Alphabetical Order
Arlington Data Center (ARDC): The Arlington Data Center is one of four UT System data centers governed by the UT Shared Data Center (SDC) group on behalf of the UT System. It is sometimes called by its older name of the Arlington Regional Data Center. ARDC is managed by UT Shared Services, has on site operations staff, is located in Ft. Worth and is rated at ~tier 2-3 on the Uptime scale. ARDC provides optional co-location space for UT academic and health institutions; if space is available, other Texas higher education entities may be eligible to use the facility It is also the home of a Network Operations Center (NOC) and UTShare shared service applications and their staff.
Contracting: Many people contribute to providing easy to use and affordable contracts for UT in the IT area. Some of the major UT System-wide software contracts for site licensing include Microsoft 365 A5, Oracle’s database and PeopleSoft suites, and InCommon certificate programs; these are administered and negotiated by the System CIO’s office. The Strategic Alliance, www.utsystem.edu/hea/supplychainalliance, has an extensive purchasing list that includes some IT items such as printers/copiers. And outside of the UT System, the Department of Information Resources (DIR) provides product catalog as well as services such as IT staff augmentation and project deliverable contracts, www.dir.texas.gov. Nationally, Internet 2 is doing significant work with cloud contracts for higher education through its Net+ and InCommon initiatives, www.internet2.edu/netplus.
Digital Certificates: The University of Texas System is site licensed for InCommon Comodo digital certificates. These may be used to secure web server access (i.e., https) or for individual ids for faculty, staff and students. UT System also has DUO service that UT institutions may purchase that provides for two factor authentication. In addition, UT has Microsoft A5 licensing that provides two factor authentication.
For a brief description of describing what is a digital ID and what are digital certificates, please see http://www.utsystem.edu/offices/system-wide-information-services/digitalcerts
Houston Data Center (HDC): HDC, also known as the Guhn Rd facility or a UT MD Anderson data center, is one of four UT System data centers governed by the UT Shared Data Center (SDC) group on behalf of the UT System. HDC is managed by UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, is a lights out facility, is rated at ~ tier 2-3 on the Uptime scale and is located in Houston. HDC has a hall dedicated to optional co-location usage by UT entities.
Identity Management Initiative and Federation: Realizing the need for increased collaboration, technology integration, and security among U.T. institutions, in early 2004, the U.T. System Strategic Leadership Council made the decision to begin an Identity Management Initiative, which focused on standardizing identity management policies and practices across the 14 entities/institutions of the U.T. System and on developing a standards-based middleware infrastructure capable of meeting the objectives of the new initiative. The resulting governance framework and technology infrastructure was designed to enable identity information to flow in a trustworthy and reliable manner not only throughout the U.T. System, but also to any external trusted entity.
Additional information: https://idm.utsystem.edu/utfed/index.html
Information Security: The Chief Information Security Officer for the UT System is Helen Mohrmann. The CISO position is responsible for overseeing a comprehensive system-wide information security plan and program for protection of UT System information resources and privacy of confidential information. The CISO collaborates with all UT entities on matters related to information security and will provide
strategic direction and assistance to the institutions concerning the implementation of institutional security plans.
Additional Information: www.utsystem.edu/ciso
Legislative matters/regulatory: The Texas legislature meets in odd numbered years and the CIO’s office reviews/analyzes proposed legislation involving IT at institutions of Texas public higher education. We work with colleagues in System Administration, ITCHE (see IT Governance), and UT CIOs. After the legislative year, the CIO’s office works with colleagues on any resulting changes. We also review/analyze and work with colleagues on federal regulatory matters and other compliance issues.
Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN): University of Texas institutions are founding members of the Regional Optical Network in Texas for research and education.
Additional information: http://www.tx-learn.org
Networking (UT System Wide Area Networking): The Office of Telecommunication Services (OTS) provides reliable, efficient and cost-effective data, video and voice communications for all University of Texas institutions/entities. OTS partners with Texas A&M to provide the Texas Backbone (BB), manages the Texas higher e4ducation network (THEnet) and is an aggregator in the LEARN Texas wide research and education network. As part of UTRC 1.0. OTS deployed the 10 Gb research-usage network among all UT institutions plus two data centers (TACC, ARDC).
Office of Technology and Information Services (OTIS): OTIS is the internal IT service provider for UT System Administration departments. Its mission is to proactively provide customer focused information management and technology services and infrastructure.
Additional information: www.utsystem.edu/OTIS
Persistent Web Presence: In the event of a disaster at a UT institution, OTS can provide a surrogate or emergency simple web status page for the institution that answers to the institution’s primary web service.
Shared Data Center (SDC): The SDC mission is a shared services governance for the UT System's four data centers.
Shared Services: Shared Services under EVC Jonathon Pruitt leadership is about more than just centralizing redundant IT and business services; it is based upon shared governance that permits greater flexibility and responsiveness. It creates incentives for participation and is overseen not just by UT System personnel, but also by representatives of the participating campuses. The initiative is organized around three basic types of shared services: information technology (e.g., data center consolidation such as Shared Data Center), business systems (software applications such as UTShare, TexSIS, eCRT) and business processes. Some of the current activities include:
- Shared Data Center (SDC)
- TexSIS student information system
- UTShare HR/Finance ERP
- eCRT certification by researchers for grant time and effort reporting
SmartClassroom: A project of the SLC and Multi-media group, this project provides guidance on best practices in design and implementation of multi-media in classrooms and working with your facilities organization.
Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): TACC is a UT Austin data center and part of the SDC. It is home to UT Austin’s world class supercomputing facilities. TACC supports cutting-edge research in nearly every field of science. In addition, TACC is the provider of a key UTRC 1.0 project, the UT data repository (UTDR) -a 4 TB replicated store for research usage.
Additional information: www.tacc.utexas.edu
TexSIS: TexSIS provides the three pilot institutions (UT Arlington, UT Dallas and UT Tyler) with a shared governance student information system using PeopleSoft Campus Solutions 9.0. TexSIS is housed at ARDC and has been in full production since Fall 2009.
UT Data Repository (UTDR): The UTDR is a project of the UT Cyberinfrasructure (UTRC) initiative to provide storage for UT researchers across the UT System. UTDR is housed and managed at TACC with a replicated system at ARDC.
UT Research Cyberinfrastructure (UTRC). The UT Research Cyberinfrastructure (UTRC) initiative provides new capabilities that will advance current and future research efforts across all UT institutions. By providing a combination of advanced computational systems, a large data storage opportunity, and high bandwidth data access between the institutions, UTRC enables researchers within all 14 UT System institutions to collaborate with each other and compete at the forefront of science and discovery. UTRC incorporates integrated operations (central and distributed, connected at high bandwidth) and works with
researchers to develop applications, manage and analyze data, and integrate with the decentralized resources. The UTRC Project facilitates, stimulates, and supports leadership in computational science research across Texas and attracts more funding and the best faculty and graduate students to UT institutions.
UTShare: UTShare is a shared governance service HR/Finance ERP implementation underway for most of our academic institutions and UT System Administration. It is housed at ARDC, is a single instance multi-business-unit implementation using PeopleSoft 9.1 HCM and FMS suites. Planning and Budgeting will be Hyperion Planning/Budgeting Public Sector. Hundreds of participants across the System are engaged in these projects. Application staff (SSA) is located at ARDC as is the Project management office (PMO), the technical staff (OSS) and consulting partners. Participants include: UT Arlington, UT Brownsville, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, UT Permian Basin, UT’s new university in Rio Grande Valley, UT System Administration and UT Tyler.
University Data Center: University Data Center is one of four UT System data centers governed by the UT Shared Data Center (SDC) group on behalf of the UT System that provides optional co-location space for UT academic and health institutions. It is located at UT Austin.
