ICT News, March 2006
- Sophos email filtering for spam and viruses
- Exchange mail and calendaring service
- ICT Legato server network backup service
- Connection of devices to SydNet
- Disaster Recovery verification
- Wireless installation on laptops
- Telephone and voicemail
- PeopleSoft and eProcurement projects
An additional news item is available to full-time staff only.
Sophos email filtering for spam and viruses
ICT is introducing Sophos PureMessage to provide filtering against email spam and viruses. PureMessage will first be applied to central email servers, commencing with Exchange for staff and the student mail system: it is hoped to have these servers covered by early April. Filtering will then become available to help protect other University mail systems against unwanted messages, by acting as an "MX mail relay" in front of distributed mail servers.
Further details will be provided soon. If your unit is interested in being an "early adopter" of PureMessage in front of an existing unit mail server, please contact Jim Richardson.
Exchange mail and calendaring service
During 2006 and 2007, ICT will be extending the central MCS Microsoft Exchange email and group calendaring service to further units across the University. The calendar functions will become steadily more useful for arranging meetings as more members of staff in different areas start to use the service. Exchange is available to Windows users via the Outlook email client, and to Macintosh users via Entourage; there is also a web interface for access from outside the University.
If your unit might be interested in moving to Exchange, please email for more information and/or to apply to be added to the rollout schedule (updated 31 August 2006) .
ICT Legato server network backup service
ICT provides a service which allows nightly backup of departmental server machines over the network via Legato software and a tape silo. Copies of tapes can be kept off-site for disaster recovery purposes. This service is already heavily used, but there may be some limited additional capacity for backing up more servers. Further information about the Legato service is available (at present in informal style).
If your unit is interested in applying to take advantage of this service, please contact Jim Richardson in the first instance.
Connection of devices to SydNet
Guidelines and protocols are under consideration for connection of networking devices such as wireless access points and routers to SydNet. The process of developing these will involve consultation with distributed IT staff.
Disaster Recovery verification
Work is under way to verify disaster recovery measures which are in place for major University information services. This includes active testing of backup infrastructure. Recently a test was carried out which demonstrated that infrastructure in the Library is able to take over running the main Finance system, in place of the usual infrastructure for this system which is located in H08. The test was successful overall, and revealed some areas where further fine-tuning will be beneficial. Further tests will be carried out for disaster recovery on other systems, including HR, FlexSIS, and email.
Wireless installation on laptops
Instructions for setting up staff and student laptops to use the University wireless network have recently been updated.
As the instructions page mentions, the Access Labs provide a helpful and popular service to assist you to install and configure wireless software. To take advantage of this service, staff and students can visit any Access Lab throughout the year, bringing their laptop with them. Note that laptops cannot be left with Access Lab staff for set-up; the service provides aid to laptop users in setting up wireless for themselves.
A list of Access Lab locations is available.
Telephone and voicemail
It may not be widely known that instructions for using University telephones and voicemail are available on the web.
Note also that the standard retention period before voicemail items are deleted has recently been increased from 20 to 35 days.
PeopleSoft and eProcurement projects
Two projects affecting financial services and purchasing are under way.
The PeopleSoft Upgrade Project will upgrade our core financial system from Version 7.5 to Version 8.9, so as to:
- fulfil DEST requirements for an "Institution Assessment Framework" and allow easy monitoring of financial stability;
- support the "Financial Services – The Next Stage" strategy, which will reposition Financial Services to provide additional value, rather than the present preoccupation with transaction processing and checking.
Delivery of user training is scheduled to commence in May 2006. For more information, including project newsletters, see the PeopleSoft Upgrade Project web page.
The eProcurement Project will allow better management of the full procure-to-pay process, to leverage University buying power, minimise manual processing and procurement costs, and implement necessary changes to ensure purchasing practices comply with University procedures.
The use of an electronic procurement system will simplify the procurement activities from sourcing to approval, reducing the time to source and procure goods and services.
For more information, including newsletters, see the eProcurement Project web page.