IT IS News
Hosting of School IT systems
As part of a review of Server Hosting in the University and a need to ensure that risks to critical data and systems are managed, Management Board made a decision in January that the default option for all new and existing University IT systems and servers is for them to be hosted in University managed data centres.
A priority list of systems has been developed and work has been ongoing directly with Schools and Departments to centralise the systems where possible. To date 129 systems are being hosted within University data centres. This has helped in improvements in the resilience and data security and has contributed to reducing the amount of utility services, such as power and air conditioning needed to run these systems locally.
Supporting this decision IS has developed a range of services for hosting School and Departmental systems and further details can be found on the Hosting services page of the Information Services website.
In conjunction with this and to ensure resilience for all University systems and the most appropriate, cost effective hosting solution, all new server purchases have to be approved by IS. Please contact your local IT Support team for all new purchases and existing server hosting requirements.
Summer computer lab upgrades
If anyone in your School or Department is considering purchasing a large quantity of computers (PCs or Macs) this summer and have not already discussed it with their local IT Support team, please advise them to contact IT Support Team Leaders - Daniel Stapleton or Kevin Hopkins in the first instance. This is to allow them to give suppliers an indication of order sizes.
If suppliers receive large orders at late notice over the summer there may be some delays in fulfilling your order, for some product lines. This is because many other educational establishments also place their orders with these suppliers during this time.
Windows 7 to become the University’s operating system
Windows 7 will become the standard operating system supplied on all new PCs from 1 June 2011 and these will come with Office 2010 installed.
Should you order and receive a PC between now and June you may request (at the time of installation) to have this upgraded to Windows 7 by your local IT Support team.
Although there is no large scale migration planned of existing Windows XP user at this time, current Window XP users can register their interest for an upgrade to Windows 7 with Office 2010 through their local IT Support team and requests will be accommodated in line with other priorities.
Windows 7 compatibility issues
While most applications have been tested for compatibility with Windows 7 there are still some applications that have not been fully tested and also some core applications that do not provide full functionality when used on Windows 7.
Details of known Windows 7 compatibility issues can be found on the Windows 7 page of the Information Services website.
If you need to use an application which has compatibility issues, or you are unsure then please contact your local IT Support team for guidance.
Windows XP will be available and supported on request on new PCs only where compatibility issues are identified with Windows 7.
The University's new online store service
The University has a new online store which can be used to buy products or pay for a conference. The new store has been introduced to interface with the University’s new online debit and credit card payment provider.
The online store is also being used to pilot the Eurocall 2011 conference (European Association for Computer Language Learning) which is being managed by the School of Modern Languages. The store allows delegates to book conference places and accommodation for this conference.
There are also plans to use the online store to sell graduation hotline tickets and graduation broadcast tickets for this summer’s graduations.
Merchandise products with the store are being managed by the Development Office whose responsibility it is to update the product range as appropriate.
Further expansion of the online store is also planned for donations and short courses in the next few months.
IT Helpline
The helpline is staffed between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and between 10am and 4pm Saturdays excluding Bank Holidays and University closure days.