IT NEXT
Learn more about the technology innovation and changes occurring at the University of Cincinnati.
View a calendar and list of service changes using the Change Management webapp (requires UC login).
Need help? Please submit a ticket or call the IT@UC Service Desk at (513) 556-HELP (4357).
Bearcats Landing Welcomes Faculty/Staff Canopy Users
Faculty and Staff can now access Canopy tools using UC’s Bearcats Landing Intranet at my.uc.edu.
UC’s current Canopy portal for faculty and staff will be sunset along with Blackboard on Tuesday, June 30.
As part of this transition, faculty and staff can now access all Canopy tools--including Canvas, UC’s Learning Management System--by using Bearcats Landing.
It’s quick and easy. Simply type my.uc.edu into your web browser. Look under the “Academic Resources” and “Tools” menus at the top of the page.
For additional details, check out the Canopy article further down on the home page. Bearcats Landing also houses university resources, news, events, workshops and more.
Faculty and staff can still visit canopy.uc.edu, but will be redirected to UC’s Bearcats Landing intranet at my.uc.edu.
A new, more “app like” portal has been created for UC students to access Canopy tools using the Modo Labs platform, which hosts the UC Mobile app.
This will provide students greater connectivity with the university’s Bearcats Promise initiatives.
Two-Factor Authentication for VPN starts June 16
AnyConnect, UC’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) will get an additional layer of security when IT@UC Technicians enable Duo Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) during a scheduled maintenance window on Tuesday, June 16.
No interruptions to service are planned or expected as part of this necessary maintenance window.
Beginning June 16, you will receive an automated request from Duo to approve or deny system access each time you login to the VPN.
AnyConnect, UC’s Virtual Private Network (VPN), creates a “tunnel” between your computer and the campus network that identifies you as a member of the University of Cincinnati community when you are not connected directly to the campus network, allowing you access to restricted networked resources.
The following systems require VPN for remote use: cPanel webhosting service, Office of Research HPC Cluster, remote desktops, shared personal and departmental network drives, and UCFlex.
Duo helps protect your UC password from would-be hackers through a process called “‘two-factor' or 'multi-factor' authentication." Basically, Duo double-checks that the person trying to use your password is really you.
Many other university systems (e.g. Adobe Experience Manager, Microsoft Office 365, UC Flex) already require two-factor authentication with Duo to login.
View more information about Duo on the IT@UC Office of Information Security’s website.
Need help? Submit a ticket or contact the IT@UC Service Desk at 513-556-4357 (HELP).
Network & Telephone Refresh Project
Telephone system replacements are currently underway during the third phase of the project.
The IT NEXT: Network & Telephone Refresh Project will provide the university a smarter, faster, and more secure network that meets the ever-increasing demands for reliable and robust connectivity.
Phase 3, the Telephone System Replacement, is currently underway. View the schedule page for more information on building refresh schedules and what to expect during the telephone refresh process.
About the Project
The multi-year project will refresh critical components of the university’s IT infrastructure in four phases.
- Phase 1 Wired IT Network Replacement: 1,094 new network switches in 114 buildings (to date) across the university.
- Phase 2 Wireless IT Network Replacement: 4,154 new wireless access points (to date) throughout the university.
- Phase 3 Telephone System Replacement: Phase 3 upgrades the university’s phone system to an Internet-based Voice-over-IP phone system for increased stability, ease-of-maintenance and scalability. This step includes upgrades to all desk and phone lines.
- Electrical Upgrades: The Office of the University Architect and P+D+C will assess and complete any necessary renovations and electrical upgrades in network equipment rooms to accommodate the new equipment as part of the overall project.
New IT@UC Service Portal is here
New look, better experience for IT help site (uc.edu/ithelp)
Phase 1 of the ServiceNow implementation project goes live Wednesday, May 27, when ServiceNow officially replaces TeamDynamix as the system IT@UC uses to manage and track requests for IT services and IT help.
The new IT@UC ServiceNow portal (uc.edu/ithelp) will help students, faculty, and staff get the IT services and help they need when they need it—fast, simple, easy.
What you can expect
Students, faculty, and staff will continue to go to uc.edu/ithelp to submit a ticket for IT help.
The IT@UC ServiceNow portal will also include:
- A simplified catalog of IT@UC services.
- The IT@UC Knowledge Base, which offers 24/7 access to hundreds of how-to guides, FAQs, and more.
Please continue to order IT services (e.g. phones, network jacks, etc.) through GetIT.
IT@UC plans to integrate GetIT into ServiceNow later this calendar year during Phase 3 of the ServiceNow Project.
The ServiceNow transition may affect links from other systems
We’ve taken the following steps to minimize the impact of broken links caused by the switch to ServiceNow on May 27.
- uc.edu/ithelp will redirect to the new IT@UC Service Portal.
- Existing links to help articles in the “old” IT@UC KB (kb.uc.edu) will redirect to the search page of “new” IT@UC KB in ServiceNow.
We’re also working closely with the business owners of AEM, Bearcats Landing, Canvas, and GetIT to collect direct links to “old” kb.uc.edu articles and match them to their counterpart in the “new” ServiceNow KB.
- Please submit a ticket to get help with any broken links you encounter.
Questions?
Please submit a ticket or call the IT@UC Service Desk at 513-556-4357 (HELP).
Blackboard & Canvas
The University of Cincinnati will end its contract with Blackboard on June 30, 2020. Faculty members will not have access to Blackboard after that date.
View more information about the transition to Canvas.
VPN Software Upgrade on August 10
IT@UC’s Network Operations Center will update AnyConnect, UC’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) Monday, August 10.
No interruptions to VPN service are planned or expected as part of this necessary software upgrade.
The VPN will not support MacOS 10.12.
SCCM packages are available now so you can deploy the new version of the AnyConnect client to managed machines. Please email Thomas Anderson for more information.
Prepare for applications and systems reaching End of Service
Several popular operating systems or applications will reach End of Service (EOS) this year:
- Exchange Server 2010 (10/13/20)
- Office 2010 (10/13/20)
- RHEL 5 Server (11/30/20)
University policy requires that information systems be maintained to protect against vulnerabilities. Systems that reach End of Service (EOS) will not receive security or non-security updates from the vendor, typically resulting in catastrophic vulnerabilities within a short period of time.
Please start appropriate planning to upgrade or decommission systems prior to these dates.
- Please contact the UC Office of Information Security with any questions or concerns.
- View a complete list of Applications and Operating Systems Reaching End of Service in 2020.
In IT Together
We are working around-the-clock to ensure you have the best possible remote teaching, learning, and working experience throughout the evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) response.
Keeping IT Together
We continue to support the technology needs of students, faculty, and staff during this period of remote operations at the university.
IT@UC added WebEx Teaching and Learning Remotely FAQs to support you and your colleagues.
The use of unsupported technology tools, such as Zoom, presents additional and unnecessary financial, legal, privacy, and security risks to the university during this unprecedented public health emergency.
Technology experts from across the university continue to contribute links to information and helpful guidance about a variety of available tools including Teams (Microsoft) and WebEx (Cisco).
We provide a variety of resources to support you and your colleagues while you work or meet remotely.
Research related to COVID-19 will receive priority access to the high-performance computing resources established by the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) initiative within the Office of Research.
IT@UC Research Computing Services compiled a list of similar opportunities for COVID-19 researchers to fast-track their access to HPC resources across the country.
*HPC assets may be used for modeling and simulation coupled with machine and deep learning techniques to study a range of areas including:
- Examining underlying protein structure.
- Classifying the evolution of the virus.
- Understanding mutation.
- Uncovering important differences and similarities with the 2002-2003 SARS virus.
- Searching for potential vaccine and antiviral compounds.
- Simulating the spread of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of countermeasure options.
Remote access to the Office of Research HPC cluster requires a VPN connection.
Contact IT@UC Research Computing Services for more information.
- Email: Jane.Combs@uc.edu
- Call or text: 513-484-8162
*Per the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) Community Notice for Extraordinary Support for COVID-19 Research, March 16, 2020.
Globus helps researchers move and share data with collaborators.
Every institution engaged in COVID-19 research can access all Globus at no cost.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s COVID-19 HPC Consortium seeks to expedite applications for advanced computing research to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers interested in conducting this timely work are asked to submit research proposals to the COVID-19 Online Portal, which is managed by the NSF XSEDE’s XRAS team.
Research requests, especially those related to the COVID-19 effort, may apply for expedited startup allocations for Jetstream computing resources. Jetstream offers interactivity without batch processing.
Applications must include a three-to-four sentence research description and a vita.
The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) offers unique capabilities that the scientific community may leverage for the COVID-19 response and recovery. Faculty researchers from UC other Ohio higher education institutions are already engaged in these efforts.
Examples of the types of special support OSC can provide include:
- Priority, unbilled access to OSC computational and storage resources for COVID-19 research.
- Flexible billing terms and prices for clients anticipating negative economic impacts.
- Remote, virtual computing lab resources for classroom instructors and educators.
- Connections to domain experts in academia and industry.
- View more about available OSC support during COVID-19 crisis
Contact IT@UC Research Computing Services for more information.
- Email: Jane.Combs@uc.edu
- Call or text: 513-484-8162
The NSF Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence Pilot, Trusted CI, and the Science Gateways Community Institute are helping the science community tackle research to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Expert cyberinfrastructure consulting areas include:
- Data management and visualization
- Workflow management
- Use of cloud resources, high-performance clusters, or distributed resources
- Science gateway technology
- Cybersecurity
- Compliance
Priority will be given to active projects related to COVID-19; however, proposal-writing assistance is available to support new projects related to the pandemic.
- Email: covid19@trustedci.org
- View information about Zooniverse
- View information about XSEDE
While in-person workshops are suspended, there are still many HPC training resources available remotely.
- The XSEDETraining YouTube Channel includes workshops on HPC resources such as Hadoop, Spark, OpenMP, and GPU programming with OpenACC.
- XSEDE & Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Workshops: Upcoming events include the Remote XSEDE & Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Big Data Workshop, Tuesday, April 7, and Wednesday, April 8, which will focus on resources such as Hadoop and Spark.
- University of Cincinnati Data & Computational Science Series (DCSS): Take advantage of your time at home and learn about a new computational tool to support your research. Select a topic from the following list to watch recorded Data & Computational Science Series presentations and workshops.
- Introduction to Science Gateways
- Hands-on Workshop on Science Gateways
- Introduction to Shiny Applications
- Hands-on Workshop on Shiny Applications
- Introduction to Supercomputing at OSC
- Jetstream Overview - A National Research and Education Cloud
- Jetstream Atmosphere: Hands-on Workshop
- Jetstream Gateway API - using the Jetstream API
- Introduction to Screen Scraping using R
- XSEDETraining you tube channel
- Lisa Federer: If You Share It, Will They Come? Quantifying and Characterizing Reuse of Biomedical Research Data - PPT
- Video Recording: If you Share It, Will They Come? Quantifying and Characterizing Reuse of Biomedical Research Data
- Lisa Federer Workshop: Endless Forms Most Beautiful: Creating Customized Data Visualizations with ggplot2 – PPT
Questions? Contact Amy.Latessa@uc.edu
- Temporarily shifted our classroom support teams to the IT@UC Service Desk to reduce wait-times.
- Partnered with CET&L to enhance the remote teaching and learning experience with tools such as Honorlock for proctored testing and Microsoft Teams for all spring semester classes.
- Expanded remote access to computer lab software with MyDesk.uc.edu.
We have also compiled a resource page of technology and remote access resources for students.
Getting IT Together
Thank you for working with us to quickly prepare for the transition to remote operations. We couldn't have done IT without you.
Several university offices, including the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning, Public Safety, Central Purchasing and IT@UC, partnered to support the timely distribution of laptops, Chromebooks, and iPads to students, faculty, and staff.
IT@UC technicians in the Network Operations Center (NOC) capitalized on the university’s investments in IT business continuity to support the transition to remote operations.
As always, IT@UC is here to help you.
The IT@UC Knowledge Base provides 24/7 access to hundreds of articles, custom UC how-to guides, FAQs and more.
The IT@UC Service Desk continues to offer help from 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Monday-Friday; and 8 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. In addition, we offer around-the-clock assistance with Blackboard, Canvas, and other Canopy tools such as Kaltura, WebEx, Teams, Echo360, and more.
- Contact the IT@UC Service Desk.
- For general IT support: call (513) 556-HELP (4357) OR (866) 397-3382.
- For support with Blackboard, Canvas, and other Canopy tools: call (513) 556-HELP (4357) OR (866) 397-3382 and select option 3 in the menu. Or, start a chat using the "Start a Canopy Chat" button.
Office 365 Collaboration Tools
In partnership with IT managers across the university and the Staff Success Center, IT@UC released Office 365 to all UC staff and faculty. Office 365 includes the Office Professional Plus desktop applications that you already know and love, and takes them to the next level by fully integrating them with the Office 365 cloud platform.
What’s new in Office 365?
- 100 GB Outlook mailbox
- 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage
- Easy document collaboration and sharing from any Office application
- 5 installations of Office Professional Plus applications for your work or personal computers
- 5 installations of Office Mobile apps for iOS and Android mobile devices
- Microsoft Teams for informal, team-based collaboration – Instant Messaging, document sharing, co-authoring, video/audio calling and more, all in one place! (View the Interactive Demo.)
- Built-in Accessibility tools
- Workflow automation with Flow
- Digital storytelling with Sway
- And much, much more!
How do I get Office 365?
All of the new Office 365 tools will become available to you automatically and are accessible in any modern web browser.
- Log in via https://mail.uc.edu or https://portal.office.com to start collaborating
- Connect your Office 2016 desktop/mobile applications to your account for an even more connected, collaborative experience
How can I learn more about the new Office 365 tools and features?
- View the Office Training Center for an overview of what each application can do, and how it integrates with the rest of the Office 365 suite.
- View the Staff Success Center Website for details on additional educational opportunities–including instructor led classes, eLearning, and more.