If you are considering any new projects or technology purchases (software or hardware), please fill out the Project Information Form.
For any questions regarding the projects and services included below, please contact CAIT (cait@calarts.edu).
Recently completed projects
Last updated: March 1, 2023
In order to facilitate secure access to certain services at CalArts for Extended Studies students, CalArts IT has created a new Google domain es.calarts.edu and established processes to ensure Extended Studies students receive an email account firstnamelastname@es.calarts.edu.
IT Team: Customer Engagement, Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications
Project description: In order to facilitate secure access to certain services at CalArts for Extended Studies students, CalArts IT has worked with Extended Studies and other stakeholders and established processes for getting student data into those services such as Canvas, Medicat, Accommodate, and Residence.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
In February of 2021, Google announced that it will end its long-standing policy of unlimited storage. A pooled allocation limit—a shared amount for all users of 100TB— will be in effect for both alum.calarts.edu (students and alumnx) and calarts.edu (faculty and staff); each group will receive 100TB to share among all users in that group. This impacts all storage solutions, from Drive to Photos. While this may seem like a lot of storage, the CalArts community is made up of media-heavy users; we were already over 100TB for both groups.
CalArts IT is attempting to mitigate this in a number of ways:
- Deploying a new storage solution for current faculty, staff, and students (more information under the project "Network storage solution")
- Providing new resources for storing and sharing media such as Canvas (a Learning Management System) and Panopto (a video storage and streaming solution)
- Removing access to Google Drive for alumnx users. Alumnx will continue to be provided a Gmail account @alum.calarts.edu
CalArts IT has removed access to storage such as Google Drive and Photos for all alumnx and has created processes for the transition of future students from student to alumnx after graduation. Canvas has been successfully deployed and made available to be used to share instructional materials and handle project and test submissions. Panopto has also been deployed as a video sharing platform for instructional use and a hosting solution for Zoom recordings. CalArts IT is currently working on a new network solution and those efforts are tracked under the project "Network storage solution".
IT Teams: Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications, Customer Engagement, Instructional Technology
CalArts Single Sign-On (SSO) lets you sign in to all of your CalArts applications with one username and password. Once authenticated to CalArts SSO, you just click on your desired application and are automatically logged in.
CalArts IT deployed QuickLaunch as the CalArts Single Sign-On (SSO) solution and has since worked on configuring existing applications and services with SSO. Currently many applications such as Colleague, EAB, Google, Self-Service, Sunapsis, LiveSafe, Coursedog, Canvas, Mantrahealth, Concord, Skedda, and all of the Symplicity Apps are configured with Single Sign-On.
Moving forward, the Enterprise Applications team will be configuring SSO for future projects whenever possible.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
In the past, CalArts students and alumnx receive an email on the alum.calarts.edu domain. Starting with Fall 2023, new students at CalArts are being provided with an email address on the students.calarts.edu domain which they can use while they are enrolled at CalArts. Once students graduate, they will be provided with an email address on the alum.calarts.edu domain. This will make it easier for students to obtain various student perks such as software discounts.
IT Team: Customer Engagement, Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications
CalArts IT is involved with many renovation and new buildings projects working alongside vendors and other departments to deliver network connectivity, Zoom Rooms, and other technology.
This is a list of renovations or new buildings projects that CalArts IT has assisted with and recently completed the technology work required:
- A101 classroom: wiring, network connectivity, projector
- Chouinard Hall gym: wiring, door access, physical phone installation, new access point, remove and reinstall access point in the ceiling
- Modular theater space: coordinating with vendor for wiring
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations, Customer Engagement
For many years, Colleague WebAdvisor was the CalArts solution for time entry, time history, time approval, leave information, tax information, pay advices, stipends, benefits summary, and position summary. Some time ago, Ellucian announced the sunsetting of WebAdvisor and the migration to Colleague Self-Service. As a result of this announcement, CalArts has moved to using Colleague Self-Service for time entry and all associated processes as of the first pay period of 2023.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Ongoing projects
Last updated: March 1, 2023
Project description: Academic Live Care is a modern telehealth solution that Health Services is hoping to implement to replace Mantra. The purpose of this application will be to meet the demand of CalArts students for physical and psychological support beyond the capacity of on-site staff and in modalities preferred by CalArts student population.
The Enterprise Applications team will be working with the vendor to configure Single Sign-On for the Academic Live Care application so that all users can sign in securely through the same SSO solution we use for most other applications.
Project status: The team has contacted the vendor's technical team, but SSO is currently being developed for a Fall 2023 release and requirements will be shared sometime in Spring 2023.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Fall 2023
Project description: CalArts stakeholders have identified business process needs that would benefit from an ad-hoc reporting solution that can provide access to self-service data analysis and dashboard creation based on governed datasets and real time reporting. CalArts IT has researched various solutions and, after a successful pilot, has chosen to use Informer. CalArts IT will be working with Accounting, Financial Aid, Institutional Research, Institutional Effectiveness, Office of the Provost, and Registrar to leverage Informer's capabilities and create datasets and reports.
Project status: The project team has established technical requirements, scheduled training, and begun an inventory of existing reports and past requests for reports. CalArts IT has researched and successfully created a replica database solution to reduce the load impact of Informer reports on the Colleague database.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Affinaquest's proprietary higher education advancement ecosystem will help CalArts' Advancement team grow fundraising levels, enrich donor engagement, and improve operational efficiencies. The Enterprise Applications team will be working with the vendor to configure Single Sign-On for the Affiniquest application so that all users can sign in securely through the same SSO solution we use for most other applications.
Project status: The team has reviewed the documentation provided and has started working on the configuration.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: California Institute of the Arts has partnered with Allitix, an implementation partner, to provide a budgeting and forecasting solution on the Anaplan technology platform. The Institute needs a more efficient, modern solution for their 5-step budgeting process: 1) Develop assumptions, 2) Distribute guidelines, 3) Develop preliminary budget, 4) finalize budget, 5) approve and implement. The Anaplan solution will meet this need by providing the following dashboard-driven models: multi-year forecasting, current-year forecasting, budget development, and a data hub.
Project status: The project team has created dashboards for current year forecasting, position control, multi-year forecasting, and budget development and has begun data validation and testing on those dashboards. The current year and multi-year forecasting dashboards have been completed and the project team has validated and tested those dashboards. The project team has been reviewing and adjusting the budget development dashboards, strategic budget requests, bond capital budget dashboards, lease model dashboards, and staff position control dashboards based on feedback from key stakeholders.
The project team has established requirements for data integration and automation, and Anaplan Connect has been configured. Data has started to be fed into Anaplan from Tableau and the project team has gone back to current year dashboards to re-validate the data and will continue to re-validate data as automation is put in place for the various dashboards.
Project next steps: Faculty position control, finalize dashboards, complete UAT of all dashboards, and dry run budget development using Anaplan to verify against manually developed 2023/2024 budget
IT Teams: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: CalArts IT maintains several servers that host services such as PaperCut, Colleague, and Transact and all of these servers have to be kept up to date to protect CalArts services and data from potential security holes. CalArts IT will be deploying an automation tool (Automox) which can update the operating system (OS) on servers quicker and with less impact to users and services. As a result, the servers can be kept safer by being updated more often and with less downtime. Automox will also be used to coordinate the deployment of OS updates to all computers managed by CalArts IT.
Project status:
- Completed:
- All Windows servers have been updating on a monthly schedule since Summer 2022.
- Script and policy created to deploy Automox to Windows computers.
- Documentation on administrating workstation patching created.
- WSUS server has been successfully deployed and WSUS has been successfully integrated into Automox.
- In progress/pending:
- Adding Linux servers to Automox - waiting on other projects to complete.
- Deploying Automox to Windows computers.
- Deploying Automox to Mac computers - waiting on the the deployment of Kandji.
- Documentation.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations, Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: In Spring 2023
Project description: CalArts IT is pursuing more time and cost efficient backup solutions to replace the current backup system. The onsite backup solution will be switched over to the new network storage solutions once that is in place. The offsite backup solution will be switched from physical tapes to a cloud storage solution.
Project status: The project team has identified possible cloud storage providers and is working out cost details. Once the new network storage solution and the cloud backup provider are configured, all current backup processes will be switched over to these new solutions.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Many servers and applications at CalArts depend on certificates to ensure a secure connection between a user's browser or computer and the server or application that the user needs to access. CalArts IT manages the purchasing, installation, and renewal for all certificates and the process of manually managing certificates is often laborious and time critical. CalArts IT plans to implement a certificate management solution that would automate all the tasks associated with managing certificates:
- Creating, configuring, signing, and issuing certificates.
- Provisioning and configuring of certificates on servers, applications and devices.
- Scanning, locating, and validating certificates.
- Inventory and organizing group certificates and managing entities.
- Dynamically monitoring, auditing, and reporting.
- Encrypting private key storage for security.
- Preemptively renewing certificates and preventing expiration.
- Revoking and discarding certificates once invalid.
Project status: The project team has reviewed services offered by several security companies and will continue to research and evaluate tools that offer certificate management. In the meantime, the team has started to replace wildcard certificates with server specific certificates via the InCommon Certificate Manager.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: ClearCompany is a talent management platform that provides a customizable performance management system with unlimited reviews, pre-built review templates, 360 peer reviews, goal planning/alignment and many other features. The Enterprise Applications team will be working with the vendor to configure Single Sign-On for the application and configure data integration via SFTP file uploads. The Customer Care team will be modifying the safe senders configuration on the Google domains.
Project status: The product has been purchased and the various teams have met with the vendor to establish requirements and begin system setup. The CalArts IT team has been working on the data upload and Single Sign-On with the vendor's technical support.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Customer Care
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description/status: Working with Ellucian consultants, the project team will be adding a graduation app to Colleague and reviewing existing tools not in use to determine if they could help improve and streamline existing processes.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Coursedog offers an online catalog solution which allows institutions to easily create, organize, and publish branded, student-centric course catalogs, handbooks, and campus policies.
Project status: A Catalog sandbox has been created and the project team has been working on creating custom pages and configuring various aspects of the application such as templates, department overviews, filters, workflows, and navigation. The project team completed the configuration, quality assurance, and user acceptance testing in staging. Everything has been cloned to production and user acceptance testing in production has been successfully completed.
Project next steps: Roll out Coursedog catalog and send out communications to students and stakeholders.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: May 2023
Project description: Coursedog offers a curriculum management tool with powerful tools such as degree maps, requisite builders, smart forms, and configurable reporting.
Project status: Documentation and workflow for current processes has been developed and the project team has met with school admins for User Acceptance Testing. The school admins have completed User Acceptance Testing and everything has been cloned to the production server. The Registrar's Office is compiling training videos to be approved by the Provost Office and used to train new users as the product is informally introduced to the campus. New changes are being proposed that may require further work in Colleague and reworking some workflows in Coursedog Curriculum.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Coursedog is an event planning application that assists with scheduling and managing events and event resources such as rooms.
Project status: Application has been deployed and basic features have been tested and used for actual events. The next phase of the project has started and is focusing on introducing workflows and bringing in all CalArts staff that work on event and room scheduling. The vendor trained a steering committee and then walked them through building the workflows and forms for one event type in Coursedog after the committee decided on the event types, event form details, rooms, and desired workflow. Testing of the event workflow has been completed successfully. The steering committee will continue to work on more workflows without vendor assistance with the next event type being meetings.
The project team has created a comprehensive list of rooms and spaces on campus that can be booked for various events, but the information (capacity, description, room number) needs to be vetted and updated.
Project next steps: Build out further event types and start training the room booking and event scheduling staff.
IT Teams: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Coursedog offers a class scheduling tool with features such as end-to-end scheduling workflows and powerful reporting which help deliver student-centric schedules.
Project status: The stakeholders have met with the vendor and project management to kick off the project.
IT Team: Unknown
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Previously called "Encryption at CalArts", the project has expanded to encompass all efforts taken towards cybersecurity as part of new insurance requirements. These efforts include:
- Device encryption for all CalArts-owned computers, including school computers, in order to protect all data from the threat of hacking and lost/stolen devices.
- A replacement for Sophos Antivirus in the form of an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution (Cybereason) which has better prediction, detection, and automated response to possible threats to your computer and data.
- Hiring a cybersecurity partner that offers Virtual CISO services, a managed security center (MSoC), and an EDR solution.
Project status: The project team has turned on device encryption on all devices currently managed by CalArts IT. School administrators have been contacted and empowered to schedule when school laptops will be brought in to CalArts IT so that encryption can be turned on. The installation files have also been sent to several schools so they can deploy them onto the computers they manage.
The project team has entered into a contract with a cybersecurity partner that offers VCISO services, a managed security center, and an EDR solution called Cybereason. The team will be working with this new partner to replace Sophos on all CalArts IT managed devices with Cybereason.
IT Team: Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to devices such as servers when the main power fails. CalArts' current UPS solution was installed in 2011 and is currently two years passed its end-of-life date which means that support and replacement parts will not be available for much longer.
Project status: The project team has been engaging several vendors and electricians for quotes and to check on equipment availability due to world-wide supply chain issues. The project team will be ordering the hardware before Summer 2023 and the work is planned for Summer 2023 in order to minimize the impact of switching to new UPS units.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Summer 2023
Project description: CalArts IT is in the process of implementing several device management tools to help manage computers for initial Operating System (OS) setup, software installation, security encryption, and security updates. These tools will allow the Customer Care team to more easily set up and maintain hundreds of computers with minimal downtime to faculty, staff, and students.
Project status: Autopilot and Intune for PC are configured and ready for the project team to start enrolling computers. The Customer Engagement team has been enrolling new computers into Autopilot and Intune as they are deployed, but older computers will be enrolled in Spring 2023.
Jamf is configured and currently in use, but the team has found better options for Mac management and has replaced Jamf with Kandji which comes with better support services. Kandji is currently installed and the project team has deployed the Kandji client to all computers via Jamf. Next, the project team will need to migrate existing computers over to Kandji.
IT Team: Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: In Spring 2023
Project description: CalArts stakeholders have identified business process needs that would benefit from a document management solution such as Perceptive Content or Softdocs which provide secure access to documents and can deploy workflows for processing documents according to CalArts business processes. CalArts IT will be working with Financial Aid, Student Employment, Enrollment Management, and HR to leverage the capabilities of such a document management solution and create a repository and workflow environment best suited for CalArts' processes.
Project status: The project team is researching various solutions and their benefits and costs before making a software recommendation and proceeding with implementation.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Envisio is a strategy execution software that will allow CalArts' Institutional Effectiveness team to centralize and track all strategic and operational plans. The Enterprise Applications team will be working with the vendor to configure Single Sign-On for the Envisio application so that all users can sign in securely through the same SSO solution we use for most other applications.
Project status: The team has contacted the vendor's technical team, reviewed the documentation provided, and has successfully configured SSO in the staging environment.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: CalArts would like to improve the student experience by displaying scholarship/federal aid awards for accepted students in Slate. In order to provide this information in Slate, the data needs to be brought in from Colleague.
Project status: The project team is researching the requirements and any concerns about moving the data between the two systems.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Pathify, the product powering the HUB, provides a centralized user experience for all information, systems, and communications. Communications, in collaboration with IT, hopes to improve the way information and resources are presented to students, faculty, and staff on the HUB through the judicious use of Pathify widgets and re-organization of content. IT will also move the HUB behind CalArts' Single Sign-On solution, QuickLaunch, and connect Pathify to Colleague through Ethos for automatic data exchange.
Project status: The Enterprise Applications team has worked with the Pathify development team to establish and test the Ethos connection between Pathify and Colleague on the Pathify test server. The Marketing team is working on reviewing and establishing the organization of content, while Enterprise Applications is working with stakeholders and the vendor on the configuration of widgets and Single Sign-On with QuickLaunch. The project team is focusing on delivering three widgets integrated within the HUB landing page in Spring 2023 and planning to configure Pathify for Single Sign-On with QuickLaunch in March 2023.
IT Teams: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: CalArts is currently using four apps from the Symplicity product line: Accommodate, Advocate, Compass, and Residence. While currently flat file data extracts are being used to provide the data needed by these apps, CalArts IT is researching better ways to integrate Symplicity products with Colleague and better automate the data exchanged between them.
Project status: The project team is currently reviewing the technical requirements and details for the integration.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Spring 2024
Project description: CalArts IT manages approximately 700 staff and lab computers across several device management tools such as Autopilot, Intune, Jampf and performs computer refreshes on a 4 year schedule. An inventory management tool would greatly assist the work of the Customer Engagement team by providing reports for inventory and computer refresh purposes and by providing quick access to all information related to a computer when troubleshooting and assisting users.
Project status: The project team has identified Sassafras AllSight as a good fit with CalArts IT's current device management tools and Active Directory. CalArts IT will be making use of the many features of AllSight such as the Active Directory integration, the AllSight computer client, printer tracking, and purchase order tracking. The project team has created and configured a new server for AllSight and has started to work with the vendor to create necessary accounts, build a map, and import devices from Active Directory. The Customer Engagement team will run a full inventory in Spring 2023 to clean up the inventory that was imported from Active Directory.
IT Team: Customer Engagement, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Summer 2023
Project description: Computers need to be refreshed every few years as they become too slow and outdated to be able to expediently run the latest software and operating systems. CalArts IT maintains a schedule and runs computer refreshes on that schedule. A computer refresh entails replacing the old computers with new computers and installing the latest secure versions of the operating system and software applications.
As part of the CalArts IT computer refresh, CalArts IT will be updating the Library Lab and the Critical Studies Lab with brand new computers and updated software.
Project status: The project team has purchased, received, inventoried, and configured the new computers. Several computers have been successfully deployed to the Library area.
IT Team: Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: Extended Studies uses Modern Campus Destiny One as its Student Management System. Destiny Connect uses Ethos to connect Destiny One and Colleague so student and course data can be exchanged between the two systems. This improvement will lead to automation of certain student data entry tasks as well as the ability to have Extended Studies student and course information synced with Canvas via ILP (Intelligent Learning Platform). It will also feed information into Colleague for general ledger updates. Destiny Connect will create a seamless integration between multiple systems.
Project status: Stakeholders have evaluated CalArts data needs and collected specific requirements from various applications and services that require Extended Studies student data. The project team is working with Modern Campus to understand Destiny One data, focusing on if and where certain data resides that is necessary for CalArts apps. The project team has engaged the Registrar's Office to discuss the Colleague side of the connector. Once all use cases have been evaluated, Modern Campus will make the appropriate modifications in the Destiny One test environment so the project team can review and test the connector before going live by October 2023 for the Spring 2024 term.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: October 2023
Project description: CalArts IT is reviewing alternative monitoring systems in order to get better features and lower cost compared to the current monitoring system that provides various server alerts and status updates.
Project status: The project team has identified a potential product and is currently working on obtaining quotes. Once a quote is approved and the contract is signed, the project team will be working to deploy and configure the application.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Summer 2023
Project description: Just like computers have a refresh cycle, network equipment also has to be refreshed every few years. This year's network refresh will be upgrading every network equipment on campus such as firewall, core network equipment, routers, and cabling. CalArts IT will also take this opportunity to introduce better cabling management for the network equipment.
Project status: The project team finalized a network layout plan, performed extra physical checks against current equipment and will be ordering the necessary equipment. A new firewall has been delivered, configured, and has replaced the old firewall in June 2022. Due to equipment availability issues, the bulk of the network refresh project has been delayed to Summer 2023 and equipment will be ordered in Spring 2023.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: September 2023
Project description: In order to respond to the changes in the Google policy for storage, CalArts IT is working on finding a network storage solution to alleviate the demand on Google Drive storage.
Project status: The project team has chosen 45Drives as the best hardware solution for CalArts and the equipment has been ordered and received. The project team has installed the equipment in the server rack, but has encountered issues with network connectivity. The project team identified a workaround, but is waiting for new network equipment to arrive in order to get the 45Drives hardware connected to the internet. Once the network connectivity issue is resolved, the project team will be scheduling time with an engineer to assist with configuration. Once the hardware is configured, the project team will run testing and install a software solution to enable web access to the storage from any computer.
The project team is currently reviewing quotes and performing tests for both a software solution and a backup solution.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: CalArts IT uses a Nutanix appliance as a virtualization software solution and is currently running VMWare software in order to create and manage Virtual Machines (VMs). CalArts IT will be upgrading to the newest Nutanix hardware and also switching from VMWare to Nutanix software which is included in the pricing package for the hardware solution. This change will require some staff training on Nutanix software, but will result in cost saving due to no longer needing to pay for VMWare software.
Project status: The project team has ordered and received the Nutanix hardware and is awaiting network equipment in order to integrate the Nutanix hardware into our existing network infrastructure. The project team is also hoping to switch over backup processes to the upcoming network storage solution at the same time.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Provisioning is the process of generating account information (username, password) and providing access to services such as Gmail and Single Sign-On. CalArts IT's current provisioning process uses Hub Helper which isn't sustainable. CalArts IT will be setting up a new provisioning process using QuickLaunch, the system hosting our Single Sign-On solution, which will provide a more robust system and expanded capabilities.
Project status: The project team has delivered the most recent pre-requisites and testing requirements including establishing a VPN tunnel. The project team is researching and reviewing options for how QuickLaunch could write back information to Colleague such as inputting email address information once they have been generated/created. CalArts IT is also researching improvements and solutions for issues with the current provisioning tool in HUB Helper in case QuickLaunch is not able to update Colleague as needed during the provisioning process.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Spring 2024 or Fall 2024 student onboarding
Project description: In order to respond to increased demand, CalArts IT will be working on improving internet speed at REDCAT.
Project status: The project team has been working with the Internet Service Provider (ISP) on a contract and, once it is signed, will be working with the ISP to increase the internet speed at REDCAT.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: As part of the financial literacy initiative, Financial Aid is bringing in a scholarship platform that helps students with being connected to scholarship opportunities both at the institute and outside, namely ScholarshipUniverse.
Project status: The vendor has met with IT to discuss technical requirements of deploying ScholarshipUniverse at CalArts and the project team has met for the initial kick-off. CalArts IT will be involved in setting up Single Sign-On (SSO) for ScholarshipUniverse, creating servers for the CL Connect integration utility, configuring certificates and firewall rules for the CL Connect servers, and assisting with ScholarshipUniverse integrations which automate data flows. CalArts IT has created and configured a sandbox environment for the CL Connect utility and has configured SSO for the sandbox environment.
The vendor will be assisting Financial Aid through an entire scholarship lifecycle by providing training sessions focused on scholarship processes such as reviewing, awarding, and rollover.
Project next steps: Replicate sandbox configuration on production for SSO and CL Connect.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure
Estimated completion date: Implementation - 90 days; Project - 1 year (scholarship entire cycle)
Project description: In order to ensure better uptime for services on campus CalArts IT has been exploring installing a secondary internet connection that would be used in case of internet outage on campus.
Project status: The project team worked with Palo Alto to test failover and has been running further failover tests with a 3rd possible connection over 5G.
IT Teams: Infrastructure Operations
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: CalArts IT maintains several servers hosting various environments for Colleague and other services such as Business Objects and Synoptix that were running on Windows 2008. Windows 2008 is no longer supported by Microsoft nor receiving security updates and therefore CalArts IT has started to migrate services to new servers running a newer Operating System. This will enable CalArts IT to ensure that crucial services such as Colleague are running on secure servers that are continuously updated with the latest security patches.
Project status: Several servers have been completely migrated and the old servers have been shut down and/or deleted. The Colleague servers (application, database, departmental test environments), Business Objects servers and Synoptix servers are running on current software but the old servers require final checks to ensure everything has been migrated before they are decommissioned. The Transact (omni) server hosting the database will be migrated to a new Linux server in Summer 2023 before it can be decommissioned. The domain servers have been replaced with new servers and the domain has been upgraded to Windows 2016. A few servers will be decommissioned rather than upgraded once the applications they host are replaced with new ones.
IT Teams: Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications, Customer Care
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Perceptive Content enables access to documents and folders, as well as tasks and workflows, on mobile devices and web browsers. The content and process management product suite provides accessible and secure information through the entire content lifecycle, regardless of format. Perceptive Content Apps offer module platform capabilities that can be pieced together to create purpose-build work environments and tailored user experiences. The project team will be working to bring in documents submitted by applicants in Slate into Perceptive Content.
Project status: The project team has provided a sample export to the vendor and a pass was completed successfully. Vendor requested a new export and the project team had to troubleshoot some file issues. The export will occur at the end of add/drop each semester. Next, the project team will be working on pulling past data into Perceptive Content.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Spring 2023
Project description: Sunapsis is an international case management software with full SEVIS integration. This new software makes it easier to engage international students in maintaining legal immigration status.
Project status: Sunapsis has been implemented and the department of International Students & Programs has been using it. Since implementation, the project team has been making necessary updates, validating data, and fixing data feed and alert issues. Currently, the project team has engaged the assistance of outside expertise and the original contractor that configured the alerts in order to resolve the current issues.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: CalArts IT is involved with many renovation and new buildings projects working alongside vendors and other departments to deliver network connectivity, Zoom Rooms, and other technology.
Project status: This is a list of currently ongoing renovations or new buildings projects that CalArts IT is assisting with:
- Lodge Rebuild (new building): network connectivity, wiring, access point, phone
- Cattern House Pasadena: internet contract with ISP, network equipment
-
Vista Village:
- Completed: network closet
- In progress: uplink and antenna setup, wiring, network connectivity, secondary internet connection
-
A-block restoration:
- Completed: cable removal, equipment removal
- In progress: wiring, equipment installation, network connectivity
-
Xbox:
- Completed: cable removal, wiring, HDMI cable connection, TV installation (temporary setup)
- In progress: Zoom Room
- HVAC Control System: wiring, control cables
- B318: networking
- G201/202: sound system replacement
- 1st Street Building: door access control, networking for card access
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations, Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: Ongoing
Project description: As part of our yearly security audit, CalArts IT will be performing a user access review for key apps such as Colleague. User access reviews are periodic audits of existing access rights meant to remove unnecessary or outdated permissions, which are a risk to both cybersecurity and compliance.
Project status: The project team has produced an access list detailing users and their access levels and has forwarded this information for verification to department heads.
IT Team: Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: June 2023
Project description: Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a software solution that allows users to access resources and services securely and can be used to allow users access to on-campus only resources from home while maintaining the security of those resources. CalArts' current VPN solution is end-of-life as of 2020 and CalArts IT has been researching a better and more modern way of providing the same services instead of purchasing a similar VPN solution.
Project status: The project team has reviewed Parallels Remote Access Service as a solution for certain VPN services and tested a proof of concept build. As a result, CalArts IT has purchased, installed, and configured Parallels for remote server and application access. The project team created and set up a Remote Desktop server in order to facilitate remote server access. Various CAIT teams are testing remote server and application access through Parallels. The project team has put Parallels behind a Web Application Firewall (WAF) and further testing and configuration is underway to ensure all remote servers and applications are still accessible. The Enterprise Applications team has started working on Single Sign-On configuration for Parallels.
Once all access requirements for CAIT day to day operations have been configured and successfully tested, the project team will reach out to departments to configure and test server, application, and web application access for the day to day needs of each department. Once all departments are able to connect successfully to the resources they need via Parallels or the web application firewall, then the current VPN solution will be decommissioned.
IT Team: Infrastructure Operations, Enterprise Applications
Estimated completion date: Unknown
Project description: Facilities will be moving their work order system to Zendesk which will require an update to the current CalArts IT Zendesk environment.
Project status: Zendesk technicians will update the current Zendesk environment and provide an orientation to Facilities staff. CAIT staff will assist Facilities staff in learning how to configure and use the system.
IT Team: Customer Engagement
Estimated completion date: Unknown
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