Joint Operations Group (JOG) and
Communications Planning Group (CPG) Meetings
 
January 14-15, 2003
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Meeting Notes

Agenda

Logistics

Meeting Notes

Presentations

Campus Reports

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    Tuesday, January 14

    JOG Meeting

    Announcements
    (Kris Hafner)
    Budget. The University's current budget problems are likely to affect funding for both NBA projects and CENIC.

    Vendor Briefings. David Walker is working with Xerox to set up a vendor briefing in March and will keep JOG members informed of the date. JOG members expressed interested in having IR&C schedule briefings by IBM and Sybase.

    UCOP/Campus Data Transfer Deadlines. Patrick Collins discussed the importance of meeting deadlines for transferring corporate data to UCOP. Reports that use corporate data generally cannot be developed until data from all campuses have been received; thus, reporting is delayed if one campus is late. The need for systemwide data has increased due to a number of factors, including more external audits and legislative requests for data. Specifications that include standing deadlines for corporate and operational systems may be found on the IR&C Web site at http://www.ucop.edu/irc/appsys.html.

    Data Transmission
    Doug Drury discussed the problems of sending data files to UCOP "in the clear." Encrypted FTP is an obvious immediate alternative, although a more technologically sound, less labor intensive long-term approach should be sought. David Walker gave a presentation on an XML pilot project being conducted with the Corporate Financial System data files. The presentation is available online at http://www.ucop.edu/irc/jog/pres/cfstrans.html. There was a discussion about data sharing in real time vs. publishing data by deadlines. It was suggested that a pilot project for XML be developed. If the pilot is successful, it could be decided that, after an agreed-upon date, any new data transfer projects would need to use XML.

      ACTION. Short term plan: IR&C will form a group to assess needs and options for encrypted file transmission between campuses and UCOP, and will report to JOG at the May meeting.
      Long-term plan: IR&C will form a group to evaluate establishment of XML as the standard for new applications, plan a pilot project, and set a timeframe for transitioning to XML, if feasible.
      Security for Log-In Sessions. IR&C also will evaluate Stunnel (including the UCSD Java fix) as a systemwide solution for secure data transmission for tn3270 log-in sessions to PPS.

    PKI and E-ID. The UC PKI project was discussed and several suggestions were made about future directions for the project. It was recognized that not all campuses have the need for PKI at present; however, if no systemwide plan is developed for building authorization/authentication technology now, it will be difficult to create a shared infrastructure after campuses have deployed different technologies.

      ACTION: IR&C will assess the status of the PKI project at UCOP, including funding and related contracts, and make a report on the project in the February PKI conference call. Next steps will need to be determined.

    NBA Components Update
    U-Portal (David Walker). IR&C will form a group to assess UPortal, as well as an open source product from Columbia University.
    E-Procurement (Don Worth). UCLA is currently engaged in a pilot project with UCOP, UCSC, and UCSD to promote the use of e-commerce and to take advantage of the University's purchasing power through combined strategic sourcing. The planning group met in October; two implementation models emerged from that discussion. UCSD will use the UCLA electronic catalogs beginning in February. UCSC proposes to use the UCLA e-procurement system by directly accessing the system at UCLA and by using cards similar to ProCards as the settlement or payment method. This will allow purchases to be made off the BruinBuy system. Certain issues around financial controls and accountability will need to be resolved, hence the UCSC pilot probably won't begin until the fall. In the meantime, the UCSC project will focus on the strategic sourcing effort, which can proceed without the use of the e-procurement system.

    Apart from the two-campus pilot, efforts are also underway to put in place a more coordinated strategic sourcing effort which will involve all campuses. UCB has initiated a small project that enables authorized and authenticated purchases to be made via the Office Depot site.

    Payroll Web Enhancements (Kris Hafner). Subsequent to the last JOG meeting, IR&C prepared a paper about development of the payroll subsystem that handles processing of merit increases. The paper may be found at http://www.ucop.edu/payroll/documents/Web_based_payroll_strategy.pdf. IR&C is assessing how to continue to make progress on the Web-based Entry/Update project. John Bruno said that development of a data warehouse should be of higher priority than Web enhancements to the PPS. Kris Hafner said that Human Resources and Benefits intends to fund the UCOP Data Warehouse project. If this funding does not come through, a work group will be asked to prioritize the PPS enhancements projects and determine where the limited available funds should be focused. Such a group would include representatives from HR and payroll departments, academic HR, labor relations, and academic departments.

    NBA Components Update
    Portal/Content Management (David Walker). Mark Askren headed a group that evaluated the portal RFPs and selected a product. In light of the current budget uncertainties, however, no award was given, and it is unlikely that funding will be available soon for portal and content management licenses. Jack McCredie encouraged the group to consider UPortal and find the best content management system to pair with it.

    Licensing Activities and Strategic Sourcing
    (Patrick Collins)
    Patrick Collins reported on systemwide licensing projects. Currently, UC has multiple agreements with the same vendors, which indicates that there are opportunities for systemwide licensing and attractive price breaks. It was agreed that a strategic group should be formed for hardware and software licensing for enterprise purposes. Patrick agreed to inform the JOG about any major purchases. Details about recent licensing agreements may be found in the January 2003 UCOP JOG/CPG report at http://www.ucop.edu/irc/jog/reports.html.

    Jim Davis gave an update on the negotiations with Microsoft. The expectation is that any agreement between UCLA and Microsoft could be extended to the UC system.

    JOG Meeting Structure
    (Kris Hafner)
    Kris Hafner asked the group to consider whether JOG meetings could be restructured to operate more efficiently. JOG members expressed that meetings should provide "added value" rather than primarily UCOP updates. Learning about challenges and projects at other campuses is valuable. Numerous suggestions were made for developing a new meeting structure and focus. These included the following:

    • Revisit the JOG/CPG charter to ensure its currency and relevance
    • Review best practice models for IT governance in multi-campus institutions (e.g., Big 10)
    • Establish a steering committee of campus CIOs to set the meeting agendas
    • Rotate meeting ownership (including the agenda setting) among the campuses
    • Integrate academic-related computing topics (instruction, research, etc.) into the agenda (particularly for those CIOs with broad responsibilities on their campuses)
    • Designate formal participation in JOG at the campus level
    • Deliver one-way communication via e-mail and the Web (vs. putting these topics on the meeting agenda)
    • Focus meeting time on topics requiring two-way communication (exchange, debate and decision-making)
    • Identify IT topic areas of common interest to UCOP, the campuses, labs and medical centers and shape meeting agendas around these topics
    • Retain (and expand) the campus report portion of the agenda - with campuses focusing on their key issues and efforts
    • Create a CIO umbrella group
    • Create "birds of a feather" sessions to focus on specific interest areas during meetings
    • Combine the JOG and the CPG meetings since agenda issues are no longer clearly distinct; this includes creating combined JOG/CPG campus reports, with standard sections
    • Obtain support from campus leaders before pursuing joint projects through JOG/CPG
    • Find ways to become a decision-making body and to focus on strategic issues

    Kris Hafner agreed to consider the many options and present some alternatives for discussion at the May JOG/CPG meeting.

    Wednesday, January 15

    Secure Messaging
    (David Wasley)
    David Wasley gave a presentation on secure messaging: http://www.ucop.edu/irc/jog/jan2003pres.html. He will form a group with campus and medical center CIOS or IT personnel to evaluate secure messaging technologies and to recommend a standard.

    Desktop Standards
    (Diana Brown)
    Diana Brown asked if and how the campuses set desktop standards: Setting standards means the central IT organization can provide high quality support and lower costs; the downside is that people do not have choice in platforms and applications. Most of the campuses responded that they support Mac to some degree. Princeton was cited as having a good model for standards.

    Business Officers Institute
    (Pat LeCuyer)
    Pat LeCuyer gave the IT presentation at the December BOI to approximately 200 participants. The presentation emphasized the importance and current relevance of IT policies, such as the ECP, IS-3, and the records policies. Participant evaluations ranked the session favorably and expressed interest in being given more examples of situations, receiving information about spam and security, and having a discussion about how those with little technical knowledge can make decisions on IT matters.

    JOG/CPG Meeting

    IT Policy and Security Issues
    (Kris Hafner)
    IR&C hosted a meeting on December 6 to prioritize the IT policy issues facing the University. Participants represented different campuses and leadership positions. A policy director in IR&C will be recruited; most likely the position will combine the IT policy and security areas. Connie Williams is heading a special project to revamp a number of the RMP policies. The need for policies that are flexible enough so as to not inhibit necessary operational procedures was discussed.

    Legislative Issues
    SB 1386: Kris Hafner asked for suggestions about how to best meet the requirements of the new California law requiring notification in the case of a security breach. Campuses asked that UCOP develop systemwide implementation guidance that could be generalized to all the campuses. Bills on Social Security Numbers: A summary is provided at http://www.ucop.edu/irc/jog/jan2003pres.html

    IT Infrastructure Task Force
    (Kris Hafner)
    The IT Infrastructure Task Force will hold its first meeting February 18. The task force consists of CIOs, campus and UCOP planning and budget personnel, and vice chancellors for administration. The group's objectives are listed below.

    • Define the components of an IT infrastructure that should be addressed on a systemwide basis. This may include campuswide and building-specific "physical" requirements related to maintaining network and Internet access and also other systems that serve as enabling infrastructure.
    • Delineate standard definitions and quantitative measures to assess IT infrastructure needs and existing funding levels, providing a common vocabulary and consistent and comparative data among campuses.
    • Provide a framework for projecting IT infrastructure needs and funding requirements that addresses development, maintenance, and renewal needs; identifies expansion needs related to enrollment growth; and provides for evaluation of potential new initiatives. The framework should address both operating budget and capital budget requirements.
    • Provide a framework that is useful for planning at both the campus and systemwide levels and that can be easily updated.
    • Review existing funding mechanisms at both the campus and systemwide levels as appropriate, including potential reallocation strategies given the current budget climate.

    The state's budgetary situation makes it likely that no additional resources will be available for new initiatives in the next several years.

    CPG Meeting

    CENIC
    (David Wasley)
    DCP: All but two counties are now connected to the backbone. The current focus is on providing content.
    ONI: Many of the last miles projects are underway at the campuses. The ONI will be operational by May 1.
    National Light Rail: The NLR project creates a laboratory for high-end research. Funding was found for a startup, and an agreement was reached with one carrier for fiber infrastructure for most of the light rail.
    ISP Service: Reasonably good pricing per unit has been obtained for ISP service. The monthly usage statistics show a much higher volume than had been projected.

    Videoconferencing
    (Mike Shannon)
    Video over IP: A consortium called CalVIP is addressing how to migrate to H.323 for videoconferencing and streaming applications, since the ONI will not support H.320 protocols. CSU will manage videoconferencing, since it already has a network operations center that provides after hours services. The new arrangement should provide high quality service, reserved bandwidth, and a faster help response. Mike will forward to CPG members a copy of the RFP by CalVIP for multipoint control units, gatekeepers, gateways, and a scheduling system. Two vendors have been asked to provide equipment and software demonstrations. The equipment will cost approximately $1.5 - 3M. The different educational sectors will share the costs.
    Long Distance Contract: Mike Shannon asked if it would be useful to the campuses to investigate obtaining a long-distance contract for UC. Discussion centered around the reality that most students now use cell phones and do not want to pay for corded phones in their dorm rooms. Most campuses agreed that they are satisfied with current long-distance arrangements. However, there may be an opportunity for systemwide purchasing of wireless plans, especially if the plans offer attractive features, such as enabling employees to use business phones for some personal use. Mike Shannon agreed to do a feasibility study of a systemwide contract with wireless carriers for value added services.

    UCSC Survey on Voice and Data Funding and Rates
    (Patrick LeCuyer)
    UCSC distributed results from a survey it conducted on how campuses charge and budget for voice and data services delivered to administrative and student customers. The survey shows that campuses are using different protocols. UCSC is planning on changing its rates model to charge per communications worker rather than per jack. Campuses agreed that the survey provides useful information and UCSC will keep it updated on an annual basis.