© University of Reading 2009 www.reading.ac.uk/ITS

IT Services

A View from the Intersection

Mike RochDirector of IT Services

21 May, 2009

Conducting at the Piazza Venezia

© University of Reading 2009 www.reading.ac.uk/ITS

IT Services

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• Extension college of Christ Church 1892

• Royal Charter awarded 1926

• 13,000 undergrads; 5,000 postgrads

• 3,000 staff (700 researchers)• 87 % of research is of

International Standing• Turnover £200M; Research

income £30M

IT Services - Responsibilities

• Data networks– 4 x switched Gb Ethernet

campus networks– 2 x 1Gb connections to

JANET via TVN MAN– 5000 room ResNet

• Voice networks• Infrastructure

services– Infoblox DNS/DHCP– MS Active Directory– 2 x 50TB NetApp Filers

• Classroom technology

• Corporate systems– MS Exchange email (staff)– MS IIS/CMS webhosting– Agresso Finance– Trent HR– SITS SR– Blackboard VLE

• Research support– Infrastructure– Hardware– Software– Help and advice 4

IT Services – Partnerships• Communications – PTS Consulting • Networks – Data Integration• Windows – Microsoft Educational Support

Centre• Virtualisation – VMware• Disaster Recovery – Sungard• Offsite backup - Recall• Student Email – T.B.A.• Identity Management – Oxford

Computing Group• Access Management – Eduserv 5

IT Services - Culture• Services more important than IT• We work for them - ‘Can-do’, ‘Here to

Help’• Good value for money - £270/fte user/yr • Standards and working practices

– Service desk & workflow - ITIL– Change management - ITIL– Project management - PRINCE-lite– Information security management - BS7799/ISO27002

• Pragmatism – ‘Utility not ideology ’• Risk management – proportionality

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Risk Management

Prevent

ReduceImpact

Plan

Accept

Research Support• Computational resources

– Thames Blue IBM BladeCenter– 600 node Campus Grid & NGS Affilliate

• Storage resources– Mirrored NetApp Filers & Enterprise Vault– Institutional Repository - ePrints

• Software– ArcGIS, Matlab, SAS, SPSS, ATLAS-ti, NVivo, …

• Support– Advice, documentation, certification, AccessGRID,

Globus g/w– Partnerships – Oxford eResearch Centre, eResearch

South, NGS8

Identity Management - background • Mainframe s and UNIX minis from 1970s• Distributed UNIX workstations + NFS filestore -

1988– TCP/IP, PC-NFS for PCs, CAP etc for Macs– Yellow Pages/NIS directory services

• Common University Username (= email LHS for students)

• Active Directory synched with NIS from 2001

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s p u 0 3 c h 3

Science Faculty

Physics Dept Undergraduate

Registration Year

Initials + serial

Identity Management - update

• New format usernames for accounts from Oct 2008– 2 random letters followed by 6 digits– New format email addresses for students

a.n.other@student.reading.ac.uk

• Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager service summer 2009– ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) to replace

NIS– Parallel running from launch

• Remote authentication and authorisation– OpenAthens subscription for 3 years from 1/8/08– Eduroam for visitors and working away– Digital Certificates for accessing research computing

resources

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So, is IdM Utopia Builded Here?

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SQL

PostProcessing

SQL

ILM

SQL

GroupPopulator Delayed

Action

SQL

Home Drive/File Storage

Communications Directory

ADAM

RISIS (Students)

SQL

Students XMA

Midland Trent (Staff)

SQLEmployees XMA

ADAM MAActive Directory & Exchange 2003

ADStudent Active Directory MA

Post Processing Drive Creation

User

HR

Students at Registration

Unix Mail

ADAM

Student ADAM MA

User

Communications Directory Interface

Remedy

SQL

Employee External XMA

SQL

Actions Logging

Message Delivery

Trent Users XMA

Tutors Delimited File

NIS Export

File

NIS Export

Employee/Xternal Active Directory MA

Student XMA

Employee/Xternal ADAM MA

UCISA Top Concerns 2008

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Rank Concern

1 Funding and sustainable resourcing of IT2= IT strategy and planning

2= Organisational change and process improvement4 Business systems to support the institution5 "Environmentally friendly" computing / energy efficiency6= IT/IS service quality6= Service availability and resilience8 Governance of IT9 E-learning10= The development of an architected, enterprise-wide IT Infrastructure10= Data centres12 Mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working13 Identity & access management

Transatlantic Top Concerns

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EDUCAUSE ISSUE EDUCAUSE UCISASecurity 1 >13

Administrative / ERP Information Systems 2 4Funding IT 3 1Infrastructure 4 10Identity / Access management 5 13

Disaster recovery / Business Continuity 6 >13

Governance, organisation and leadership 7 8Change management 8 2E-learning / Distributed teaching and learning 9 9Staffing / HR management / Training 10 -

http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/members/surveys/tc

Challenges to IdAM in HEIs

• Porous boundaries and fluid structures– Open campuses, open libraries, open access– Open resources – research & T&L outputs– Re-organisations, mergers, spin-offs, closures– Nomadic academic careers

• Individual behaviours - PBSK– Serendipitous discovery ignores boundaries– Research collaborators identified and trusted by

personal estimation not external validation – Web2.0 take-up - *FREE* of cost/authority/bureaucracy – Sharing and trading identities

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Project FLAME – London School of Economics

• Technical Strand – investigated systems supporting: – Delegated Authority Management (DAM)– Attribute Release Policy (ARP)– Virtual Organisation Management (VOM)

• Social study - large scale studies of typical user attitudes, exploring:– the extent to which users (students and staff) value

and manage their personal data – their understanding of what data is held by service

providers – the extent to which this data is exchanged

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Project FLAME – Social Study Experiment

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• What is your LSE username?• What is your LSE library

number?

• What is your Facebook password?

• What is your LSE logon password?

• What is your term-time address?

• What is your date of birth?• What is your mobile

number?• What is your credit card

number?

91 %

63 %

40 %

14 %

90 %

73 %

67 %

30 %

Risk, Identity and Access Management

• Vital to mitigate risks:– Resource misallocation– Breaches of contractual obligations– Breaches of confidentiality, integrity and availability– Quality assurance failures …

• Mitigation must always be proportional to risk:– Big risks need strong controls– Small risks less so …Else– Excessive costs– Inflexible processes– Missed opportunities …

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Links • JISC Project FLAME

https://gabriel.lse.ac.uk/twiki/bin/view/Projects/Flame/WebHome

• UCISA Top Concernshttp://www.ucisa.ac.uk/members/surveys/tc

• Reading eResearch pageshttp://www.reading.ac.uk/e-research

• Piazza Venetzia Traffic Cophttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBJa0W49ayI

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