Periodic update (2023 December)
News and other updates for late 2023. This is an update on the 2023 June summary.
The Network Programme – Kelvin updates in late 2024 (still) §
The Network Programme is still roughly on schedule. Phase 5 is due to be funded in Q3 of 2024. Though we remain optimistic that the Kelvin Building is high on the list for attention, there are no guarantees. This programme is when Eduroam will be upgraded in the building.
Managed laptops – Jamf/‘MyMac’ §
All Apple devices bought by the University, from about August, will be automatically enrolled in the ‘MyMac’ programme; you may also hear this referred to as ‘Jamf’. which is the technology being used (the corresponding Windows scheme is called ‘MyDevice’, and is still being trialled).
At heart, this is intended to verify that a work-provided Apple laptop or tablet does have full-disk encryption enabled, and a virus-scanning application installed and running. It also adds some bread-and-butter IT support features such as support for IT tech assistance, and a local ‘app store’ of supported and licensed software. It's intended to be low-profile.
Assessment Management Hub (AMH) §
The College is developing an ‘Assessment Management Hub’ to support the process of drafting exams, interacting with externals, and lodging the results with the Registry. This has been developed over the course of the last few months, and is being actively pushed to COSE schools, in the expectation that it will be taken up by other schools and colleges across campus.
College IT §
The transition to a College IT service is expected to be complete in
2024; IT support will now be be a college function, as opposed to
being school-specific. This process includes thoughts about ‘research
computing’ and ‘edtech’. Support will primarily be via Ivanti, rather
than the phas_it
address.
Other §
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Campus IT Security continue to be very vigilant.
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Ivanti (ie, the Helpdesk system) is the preferred route for requests (go to the campus helpdesk at https://www.gla.ac.uk/helpdesk and search for ‘COSE’). The phas-it@glasgow.ac.uk currently remains a licit route for conversations which are vague or require discussion.
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JupyterHub/brutha continues to entertain. We've rolled back some configuration changes which should avoid the erratically reocurring ‘can't save’ problem. JupyterHub may migrate to being a college service at some point in the next calendar year.
Links §
Any questions, phas-it@glasgow.ac.uk
is hanging on the telephone,
awaiting your call.
Norman