Technology & Innovation

by in ,

I'm pleased to share this note from Michael Berman, Vice President for Technology & Innovation:

Dear colleagues,

As you already know from President Beck’s announcement, our good friends in Communication and Marketing are moving over to the Division of Advancement. We are sorry to see them leave Solano [Hall], but we’re glad they won’t be far away. We will be able to build on our shared history to continue our successful collaboration in days to come.

This change also makes the name “Technology & Communication” obsolete, so we need a name to reflect our new identity as the division that supports technology and teaching & learning through innovation.

After consulting with our Division's leadership team and the Cabinet, President Beck approved "Technology & Innovation" (abbreviated as T&I) to represent the mission and vision of our division. I’m pleased that this name emphasizes continuity with “T&C” and honors the great work that we have done together over the past 5+ years.

...

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, and thank you for all you do to support the students of CI – and each other.

Michael
Over the next few months, our Division will be working to update our web site, documentation, and all communication collateral to reflect our new identity. New logo extensions with the division's new name have already been created and are be available for those who need them.