Services provided by The Center for Planning and Information Technology
Summary
The Center for Planning and Information Technology (CPIT) provides computing and network facilities to students and faculty for their educational and research activities; supports the university's management information systems; manages the campus network; and provides telecommunication, digital media and technical support services.
Details
Software systems. CPIT installs and configures central server applications and related database software and middleware, including enterprise resource planning/business management, learning management, website, email and collaboration systems, applies patches and upgrades, and maintains strong application performance in a secure environment. CPIT works closely with university divisions and offices to plan for and identify software system solutions, integrate them into university processes, and manage relationships with hosted/cloud software service providers. CPIT monitors central software system functions, and corrects problems as necessary.
Instructional technology. CPIT provides instructional support and development for faculty, and advises and consults with faculty and researchers in the design, development and implementation of information technology services for teaching and research. It supports and designs services for the use of technology in the classroom, event coverage and provides learning management system development, training and support. Its video production team creates, produces, and distributes digital media for teaching and learning, grant related and academic promotional purposes.
Office technology. CPIT installs and configures desktop computers, network printers and telephones for faculty and staff, and maintains the necessary software on these computers, including office productivity suites, web browsers, and other utilities, including security software. CPIT provisions university-owned notebook computers and other mobile devices for use on the campus network. CPIT works with the designated vendor to provision and support assigned networked multifunction printer (copier) devices for departments.
Residence halls. CPIT ensures that the network, television, telephone and other technology infrastructure in the residence halls is in working order and providing good performance. CPIT configures residence hall technology with a focus on safety and ease of use. CPIT upgrades and repairs residence hall technology equipment as needed, and coordinates with service providers and other vendors to resolve more serious problems.
Network and Telephone. CPIT installs and configures all networking equipment for the university, including routers, switches, hubs, wireless access points, network monitoring software to maintain good levels of network reliability and performance, as well as all necessary network security equipment, such as firewalls and network filtering appliances. CPIT provisions and maintains telephone equipment, voicemail system and office handsets. CPIT coordinates campus data and telephone wiring projects and equipment repairs. CPIT manages the university’s technology relationships with its Internet and telephone service providers.
Network directory services and identity management. CPIT configures and maintains all university network directory and identity management services, maintains domain security policies, and creates and maintains network user accounts. CPIT monitors network directory services functions, and corrects problems as necessary.
Servers and data storage. CPIT specifies, installs and maintains central server, virtualization/private cloud and storage systems. CPIT configures equipment operating systems, applies operating system patches and upgrades and monitors system functions and resources, correcting problems as necessary. CPIT provides guidance to schools and academic departments needing to run servers and storage systems for instructional or research purposes.
Data Centers. CPIT works with Facilities or service providers to ensure that university data centers have adequate cooling, power, and protection from fire and water hazards.
Disaster recovery. CPIT ensures that backups of central production data exist in the event of system failure. CPIT identifies, configures and upgrades enterprise backup hardware, software and media to accomplish these backups. CPIT provides for emergency operation of key production software systems in an alternate data center. CPIT ensures that key data is regularly migrated off campus.
Procurement, licensing and maintenance. CPIT works with the Procurement Office on acquisition of technology products and services. CPIT ensures that CPIT-provisioned software is licensed, and that appropriate maintenance contracts or parts sparing are provided for equipment and software.
Technical Support. CPIT provides telephone and e-mail access to technology help desk services 5x13, walk-in access 5x9, and provides a 24x7 online system for logging and tracking service requests. CPIT provides onsite audio-visual support for classrooms and events 5x12. CPIT performs necessary on-site provisioning of instructional and office hardware and software, and troubleshooting of CPIT-provisioned technology. CPIT provides a free, best-effort carry-in service to assist students with malware and other software problems with their personally-owned computers. Outside of normal support hours, CPIT responds to major outages typically affecting multiple campus buildings or university-wide production systems.
Other notes
Elevated access. A subset of CPIT staff must have elevated access to computing and network hardware and software to perform job functions. Each CPIT employee is bound by the University’s Acceptable Use, Information Assurance and all other university policies and procedures.
