Jeremy Hobbs, the Chief Information and Facilities Officer at UCDSB, presented an overview of the IT department and its strategic goals. The IT department supports over 10,000 computers across 100 locations with only 17 staff members. Some of its key responsibilities include supporting the student information system, email servers, websites, and a large private wide area network. Looking ahead, the department aims to increase personalization, mobility, and cloud services while standardizing infrastructure and automating non-essential tasks to improve efficiency with limited resources. The presentation also addressed the department's web filtering strategy and plans to differentiate policies based on user identity and age.

1. Information technology overview February 24, 2011. Jeremy C. Hobbs Chief Information and Facilities Officer Email: jeremy.hobbs@ucdsb.on.ca Twitter: @jeremychobbs Tumblr: jeremychobbs.tumblr.com

2. Agenda Introduction IT Overview Web Filtering Questions and Comments

3. The ITS strategic context Improved Decision Quality Improved Technology Experience Improved Operational Efficiency New Learning Opportunities MISSION We connect people to knowledge VISION Any device, anytime, anywhere VALUE PROPOSITION Improved Communication and Collaboration

4. UCDSB IT Infrastructure Schools and Offices Internet Main Board Office

6. HelpZone staff support – 15,000 calls per year (4 staff)

7. Over 100 academic and admin applications

8. ~ 700 wireless access points

9. Largest private wide area network in Eastern Ontario

10. Operate central systems

11. Student information system

12. Peoplesoft (payroll and employee info for 5000 staff)

13. Email (500,000 incoming emails per day)

14. Internal Portal Staff Portal

15. Blackboard LMS

16. Student Email System

18. Large variance in user population

19. Requirement for device sharing

21. Automate tasks that do not ‘add value’

23. Inconsistent service levels between regions

24. Manual processes: file transfers between servers

25. Hundreds of PCs at times awaiting repair

27. Automated processes:

28. Account creation, email, portal, storage service provisioning

29. New Portal technology

30. Assistive tech on every machine

31. “100%” wifi coverage – open to students and teachers with personal devices – only district in ON.

34. Protection of Board against legal liability

35. Protection of scarce network bandwidth

37. UCDSB ~ 30,000 registered “users” in AD, approximately 10,000 Board owned computers at about 100 sites.

38. “Burst” internet use has gone from 30 Mbps to 100 Mbps in four years

39. Last week – more iPods on the network at TISS than computers.

41. Ability to differentiate based on identity was the plan, but limited by technology

42. In 2009, tested this ‘identity aware’ strategy by applying it to staff.

44. Some Wrinkles Since devices like iPad and iPod have no ability to authenticate to the network, we cannot identify the user and therefore have no way of applying any filtering policy other than the “guest” policy Guest policy is necessarily restrictive because anyone can get on the wireless network Addressing this issue will be part of ongoing IT strategy

46. Refreshed wireless network in 2011-2012

47. Another 3000 PCs rolled out in 2011-2012

48. Live @Edu including full Exchange, Office apps in the Cloud, SkyDrive and ActiveSync available to students by September

50. Managing Devices & People

51. Questions and comments? Jeremy C. Hobbs E: jeremy.hobbs@ucdsb.on.ca T: jeremychobbs