May 2007 IT News
ACS Tests Disaster Recovery System
Administrative Computing Services (ACS) launched a preliminary disaster recovery system in Richfield on April 12, 2007. The State of Utah Richfield Data Center, which was chosen as the remote site, has a redundant infrastructure to help ensure business continuity. It is located in the center of the state and is in a different seismic zone than the U, which dramatically reduces the risk of data loss from an earthquake in the Salt Lake Metropolitan area. Since April, ACS staff have successfully run core PeopleSoft processes and applications remotely from Salt Lake City. So far, ACS has tested programs exclusively on its core databases: - The Campus Information System (CIS) The test system, called "Island," proves ACS has the capability to implement a stand-alone, off-site disaster recovery system. Testing and enhancement will continue over the next few months to create a more robust system.
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New Media-on-Demand information
A new category has been added to the “Services” section on the Office of Information Technology (OIT) website. In the last decade, we have experienced an unprecedented amount of digital content that is delivered through broadcast television, satellite, cable, fiber, the Internet, wireless networks, game consoles, web conferencing, cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants. This trend is accelerating. Given that this is the direction the world is headed, it was time to add a Media and Video category with links to other Media/Video-related sites within OIT and on campus, as they continue to expand. The campus Media on Demand (MOD) Committee has been working hard to gather information on MOD standards, best practices, industry examples, and more. They've put this information in a wiki which is updated regularly. An OIT MOD webpage with some general information and links to the MODwiki is now available. Please see links to OIT areas and other campus organizations offering Media and Video on Demand resources at http://www.it.utah.edu/services/media/index.html. |
iTunes U agreement Signed
The ability to create audio/video/multimedia files and distribute them over the Internet, using a variety of methods, is often referred to as podcasting. Podcasting is about publishing content quickly, and about consumers being able to seamlessly play the audio, video, images, and text included in podcast files. A special version of iTunes targeted for University audiences is known as iTunes U. According to Apple, "iTunes U uses the iTunes Store infrastructure and is specifically designed as a service for institutions to manage a broad range of audio, video, and PDF content, and make it available quickly and easily to students, instructors, staff, alumni, and, optionally, the public." Furthermore, "Podcasting provides a convenient, subscription-based model for distributing course content. Podcasting makes your course content mobile, and supports anywhere, anytime learning. Students can subscribe to the course and have the content automatically downloaded as soon as it is made available by you." The licensing agreement between the University of Utah and Apple for iTunes U has just been signed. With the establishment of an iTunes U Service Agreement between Apple and the University of Utah, the University's various departments, groups, institutes, and centers will be able to post their own digital content with access governed by the UofU iTunes U branded interface. iTunes U is one of several ways that media may be distributed to the campus community. iTunes UofU administrative functions, including its structure and user access privileges, will be centrally managed by the Marriott Library. Content linked to specific courses will need to be authenticated through a single sign-on using the University's LDAP, yet to be implemented. For more information, see Podcasting (includes iTuens U page. |
