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SBS CCITC presentation. Juri Rappsilber Gareth Poxon. Stats. Computers >2000 250 PGR students, 1400 undergrads 650 FT staff IT support: IT service manager, general computing officer, Wellcome funded computing officer, E-learning officer, web/database developer . Procedures.
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SBS CCITC presentation Juri Rappsilber Gareth Poxon
Stats • Computers >2000 • 250 PGR students, 1400 undergrads • 650 FT staff • IT support: • IT service manager, • general computing officer, • Wellcome funded computing officer, • E-learning officer, • web/database developer
Procedures • First line support through IS helpline (in theory), now a lot of direct support (in practise 90%) Desktop support, student lab computing, Email, E-learning (Blackboard/WebCT) • Installation of new computers (1-2 per day), new printers, new hardware (servers) • Web services • Data storage for some institutes/centres (<20% of SBS)
Projects • SBS home page (80% complete), hosted by UoEPolopoly service • SBS intranet (complete), hosted by UoE Wiki service • School needs in databases and web forms (mostly light weight, 1-2 months development time) • Biannual Biosafety questionnaire (database and web page) • Seminar speaker sign up • Student sign up forms (e.g. honours projects, next year’s courses) • Bespoke research databases (mostly light weight, 1-2 months development time) • Generally no bespoke computing/storage projects (except for Wellcome Trust centre)
Central services used by SBS (essentially all) • Euclid • Email • E-diary • E-learning (WebCT/Blackboard) • Polopoly service • Wiki service • Supported desktops • Networking service • Finance system (Efinancials, Sciquest, Pecos) • Use ECDF (technical issues and cost are barriers)
Issues • We have no resources to develop local solutions, hence are very vulnerable to delays/errors/changes in central services. • Projects by central services do not necessarily match out needs (e.g. Polopoly, Euclid, Pure) • This means SBS IT needs to adapt locally (costs are relayed to SBS) • IS reorganisation two years ago made first line support very inefficient • ECDF technical issues and cost are barriers • Some duplication due to charges for central services (e.g. web hosting) • Research councils demand research data storage for 10 years (associated technical challenges and costs)
Are we getting value for money from central IT? Our ideal university IT structure: central IT does maintenance, schools lead developments (in coalitions) “Bundeslaendermodel”
Future of research computing • more data storage, • more archiving, • more computing, • more bioinformatics support but also biologists will increasingly be active in computing issues (“the new physics”), • more mobile devices (a lot personal but used for work)