EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

During 2005-06, staff in the Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) broadened partnerships begun in previous years to plan for, create, and implement innovative IT solutions that further the institution's missions. Computation-intensive research programs are being advanced with the activation of U.Va.'s regional connection to the National LambdaRail. Teaching, learning, and scholarship are being enriched with integration of Sakai Project collaboration software. IT support for students and faculty is being streamlined and enhanced through partnerships between Library personnel and ITC staff. New education, technology, and policy initiatives are bolstering the University's defenses against network security vulnerabilities. Also during the year, ITC staff moved to protect students through the elimination of Social Security Numbers in the Instructional Toolkit, improved the performance of ISIS, and developed policies required by the state's higher education restructuring legislation. Below are highlights of these and other projects.

DEPARTMENTAL PRIORITIES AND PLANNING

Executive Succession
Following seven years of leading ITC, Vice President and CIO Robert Reynolds, M.D., returned to his roles in the School of Medicine as Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences and the William Hobson Professor in Information Sciences. Dr. Reynolds is devoting the majority of his efforts to the Department of Public Health Sciences, beginning as acting chair of that department on July 1, 2006. Succeeding Dr. Reynolds is James L. Hilton, previously associate provost for academic, information, and instructional technology affairs and a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.

Higher Education Restructuring Policies
As part of the requirements associated with the state's higher education restructuring legislation, ITC's director of security coordination and policy worked with colleagues from Virginia Tech and William & Mary on new policies related to information technology. New policies being adopted by each university define performance measures and industry-benchmarked practices related to IT security; project management; accessibility; and infrastructure, architecture, and operations.

Internal Communications Improvements
In fall 2005, ITC evaluated its internal communications and cross-divisional project processes. After reviewing suggestions from staff, ITC directors implemented several improvements, including sending project updates to the ITC-all e-mail list, requiring cross-divisional project and standing committee updates to directors every six months, and beginning a new series of meetings between managers and directors.

GROUNDS-WIDE PLANNING

IT Advisory Committees
During 2005-06, the University Committee on Information Technology continued work begun the previous year to formulate a "case statement" for resources needed to fund the University's unmet current and future IT needs. The product of this work will be merged with other information as the foundation for a capital campaign case statement for information technology. In 2005-06, the pan-University Deans Technology Council discussed mobile computing support, ISIS performance issues, higher education restructuring, classroom technology support, and the MyUVa portal, among other topics.

Framework for Supporting Digital Scholarship and Research
Staff from ITC and the Library have been collaborating since fall 2005 on a proposal for an institution-wide strategy to support digital scholarship. The draft report recommends enhancements to the University's technical infrastructure, technology and support services, and pertinent policies. During spring 2006, staff made presentations about the proposal to various groups and academic departments.

IT Security Risk Management Program
Implementation continued through the year on the University-wide IT Security Risk Management Program. Several dozen departments have completed the program, which includes ongoing security assessments and standardized continuity planning for critical business functions during restoration of any compromised services.

DIGITAL SECURITY AND PRIVACY

Network Registration
A Grounds-wide network registration program that began in spring 2005 was completed in June 2006. The system, which replaced the residence area registration system and the wireless network account system, increases the security of the U.Va. network by enabling ITC to contact and assist users experiencing problems and, if necessary, disconnect affected devices from the network until the issues are resolved.

Online Training for Employees
As part of its comprehensive security-education program, ITC developed a new online training module to build awareness of computer security and responsible use issues among employees. Implementation began in 2005, and as of June 2006 some 10,000 employees have been trained.

Educause Award for VA SCAN
In fall 2005, the Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking (VA SCAN) received the Award for Excellence in Information Technology Solutions from Educause. VA SCAN is a partnership among several Virginia universities, including U.Va., that offers IT security assessments, training programs, consultation, and Web-based security-enhancing tools.

Middleware Initiatives and Authentication
ITC staff have made numerous upgrades to the electronic directory services to improve services and to lay the foundation for use of the electronic Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory as a key resource for application authorization decisions. Beginning July 2006, users are able to use LDAP groups to create on-demand mailing lists, share disk storage, facilitate enhanced Web authorization control, and deploy new directory group-enabled applications.

Wireless Availability on the More Secure Network
During 2005-06, ITC staff completed design work for a faculty and staff-only encrypted wireless network providing access to the More Secure Network. Initial department-based testing has succeeded, and the network is being rolled out in the summer to all persons authorized to access the More Secure Network.

SUPPORT FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

MyUVa Portal and Sakai Educational Partners Program
In fall 2005, ITC introduced the newest version of the MyUVa portal, which provides single-login access to e-mail, Home Directory, courses, calendars, library, and other resources. ITC staff are continuing to implement the Sakai Project's Web-based collaboration tools into MyUVa, creating an online home for collaborations among committees, research groups, and project teams. To allow non-U.Va. persons to participate in collaborative endeavors, staff designed a Web-based system that contacts users via e-mail and enables them to enter necessary information online.

Instructional Toolkit
Substantial enhancements were made to the Instructional Toolkit in spring 2006. One major change is eliminating the display of students' Social Security Numbers. Individual students now are identified by their U.Va. computing IDs. In spring 2006, some 5,500 courses used the Toolkit, up from 4,000 courses in spring 2005.

STUDENT-CENTERED SUPPORT

Mobile Computing Support
ITC and Library staff expanded the collaborative shared mobile support program that began in 2004. Through the program, combined IT technical support and traditional library resources assistance are available at the Brown Science and Engineering Library, Clemons Library, and Alderman Library.

Desktop Computing Initiative
Beginning in summer 2006, only laptop computers are being offered for student purchase through the Desktop Computing Initiative. During the past few years, increasing numbers of students have begun bringing laptop computers to the Grounds. In fall 2005, roughly 92 percent of incoming students brought laptops, compared to 70 percent two years earlier. Both laptops and desktops are available for faculty and staff.

SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH

High-performance Computing Platforms
In summer 2006, ITC is acquiring another high-performance Linux cluster with 200 nodes, the largest to date at U.Va., replacing the first 48-node Linux cluster installed in fall 2002. This new cluster will nearly double the total number of high-performance research computing nodes.

Research Computing Support
In summer 2006, ITC's Research Computing Support Group is relocating to Brown and Alderman libraries to leverage the combined expertise of ITC and Library research support staffs. These new support areas are intended as "magnets" to draw scholars of varied backgrounds and abilities into new collaborative relationships with each other and with technical experts from the Library and ITC.

SUPPORT FOR ADMINISTRATION

SOURCE
In July 2005, ITC implemented the new U.Va.-wide centralized scheduling program known as SOURCE (System of University Reservations and Calendar of Events). The system, which was created in partnership with the Registrar's Office, provides a single point of contact for room usage information, a simplified process to request space, and improved potential to maximize space usage.

Enhancing Diversity
During the past year, ITC helped to advance the University's efforts in recruiting and hiring a diverse faculty by collaborating with the Provost's Office to create a Web-based tutorial about diversity matters for faculty search committee members. ITC staff members also helped to create U.Va.'s new Bias Reporting Web site.

Streamlining Equal Opportunities Programs Office Procedures
ITC staff created two systems that streamline processes coordinated by the Equal Opportunities Programs (EOP) Office. One project is a tutorial that educates search committee members about the legal regulations under which the University conducts applicant searches. The other is a hiring and recruitment tracking system that provides a mechanism to secure organization-level and EOP approval for such things as search committee membership and recruiting plans.

Database Creation
Among the many Web-based solutions ITC staff create in concert with persons from other U.Va. departments is one for the Cancer Center. Staff have worked for the past four years to develop, maintain, and refine a database that Cancer Center staff use to track their research programs. The project was extended to other medical facilities nationwide in 2005-06.

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS & ISIS

Integrated Systems Support
ITC staff continue to maintain the Integrated Systems infrastructure equipment and operating system, resolve technical problems, perform other system administration and security authorization, and manage the Oracle database instances. Staff from ITC provide support for Integrated Systems production, development, and training instances, as well as technical and planning assistance and policy development. ITC staff are working closely with Integrated Systems staff on development of the Student Information System replacement project.

ISIS Enhancements
Despite continuous improvements to ISIS, the system has been unable to keep pace with increasing demands. During spring and summer 2006, ITC staff are making numerous enhancements to improve the system's performance for fall and spring registration. In addition, a Grounds-wide committee is developing recommendations for non-technical policies and procedures that will help alleviate strain on the system.

NETWORK AND E-MAIL ENHANCEMENTS

National LambdaRail Initiative
In early spring 2006, U.Va.'s connection to the National LambdaRail (NLR) initiative was activated, enabling researchers to access the high-performance national research network. The system uses transcontinental optical circuits to transport large datasets over fiber-optic cable. Former Vice President and CIO Bob Reynolds helped to organize and lead the regional consortium of NLR members.

Network Upgrades
In 2005, ITC increased the core network capacity to 10 gigabits per second. Most buildings presently have a 1 gigabit-per-second uplink to both the level I and level II (more secure) network, with 100 megabits-per-second service available as needed for individual network connections and gigabit connections available for research. Also during the year, Internet access capacity for the residence areas was increased 100 percent, to 100 megabits per second. Additional increases are planned.

Central Mail Service and WebMail Upgrades
A Storage Area Network was added to the Central Mail Service (CMS) in summer 2005 to enable ITC to increase e-mail quotas and the individual message size limit. In spring 2006, the hardware and software for the CMS was upgraded to address performance issues. During the summer, a clustering solution is being deployed and Web Mail will have a new interface.

Review of Electronic Mail Desktop Software Offerings
During 2005-06, a cross-divisional project team evaluated commercial e-mail options and solicited advice from faculty, staff, and students regarding desired features in a potential new e-mail package. The team concluded that no currently available e-mail client is compatible with the University's existing systems and provides all of the features desired. ITC will continue to support Mulberry until technical developments render Mulberry untenable. As alternatives that meet most desired features, Thunderbird and Apple Mail will have full ITC support in fall 2007.

ADDITIONAL FUNDAMENTAL SERVICES

New Storage Services
ITC, working with Alderman Library, made available a new large-scale hierarchical storage management system that will be used to store the library's critical digital assets. The first departments taking advantage of the system are Alderman Library's Digital Library Production Services and Rare Materials Digital Services. Those departments are archiving thousands of single-master copies of DVDs containing digital material. The technology selected for this deployment is designed to integrate into and support the joint ITC/Library vision for an enterprise-wide storage infrastructure that can facilitate digital scholarship and still meet the needs of other applications and services across the enterprise.

Disaster Recovery
During 2005-06, ITC began leasing a server that will provide critical emergency information should an event occur that disconnects all network access to U.Va. To further prepare for such an emergency, ITC has arranged for satellite phones so that select University staff could communicate with one another and have access to the server. The server is housed at the vendor's out-of-state location.

Home Directory Upgrade
The Home Directory Service clustered file servers were upgraded substantially in fall 2005, allowing ITC to increase disk storage quotas for all students, faculty, and staff to 1 gigabyte per person. Also during the year, the authentication process was switched to Eservices Active Directory, providing more secure authentication. The change will simplify the transition to a system that enables users to manage passwords via a single Web interface. ITC began research and planning for this system in spring 2006.

U.Va. Paging System
In 2005, ITC implemented a system that enables persons to send a text message to one or more individuals through the University paging system from the Web, thereby eliminating the need to call an operator or the paging system. This change reduces the number of paging calls handled by operators and frees them to handle the ever-increasing volume of other calls without requiring additional staff.

U.Va. Anywhere Lite
In late summer 2005, ITC introduced the U.Va. Anywhere Lite Web VPN. Because it does not protect non-Web applications such as Mulberry and Corporate Time, U.Va. Anywhere Lite is designed for users who only access Web-based resources from off-Grounds computers and is not a replacement for the standard U.Va. Anywhere.

Goal I. Serve the University as a principal resource for IT leadership, advocacy, planning, support, and innovation

At the University, the use of information technologies to enrich teaching, scholarship, and health care continues to evolve, with technically adept students and creative faculty pushing boundaries ever further. Digital technologies have become essential to the U.Va. experience - in the classroom, the laboratories, the libraries, the residence halls, and beyond. Streamlined business processes, digitized resources, expanded IT labs and classrooms, and a robust infrastructure assure tangible gains in pursuing and disseminating knowledge, solving research problems, improving health care, and realizing efficiencies. During 2005-06, staff in the Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) continued to expand these services and create and implement new ones in collaboration with faculty, staff, and students across the Grounds. A shared vision and sense of purpose in furthering the University's missions has brought about a strengthened infrastructure, improved IT support services in the libraries, and expanded computation-research capabilities.

Executive Leadership and Succession

Following seven years of leading the Department of Information Technology and Communication, Vice President and Chief Information Officer Bob Reynolds returned in summer 2006 to his roles in the School of Medicine as Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences and the William Hobson Professor in Information Sciences. Dr. Reynolds is devoting the majority of his efforts to the Department of Public Health Sciences, beginning as acting chair of that department.

During his tenure as vice president and CIO, Dr. Reynolds created numerous programs to enhance the University's digital security, oversaw substantial increases in network capacities and the development of a wireless network, and expanded support for research computing, among many other achievements. He was instrumental in developing the region's connection to the ultra high-speed National LambdaRail network, which is bringing to the University new possibilities in scientific research and development. As chair of the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership, Dr. Reynolds led the consortium of the Commonwealth's research universities that owns, sponsors, and operates the network for the region. He helped organize and formalize the Virginia Higher Education CIO Group, which communicates and negotiates the needs of higher education with the Commonwealth's Virginia Information Technology Agency. Dr. Reynolds' expertise in institutional and IT planning was essential in successfully bringing the Department of Information Technology and Communication through several years of state budget constraints. Together with ITC's managers and staff, he pursued operational efficiencies that assured the University's ability to provide exceptional IT programs and services with limited financial resources.

Succeeding Dr. Reynolds is James L. Hilton, previously associate provost for academic, information, and instructional technology affairs and a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. He also served as interim director of Michigan's University Library. Mr. Hilton, who was appointed following a national search, is an award-winning teacher, a leader in information technology policy, and an advocate for strong collaboration between the academic and technology cultures in universities. He began his work using information technology to deepen undergraduate learning while teaching the school's introductory psychology course to 1,200 students.

In spring 2006, Mr. Hilton appointed Mike McPherson as associate vice president and deputy CIO. Mr. McPherson worked closely with Mr. Hilton in the Provost's Office at the University of Michigan. Over the past two decades, Mr. McPherson has held several leadership positions in information technology in higher education. Most recently, he served as special counsel to the Provost at the University of Michigan. Mr. McPherson has also served as director of information technology for the College of Literature, Science & the Arts at the University of Michigan, and as the manager of IT operations for the College of Engineering at Michigan State University.

Helping to lead the department are ITC's directors, a group with deep technical knowledge and a strong understanding of the University and its needs. Each of these directors headed an operational division of ITC during 2005-06:

Advanced Technology	Timothy M. Sigmon, Director
Applications and Data Services	Donald L. Reynard, Director Deborah M. Mills, Associate Director
Budget and Administration	Linda S. "Susie" McCormick, Director
Communications and Systems	James A. Jokl, Director Martha R. Stearns, Associate Director
Computer Support Services	Teresa W. Lockard, Director Anne L. Lind, Associate Director
Security Coordination and Policy	Shirley C. Payne, Director

Staff Leadership

ITC staff are exceptionally active in state and national information technology organizations, holding leadership positions, collaborating to solve common problems, and organizing and speaking at conferences. Their external activities bring reciprocal rewards both for the University and for the organizations to which they volunteer their time.

ITC staff members are active in Educause, the nation's leading professional association for information technology in education. Director of Security Coordination and Policy Shirley Payne is co-chair of Educause's Security Education & Awareness Work Group and serves on the association's Security Task Force Leadership Team. Ms. Payne continued work on the Educause Security Incident Response Policy Sub Group. She delivered two security-related presentations at the annual Educause conference. Tracy Scharer of ITC's Enabling Technologies Group serves as the co-facilitator of Educause's User Services Constituent Group.

Ms. Payne's other activities include serving as chair of VA SCAN, the Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking. She delivered a presentation on security compliance at the alliance's annual conference. Other ITC members of VA SCAN include Jim Jokl, Brian Davis, and Marty Peterman. Kevin Savoy of U.Va.'s Audit Department is also a member.

Ms. Payne also serves on the Virginia Council on Technology Services, and she participated along with former Vice President Bob Reynolds in the state's higher education CIO group. She continued the work of reviewing and commenting on drafts of new policies, standards, and guidelines put forth by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Ms. Payne gave a presentation about U.Va.'s security program at the ACC Security Summit, a gathering of CIOs and security officers from institutions in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Brian Davis of the Security and Policy Office made numerous presentations during the year. One talk, entitled "Institutional Insurance: Creating a Comprehensive IT Security Risk Management Program," was given to the Virginia Local Government Web Alliance. Mr. Davis also delivered a presentation on creating campus-wide IT security risk management programs to the College and University Auditors of Virginia.

Several ITC staff members are involved with the Association for Computing Machinery/ Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS). Computing Support Services Director Terry Lockard serves on the board of SIGUCCS, and she served as publicity chair of the planning committee for the spring 2006 Computer Services Management Symposium sponsored by SIGUCCS. ITC's Jayne Ashworth was a member of the Program Committee for the fall 2005 ACM SIGUCCS Conference (and co-chair of the Technology Track) in Monterey, California. She also is a member of the Program Committee for the fall 2006 conference, which will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This year, Ms. Ashworth chaired the Training and Documentation Track and reviewed and edited in the Technology Track. She was recently selected for induction into the SIGUCCS Hall of Fame.

Many ITC staff members also are involved in the Association of College Computing Services (ACCS) of Virginia, a state organization that supports the sharing of information among technology professionals in Virginia's colleges and universities. Trisha Gordon is a member of the ACCS board, and she organized and chaired the first annual ACCS Portal Symposium in Charlottesville as part of that association's spring 2006 conference. Anne Lind also served on the ACCS board. Karen McDowell delivered a presentation on security at the association's spring conference and Scott Crittenden presented an overview of podcasting. Shirley Payne participated in a panel discussion on top computing issues in higher education at the ACCS conference.

Director of Communications and Systems Jim Jokl and Director of Advanced Technology Tim Sigmon continued their long-term participation in the Common Solutions Group. Mr. Jokl also chaired the Higher Education PKI Technical Activities Group (HEPKI-TAG) and co-chaired the Net@Edu Integrated Communications Strategies group. He is a member of the Internet2 middleware architecture group (MACE), and he chairs the USHER Policy Authority. Mr. Sigmon made several presentations about the MyUVa Portal and implementation of Sakai software, including one at the ACCS conference.

Director of Budget and Administration Susie McCormick chairs the Research and Doctoral Constituent Committee of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers. She also is a member of the board of that organization. ITC's human resources officer, Debbie Mincarelli, is a member of the Albemarle/Charlottesville Human Resources Association and serves on the association's annual Conference Committee. She also is a member of the Society of Human Resources. Sandy Bryant and Deborah Mills became certified project managers during 2005-06.

ITC staff members Janet Belew, Sharon Drumheller, Mark Smith, and Sandy German assisted with the University of Mary Washington's move-in day in late summer 2005. These staff members shared resources and gained knowledge about incoming students and their technology needs at other Virginia universities. ITC Webmaster Steve Stedman is a founding member of beTech, an organization that encourages enthusiasm within the University of Virginia Web community for bleeding edge technology.

Internal Communications Improvements

In fall 2005, ITC evaluated its internal communications and cross-divisional project processes. After reviewing suggestions from staff, ITC directors implemented several improvements, including sending project updates to the ITC-all e-mail list, requiring cross-divisional project and standing committee updates to directors every six months, and beginning a series of meetings between managers and directors. The new quarterly information-sharing meetings between managers and directors began in June.

Internship Program

For several years, ITC has sponsored a program that enables staff to temporarily join new groups within the department. Participants broaden their skills and experiences through working with new groups for six to twelve months. Because of budget constraints beginning in 2001-02, the department no longer covers funds to backfill positions vacated by interns. Now, staff are offered the ability to participate in the internship program only if they are able to find positions where backfilling is not required or where another intern can assume the vacated position. During six months in spring and summer 2006, two ITC staff members participated in the program by switching positions with one another.

Student Laptop Use

Although student computer ownership at U.Va. has been nearly universal for several years, the types of machines they bring with them are changing. Increasing numbers of students own laptops. In fall 2005, roughly 92 percent of incoming students brought laptops, compared to 85 percent in fall 2004 and 70 percent in 2003.

ITC and other University units, such as the libraries, encourage the use of laptops because they facilitate working with others and working at locations such as the library. Computers offered for purchase through the University's Desktop Computing Initiative (described below) reflect this change, as does the technical support provided to students. In addition to the joint ITC-Library Mobile Computing Support program in the libraries (described in Goal III), ITC is expanding its support for students' laptop use. Wireless access is available in each student residence hall that has a designated study/lounge, as well as in some computer lounges and coffee shop areas. As of fall 2006, wireless access will be expanded to include the student residence halls on Alderman and McCormick roads.

Desktop Computing Initiative

Introduced seven years ago, the Desktop Computing Initiative (DCI) is a voluntary computer-purchase program designed to help make U.Va.'s IT environment more homogenous, advancing effective and efficient document-sharing, communications, and technical support. The program encompasses machines offered to faculty, staff, and students, as well as those purchased for use in computing laboratories and classrooms. By leveraging the University's buying power, DCI offers competitive pricing on a core set of Dell and Macintosh personal computers and such services as pre-loaded common software, pre-set Internet configurations, computer installation, and old equipment removal. DCI vendors donate dozens of machines to the Laptops for Students program, which assists students with financial need in acquiring DCI computers and is run by U.Va.'s Office of Student Financial Services. In addition, institutional assistance has been available for some students participating in the Access U.Va. financial aid program.

Participation in the DCI program is very strong. In 2005-06, nearly 1,700 students purchased DCI machines, compared with 1,600 the previous year. Computers purchased for use by faculty and staff and in computing labs and classrooms were slightly fewer in number. In 2005-06, some 1,350 machines were purchased in this category, compared to 1,700 the previous year. Computers offered through DCI change with evolving technologies and user needs. Because the overwhelming majority of students (92 percent in fall 2005) bring laptops with them to the Grounds, only laptop computers are being offered for student purchase through the program beginning in summer 2006.

The DCI program is jointly managed by ITC's Computing Support Services Division and Cavalier Computers, which sells and installs DCI machines. A Grounds-wide advisory committee oversees DCI's technical and programmatic elements, and a committee of senior-level University managers assists with policy matters. DCI is designed to meet the routine computing needs of students, faculty, and staff, not the high-end computing power required for research. Programs that address research computing needs are described in Goal IV of this report. In addition to the computers available through DCI, the state offers faculty and staff discounts on computer purchases through a set of contracted vendors.

Advanced Network Capacities

A robust and reliable network is essential for both routine and advanced uses of digital technologies. As networked computing demands increase, ITC staff work on several projects to meet the ever-rising needs for network capacity, speed, and dependability. Staff make regular enhancements to the University's traditional and wireless networks, and manage several projects dedicated to the high-performance needs of researchers. The University was a founding member of Internet2 (described along with other infrastructure programs and improvements in Goal V), and it has continued its leadership in such ventures as the National LambdaRail Initiative (described below), which facilitates vastly greater bandwidth uses.

National LambdaRail Initiative

In spring 2006, the regional node of the National LambdaRail (NLR) network was activated, connecting Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., to a new, nationwide infrastructure with the data capacity of 40 gigabits per second. Because of the vastly increased capacities provided by the NLR, U.Va. researchers are able to conduct new kinds of data-intensive experiments, collaborate more effectively with peers around the world, and be more competitive in their bids for large research grants from such agencies as the departments of energy and defense and the National Science Foundation. The additional capacity is essential for collaborative research projects involving large data sets and for transportation of specialized applications. Access to the NLR will extend U.Va.'s research competitiveness in such areas as physics, molecular chemistry, engineering, meteorology, and health care, among many others. Participating in the NLR also provides a significant upgrade in U.Va.'s network capacity to the Internet2 Abilene network. During summer 2006, ITC is moving the University's backup Internet connection to run over the NLR.

Former Vice President and CIO Bob Reynolds led the formation of NLR's regional consortium, known as the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership. In addition to the University of Virginia, current members include Virginia Tech, William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, George Mason University, NASA, and the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory. Oak Ridge Associated Universities is an associate member. The Commonwealth's connection to the network is funded through participating research universities and through the generous support of the State of Virginia.

SURA Grid Project

Grid-based computing technologies have much potential to enhance the University's research computing environment by facilitating the sharing of computer resources, providing a more consistent user interface, and preparing researchers to connect to various regional and national grid-computing initiatives. While much potential exists and large grid-based systems are being built, many aspects of grid technology are being actively researched and enhanced. Among these are different mechanisms for intercampus authentication and trust and the integration of directory services for grid authorization.

ITC's Communications and Systems Division is working on the SURA (Southern Universities Research Associations) Grid project to prototype the use of a public key infrastructure (PKI) bridge as the basis for intercampus authentication and the use of LDAP directories to automate some of the user management and authorization functions. This work is being done with the expectation that much of what is being learned will be applicable to building the U.Va. grid. The effort is a continuation of the staff's previous work in conjunction with the University's Computer Science Department on the Globus Toolkit during the National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative Testbed project.

During 2005-06, staff deployed the Globus software, which is being enabled on ITC-operated research computing clusters in summer 2006. The myProxy servers and software system have been installed and will facilitate Globus job submission via the Computer Science Department's Grid Portal. Additional work on the project continues.

InCommon/Shibboleth

In 2005-06, ITC joined Internet2's InCommon Federation to enhance ITC's middleware software infrastructure. The InCommon Federation supports user access to protected resources by allowing organizations to make decisions about granting access to resources based on information about a user's authorization presented by his or her home institution. InCommon eliminates the need for researchers, students, and educators to maintain multiple, password-protected accounts. Built using Shibboleth authentication and authorization technology, InCommon enables cost-effective, privacy-preserving collaboration among InCommon participants. Shibboleth is being developed to enable the sharing of Web resources that are subject to access controls such as user IDs and passwords.

In spring 2006, staff installed new servers for the InCommon Federation Shibboleth deployment. Shibboleth leverages institutional sign-on and directory systems to work among organizations by locally authenticating users and then passing information about them to the resource site.

Advanced Technology Group

The Advanced Technology Group (ATG) functions largely as ITC's research and development unit. The group investigates emerging open-source tools and collaborates with faculty and staff to create technical solutions for specific needs. Some of the group's projects are short-term; others require several years' work. Long-term projects include continued development of the ATG-created Instructional Toolkit (described in Goal III), work on the MyUVa Portal (described below), and implementation of Fedora Project software (also described below).

MyUVa Portal and Sakai Educational Partners Program

In fall 2005, ITC introduced the newest version of the MyUVa Portal, which provides single-login access to e-mail, Home Directory, courses, calendars, library, and other resources. The new version was developed by ITC's Advanced Technologies Group and is based on the open-source Uportal architecture. New features include the ability to change the graphic design of the portal pages, as well as selectable and moveable content channels and a calendar application. The portal has been augmented with a podcast tab, on which users can subscribe to a weekly MyUVa-based podcast or listen to audio files online.

Initial features have been targeted to students, and one of the portal's most heavily used resources is the New Students tab. Implemented two years ago, the New Students tab is a one-stop resource for incoming students to locate, complete, and track the tasks required to prepare for their arrival on Grounds in the fall. In spring 2006, during the first two months that the MyUVa Portal was made available to incoming first-years, more than 3,500 new students logged in.

In addition to making improvements to MyUVa, ITC staff began implementing in summer 2006 the Sakai Project's Web-based collaboration tools in a pilot environment. The project creates an online home for collaborations among committees, research groups, and project teams. To allow non-U.Va. persons to participate in collaborative endeavors, staff designed a Web-based system that contacts users via e-mail and enables them to enter necessary information online. Users are being surveyed about their experience, and the tools are slated to be ready for more general use in the fall.

Fedora Project

For the past five years, members of the Advanced Technology Group have participated in a long-term collaboration called Fedora, along with staff from the University Library's research and development group and staff from Cornell University. Fedora (Flexible and Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) is producing new, flexible tools that allow scholars and others to store, manage, and deliver their digital assets for multiple purposes. The digital repository system uses only open-source software and can be implemented for such things as institutional repositories, digital libraries, content management, digital asset management, scholarly publishing, and digital preservation. At U.Va., Fedora is integrating the University Library's extensive, diverse digital collections into a single repository, simplifying users' access to the collections. The University Library hosted a Fedora Users Conference in June 2006.

Fedora software was first released in 2003 for implementation and testing, and it is continuously evaluated and fine-tuned. The software has been downloaded by thousands of organizations and institutions around the world, such as the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Athens, the National Library of Wales, the National Library of Australia, and the American Geophysical Union. In addition to being implemented at U.Va. and Cornell, Fedora is being deployed by Rutgers University, Yale University, Indiana University, Northwestern University, and the University of Delaware, among other institutions. The Fedora Project is supported by generous grants from the Mellon Foundation.

Projects to Enhance Diversity

During the past year, ITC helped to advance the University's efforts in recruiting and hiring a diverse faculty by collaborating with the Provost's Office to create a Web-based tutorial about diversity matters for faculty search committee members. Implemented in fall 2005, the new online tutorial is required for all members of tenure-track faculty search committees. Created by members of ITC's Enabling Technologies Group, the 20-minute tutorial describes several scenarios related to diversity issues and poses questions about the circumstances. At the end of the tutorial, a list of references and resources is presented with appropriate Web links. A feedback page also is included, with all user information recorded anonymously.

During 2005-06, ITC staff members also helped to develop U.Va.'s new Bias Reporting Web site. Created in collaboration with persons from the Dean of Students Office, the new site provides information about types of bias complaints and hate crimes, steps to preserving evidence, and offices for additional support and resources. ITC staff created the incident report form, and University Relations developed the other portions of the new site. The site also provides a description of the University's response when biases are reported as well as a link to hate crime statistics at U.Va.

Streamlining Equal Opportunities Programs Office Procedures

ITC's Enabling Technologies Group staff have partnered with others to create two systems that streamline processes coordinated by the Equal Opportunities Programs (EOP) Office. One project is a tutorial that educates search committee members about the legal regulations under which the University conducts applicant searches. The other is a hiring and recruitment tracking system that provides a mechanism to secure organization-level and EOP approval for such things as search committee membership, advertisement text, recruiting plans, interviews, offers, and exemptions. The tracking system supports the work to maintain necessary documentation of good faith efforts taken toward attainment of equal opportunity/affirmative action goals and to strengthen U.Va.'s efforts in hiring members of underrepresented groups. The new system helps to assure that recruitment efforts reach a broad pool of potential candidates and that all candidates receive equitable consideration.

Advisory Committees

The University's information technology programs are guided in part by the students, faculty, and staff who serve on several advisory committees. The University Committee on Information Technology (UCIT) is a president-appointed committee and the umbrella organization under which other committees function. During 2005-06, UCIT was led by Kirk Martini, associate professor of architecture and civil engineering. Organized under UCIT are the Administrative Technology Council, chaired by Vice President for Finance Yoke San Reynolds, and the Student Information Technology Advisory Council, chaired by Andrew Leonard.

During the past year, UCIT continued work begun the previous year to formulate a "case statement" for resources needed to fund the University's unmet current and future information technology needs. Also during 2005-06, UCIT reviewed and commented on the University's draft ten-year academic plan and the Research Computing Task Force's draft report on computing infrastructure needs.

Providing University-wide planning in support of the academic mission is a group known as the Deans Technology Council. Created in 1999 by and chaired during 2005-06 by Vice President Reynolds, the council includes members from all schools, the University Library, the Provost's Office, the Health System, and the College at Wise During the past year, the council discussed mobile computing support, ISIS performance issues, higher education restructuring, classroom technology support, and the MyUVa Portal, among other topics.

Virginia State Government

Shirley Payne, ITC's Director of Security Coordination and Policy, leads the department's work to advocate for the needs of IT in higher education and to guide state information technology direction. Ms. Payne, assisted by Brian Davis, monitors state legislation that is introduced pertaining to digital technologies, and provides assessments to U.Va. officials about the proposed bills' impact on the University. During the past year, she continued her review and assessment of drafts on new policies, standards, and guidelines developed by the Virginia Information Technology Agency. Ms. Payne also continued her service on the State's Council on Technology Services, and participated along with former Vice President and CIO Bob Reynolds on the Higher Education CIO group. Vice President Reynolds served on the Integrated Government Advisory Committee of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science. One of Ms. Payne's most pressing activities for 2005-06 was work associated with the higher education restructuring legislation, described below.

Higher Education Restructuring

Ms. Payne worked through the year to develop and negotiate the additional authority over IT activities that the new higher education restructuring legislation enables. She served on the team that negotiated the management agreements with the State for the "Level 3" institutions, which includes U.Va., Virginia Tech, and William and Mary. The team was divided into groups that handled negotiations in the areas of human resources, finance and accounting, capital projects, procurement, leases, and information technology. Ms. Payne led all three institutions in coordinating the schools' work to define IT negotiation points, develop support materials, and participate in negotiations. Once negotiations were concluded, she continued in this coordination role to develop consistent restructuring policies across the three institutions.

During 2005-06, Ms. Payne and her colleagues worked on several policies related to information technology. New policies being adopted by each university define performance measures and industry-benchmarked practices related to IT security; project management; accessibility; and infrastructure, architecture, and operations. A specially appointed U.Va. task force drafted a new policy and high-level plan for enhancing the University's IT accessibility. The plan includes a recommendation for an IT accessibility coordinator and a list of short-term "quick wins," many of which are underway. Also during the year, a U.Va. task force drafted the new project management policy and supporting guidance. A security policy was developed as well as a policy on infrastructure, architecture and ongoing operations. Additional work continues. In 2006-07, Ms. Payne and others will focus on tracking performance against the IT management agreement and on assuring policy compliance.

State Governmental Relations Web System

ITC staff continued their collaboration with persons from U.Va.'s State Governmental Relations Office to develop a Web interface for a database of proposed legislation in the Virginia General Assembly. The new system facilitates a process that is designed to monitor legislative issues and activities in Richmond so that the appropriate University officials can be informed in a timely manner. Phase I of the system was completed in time for the 2005 General Assembly session, and it replaces an e-mail process and provides for one-time data entry of legislation and information regarding the associated impact to the institution. During 2005-06, ITC staff worked closely with the State Governmental Relations Office on phase II, which adds features to online system, as well as an extensive reporting capability.

"virginia.edu"

Staff in ITC's Customer Communications and Publishing Group publish information about the department's programs and services that enrich the work of students, faculty, and staff. With its award-winning online magazine, "virginia.edu," the group extends that mission to include communication about broader issues involved in information technologies. The magazine is published once a year. Its audience includes U.Va. faculty and staff, colleagues at other universities, and corporate and government officials. Topics covered include emerging technologies, cyber security concerns, and legal matters, among many others. Updates also are given about U.Va. IT projects and programs.

Goal II. Provide a comprehensive program to bolster the University's defenses against network security threats and to prepare for remediation of potential problems

Every day the Internet becomes more integral to the productivity of faculty, students, and staff, and the security of the network that underpins the academic enterprise is increasingly the focus of potential malicious attack. A network that is vulnerable to cyber security attacks can seriously compromise scholarship, communication, and commerce. Cyber attacks also have the ability to compromise sensitive student and patient care data. Breaches in digital security include the proliferation of intruder programs via e-mail attachments, Web site defacement, and the use of servers to launch attacks on other computer systems. To combat cyber attacks, ITC pursues several multi-faceted security programs in partnership with others across the Grounds. Well-targeted educational efforts, streamlined remediation of affected machines, and leading-edge programs that provide technical barriers are helping to reduce the incidents of cyber security problems at U.Va.

Network Security

ITC's seven-year-old digital security program offers a comprehensive approach to strengthening U.Va.'s defenses against computer security attacks. ITC's Director of Security Coordination and Policy Shirley Payne leads the program, which educates users about threats and their personal responsibilities for minimizing them, implements technical solutions to mitigate threats, and facilitates University compliance with federal security regulations. Ms. Payne and others also are actively involved in the review and adoption of U.Va. policies related to digital security.

Security awareness and education were an especially strong focus of the work during 2005-06. Ms. Payne and others from ITC routinely discuss cyber security issues with groups of Local Support Partners, administrators, students, and faculty. During National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October 2005, persons from ITC's security office assembled a slate of publications and activities for the University. Staff handed out security flyers, wallet cards, and promotional cloth flying disks at locations around Grounds. They also redesigned the security Web site, adding new pages on data security, identity theft protection, and other security guidance. On the Web site, users can now view security-related videos, including those in which identity theft experts and victims are interviewed. Security education efforts also were focused on system administrators. Ms. Payne and her staff worked with Local Support Partners to develop and publish "Community Security Baselines," recommended configuration settings for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/UNIX devices.

Each year, new IT security programs are introduced, many of which are described in this section. Several ongoing projects also reached important milestones during the year. In June 2006, ITC completed the Grounds-wide network registration program that began in spring 2005. During 2005-06, the University's More Secure Network continued to expand, and ITC staff completed designs for a faculty- and staff-only encrypted wireless network providing access to the More Secure Network. An online security training module developed by ITC has been completed by some 10,000 employees as of June 2006.

The University shares its growing expertise in digital security matters with the Commonwealth through the leadership of Ms. Payne and others in the Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking (VA SCAN), a partnership among U.Va., Virginia Tech, James Madison University, and George Mason University. VA SCAN, which was formed four years ago to bolster the Commonwealth's defenses against network security problems, received the Award for Excellence in Information Technology Solutions from Educause in fall 2005. The alliance provides colleges and universities and others with IT security assessments, training programs, consultation, and Web-based security-enhancing tools.

IT Security Risk Management Program

Progress continues on implementation of the University-wide IT Security Risk Management Program, which began in summer 2004. Dozens of departments have completed the program, which includes ongoing security assessments and standardized continuity planning for critical business functions during restoration of any compromised services. Departments are provided Web-accessible templates for such steps as risk assessment and plan development. The templates also include guidance and standardized practices across the Grounds. Developed by a team of persons from ITC, the Audit Department, Health System Computing Services, and other offices, the programs is led by ITC's Security and Policy Office.

First to be targeted are departments with the most critical assets to protect. Departments that handle sensitive data, such as legally protected medical and student records, must execute more thorough plans than other units. Once a department has completed the assessment and planning steps, it submits a final report to the Security and Policy Office. Units must re-evaluate and update their plans at least once every three years. All U.Va. departments, including those in the Health System and the College at Wise, are required to complete their first assessments and plans by June 30, 2007, and undergo the same process once every three years thereafter.

Abuse of Networked Resources

The University continues to make progress in thwarting cyber-security attacks and other digital abuse problems. During calendar year 2005, ITC's abuse team processed some 2,200 incidents, down from 2,800 incidents in 2004 and 4,500 in 2003. Major virus incidents have decreased in number, as have reported violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These problems and others are being reduced through ITC's comprehensive programs to combat digital security threats.

The security of the U.Va. networks has been tightened with firewalls and filters, automated programs that detect and block machines with specific security problems, anti-spam and anti-spyware capabilities, and award-winning educational programs aimed at students, faculty, and staff. The deployment of mandatory network registration across the Grounds (described in this section) is greatly enhancing the ability of technical staff to identify and contact persons responsible for compromised machines. This enables staff to more quickly remove affected computers from the network, reducing the ripple effect of damage. Network monitoring tools, which track volume but not content, also have proved valuable in the early identification and remediation of compromised machines.

Although the University experienced only one major virus situation in 2005-06, a large number of machines were compromised during the year. These problems often were due to the lack of timely updating of operating systems and the download or installation of third-party software that alters computers' security settings. Reports of incoming spam and viruses were roughly equal to those received during the previous year. Automated anti-spam tools help to keep the problem manageable for most users. The U.Va. Credit Union was the target of a phishing scam during the year, and ITC's security and policy team worked with the credit union to minimize the impact on the University.

More Secure Network

To help buttress its technical defenses against IT security breaches, ITC implemented a three-tiered secure network architecture in 2003. Level 1 offers the standard, existing security protection measures, such as blocks for ports associated with well-known vulnerabilities. Level 2 offers heightened security through the use of redundant firewalls and a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connector between University users and the Internet. University computers behind the firewall are able to communicate freely with machines on the outside, but external computers must first authenticate successfully through the VPN gateway. Level 3 networks offer customized, special-purpose architectures with higher-level security and are designed in accordance with a department's special requirements.

The Level 2 network, referred to as the More Secure Network, is now available in most buildings on Grounds and in off-Grounds expansions. ITC developed and made available to departmental support staff tools that allow them to move their users to the More Secure Network. Additional tools have been provided that permit such things as switching Ethernet speeds, turning ports on and off, and running certain diagnostics. Many departments have migrated the majority of their users to the More Secure Network, and the eventual goal is to have most faculty and staff computers on it.

Wireless Availability on the More Secure Network

During 2005-06, ITC staff completed design work for a faculty- and staff-only encrypted wireless network providing access to the More Secure Network. Access control tools for Local Support Partners were made available along with setup documentation. Initial department-based testing has succeeded, and the network is being rolled out during summer 2006 to people authorized to access the More Secure Network. The new network augments an encrypted wireless network using PKI based-authentication that was introduced in 2004-05 for all U.Va.-affiliated individuals.

During 2005-06, ITC also completed the design work and initial testing of a system that enables faculty and staff mobile computing users to have their computers connected to the More Secure Network while using the University's wireless LAN network. Presently users need to leave the added security provided by the More Secure Network when using the wireless LAN. This new service functions by leveraging central directory services to determine if a user wishing to connect to the Wireless More Secure Network is authorized to do so. If the user is authorized, the connection is permitted. A set of tools - similar to those presently used to manage wired network connections to the More Secure Network - was created to enable Local Support Partners to authorize faculty and staff to use the wireless More Secure Network.

Joint Virtual Private Network/Oracle Special Services

The Joint Virtual Private Network (VPN) was developed by ITC staff to meet the needs of users who access multiple protected resources that reside on networks protected by different VPNs, such as those needing simultaneous access to the Integrated Systems Oracle applications and the Clinical Network. The Joint VPN is not limited to off-Grounds. It resides on a hardware identity device that is configured by ITC after receiving a signed request from a user. Because the servers and services protected by the Joint VPN system contain sensitive and privileged data, two-factor authentication is required for access. This is accomplished through possession of the hardware identity device (a Rainbow iKey) and the password for that device. To assist departmental users, ITC publishes the installation and configuration of the VPN client on the Web along with the operating instructions. During 2005-06, the service was expanded to enable users to simultaneously access Oracle applications and the Data Warehouse servers using the Oracle VPN servers.

Network Registration

The Grounds-wide network registration program that began in spring 2005 was completed in June 2006. The new system replaces and combines the previous voluntary wired network registration system, the wireless registration system, and the mandatory system in the student residence areas. It increases the security of the U.Va. network by enabling ITC to contact and assist users experiencing problems and, if necessary, disconnect affected devices from the network until the issues are resolved. The new system also provides enhanced tools for department administrators and individual customers, including U.Va. guests. A small subcommittee is continuing to meet to update wording and flow of the main network registration Web page, and work continues on database validity checking, reporting, and abuse tools.

Blocking of Infected Computers

ITC's three-year-old policy of blocking infected computers from the University's network has helped to contain the spread of infection to other U.Va. machines and to assure that the network is available for use by others. Once virus- and worm-infected computers are disconnected from the University network, users can cleanse their machines of infections and unblock the machines themselves, using a process developed by ITC's Network Systems Group. Instructions for the process, which greatly eases the workload of the University's technical support staff, are provided online. Once a machine has been cleaned of infections and meets all the criteria for being unblocked, users are directed to an ITC Web site with a link for restoring Internet access.

ITC Windows Critical Patch Management Service

To help ensure that faculty and staff computers are as protected as possible against security vulnerabilities, ITC began offering its Windows Critical Update Service two years ago. Through the free, voluntary program, participating computers are updated with new operating system updates and patches as they are released by Microsoft. Before releasing updates to U.Va. computers, staff in ITC's Micro Systems Group test them to assure that they are compatible with all commonly used applications. The service alleviates the need for individuals or Local Support Partners to update machines individually. The service works only on Windows 2000 and XP, not on 95, 98, ME, or NT. Users running unsupported operating systems and those who are not members of the Windows Critical Patch Management Service must configure their computers to automatically run Windows Update daily.

Middleware Initiatives & Authentication

ITC staff are creating and deploying several projects related to middleware support. They have made numerous upgrades to the electronic directory services to improve services and to lay the foundation for use of the electronic Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory as a key resource for application authorization decisions. Authorization attributes have been added to the user database to control wireless access to the More Secure Network. Beginning July 2006, users are able to use LDAP groups to create on-demand mailing lists, share disk storage, facilitate enhanced Web authorization control, and deploy new directory group-enabled applications. Additional work on U.Va. NetBadge, an electronic identification badge that is issued to users' Web browsers when they log into the service, is described in Goal V of this report.

Symantec Anti-virus Service

One of the tools that ITC offers faculty and staff to combat computer viruses is the Symantec Anti-virus Service. Managed by the Micro Systems Group, the program provides computers with automatic updates as new anti-virus definitions are released to combat known electronic viruses. The program, which uses the ITC-supported Symantec anti-virus software, eliminates the need for members of the University community to manually update their anti-virus software as new definitions are released. To use the service, staff and faculty download the latest Symantec Anti-virus software from ITC's Software Central and convert their Symantec client to a Managed Symantec client, enabling automatic updates to their machines as new anti-virus definitions are released.

Internet Security Scanner

Another security tool used by the University for several years is Internet Security Systems' Internet Security Scanner (ISS). ISS examines a network's devices, services, and interrelationships for security vulnerabilities. The system then generates a report with detailed information about each problem found, including the susceptible host, a description of the danger, and actions recommended to remediate the problem. The system's database is updated regularly and can test for several hundred potential problems. ITC systems are set to routinely scan machines for most high- and medium-risk vulnerabilities. Departmental staff also can request ITC to tailor the scanning to suit specific needs, including scanning for denial of service vulnerabilities. The department's system administrator is responsible for deciding how to address any vulnerabilities that are found.

Disaster Recovery

During 2005-06, ITC began leasing a server that will provide critical emergency information should an event occur that disconnects all network access to U.Va. The server is housed at the vendor's out-of-state location. To further prepare for such an emergency, ITC has arranged for satellite phones so that select University staff could communicate with one another and have access to the server.

BMC Remedy Service Desk

ITC is currently in the process of acquiring and testing the newly released BMC Remedy Service Desk module. This product replaces the BMC Remedy Help Desk module that ITC has been testing during fiscal year 2006. The new module will replace the current system used by ITC's Help Desk and by the Integrated Systems Customer Support Center. When fully deployed, the module will offer the following benefits:

• enables Web browser access to the application and service ticket data to students, faculty, and staff
• enables students, faculty, and staff to submit service tickets into the system during business hours and after hours
• delivers ability to differentiate between problem management and incident management
• enhances customer support and responsiveness
• enables management to monitor service desk performance.

Online Security Training for Employees

As part of its security-education program, the University developed and began staged implementation in early 2005 of a new online training module to build awareness of computer security and responsible use issues among U.Va. employees. The interactive educational program requires 15-20 minutes to complete and covers such areas as computer attacks, identity theft, and exposure of confidential data. The module explains the most critical threats to the University's computing environment and the actions individuals must take to safeguard against those threats. At the end of the training session, users must answer several questions about the preceding information, and they must acknowledge their responsibility to abide by University computing policies and applicable laws. As of June 2006, some 10,000 employees have completed the security training module.

Educause Award for VA SCAN

In fall 2005, the Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking (VA SCAN) received the Award for Excellence in Information Technology Solutions from Educause. A partnership among several Virginia universities, VA SCAN is chaired by Shirley Payne, ITC's Director of Security Coordination and Policy. VA SCAN services include educating staff at higher education institutions about digital security threats and responsibilities for minimizing them, assisting with implementation of technical solutions to mitigate known threats, providing IT security training and consultation, and maintaining Web-based security-enhancing tools. The alliance's charter was expanded during the year to support collaboration among Virginia college and university IT auditors. All services are offered free or on a cost-recovery basis. The alliance was founded in 2003 by information technology leaders from James Madison University, George Mason University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In addition, Virginia Commonwealth University became a full partner in the Alliance during 2005-06. In late October 2006, as part of National Cybersecurity Month, VA SCAN hosted a cybersecurity conference at James Madison University.

Security Conferences

ITC's Security Coordination and Policy Office vigorously pursued its education mission during 2005-06, hosting two large-scale conferences about current security issues. One event, the Office of Information Technology's Security Awareness Conference, was held in October as part of the national Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The conference targeted U.Va.'s IT professionals and was offered in tandem with the Local Support Partners conference. Nationally recognized computing security expert and author Kevin Mandia was featured speaker at the conference, which also included sessions conducted by ITC staff members. Mr. Mandia spoke about identity theft; additional presentations included such topics as passwords, community security standards, and securing hardware, among others.

In June, ITC hosted a six-day SANS Institute training course entitled "Security 505: Securing Windows." The course was fully subscribed, with attendees from throughout central Virginia, including 61 U.Va. system administrators and 78 additional system administrators from various other institutions, state and local government agencies, and K-12 systems. The event was offered at a tuition cost savings of more than 70 percent. Among the specific topics covered during the hands-on conference were: active directory design, security templates, PKI installation and management, wireless security, and smart cards and tokens. Sessions were aligned with topics required for the SANS Global Information Assurance Certification exam. Course participants were eligible to sit for the exam following the conference's final day. The course was led by U.Va. alumnus Jason Fossen, founder and president of Fossen Networking & Security, which provides consultation for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 solutions and security. Mr. Fossen speaks and writes extensively on Web and network security matters.

------------- Goal III. Create a technology-assisted learning environment faculty and students can use with ease, and promote greater user self-sufficiency

In partnership with faculty and staff from the Provost's Office, the University Library, and academic and administrative offices across the Grounds, ITC works continuously to develop new programs that simplify the academic computing activities of students and faculty. Various programs and services are offered that encourage the creation of instructional technologies. Well-equipped and -supported classrooms and laboratories provide a technical foundation for the effective integration of IT in teaching and learning. Faculty-development programs such as the Teaching + Technology Initiative/Support Partners program foster the vision of faculty members for using technology to deepen student learning. Use of the Web-based course management program, the Instructional Toolkit, has become nearly universal. Underpinning academic computing activities are technical training programs, offered through several offices across the Grounds, that are responsive and timely.

Instructional Toolkit

The ITC-created Instructional Toolkit, the University's comprehensive course management program, was introduced in 1996 and its use is now nearly universal. The Web-based system provides instructors a streamlined way to handle course administration and deliver information to students. In spring 2006, the Toolkit was used by roughly 5,500 courses on Grounds - more than 90 percent of all courses offered at U.Va. The Toolkit is designed for easy use by faculty with basic IT skills, and ITC offers 30 minute and two-hour training sessions to assist instructors in creating course homepages and using its features. The system is used not only to create basic course homepages, but also to order textbooks from the U.Va. Bookstore, create class e-mail lists, distribute syllabi and homework assignments, and submit final grades. Faculty also use the Toolkit to distribute materials such as announcements, reading assignments, and lecture slides electronically to students. Students can use the Toolkit to access electronic resources maintained by the Registrar's Office and the Library, among other offices.

ITC staff work continuously to improve the Toolkit's functionality and ease of use, and three significant enhancements were implemented in spring 2006. One of the changes is the elimination of the display of students' Social Security Numbers. Individual students now are identified instead by their U.Va. computing IDs. Another change provides increased security for course materials that is designed to bolster protection of copyrighted materials. These course materials now are automatically restricted to users who log in with a U.Va. computing ID and password. Faculty members may change these controls either to further restrict them only to members of their class rolls or to open them up to outside visitors through the use of a class password. Finally, the Toolkit now takes advantage of the single NetBadge login authentication process, bringing the system into compliance with this emerging standard at U.Va.

Online Course Evaluation System and Selection Guide

Since their introduction, the ATG-developed Electronic Course Evaluation System and Online Course Selection Guide have gained a strong foothold in use among faculty and students. The course evaluation system was created by ITC in spring 2003 after being identified as a high priority by the Academic Computing Advisory Committee and being requested by students as integral to the production of an Online Course Selection Guide. In May 2006, more than 52,000 course evaluations were submitted using the electronic system, up from 46,000 course evaluations completed during the previous May.

Composite data from the evaluations are compiled by ITC staff and published in the Online Course Selection Guide, which was fully implemented during 2004-05. Six of the seven evaluation questions, used in evaluating all University courses, whether completed online or on paper, comprise entries for the Course Selection Guide. Questions cover such matters as instructor effectiveness, amount of work demanded by the class, and how much responding students learned. Deans and instructors may augment the standard evaluation questions with their own customized questions. The Course Selection Guide is accessed electronically from the Course Offering Directory. In May 2006, more than 1,450 courses met the 65 percent response rate criteria for inclusion in the Course Selection Guide, an increase over the previous May's 1,130 courses.

Course Offering Directory

In existence for many years, the University's electronic Course Offering Directory (COD) provides course listings and descriptions, and links to hundreds of course Web sites. The application enables students and their faculty advisors to view syllabi, lecture materials, course prerequisites, and other information that assists with course enrollment decisions. Directory entries can be viewed by school and department listings, and the course descriptions can be searched by key words and phrases. The COD provides daily updates of course enrollment figures, and it links to the Online Course Selection Guide.

Teaching + Technology Initiative/Support Partners

The University's Teaching + Technology Initiative/Support Partners (TTI/SP) program began eleven years ago with the purpose of enriching undergraduate education through the meaningful incorporation of information technology into the curriculum. Through the years, TTI faculty fellows have enhanced dozens of courses with the program's hardware, software, and technical help from ITC's instructional technologists. TTI has changed along with faculty needs, with the introduction several years ago of the Support Partners component. Support Partners are graduate students - selected for their technology skills and their strong understanding of particular academic disciplines - who provide hands-on assistance to faculty in creating instructional applications. The TTI program continues to evolve. For 2006-07, one faculty fellowship has been awarded for the development and use of Sakai collaboration tools. Remaining program funds will be used to create a generic tool set for Web-based classroom support technologies. The program is sponsored jointly by the Office of the Vice President and Provost and the Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

Digital Media Lab of the Robertson Media Center

A partnership between ITC and the University Library, the Digital Media Lab of the Robertson Media Center offers equipment and technical support for students and faculty in the digitization and editing of images, sound, and video. Staff offer tutorials and short courses for individuals and classes, assist faculty in preparing electronic course materials, and provide project planning and consulting services. During 2005-06, staff offered short courses, lasting between one and four hours, on working with specific software applications for animation and modeling, creating interactive user interfaces, image scanning and editing, and making videos. Equipment available for use in the lab includes audio and video capturing and editing stations, animation and 3-D imaging workstations, music-creation workstations, and digital video cameras that are available for loan. The lab's machines are networked to enable users to access their files from the Home Directory and other remote accounts. The Digital Media Lab was created six years ago, and it is located in Clemons Library.

Servers for Faculty Use

ITC maintains numerous servers for faculty use in instruction and research. These servers supplement U.Va.'s general-purpose website server, www.people.virginia.edu, which includes a mixture of personal and professional content for faculty, students, and staff. Faculty are offered free disk space for posting teaching and research materials on the faculty.virginia.edu server. They may determine the URLs for their Web sites, and ITC redirects the URLs to go to new Web sites if instructors move to other institutions. Faculty also may use a server dedicated to courses, a streaming video server, and two database servers. The courses server provides faculty with free disk space for instructional projects. Created several years ago to tape and stream video for live events, the streaming video server is now available for faculty and staff use. ITC supports a Windows development server and a Windows-based Web server for instructional content delivery, research, and departmental projects. Faculty are allocated a certain amount of free disk space, with additional space available for purchase. The University also maintains servers for the use of student and independent organizations.

Technology-enhanced Classrooms

Staff in ITC's classrooms support area continued the expansion and upgrade of U.Va.'s digitally equipped classrooms. As of summer 2006, the University has 84 wired classrooms and auditoria that are centrally scheduled and fully supported by ITC's technicians. Thirteen new technology-enhanced classrooms were added during 2005-06, including the installation of equipment in classrooms in Cabell and Bryan halls and renovations in several classrooms in Fayerweather, Cocke, and Thornton halls. During the past year, eight new IT-equipped classrooms were created, and several classrooms were upgraded with new equipment. Major equipment renovation and upgrades were completed in the Wilson 402 auditorium and Wilson 301. Videoconferencing capabilities were added, along with multi-graphics processing with dual projection capabilities. Some 80 computers and 15 projectors were replaced where needed across the Grounds, among other improvements.

To create and enhance these digitally equipped classrooms, ITC staff collaborate with persons from the Provost's Office and other offices. ITC staff provide ongoing technical support for setting up equipment, troubleshooting problems, and assisting in learning use of the equipment. During 2005-06, seven wage technical-support positions were converted into part-time classified positions using existing funding.

Public-access Laboratories

During 2005-06, staff in ITC's Public Computing Labs Group extended the University's new "shared services" program in Alderman, Clemons, and Brown Science and Engineering libraries. The program, described in detail below under "Mobile Computing Support," pairs ITC technical support staff with the libraries' information desk staff.

Another project that ITC staff implemented in conjunction with library staff and Local Support Partners (LSPs) during the year is the "unified build" project. Piloted in fall 2005, the unified build simplifies computer use for students and others by putting an identical computer image in the libraries' public areas and in ITC labs and classrooms. The program began in Clemons Library and was extended to the other libraries in January. To accomplish the common software build, ITC staff added library-requested software to the regular ITC build. ITC staff also worked with library IT personnel and LSPs to assure the smooth deployment of ITC's build to some 300 of their public computers. Additional deployments continue, with ITC staff working with Athletics Department staff to implement the unified build in the new John Paul Jones Arena computing lab.

The labs group continued its long-term collaboration with staff from academic and physical plant offices to renovate and upgrade public computing labs. Renovations include such things as new furniture, carpet, and paint, as well as updated hardware and software and other technical enhancements. During 2005-06, staff upgraded computer labs in the Brown Science and Engineering Library, Chemistry 411 and Ruffner Hall with a total of 62 new Dell computers. A handful of Macintosh computers also were upgraded in the Ruffner Hall and Bryan Hall 235 labs. Scanning stations in each of the ITC labs were upgraded with Dell 360 precision workstations and new HP scanners. Each workstation is equipped with Adobe Macromedia Suite software. ITC's installation and repair team has assisted the classroom group in analyzing and upgrading classroom switches and bandwidth requirements. They also managed ITC Training Group's project to upgrade lighting and electrical and projection equipment, as well as install Macintosh computers in the Carruthers 248 ITC training room. This training room now has the capability of using either Dell Windows machines or Macintosh computers.

Mobile Computing Support

During the past year, ITC and Library staff expanded the collaborative shared mobile support program that began in 2004. The program combines IT technical support and traditional library resources assistance to better serve the needs of students and faculty. By stationing ITC's lab consultants at the Library's information desk, they are more visible to students and others who need computing help to accomplish their work. In addition to providing regular hours of help for drop-in customers, ITC and Library staff provide hands-on help sessions for students, faculty, and staff at the beginning of fall and spring semesters. Mobile Computing Support desks are located at the Brown Science and Engineering Library, Clemons Library, and Alderman Library. A survey of more than 1,500 customers in spring 2006 demonstrated strong user satisfaction: More than 93 percent rated the service as good or excellent.

The mobile computing support model was conceived in response to changes in computer users' needs. During the past few years, increasing numbers of students have begun bringing laptop computers with them to the University. In fall 2005, roughly 92 percent of incoming students brought laptops, compared to 85 percent in 2004 and 70 percent in 2003. ITC's Computing Support Services Division encourages the use of laptops because of their usefulness in working with other students and working at locations such as the library.

Authenticated Login

ITC and the University Library also have worked together to help fortify security of the University network by jointly implementing an authenticated login process. Authenticated login, which began in fall 2004, is required for computer users in the University Library and ITC computing labs and classrooms. Computer users must log in using their computing IDs and Eservices passwords. Authenticated login makes it more difficult for persons to launch anonymous cyber attacks from within the network and enables ITC staff to trace hacking and other abuse activities that originate in the labs. To further enhance security, a computer left inactive for 14 minutes automatically logs out the user after displaying a pop-up warning message. Guest patrons of the library who are not affiliated with the University may obtain temporary user names and passwords from the library service desk.

Departmental Computing Support Program

To enhance IT planning and support across the Grounds, ITC provides a comprehensive set of programs known collectively as the Departmental Computing Support Program. The effort is led by the Computing Support Services Division and includes services that improve the IT skills of department-based technical and others and help departments succeed in IT planning. The program is guided by an advisory group whose members come from administrative offices, academic departments and schools, and Health System Computing. The Departmental Computing Support Program includes the following:

• Local Support Partners (LSP) Program: LSPs are department-based and -funded technical staff who spend at least half of their time in IT support for their units. ITC's LSP program (described below) enhances the skills of Local Support Partners through professional development opportunities, including regular meetings, special training sessions, and access to equipment and resources.
• Local Support Associates (LSA) Program: The LSA program offers technical training and ongoing support to departmental staff whose primary jobs are not IT-related, but who provide front-line computing support to others in their departments. ITC provides LSAs training about the University's technical environment, as well as networking and professional development opportunities. To become a member of the Local Support Associates program, staff must successfully complete a training and certification program known as Computing Survival Skills, offered by ITC's Departmental Computing Support Group.
• Departmental Technology Planning and Outreach: At the request of department managers, ITC staff assess a unit's IT resources and its unmet technical needs. Staff then develop a plan with specific recommendations for needed technical and human resources.

Local Support Partners Program

To hone the skills of U.Va.'s department-based computer support staff and enhance the assistance they provide, ITC's Computing Support Services Division offers the Local Support Partners (LSP) program. Through the program, some 200 technical staff are offered technical training and certification, semi-annual conferences, e-mail lists for IT problem-solving, and the use ITC-owned equipment for testing and for delivering training in their departments. A peer-support program provides new LSPs with specific information about the University's technical environment. During summer 2006, ITC offered its third-annual Summer Skills Update training series for LSPs. Also open to ITC staff, the series provides weekly short sessions on various technical topics. For its part, ITC leverages the collective knowledge of LSPs through their participation on cross-divisional project teams and their help with planning efforts. The Local Support Partners Program is guided by an elected steering committee of LSPs. The single criterion for LSP membership is that an employee's job description states that at least 50 percent of his or her time is devoted to computer support.

New Student Orientation

Each summer, ITC staff lead discussions during the University's new student orientation sessions. They participate in a University services fair and answer questions about the department's computing, phone, and television services. Staff lead sessions that describe U.Va.'s IT programs and services, as well as pertinent computing security and digital copyright issues. The importance of incoming students understanding these matters has grown, as ITC grants new students access to their U.Va. e-mail accounts in late spring after they successfully pass an online quiz about the University's policies on responsible computing and related federal and state laws. In summer 2006, ITC will begin offering separate presentations to parents and to students in order to better address their different interests and needs.

Move-in Weekend

Each year, several dozen ITC staff members assist first-year students with computing issues as they move on Grounds. Staff are divided into teams that work in the residence halls and in information booths located across the Grounds. They help students hook up personal computers to the Internet connections in their rooms and answer questions about ITC services from students and parents. The ITC-managed student Computing Advisors also help during move-in.

Computing Advisors Program

For the past several years, ITC has offered direct, peer-to-peer IT assistance for students in the residence halls through the Computing Advisors Program. Computing Advisors (CAs) are technically proficient students who live in the residence halls and provide roughly five hours of weekly computing assistance to other residents in the form of consulting and group sessions. CAs also work with ITC staff during move-in weekend to resolve students' computer set-up difficulties and complete ITC's annual student computing inventory. Advisors participate in several ITC-run technical training sessions on such topics as the U.Va. network, Mulberry, the wireless network, and Corporate Time. The Computing Advisors Program began in the first-year residence halls and has expanded to include most upper-class housing.

ITC Customer Communications and Publishing

ITC's Customer Communications & Publishing Group continues to diversify its media portfolio to inform members of the University community more effectively about ITC services. In fall 2005, the group began using podcast technology to reach student audiences, and all ITC videos are now produced in iPod versions to accommodate the fast-growing use of portable players. The group is also increasing its use of screen-capture video tools, such as Camtasia Studio, for delivery of short instructional pieces that do not translate as well to static, paper-, or Web-based documents.

The ITCWeb site maintains its role as ITC's Web window to the University and the world, with more than 30,000 pages receiving more than 1.5 million views per month. The audience is geographically widespread (more than 40 percent coming from outside Virginia) and technically savvy. The carefully designed, semantically correct markup code implemented on ITCWeb last year facilitates greater accessibility to screen readers and cell phones and makes it easier for search engines to index. The most visited ITCWeb page (other than the home page) is the How to Disable Windows Messenger Service page. The improved code structure allows for expedited design updates such as the recent visual makeover. While the refreshed design uses more cutting-edge technology, the site's content - a mix of technical information and support, software downloads, security information, and more - continues to evolve to make it easier for users to find and use what they need and to give feedback about ways to improve their ITCWeb experience.

Technical Training

Because up-to-date technical knowledge is critical to the success of students, faculty, and staff, ITC's Training Services Group provides an ever-evolving array of programs to help users gain new IT skills. The group's educational programs include one-on-one specialty classes, group classes, online videos, and annual conferences, as well as computer- and video-based training. One particularly popular program is the brief, single-session "Byte Size Seminar," which covers such topics as the creative use of Excel and using movies and sounds in PowerPoint.

Staff members deliver specially tailored programs for groups and departments, including training technical trainers and others. The group offers a summer training series for ITC staff and for department-based Local Support Partners. The free workshops cover such subjects as server-side rules, spam filters, and greylisting on the Central Mail System. They offer a series of courses leading to Web certification, providing members of the University community with the training and skills needed to create and maintain Web pages in the University environment.

Training Services staff offer several large conferences throughout the year, including those for unit-based IT support staff and those for faculty and staff. Each year, ITC co-hosts with the University Library a Faculty Technology Open House. Open to all faculty, researchers, and instructors, the day-long conference provides an opportunity for faculty to share information on IT-related projects, and enables ITC to highlight and demonstrate the technical resources that are available on Grounds. Another outreach event to faculty is the Teaching + Technology Initiative Reception, which is open to all faculty, instructors, and researchers. The reception showcases various Teaching + Technology Initiative projects in an informal discussion format. ITC also hosts an annual Office Technology Conference for all University employees, providing an introduction to new and innovative technologies and exposure to various other topics of interest.

Training programs also are delivered through ITC Broadcasting, which offers computer-based training and a videotape library, and online video training for all faculty, students, and staff. The Web-based training service is offered in partnership with U.Va.'s Human Resources Division of Training, with course content provided by the National Education Training Group. More than 2,000 interactive courses are offered on professional development, desktop applications, and information technology applications, concepts, and tools. The online service provides users with streamed training videos that can be viewed on their own computers and worked through at their own pace. Training Services' programs change as user needs change. One new program, Computing 101, is described in detail below.

Computing 101

During the past year, ITC Training Services expanded its new Computing 101 training course, making it a staple of the training offerings. Developed and first offered in 2004-05, the hands-on course targets employees with little or no computer experience. The free course includes ten hours of training during four weeks. Computing 101 had 50 attendees in 2005-06, with participants coming from such departments as Facilities Management, U.Va. Police, Housing, and Internal Medicine. Multiple requests have been made for additional sessions.

Computing 101 includes instruction in fundamental desktop computing skills, such as keyboard use, mouse operation, and basic Windows XP operation. Specialized sessions also have taught employees how to access online pay slips through the Integrated Systems Oracle applications, use Web Mail and Mulberry, and use the Internet.

Goal IV. Provide specialized support, appropriate facilities, and enhanced infrastructure for advanced research and scholarship

To meet the unique technical and support needs of persons who conduct computation-intensive research, the University provides high-end hardware, software, storage, and support, as well as large-capacity bandwidth programs. ITC offers targeted information technology resources and programs to help researchers accomplish their work and to advance the University's mission as a locus of knowledge. The 2005-06 academic year was an especially productive one in furthering IT-intensive research. Staff in both ITC and the Library have been evaluating the University's human and technical resources devoted to supporting computational research. They spent much time during the year discussing their findings and a set of proposals with deans and others. Another ITC-Library collaboration is resulting in new research computing support magnet centers to facilitate the use of information technology in research and scholarship. The following section describes those programs and others. The new large-capacity National LambdaRail network supporting research activities is described in Goal I, and other bandwidth issues are detailed in Goal V.

Research Computing Support Group

The Research Computing Support Group provides a wide range of services to advance the work of faculty and students conducting computation-intensive research and scholarship. Staff members provide educational outreach programs and doctoral-level technical assistance, with expertise in such areas as statistical computing, visualization, mathematical computing, and data access and archiving. Members of the Research Computing Support Group are responsible for acquiring and managing the University's high-end computational platforms, which are described later in this section, and they assist faculty and graduate student researchers on the use of those platforms. Staff members also facilitate researchers' use of high-performance computers that are available through collaborations with national supercomputing centers.

The group's outreach efforts include presentations, workshops, and electronic publications. Their monthly online newsletter, "Research Computing News," covers general IT information of interest to researchers, as well as updates about ITC services, software, and security issues. Presentations range from short informational sessions to in-depth workshops, and many of them are described under Research Computing Colloquia, below. Research group staff also offer specially tailored workshops on any of ITC's supported software packages.

Research Computing Support Magnet Centers

In summer 2006, ITC's Research Computing Support Group is relocating to two libraries. The move is designed to better serve the needs of researchers by leveraging the expertise of both ITC and Library research support staff. These new support areas are intended as "magnets" to draw scholars of widely varied backgrounds and abilities into new collaborative relationships with each other and with technical experts in the Library and ITC. The current Research Computing Support Center space in Wilson Hall is being converted to an ITC training classroom.

Part of the research group staff is moving to the Brown Science and Engineering Library in Clark Hall, where they will offer advanced science and engineering research computing support. The move is a merger between ITC's research support staff and the library's Digital Lab, creating a new digital Research Computing Lab. Other ITC research support staff will move to Alderman Library, where they will work with the Library's Digital Research and Instructional Services Group. The new facility, called the Scholars Lab, combines ITC research support with the Library's GeoStat and EText centers to provide advanced science and humanities research and instructional support.

Research Computing Colloquia

Research Computing Support Center staff continued their long-term educational outreach by hosting a technical colloquia series. Presentations are open to the entire University community and are held both at the center and elsewhere on the Grounds. Presentations are posted on the center's Web site for reference. Among the 15 presentations offered during 2005-06 were a hands-on high-performance cluster tutorial and talks on effective display of quantitative data, parallel computing, and the use of such applications as LaTeX, SAS, and Matlab. In addition, research center staff offered in early fall a comprehensive overview of research hardware, software, data storage, and support services available at the University.

Framework for Supporting Digital Scholarship and Research

Staff from ITC and the Library have been collaborating since fall 2005 to create a proposal for an institution-wide framework for supporting digital scholarship. The draft report, entitled "A Technology Framework for Supporting Digital Scholarship and Research," evaluates current resources currently available across the Grounds to support the development and conservation of digital scholarship. It argues for the adoption of an institutional framework to support the full range of activities encountered by scholars in developing their instructional and scholarly digital projects. The report also includes recommended enhancements to the University's technical infrastructure, technology and support services, and pertinent policies. During spring 2006, ITC and Library staff made presentations about their proposals to various groups and academic departments.

High-performance Computing Platforms

During 2005-06, ITC continued to acquire the high-performance computing platforms that underpin a great deal of research and scholarship at the University. The newest cluster is the largest to date at U.Va. and replaces the first 48-node Linux cluster installed fall 2002. The new cluster nearly doubles the total number of high-performance research computing nodes from approximately 220 to nearly 375. While this represents a vast improvement in computing resources for researchers, the University continues to lag behind peer institutions in hardware, support staff, and facilities dedicated to research computing and computational science.

The newest cluster joins a 125-node cluster acquired in 2005 and a 38-node cluster that has been used since 2003. The oldest Linux clusters are heavily used for parallel and serial computing, and they have been updated with new operating systems and additional security. In addition to the Linux clusters, ITC provides Sun clusters, Sun workstations, an SGI cluster, and an IBM p640 Model B80 Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP), which serves as a bridge system for researchers whose local computational needs in software or libraries are tied to the AIX operating system. The IBM SMP serves as a separate high-performance computing platform and has been configured to use the same batch queuing system as ITC's Linux clusters.

In spring 2006, University researchers were offered the chance to purchase nodes in the new Linux cluster for their use. Among the benefits are priority access to the purchased nodes, free system administration, timely security updates, constant monitoring, and the ability to use more nodes than purchased during periods of non-peak demand.

Research Computing Infrastructure Task Force

During spring 2006, a pan-University faculty-led task force drafted a report that describes the pressing needs for hardware, staff, and space to advance computation-intensive research in engineering and the natural sciences, as well as in the social sciences, education, and humanities. The task force was formed in response to calls by University leaders for the institution to achieve world-class status in research and education in the computational sciences. The report not only details areas in which the University lags behind its peers in current technologies and support, but also it includes specific cases in which investments in new technologies will dramatically improve research and scholarship. In developing the report, the task force sought specific descriptions from faculty about how they will use world-class computational technologies and support to advance their scholarship.

Staff from ITC's Research Computing Support Group participated on the task force, as well as on development of a proposal to the National Science Foundation that emerged from the task force's work. The proposal is for a computational science instructional initiative, which will include ITC staff members if it is funded.

Hierarchical Storage Management

For the past seven years, ITC's Hierarchical Storage Management system (HSM) has provided storage to faculty and staff for large and infrequently used data. Although the system is not intended for files that are accessed often, users may name, copy, and retrieve needed files from their own workstations. Files on the HSM, which is managed by ITC's Unix Systems Group, are stored on magnetic tape and backed up nightly. Use of the HSM grows annually. During 2005-06, the amount of user data stored in the system grew by 14 percent, while the number of users remained constant.

During the past year, ITC architected and planned a trickle-down approach to help solve a combination of resource problems. The key aspect of this combined effort is the migration of the Research Data Hierarchical Storage Manager to the new storage infrastructure, described below. Not only will this improve performance for researchers, but also it will free up older tape equipment for use on U.Va.'s mainframe. This, in turn, will enable a large amount of mainframe tape consolidation and free the computer room floor space needed to hold the next research computing cluster.

New Storage Services

ITC, working with Alderman Library, made available a new large-scale hierarchical storage management system that will be used to store the library's critical digital assets. The first departments taking advantage of the system are Alderman Library's Digital Library Production Services and Rare Materials Digital Services. Those departments are archiving thousands of single-master copies of DVDs containing digital material. The technology selected for this deployment is designed to integrate into and support the joint ITC/Library vision for an enterprise-wide storage infrastructure that can facilitate digital scholarship and still meet the needs of other applications and services across the enterprise.

Academic Computing for Health Sciences

For the past 13 years, Information Technology and Communications-Academic Computing Health Sciences (ITC-ACHS) has provided high-end computing support to biomedical researchers in the Health System and across the Grounds. Services include support for image acquisition and processing, bioinformatics, high-performance (cluster) computing, and bioinformatics database programming. The client base includes approximately 450 faculty, staff, and students in more than 100 departments and centers. The facility is available 24 hours a day.

Biomedical researchers at U.Va. are using target databases that continue to increase exponentially in size. The number of computing jobs on ACHS's cluster and the average length of each job are increasing as well. This year, ACHS expanded its computing cluster to 108 processors, 180 gigabytes of RAM, and 8 terabytes of disk space. Approximately half a million jobs were run by and for users. Because existing cluster queuing systems will fail if more than a thousand jobs are queued, ACHS staff developed a second-tier queuing system that selects the highest priority jobs from a database and sends them incrementally to the conventional queuing system. More than 250 users access locally maintained copies of GenBank and UniPROT. Disk capacity on the facility's GCG server was recently increased to 4 terabytes.

ACHS staff assisted during the past year with two new projects of particular interest. The first was a drug-screening project by Drs. Jae Lee and Dan Theodorescu, in which the responses by cancer cells to approximately 50,000 putative drugs were analyzed. The second, working with Dr. Mike Timko in the Biology Department, was validation of 150,000 clones from the cowpea genome. ACHS now houses the world's only publicly accessible cowpea gene database. The cowpea, or black-eyed pea, is a critical food source for 200 million people in west and south Africa. Work continues on implementation of protein identification algorithms for the Cell Migration Consortium and on parallel Mass Spectroscopy algorithms. ACHS also continues to administer the "GEOSS" gene expression LIMS and archiving system (developed at ACHS). Staff are starting work on a custom LIMS system for the Keck Biomedical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

ACHS's Data Acquisition and Multimedia labs continue to be well utilized. Lab staff logged more than 1,500 client contacts during 2005-06. The lab's new podcasting provides just-in-time delivery of hints on common Photoshop questions, and has been very well received by users. Because lab users also are bringing and generating ever-larger data sets, the "Meduser" data store was increased to 1.2 terabytes. Meduser allows storage of users' files for up to three weeks. Finally, increasing demand for video editing capabilities necessitated substantial upgrades during the year to ACHS's video capture and rendering systems.

Cancer Center

Since 2002, staff in ITC's Departmental Applications Development (DAD) Group have refined, enlarged, and maintained the database that U.Va.'s Cancer Center staff use to track information related to medications, treatment, and quality of life. The Investigational Pharmacy, which is affiliated with the Cancer Center, tracks results of studies of new medications for cancer treatment. The database now includes a Web interface to enroll patients from other U.Va. medical departments and other medical facilities nationwide. ITC staff continue to work on the programming and infrastructure needed to enable multi-center trials for the Cancer Center. Enhancements and specially requested reports are completed as needed.

In a closely related area, Craig Slingluff, M.D., of the Human Immune Therapy Center has requested ITC's assistance in combining his older research databases into a single relational database to assist his research team. DAD staff are collaborating with the Public Health Sciences Department on this effort.

National Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure

For the past several years, University researchers have had access to dozens of high-end computational platforms and software at remote locations through the institution's participation in the National Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (NPACI). A partnership of more than 40 leading research universities and several corporations, NPACI started with funding from the National Science Foundation in 1997 to create a national, distributed computing environment that is seamless and secure. U.Va. is a research and education partner in the program, and faculty researchers offer expertise in the development of metasystems, programming tools, and environments. ITC staff coordinate the use of NPACI resources by faculty and staff.

Goal V. Maintain an easy-to-use, readily available, and forward-thinking technical infrastructure for the University community

A reliable and robust communications infrastructure is essential for teaching and learning, facilitating research, conducting routine business practices, and communicating with others on Grounds and around the world. During the past year, the University's network and communications infrastructure was strengthened substantially through new hardware, programs, and services. U.Va.'s link to the ultra high-speed National LambdaRail network, described further in Goal I, was activated. The link also enabled the University to provide additional upgrades to its connection to the existing Internet2 Abilene network. Several improvements were made during the year to student-residence areas, including a 100 percent increase in the wired network and more comprehensive wireless services in the Alderman Road and McCormick Road complexes.

Internet2

A charter member of Internet2, U.Va. has been connected to the Abilene network since 1998. Abilene connects Internet2 universities to regional network aggregation points, called gigaPoPs, through an advanced network backbone. The affiliation with Abilene has enabled the University to substantially upgrade the external network connection through the Network Virginia backbone, bolstering the capacity of researchers to conduct their Internet-based work. Additional upgrades to Abilene have been enabled through the recent connection to the National LambdaRail network, described in Goal I of this report. Ongoing enhancements to the University network are described below.

Network Upgrades

Five years ago, the University's OC-3 connection (155 million bits per second) was supplemented with an additional DS-3 link that serves the student residence areas. ITC completed a multi-year project to upgrade the on-Grounds, building-to-building backbone in 2002-03. In 2005, ITC increased the core network capacity to 10 gigabits per second. Most buildings presently have a 1 gigabit-per-second uplink to both the level I and level II (More Secure) network, with 100 megabits-per-second service available as needed for individual network connections and gigabit connections available for research. All uplinks eventually will be a gigabit. During 2005-06, Internet access capacity for the residence areas was increased 100 percent, to 100 megabits per second. Additional increases are planned.

Building Rewiring Project

ITC staff pursued their ongoing work on the multi-year Building Rewiring Project, the second of the two-part Network Infrastructure Project, which will provide all students, faculty, and staff on Grounds with access to a more robust network. Through the Building Rewiring Project, new cable and connections capable of supporting substantial telephone, data communications, and video are installed building-by-building. Nearly all academic and hospital buildings have been rewired. During 2005-06, ITC staff also installed a substantial number of outlets in renovation and new construction projects. The only remaining areas in the Building Rewiring Project are approximately 200 drops in the third and fourth floors of the Private Clinics in Hospital West. The clinics cannot be wired because of asbestos.

Off- and On-Grounds Expansions

As the scope and volume of the University's teaching and research enterprises have grown, increasing numbers of departments are seeking new office, laboratory, and clinic spaces. The large increase in leasing of off-Grounds spaces has resulted in an increased workload for groups in ITC's Communications and Systems Division, who install and support the network at off-site locations. Among the many challenges is providing seamless connections to the University's on-Grounds network and communications infrastructure. New installations also provide the opportunity to offer new services based on new technologies, such as Voice over Internet Protocol, described later in this section. A partial list of ITC's off-Grounds work during 2005-06 includes: the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra at 7 Elliewood Avenue, the Health Sciences Foundation at 2250 Old Ivy Road, and temporary space for the University's new Institute for Shipboard Education at 1924 Arlington Boulevard. Staff are working on projects at 1 Morton Drive for Cavalier Computers, Environmental Health and Safety, and the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies.

On-Grounds renovations projects also have continued to increase. The work to reinstall and reconfigure communications infrastructure is performed by the same ITC groups as the off-Grounds installations. One substantial on-Grounds project during the year is work on the new John Paul Jones Arena.

Wireless Network

Deployment of the University's wireless local area network began in spring 2001, and by fall 2005 the network provided essentially complete coverage for the vast majority of academic buildings on Grounds, with partial coverage of the others and many administrative buildings. Wireless access also is available in each student residence hall that has a designated study/lounge, as well as in some computer lounges and coffee shop areas. Plans are underway to more fully expand wireless services to the student residence areas, beginning with the Alderman Road and McCormick Road complexes during summer 2006. Wireless is installed along with the wired network in all new buildings. Access to the U.Va. wireless network is restricted to students, faculty, and staff, though visiting faculty and colleagues needing access to the network can obtain temporary guest accounts. Several enhancements have been made to improve users' privacy and to better protect the integrity of wireless communications.

U.Va. NetBadge

ITC staff worked throughout the year to extend the reach of the U.Va. NetBadge service, which was first deployed in spring 2005. NetBadge, which is based on NMI pubcookie software, provides users with a single sign-on capability when browsing Web sites that use the service. When users access a U.Va. Web site that has incorporated the NetBadge service, they are redirected to the NetBadge Web site, where they either enter their user ID and password or present their personal certificate. After validation, they are issued a U.Va. NetBadge. When users visit subsequent Web sites that require a NetBadge for authentication, their Web browser automatically presents it. Users gain access without having to perform additional logins, and exposure of users' passwords is limited because they are sent only to a trusted login service. After users log in, their U.Va. NatBadge is valid for up to nine hours (one hour when logging in from off Grounds) as long as their browser remains open. Because of this, users are encouraged to protect their privacy by enabling a password-protected screen saver and discarding their NetBadge by exiting the Web browser completely whenever they leave their computers.

NetBadge was first used with the MyUVa Portal and the network registration system. Other early adopters of NetBadge include the Eservices password page and the management page. During 2005-06, NetBadge authentication was added to Web Mail, Web Home Directory, and the Instructional Toolkit.

Proxy Server

The U.Va. proxy server provides faculty, staff, and students the ability to access from remote locations certain on-Grounds electronic resources that would otherwise be unavailable to them. These resources - including some library Web sites, online databases, and news resources - are restricted to use by members of the University community. The proxy server identifies account-holding users as U.Va. students or employees. After obtaining a proxy server account, users must configure their Web browser before they can successfully log in with a password. The most complete off-Grounds access solution is U.Va. Anywhere, described below.

During the past year, ITC staff worked with persons from the Health Sciences Library (HSL) to remedy a lack of access to U.Va.'s networked resources experienced by some medical students and others. Due to the computing environment at their remote locations, some students in the School of Medicine and other Health Sciences Library patrons were unable to use either the proxy server or remote access VPN services. These remote locations, typically hospitals, do not allow the use of laptops or any configuration changes on the workstations provided. In order for these users to reach on-Grounds materials, staff deployed an interim solution based on a new type of proxy server and directory-based user authorization. This interim solution will operate for a few years while staff from HSL and ITC work with their providers to enable authenticated remote access to materials via Shibboleth.

U.Va. Anywhere/U.Va. Anywhere Lite

In use since December 2002, U.Va. Anywhere is the most complete solution for accessing digital resources remotely. U.Va. Anywhere provides faculty, students, and staff a secure route into the University's network via an encrypted Virtual Private Network. It assigns a user's computer a University-owned Internet Protocol address and authenticates through the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security model. Faculty, staff, and students can download U.Va. Anywhere from the product's Web site. It is available for use with Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

In summer 2005, ITC introduced U.Va. Anywhere Lite for users who only access Web-based resources from their off-Grounds computers and do not need the standard U.Va. Anywhere. U.Va. Anywhere Lite makes it unnecessary to use a proxy server to connect to U.Va.-restricted Web sites, and it encrypts information sent and received using a Web browser. No client software is required, but users must install a U.Va. personal certificate on their off-Grounds computers. Because it does not protect non-Web applications such as Mulberry and Corporate Time, the new product is not a full replacement for the standard U.Va. Anywhere, and users are cautioned to use it only to access Web-based resources.

Remote Access Services

To assure that faculty, staff, and students are able to accomplish their work from home and while traveling, ITC has long worked with commercial providers of high-speed Internet services to provide favorable services and rates for U.Va.-affiliated persons. Several companies now provide service plans specifically for educational and non-profit organizations. ITC recommends contracting for high-speed Internet services only with those companies that have implemented a direct connection to the University network. Without a direct connection, much of the speed is lost while data flows through other regional Internet hubs instead of remaining local to Charlottesville.

Hardware and Service Retirements

ITC works with an internal standing committee, external advisory groups, Local Support Partners, and others to determine which software and hardware should be retired to enable the department to undertake new projects. Decisions to retire product