ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation OR1: CITS needs to facilitate the
establishment of clear working relationships and
responsibilities among the major network service providers.
USER SUPPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation US1: Every department should designate a
network support person who will provide basic training,
troubleshooting, problem determination and resolution for the
users of that unit. The designee's job description should
reflect these responsibilities.
Recommendation US2: The UF Computing Help Desk should be
given the resources and responsibility to be the single point
of contact for all users, twenty-four hours a day, seven days
a week. The Help Desk should also be responsible for
maintaining a list of departmental user support personnel.
Recommendation US3: Network Services should be given the
resources and responsibility to establish an 800-number modem
pool to provide access to faculty, staff and students from
off-campus locations, both local and statewide, including
remote IFAS and Health Center locations.
Recommendation US4: Network Services should be given the
resources and responsibility to serve as the campus-wide
coordinator of training for technical and department network
support personnel. Resources should also be made available to
those units that provide the training.
Recommendation US5: The UF Computing Help Desk should
establish a web site or listserv for network personnel and end
users{ in order to communicate about the status of our
networks.
FUNDING MODEL RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation FM1: Network Services needs to utilize a
funding model which provides an annual budget for core
operations, a separate budget for required adjustments to the
core service, and which will charge recipients for enhanced
services.
NETWORK SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation SR1: A Standing Committee on Information
Security (SCIS) be established that permits regular
interaction, communication, and cooperative activity among
those who are responsible for ("owners" of) private,
non-public, proprietary data; those who are responsible for
facilitating the implementation of network hardware and
software network components required to secure these data; and
those who are needed to participate in ensuring the
authenticity of all data. It should also be the responsibility
of this committee to communicate with the managers of local
area networks on the campus decisions which impact the local
area networks or require security measures by them. This
Committee should be chaired by the campus ISM.
Recommendation SR2: A risk audit should be sanctioned by
the ISM and be performed by the SCIS to analyze those areas
where the University is exposed to security threats. This
audit should include a study both of the types of data that
require specific security measures and of the delivery methods
that are used to deliver these data to appropriate faculty,
staff, and students. The audit should specify action items
such as those recommended in the NTSC report which should be
implemented for handling security risks.
Recommendation SR3: A University security policy should be
established which addresses policy and procedure issues as
raised in the NTSC report in the subsection titled
"Security Policy." The policy should be concise and
enforceable. Specific guidelines should be provided separately
where necessary to assist personnel in complying with the
policy. This policy should be reviewed regularly.
Recommendation SR4: NTSC shall be briefed regularly of
changes in management procedures and network design activities
by Network Services. Similarly, other major network providers
are encouraged to report on modifications in their activities.
Recommendation SR5: Since network equipment is placed in
every building which is connected to the network, it is
necessary that space be allocated for the equipment. NTSC
should continue the study it began in this report to create
criteria for the kind and quality of the communications space.
Network providers can then use these criteria to inform users
of the requirements for space and how this may affect their
quality of service.
Recommendation SR6: The role of the network administrator
is increasingly important to a properly functioning
department. Designation of where, or from whom, a unit gets
its network support needs to be made by the unit executive.
This designation should be made explicit in the job
description of the designee and appear as part of the
evaluation process. The unit should be prepared to make
release time and training opportunities available to the
designee.
Recommendation SR7: Disaster recovery plans should be made
for the voice, video, and data networks. The role of
communications is critical in the event of a disaster; however
such plans only make sense within the context of a larger
University plan sanctioned by the Provost. In particular, some
understanding needs to be reached about what constitutes a
disaster for a university and what is the role of the
University in the event of a disaster.
Recommendation SR8: There should be a resource for LAN
managers to call to receive trouble-shooting assistance 24/7.
FUTURE TRENDS RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation FT1: OITS should assess, with broad user
input, what applications users need now and applications they
can predict they will need in future years. The results of
this study can then be used by campus technical personnel to
assess which technologies might be needed to support those
applications.
Recommendation FT2: User needs and network plans need to be
reviewed at least annually by CITS and analyzed in view of the
known needs and possibilities. It is recommended that CITS
keep in touch with the user community as user application
needs become apparent and network resources become available.
Recommendation FT3: Network Services should develop
procedures for keeping abreast of Wide-Area Networking (WAN)
trends as they relate to long-distance carriers, to cultivate
beneficial relationships with the carriers, and to provide a
campus-wide clearing house for WAN-related activities.
