Cambridge University Reporter


Report of the Information Technology Syndicate on the University Computing Service for 2005-06

The Information Technology Syndicate advises the Council and the General Board on all matters concerned with the use of IT within the University and, through members nominated by the Bursars' Committee and the Senior Tutors' Committee, it similarly advises the Colleges. Liaison is maintained with other major IT providers in the University through the Director of the Management Information Services Division (MISD), the Chairman of the Joint Telecommunications Management Committee (JTMC), and the Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET). The Syndicate has representatives from the staff of the University Computing Service and from the student body. In addition to its general role in advising the University, the Syndicate oversees the work of the University Computing Service. The Syndicate met six times during 2005-06.

The body of this Report consists of: an executive summary giving the main headlines of note within the Report, a section describing the main items of policy discussed by the Syndicate during 2005-06, a section detailing future projects and strategy for the Computing Service and highlighting some of its activities over the past year, and a short glossary listing some of the jargon and terminology used within the Report. This is followed by a statistical annexe giving details of the use made by the University of the main facilities and services provided by the Computing Service. A more detailed breakdown of these statistics is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/itsyndicate/annrep/stats05.06.pdf.

A. Executive Summary

  • Detailed work on the composition and remit of a single committee replacing the Information Technology Syndicate and the Information Strategy Group is ongoing.
  • Line management of the Telecommunications Office has undergone a transition from the Registrary to the Director of the Computing Service whilst due process is being followed for the agreed incorporation of the Telecommunications Office into the University Computing Service.
  • Two pilot telephone systems have been completed (supporting the UCS and a division of Engineering) as preparation work toward the replacement of the entire Telecommunications Office telephone system.
  • The University Computing Service bid for funding in the SRIF4/PC5 round includes requirement for upgrades of the common infrastructure, e.g. PWF workstations and e-mail, and significantly includes a request for funding of a new data centre building.
  • The new on-line directory service for the University (http://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/) has been a success with large numbers of users accessing the system every day. Approximately one and a half thousand users have configured their e-mail clients to directly use the directory data.
  • The Lapwing wireless network has been established, currently supporting four institutions in the University, with further significant roll-out expected, dependent on institutional demand.
  • The access to PWF resources via the web browser (i.e. file storage and printing) has proved very popular.
  • Use of the Raven authentication service has increased from a peak of 2,800 users per month at the end of the prior academical year to 16,400 users in 2005-06. This consistent, strategic approach has transformed the administration and provision of authentication facilities across the University.
  • B. General Syndicate matters

    IT strategy and governance

    The question of how Information Technology strategy and governance should be managed within the University continued to be a principle matter for discussion by the Syndicate throughout the year. Following an internal auditors' report that concluded that the governance structures for Information Strategy and Technology within the University should be revised and streamlined, a proposal to merge the Information Strategy Group (ISG) and the IT Syndicate (ITS) into a new committee structure had been considered. This was generally welcomed by both groups, though a number of details had still to be worked out. In the meantime, the ISG and ITS both agreed to exchange the minutes of their future meetings, to aid with liaison and co-operation.

    Planning Enquiry 2005

    The University Computing Service's financial plan for the 2005 Planning Enquiry was approved by the Syndicate. Once again, this allowed for a controlled reduction in the Service's financial reserves, but the original target steady-state of £375k for the reserves was revised to £500k by the Syndicate. This level is expected to be reached in 2008-09, so increased funding from the Chest was anticipated for 2009-10 to prevent further loss of reserves. As part of the DSpace project approved by the Planning and Resources Committee, two extra technical posts were also included in the five-year plan this time. The Service had also been encouraged to consider providing a post to support small institutions under the supervision of the Council, and consideration of how this might be operated was given by the Syndicate.

    SRIF 4 and Project Capital 5

    The Computing Service's plans for five project bids under the coming SRIF and Project Capital round were approved by the Syndicate. These would provide for a further £300k upgrade to the CUDN in 2009, a £100k upgrade to the University e-mail system (Hermes) in 2009, further upgrades to the PWF infrastructure (£200k) and workstations (£140k) between 2008 and 2010, and a £200k refurbishment of the Balfour 2 Macintosh teaching room during 2008. In addition, the Service is championing a bid to build a £7.5m Data Centre to provide vital off-site machine room space for backup and mirrored systems supporting essential central and Schools business systems. This would greatly improve the University's business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities for its essential services.

    University telephone system

    The Syndicate continued to get regular updates from the Director of the Computing Service on the project to replace the analogue telephone system with a Voice over IP (VoIP) data-network based replacement. As well as being the official project sponsor, the Director had now taken over direct management responsibilities for the Telecommunications Office, as delegated by the Registrary. As part of the overall scoping work for the project, the Computing Service had participated actively in a department-wide pilot to replace its own telephone system with VoIP equipment.

    Wireless

    The Syndicate approved the Service's proposals for the new wireless access service, Lapwing, and endorsed its new guidelines for the use of wireless within the University. The new Lapwing service will be charged for in a similar way to the regular network pricing structure, an initial installation fee followed by an annual rental/maintenance charge. The Syndicate agreed that the primary metric indicating the level of uptake and use of the service would be 'number of unique users per week', though it was also felt important that traffic volume data should also be collected. Lapwing's relationship to the new JANET Roaming Service was also recognized as crucial, allowing visiting scholars to gain wireless access to their own institutional facilities.

    Instant Messaging

    A proposal from the Computing Service to establish a University Instant Messaging Service, based on Jabber, was approved by the Syndicate, and work on the service has begun. The new facility, which will be available at chat.cam.ac.uk is planned to be brought into service in the coming academical year.

    Closure of Pelican and Central Unix Service

    The Syndicate considered proposals from the Computing Service for the closure of two of its major services, both of which had diminished in importance over the years and were now considered not cost effective to continue operating. It was agreed that the Pelican archive system would be turned off in early 2008, and that the Central Unix Service would be closed in September of the same year. It was stressed that extensive notification and migration advice should be given to the users of both systems.

    Domain names

    Over the year, the Syndicate gave its approval to a number of top level cam.ac.uk domain names including: ctc.cam.ac.uk for the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, talks.cam.ac.uk for a University-wide talks and seminars diary facility, and neuroscience.cam.ac.uk for a cross-school research initiative. The creation of names at the cam.ac.uk level is contentious because of their strategic importance from a public awareness point of view, versus their practical purpose in signifying institutional ownership and responsibility, an essential pre-requisite for maintaining the security of the University's systems on the internet. The Syndicate agreed that the creation of arbitrary non-institutional domains at this level should be carefully controlled and, where allowed, should only contain aliases to actual machines in the real hierarchical institutional tree.

    The Syndicate also allowed the Computing Service to manage external domain zones, where these were associated with collaborative ventures involving members of the University and were to the benefit of the University's activities. All proposals for such managed zones should be approved by the Syndicate itself.

    Membership

    During the year, Dr Penz was replaced by Dr Cross as the School of Arts and Humanities representative, Professor Bell was replaced by Professor Young as the General Board's representative, and Mr Du Quesnay replaced Mr Barton as the Bursars' Committee representative. Dr Findlay was reselected to represent the Senior Tutors' Committee, Dr Walker was reselected as the Joint Telecommunications Management Committee representative, and Dr Carpenter was reselected to represent the School of Clinical Medicine. Mr Milner, Director of MISD, acted as the Registrary's deputy, and Dr Norman, the Director of CARET, was chosen by the CARET Management Committee as its representative. At the end of the academical year, Mr Whittaker, the graduate student representative resigned his position on the Syndicate.

    C. University Computing Service matters

    This section summarizes the support provided by the University Computing Service (UCS) in 2005-06 and the significant actions taken during that academical year. In addition, at the beginning of this section, is a discussion of the strategic issues requiring the Service's attention and a review of its planned significant initiatives for 2006-07.

    Strategic issues

    The following strategic issues were reported in the 2004-05 UCS Annual Report as receiving attention from the UCS Senior Management Team, and a brief status update is given here. It is the Service's goal to set a foundation in these areas that will position it well for continued successful IT support across the University.

    Pay and grading for IT officers

    As of late August 2006 this process is largely complete, with the bulk of the assimilation into the single pay spine being achieved with reasonable continuity. The majority of IT staff members were each individually matched to a new grade, a process requiring significant effort. Future work in the UCS Institution Liaison Team will provide tools to improve the communication within this population.

    Common infrastructure across the University

    The use of Raven as a common authentication mechanism across the University has grown significantly, while the use of the data in the new Lookup LDAP directory is also becoming more widespread. For example, the new Lapwing wireless service uses both Raven for the user authentication, and Lookup to hold the lists of institutional administrators. The Service expects to continue development in this area. The pilot systems to replace the existing analogue telephone exchange are both using the Cambridge University Data Network for connectivity of the handsets.

    Federated support in the Departments and Colleges

    The Lookup University Directory and the Lapwing wireless network both assume the provision of some administrative control to administrators assigned within the institutions receiving the service. Continued effort will be applied in enabling this capability in other services.

    Retirement of senior staff

    Roger Stratford, Head of Institution Liaison in the UCS, retired in September 2005 and Richard Mee stepped up to fill that role. Further senior staff will be retiring within the next year and each of these individuals embodies a huge amount of knowledge and experience of not only the technology environment but also the University. In aggregate they represent a significant proportion of the experience within the Senior Management of IT in the University. The IT Syndicate agreed we should proceed with a proleptic appointment at a senior technical level to mitigate the risk of these retirements and as of August 2006 the interviews for this appointment have been completed and an offer made. This process may need to be repeated as the Service plans for further retirements.

    Services definition

    A programme is underway within the UCS to create a database of the services provided, access for which will be provided via an easy-to-use web-based application. The development process is providing useful side-effects, including the consideration of the most appropriate information that should be presented for every service. In 2005-06 the web-based presentation of information on each of the UCS services has been steadily enhanced but no progress has been made in the creation of a database-driven catalogue of services.

    Institutional Information Strategy

    The new University Directory is providing a definitive structure of the institutions that receive IT services from the UCS and in 2005-06 this 'reference data' has been used to derive institution-aligned analysis of the services provided by the UCS. In August 2006 an additional recruit into the Institution Liaison Division (using the post made vacant by Roger Stratford's retirement) has added strong systems development capability and it is expected that the provision of institution-aligned information will accelerate in 2006-07.

    Service support for CARET

    The regular liaison with CARET continued through 2005-06, in particular connected with the creation of a 'streaming media' service for the University. Consultation also continued on providing an effective support model for the Sakai platform, to be deployed in 2006-07.

    Significant developments for 2006-07

    The University directory

    The new LDAP and web-based 'Lookup' directory was successfully delivered in 2005-06, with contact information for 35,000 people and 250 institutions. Widespread use is being made of the web-based directory and of the data directly accessible within LDAP (e.g. CRSid's and e-mail addresses). In 2006-07 Lookup will be extended to allow the directory data to provide an additional level of granularity for the authorization of users to access web resources and a more capable computer interface will be provided for exploitation by systems developers in institutions outside the UCS.

    Wireless access

    As of August 2006, the limited installation of the new Lapwing wireless networking service has been successful. The major goals of stability and ease of use have been achieved, demonstrated both by the significant usage and the prevalence of 'repeat customers'. Lapwing access can now be offered as part of the Service's normal network provision, and institutions can choose to have wireless installed in addition to their normal network point of presence. The challenge for 2006-07 will be the widespread deployment of the service, and the development of incremental capabilities in particular the enhancement of local administrative capabilities such as the ability for an institution to manage its own list of permitted guest users.

    Telephone system replacement

    In 2005-06 three new-technology pilot telephone systems were installed with the particular aim of establishing experience within the University of the issues likely to affect the deployment of a large system replacing the existing analogue exchange. Management of the Telecommunications Office has now been transferred to the Director of the University Computing Service, and as of August 2006 the tendering process for consultancy support for the project management of the complete telephone system replacement is almost completed. In 2006-07 it is expected the procurement of the replacement system will be complete and much planning will have taken place for the deployment of the handsets across every institution within the University and its Colleges.

    Access to PWF resources from student and staff desktops

    In 2005-06 web-based access to the PWF resources (filespace and printing) was successfully implemented and has proved popular. The support for on-line credit card payment for printing resources is at an early stage and work will continue in this area in 2006-07.

    User authentication and authorization

    It is intended to deliver a Shibboleth service in 2006-07, allowing Cambridge staff and students to authenticate from systems within other participating institutions and vice-versa. The international Shibboleth program has a goal of supporting not only 'authentication' (who are you) but also 'authorization' (what are you permitted to do) with the latter unlikely to appear in 2006-07. The Service's existing implementations of Raven and Lookup have transformed the authentication and authorization facilities provided to the University and have positioned it well for Shibboleth, but this significant initiative will take careful planning.

    Highlights of 2005-06

    UCS VoIP pilot

    The UCS staff network has been upgraded to support 1 Gbps connections and, for the VoIP pilot telephone instruments, power-over-ethernet. New digital handsets for the VoIP pilot have been deployed throughout the Computing Service.

    Lapwing

    A CUDN wireless hotspot service, known as Lapwing, has been successfully piloted at the University Library and is to be rolled out on request to other institutions early in the academical year 2006-07.

    NetStorage

    A facility providing web browser access to the PWF user file-store was released at the start of the Michaelmas Term. This allows for file transfer and management facilities from Windows, Linux, and Macintosh platforms to the PWF user filestore using a web browser, and supports Microsoft's Web Folders (WebDAV). It is of particular benefit to those needing to access their PWF files from non-PWF locations, e.g. College rooms or via the internet. This service, using Novell's NetStorage product, was piloted in the Michaelmas Term and was offered as a full service in the Lent Term and has attracted significant usage throughout the year.

    Common Print Balance

    The Common Balance enables print credit that has been paid for at one PWF site to be used at other sites. This facility was piloted on the Service's PWF printers as well as the Computer Laboratory and History in the Michaelmas Term and offered as a full service in the Lent Term.

    iPrint

    Following site testing during the Michaelmas Term, the iPrint facility, which provides access to PWF printers from non-PWF computers such as those in students' rooms (currently only for Windows XP), was announced as a pilot service to users at the start of the Lent Term. Initially covering the PWF printers at eight Managed Cluster institutions and in the Computing Service, the iPrint service has subsequently been expanded in scope. A full service to PWF printers at all sites is anticipated for August 2006.

    eCredit

    During the year, development work has taken place to support web-based payment by bank card for print credit for PWF printers within the common balance scheme. Computing Service staff have worked with MISD and Finance Division staff as part of their 'eSales' project, utilizing the MISD eSales hub. Following successful formalized 'User Acceptance Testing', the PWF eCredit Windows application is expected to be released for initial service in August 2006.

    Network and computer security - CERT

    During the year, the Cambridge Computer Emergency Response Team (CamCERT) recorded a total of 159,239 computer-security related events in the Cambridge internet domain: 158,791 hostile probes into the cam domain (more than 400 per day), 444 compromised machines in the cam domain, and handled thirteen complaints of copyright infringement. These figures are all significantly lower than last year and the drop in the number of probes seen is likely to be because infected machines on the internet have been updated or replaced. Many of the probes seen in previous years were probing for trojans. The number of compromised machines is also lower than the previous year: both the scale of individual incidents and the number of incidents has been smaller.

    Most of the copyright complaints that occur are because of people in Cambridge misusing electronic resources and usually because they have not read the terms and conditions of use. In previous years, copyright complaints have been related to music and film downloads.

    The vast majority of compromised machines this year were running Windows software. A small number of successful attacks on Unix-based systems (including Macintoshes) were seen, almost always via weak or compromised passwords or SSH vulnerabilities.

    Raven

    The University-wide web authentication system, 'Raven', continues to grow in importance and has been selected by the CamSIS and CHRIS projects to provide student and staff with authenticated access to their data. It is now providing the authentication for: CamSIS, CHRIS, CamCORS, the University Library's e-journals proxy, Lapwing, some College financial systems, and very many University websites. Raven is supporting as many authentication requests a day now as it did in a whole week a year ago.

    Jackdaw

    The Service's user account database, 'Jackdaw', has been adapted to interface with the CamSIS system and will soon be adapted again to work with CHRIS. It has also been extended to provide a facility for staff to be pre-registered so that their accounts are waiting for them on arrival in Cambridge. This system is currently in pilot and will really come into its own when the CHRIS system is capable of supplying useful information on forthcoming University staff.

    Managed internet services

    The Managed Web Service, brought into service three years ago, now supports over 90 active websites. To address the shortcomings found over this period, the Managed Web Service is currently being completely re-written and the existing sites will be migrated to this new version when finished.

    A Managed Wiki Service is also now available as a pilot service, with full release pending the availability of staff time to properly integrate it into the Service's account management system and provide documentation. Even in its manually supported pilot stage it has been taken up by eighteen groups.

    The Service has also implemented a Managed Zone Service for maintaining DNS (Domain Naming Service) zones for non-cam.ac.uk domains. Use of this is restricted to academic projects which the University is a significant partner in and currently hosts eight DNS zones.

    University directory service

    The University's new directory service, 'Lookup', has had its first year in service and is being integrated into an increasing number of systems such as Hermes to provide easy access to user data. An increasing number of Raven-protected forms now have quantities of personal data pre-filled, easing the use of the system for all users.

    DSpace

    Over the course of the past year the number of items stored in the DSpace system has doubled, and is now by far the largest such repository in the world. The two technical support posts, system administrator and developer, are now formally within the Computing Service, and the vacant developer position is in the process of being filled.

    Public Workstation Facility and Managed Cluster Service

    The size and scale of the PWF Managed Cluster Service has again been about constant throughout the year and at the end of July there were clusters in 20 Colleges and fifteen Departments. History joined the MCS last summer, but Architecture and History of Art left in June and Divinity in July. In July, Homerton College and the Faculty of Education had committed to joining this summer. Stations installed last summer in the Disability Resource Centre are now run as a Computing Service cluster.

    In July 2006 the overall number of PWF stations of all types was about 1,620. Of these about 1,295 were PCs and 180 were Macs for users, and about 145 were print-queue monitors, administrative or support stations. The PWF Linux option, using SuSE Linux 9.3, was provided at eighteen institutions as well as the Computing Service, providing about 740 stations which dual booted Linux alongside Windows.

    Two sets of new servers were purchased during the year as part of the Service's continuing programme of PWF server replacement, consolidation, and development. Ongoing system software maintenance has improved system stability. Improvements to the PWF tape backup system, using a new tape auto-changer system, enabled the default personal user space limit to be doubled to 500MB in late July. A further increase is planned in the future.

    A number of improvements to the PWF Macintosh service were made over the past year. All PWF Macs now run Mac OS 10.4 (10.4.3 from August 2005 and 10.4.6 by July 2006). In June this year most of the Computing Service Macs, notably those in the Balfour Room and the OSB, were replaced with new Intel-based iMacs with 20**L375** displays. Infrastructure developments: a new Mac Xserve, better use of Netboot, and use of the Apple Workgroup Manager product, have led to further improvements in the imaging of Mac stations and their remote management.

    Special needs examinations

    For the second year running, in collaboration with the Board of Examinations, the PWF facilities of the Titan Rooms have been available for use by students sitting examinations where their special needs require the use of a computer. This year, for the first time, Macintosh computers were also made available to candidates, as well as the usual Windows systems.

    CamGRID

    As part of the CamGRID distributed computing environment, the Service has released PWF Condor, a facility to run jobs on the PWF PCs, with PWF Linux installed, whilst they are idle. At the cost of the electricity supply required to run them this has provided several hundred thousand extra CPU hours of computing power to various scientific computing projects throughout the University.

    eMail

    The e-mail systems have been updated and default quotas on Hermes increased to 250MB. A campaign has been running over the course of the whole year to persuade people to change their mail clients to use more secure communications to talk to Hermes and from next academical year they will have no choice. Work has been done over the course of the year to prepare the move of the e-mail lists system from a parochial system to a standard mailing list system, 'Mailman'. While it is not perfect, it will provide Cambridge with a modern mailing list system that can be moved forward. In the central mail switch, the anti-virus and spam labelling software have been maintained at current versions. Roughly 90% of all e-mail arriving at Cambridge is currently rejected as spam.

    Two large Departments, Engineering and Physics, have stopped running their own e-mail systems for their users and have moved over to using Service managed facilities over the course of the past year.

    Web search engine

    The University's search engines have recently been upgraded to the current version of the Ultraseek software and the opportunity has been taken to enable newly available features to make the search engine more 'Google-like', increasing its usability within the University.

    Web cache

    At the start of the year the University's web cache was enhanced with new hardware and current software too, improving the speed of access to commonly read pages and images. It also makes web browsing possible for systems such as Windows PCs which have to hide on private, 'Cambridge only' addresses because they cannot be connected directly to the internet.

    Managed Zone service

    The Managed Zone service was introduced early in 2006. It provides Domain Name Services for academic websites and mail domains that are located in the University but are known by non-cam.ac.uk names. These are usually national or international collaborations involving members of the University where the collaborative group's facilities are hosted in Cambridge. The Service is currently hosting nine such zones.

    Assistive technology

    This is becoming an increasingly popular service for users with disabilities and for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) sufferers. A new Assistive Technology Support Specialist position within the Computing Service provides assistive technology advice, training, and support to enable University staff and students with specific requirements, such as a disability or RSI, to make effective use of information technology. The post also provides IT support for the Disability Resource Centre (DRC).

    The Computing Service, in conjunction with the DRC, has expanded its assistive technology facilities over the past year for supporting users with special needs. The range of services offered includes voice input training, provision of specialist input devices for loan or trial, access to Braille embossing, and voice output options. These facilities are intended to provide RSI sufferers, users with specific learning difficulties (including dyslexia), and users with visual impairments with greater access to IT within the University. These facilities can be accessed via the new PWF room located at the DRC or from the Assistive Technology room in the Computing Service.

    The ERL service

    The Electronic Reference Library (ERL) service, run for nine years by the Computing Service on behalf of the University Library, was closed down towards the end of the academical year as this service has now been superseded by web access to the relevant databases.

    TechLinks

    The TechLink scheme, aimed at targeting support and assistance to IT support staff throughout the University and Colleges continues to be successful, particularly its popular seminar programme which features speakers from the Computing Service, IT industry, and TechLink members themselves. This year fifteen talks were presented including: 'Collaboration using wikis: the simplest online databases that could possibly work', 'PWF Condor: what it is, why you want it and how to use it', 'Scientific Computing and Apple's Intel Transition' by Eric Albert of Apple's Core Technology Group, 'IP Registration in the CUDN', and 'Windows Root Kits - What, How and Why'.

    IT training

    The total attendance for the 174 scheduled instructor-led courses this year was 2,855, and feedback forms indicated a satisfaction rate of 97% was achieved. However the large number of late cancellations and 'no-shows', which account for 11% of all bookings, is still a problem as these result in unfilled places on the day. As usual the demand for IT training was highest in the Michaelmas Term with more than a third of scheduled courses being oversubscribed. The most popular courses being Web authoring, Endnote, Photoshop, SPSS, and Unix.

    Four new CS courses were offered this year including: 'Talk Don't Type! Dictate to your PC with Dragon NaturallySpeaking' and 'GarageBand for Music and Podcasting'.

    In addition to the regular IT training courses, the programme of technical training was considerably expanded in the last year, with several system administration courses for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris, and a new series of PHP and MySQL courses. Most of these were oversubscribed and all were very well received. These courses are aimed primarily at IT support staff throughout the University and represent a significant saving both financially and of staff time. Three of these courses, Mac OS X Server Administration, Windows System Administration, and Windows Active Directory, were developed in house and were presented by CS staff. Two PHP courses, two on Linux System Administration, and one on Solaris System Administration were also arranged, using external trainers.

    The CS course 'Securing Access to Web Servers' was also particularly well attended by IT support staff. In view of the ongoing problems caused by insecure personal machines, a special campaign enlisting members of the TechLink scheme to help publicize the course 'Keeping your PC Safe and Secure' resulted in a fourfold increase in the number of bookings for this course.

    The training team continued to provide bespoke courses in addition to the advertised programme, including EndNote and HTML for the MML M.Phil. students, Excel for Land Economy, and a QuarkXpress course for Varsity. The team also delivers a regular programme of courses throughout the year for the Personnel Division's Staff Development Software Programme. This year 31 such courses were delivered to 319 members of staff.

    Planning has begun for next Michaelmas Term with several new courses being added to the list, most notably a series of courses targeted at 'Scientific programming'. The content of these courses has been developed in consultation with the computing staff of a number of science Departments.

    User administration and documentation

    At the beginning of May 2006, the Computing Service introduced a new registration scheme for staff and academic visitors. The scheme allows institutions to provide information about their incoming staff and academic visitors so that accounts can be set up in advance and passwords for the three core accounts (PWF, Hermes, and Raven) can be made ready for collection via a web form when the new person arrives in Cambridge. The password collection form is the same as that used by incoming students.

    This scheme has proved very popular and there has been a lot of positive feedback which the Service hopes to build on to make improvements to the scheme when time permits. For the time being, the scheme is serving both Departments and Colleges. It is expected that when CHRIS becomes available, staff will be registered using the CHRIS datafeed and the only use by Departments will be for academic visitors. For Colleges, this will be the main way of registering incoming staff and visitors.

    PC Support

    Security issues have again been a major component of the work of the PC Support team over the past year. The team are constantly having to adapt their skills as security incidents continue to provide new challenges. Much of the effort of the team then goes into making this knowledge widely available via the TechLink scheme and documentation.

    Having proved successful in previous years, once again a CD-ROM was produced to enable new students and others to secure a PC and install anti-virus software prior to connection to the University network. This year's version included various 'spyware' options from which users were encouraged to choose. A current version is maintained as an ISO CD image for download from the PC Support web pages.

    Recently the Computing Service's Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) server, which provides automated operating system, security, and applications updates for Microsoft systems, reached the milestone of 1,000 supported PCs within the University. However, there is still the opportunity for further take-up of this service.

    Another aspect of the PC Support team's work can be best described as 'fire fighting'. The team carried out emergency support work and consultancy in several departments, small and large, and a number of Colleges, often in situations where problems had occurred and the local IT support staff had either departed or had been overwhelmed by the extent of the incident.

    Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)

    Staff of the Service have been working on the development of the University's RAE data collection system, and a spreadsheet template, to support the IT requirements of RAE 2008. Much of the work of has been spent specifying, procuring, installing, and configuring servers, firewalls, and a tape back-up system for this project. The core database itself was designed by a team at HEFCE, and most of the work at Cambridge has been concerned with the overall security and reliability of the system as a whole and the interfaces to it.

    Institution Liaison

    This has been a year of transition for Institution Liaison. The retirement of Roger Stratford, a key member of the Service Senior Management Team and Head of the Institution Liaison Division since 1992, saw the Institution Liaison function change focus to Institution Strategy and become part of the Computing Service Directorate reporting to the Deputy Director. A campaign is in progress to develop a 'coverage model' for the Service and engage more of its staff in the liaison effort around the University. Work has also begun on an institutional strategy data system to make more Computing Service management information available internally on a per-institution basis.

    Hardware Support

    The work of the Hardware Support Group continues to be divided between contract, warranty, and one-off repairs, with the added value of being able to perform data recovery from hard disc where appropriate. The group currently performs warranty repairs for Dell workstations and Avantek PCs. Contract work is tailing off as extended warranty periods become more common, so the group are seeking to extend the range of manufacturers supported for warranty.

    There has been a dramatic increase of 28% in the number of Windows laptops handled this year (356 compared to 278 the previous year). This is in line with the industry observation that laptops are now outselling desktop machines.

    The unusually hot weather throughout July caused a number of problems. Power supplies failed in a range of desktop computers in two departments, and the group was able to replace the failed components quickly from its own spares holding. Hardware Support also replaced failing hard disc drives in a range of computers from one manufacturer; also presumed to be a result of the hot weather. Lightning similarly caused problems with communications interfaces on equipment in two institutions, but members of the group were able to return the equipment to full working order.

    Photography and Illustration Service

    The Photography and Illustration Service has had an excellent year with an increase in turnover and a reduction in overhead costs. The main contributing factor was the exceptional good result from Graduation Services sales at General Admissions.

    Once again the very successful 'Double Exposure' photographic exhibition series continued, highlighting creative photographic work produced by members of the University in collaboration with PandIS, in the latter's own exhibition space. This year's exhibitions were: Northern Skies - Southern Stars (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), and MIASU, work from the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit.

    Videoconferencing

    Bookings for the Videoconferencing Suite and equipment remained steady with 75 bookings (70 last year) and 102 hours (100 hours last year) to fifteen different countries including first-time connections to Sri Lanka, Japan, China, Israel, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. There was notable use of videoconferencing for interviewing prospective students or job applicants, or for local students being interviewed overseas, and at least one viva voce examination was conducted using the facilities.

    As predicted, ISDN use continues to fall as IP becomes the mainstay of worldwide videoconferencing. This year 80% of sessions were IP, compared with 70% last year. With falling ISDN custom and the availability of ISDN/IP bridging via the JANET bridge, the economic viability of ISDN6 rental will need to be weighed against the requirements for providing central ISDN access for the University.

    In spring the proprietary studio-based Tandberg equipment was supplemented by the provision of an AIM and .Mac videoconferencing service. In addition, a Tandberg 990MXP was acquired as the basis of a portable videoconferencing kit which is available for hire to Colleges and Departments wishing to accommodate local videoconferences with large audiences, as with conference venues for example.

    Granta Backbone Network

    GBN fibre circuits have been provided for the University Telephone Network to use in place of 2 Mbps circuits leased from BT and NTL to give a cheaper and more reliable service. Fibre-optic circuits and CUDN network connectivity has also been provided at West Cambridge for trial, digital, CCTV systems for Security.

    In the early hours of Saturday, 17 June, GBN cables serving the University Press and locations further south were maliciously severed. Most active services were restored by mid-day on Sunday, 18 June, and the remainder on the morning of Monday, 19 June. As a result, a full review of the physical security of the GBN infrastructure is taking place.

    Cambridge University Data Network

    The CUDN infrastructure has been upgraded to provide two-hour capacity UPS backup for the major CUDN nodes in anticipation for the future move of the University Telephone Network to using VoIP over the CUDN.

    Central Unix Service and Pelican

    The decision has been taken to close down the Central Unix Service in September 2008, as its current usage levels did not justify its continued existence. The majority of users will migrate to the PWF Linux remote access system which has the advantage of giving them direct access to the same home directory as they get on the PWF and the same password as they use there too.

    The Pelican archive facility is also being closed down at the beginning of 2008, for similar reasons. After the beginning of 2007, new material will not be permitted to be saved on Pelican, though existing material will be available until the system is turned off in 2008.

    Health and Safety

    The departmental Safety Committee, consisting of representatives from all the major sections of the Service and chaired by the Deputy Director, met four times during the year. The usual annual departmental safety inspections were completed in the Michaelmas Term. A full programme of staff training and risk assessments was completed during the year, and to help with the induction of new staff, a register of training needs for each role within the Service has been compiled. To assist with the testing and maintenance of equipment, a Tools and Equipment register for the Service has been compiled and a regular programme of maintenance drawn up.

    A more detailed Health and Safety report can be found on the web at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/hs/.

    Staff

    During the year, two long-serving members of the Service retired. In September 2005, Roger Stratford, the Head of Institution Liaison, retired after over 32 years of service. For many, Roger represented the 'face' of the Computing Service for Departments and Colleges throughout the University, and many will have benefited first hand from his calm patient advice, born of his long experience, broad expertise, and abundant good sense. Following his retirement, Richard Mee has taken over the role as head of Institution Strategy, and Paul Mazumdar has joined the team, as a new member of staff.

    In July 2006, Paul Callow, the Service's statistical software expert and co-ordinator of the highly successful TechLink scheme, retired early on grounds of ill health. Paul joined the Service in 1985 and has, over the years, helped many a budding researcher with the statistical design and analysis of their research projects.

    Various members of the Computing Service continue to contribute to the IT forum at national level.

    The deputy head of the Technical Support Division continued to contribute as a member of UCISA's (the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association) Advisory Services Working Group, and the Network Support Manager continued to act as secretary to UCISA's Networking Group.

    The Deputy Director continued to act as chairman of the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) Mirror Steering Group, which oversees operational policy for the JISC national software mirror site.

    D. Glossary

    The following section is a short glossary of some technical terms used in this Report.

    For additional guidance please see http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/jargon.html
    CARET Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies
    CamSIS Cambridge Student Information System. The central system holding key student data with connections to many satellite computer systems
    CERT Cambridge Emergency Response Team within the UCS that responds to the constant hacking attempts and virus attacks that afflict the network
    CUDN Cambridge University Data Network - the pervasive data network that connects all the Departments and Colleges together, and to the internet
    eScience The Cambridge eScience Centre has a remit from the DTI to promote grid computing research in East Anglia
    firewall Computer placed at the centre of a data network to prevent certain types of traffic. Would be used to implement port blocking (see below)
    GRID The use of networks of general-purpose computers (typically PC's) to provide parallel high-performance computing
    Hermes Central e-mail service
    ISO CD A standard format for computer disks (CD-ROMs) suitable for distributing virus protection updates (for example) to all students
    IT Information Technology
    JANET Joint Academic Network. High speed internet backbone in the UK provided by the government to which the University connects
    JTMC Joint Telecommunications Management Committee - oversees the Telecommunications Office which runs the voice infrastructure
    Lapwing The University-wide Raven authenticated wireless network service
    LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. The technology that underlies the new University Directory. Has the advantage of direct access by e-mail clients to complete e-mail addresses for staff
    Managed Cluster See PWF
    Managed Domains The support within the University Computing Service for website names such as http://talk.cam.ac.uk/, i.e. one-level below the University's .cam.ac.uk name
    MISD Management Information Services Division - provides IT support to the Unified Administrative Service
    Port Blocking Blocking within the central data network equipment of certain types of traffic, in an attempt to reduce the propagation capabilities of computer viruses and external hacking attempts
    PWF Personal Workstation Facility - PC's provided in clusters in general access areas within Departments and Colleges typically for undergraduate use
    Raven Strategic personal authentication system used to protect websites and web-delivered applications such as CamSIS within the University
    Spam Unsolicited bulk e-mail, or junk mail
    TB Abbreviation of Terabyte, a significant quantity of computer storage
    VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol - free voice calls established using internet-connected devices, e.g. a PC running Skype, or a new handset expected to replace the current central phone system
    Web Search Engine The Cambridge tool placed behind the 'search' button on the website for which the 'Infoseek' free-text search product is used, similar to Google
    Wiki A Wiki allows users to create and edit shared web pages using a web browser
    Wireless The ability to connect to the internet and the CUDN (see above) from a PC without physical cabling - using radio equipment instead
    XML A generic computer language used to annotate data, e.g. reference data for storage in a library repository
    J.-P. HANSEN Chairman P. K. FOX J. R. NORMAN
    D. J. BATES I. J. LEWIS B. K. OMOTANI
    T. A. CARPENTER M. R. JONES N. S. SMITH
    I. R. M. CROSS R. C. GLEN R. D. H. WALKER
    I. M. DU QUESNAY M. F. HEATH E. R. WALLACH
    A. L. R. FINDLAY J. K. MILNER S. J. YOUNG

    Statistical Annex (Abridged)

    The following tables give details of various activities of the University Computing Service for the year 1 August 2005 to 31 July 2006, with figures for the previous year in italics. Those tables which break down information on an institutional basis all follow a similar pattern:

    (a) Overall summary (University by Faculty group, Colleges, and external groups)
    (b) Cambridge University Faculty and similar groups (by Faculty or Department)
    (c) Colleges (by College)

    In this shortened version of the Statistical Annex all the (b) and (c) tables have been omitted.