Over the past several years, our IT&I Infrastructure server team has begun making the shift to a “cloud computing services” model (IaaS) so that we can provide a secure, reliable and resilient server and storage environment that supports many of the services and capabilities that our students, faculty and staff depend on.  Whether it’s our current shared drives or critical applications such as the Event Management System or WebFocus reporting and Business Intelligence, it takes a day in day out focus along with an eye towards the future to ensure success  Much of this work takes place in the background, but nevertheless, is critical in terms of providing the services and capabilities relied upon by our University.

Special thanks to our Server Manager, Patricia O’Neill and server administrators Derek Ljongquist and Mark Pisano for all of their hard work and dedication.  And congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Mark Pisano who recently earned his Phd. from Pace University and will be leaving us to join Southern Connecticut State University as a faculty member in their Management and Information Systems department.

Here are some of the recent improvements that have been delivered, or are on the near horizon:

• • Upgrading of Citrix XenApp environment to provide on-demand Windows-based applications to local and remote computers and devices.
  • Migration of university data to Pure Storage which is a highly efficient and resilient storage platform
  • Upgrade of our VMware virtual server environment supporting our on premise servers for improved performance and reliability.
  • Leveraging cloud technologies that include email, one drive, azure and banner that integrate with our WCSU environment.
  • Upgrade of SCCM to improve software deployments such as Office 2016 and Windows 10 to end user computers and devices.
  • Upgrading of hosted print services to latest software levels
  • Coming soon: Implementation of a single sign-on (SSO) solution that provides users with seamless, one-click access to on premise and cloud applications with a single identity.
  • Coming soon: Deployment of an Identity Management solution for the standardizing of automated provisioning and deprovisioning of faculty, staff, and student accounts and security.

Please contact Patricia O’Neill at oneillpa@wcsu.educreate new email for further details