Project – IT Connect

OIT Begins the Move to XWiki

Since its launch in 2014, Wiki.SMU has provided a resource for everything from course materials to project management to University documentation and has been a very successful tool for many areas on campus. Unfortunately, our current solution for the on-prem wiki.smu.edu environment, Confluence, is no longer being supported by Atlassian. After an exhaustive search, XWiki has been identified to be the replacement wiki solution. The XWiki Implementation Project will oversee the migration to this new wiki environment, including transferring all existing content and permissions to the new platform, updating existing service pages, and training information, and communicating with the campus community.

If you are not familiar with XWiki, it is Continue reading OIT Begins the Move to XWiki

Box Project Enters Pilot Stage

The Box Project has begun testing with users in our pilot program. Box is our new enterprise online storage solution to replace Locker and will offer unlimited space to SMU students, faculty, and staff for storage of documents and media.

Some of the features include:

Unlimited Storage.
With Box, you have access to unlimited storage! Feel free to upload as many files as you want; just be aware the maximum single file size is 5GB.
Mobile Integration.
Connect to Box using your mobile device. Download and upload files using your smartphone or tablet.
Box Sync.
Store select files locally and edit them offline. Files will sync when your computer is reconnected with the internet. This is a great feature for travel.
Document Sharing.
Share documents with members of your team, or with external users.
Document Creation.
You can create Office documents in Box, or try Box Notes. With Office 365 integration, you can edit your documents online. You can also collaborate with your team members, editing documents simultaneously and reviewing contributions in real time. Versioning is enabled making it easy to roll back to previous versions of a document.

Box will be rolled out to the rest of campus in early 2016. We are currently developing our internal documentation, policies and procedures that should be in place at the time Box moves to production early next year.

Look for more information about this exciting new service after the winter break.

Cox Infrastructure Project Update

As part of the IT Initiative and overall vision for IT Shared Services, several operational services will be unified within the existing University services. This will allow the local Academic Leads to focus on IT vision, strategy and best practices in partnership with the Dean and their faculty. The following Cox services are designated for unification: networking and security appliances, wireless, VPN, and Active Directory.

Network maintenance has been underway for several weeks upgrading the various network switches and Wireless Access Points throughout the buildings. The team has also reviewed many of the servers hosted in Cox to determine the migration strategy. Several services were decommissioned as they were no longer in use. We have also completed the testing phase of migrating the Cox workstations to the SMU domain.

We are now ready to begin the migration of the Cox computers to the SMU domain. This will allow Cox faculty and staff to login to their workstations using the SMU ID and password thus eliminating the extra set of credentials. Each individual will be notified of the date of their scheduled migration. Cox faculty and staff should NOT attempt to login with their ID prior to the migration date.

Additional instructions will be provided with the migration schedule. For more details on the Cox infrastructure project, visit http://www.smu.edu/OIT/Projects/CoxInfrastructure.