ITS news

ICE update

Lotus Notes rollout starts again

Lotus Notes rollouts have recommenced following measures to provide a more stable environment including:

• upgrading the server operating system
• upgrading the Domino server versions
• implementation of new faster storage technology
• movement of about 10 per cent of users using a non-Lotus notes (e.g. Thunderbird) accessing their email via Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) onto a separate server. 

Rollout schedule and new inclusions

Monash Sport, Gippsland Campus and the Faculty of Education, are first in line for new collaboration-enhancing software, with scheduling for the remaining faculties and divisions to follow.
Since the beginning of the project, additional products have been developed. Their enhancements will be rolled out retrospectively to current Lotus Notes users shortly.
New features include:

• the ability to book rooms and resources via Lotus Notes calendar
• Lotus Quickr - a document sharing repository which allows users to share and edit documents with in-built version control
• instant messaging, desktop videoconferencing, online whiteboard and detecting the online availability-status of your colleagues via Sametime Chat
• the ability to synch Lotus Notes to a number of PDA devices including Blackberry, i-Phones  and Windows mobile devices.

Other ICE Program developments

PC faxing is now available across all Victorian campuses. IP telephony (Monash Phone) currently being rolled out across Caulfield campus is on track for completion by November, with the remaining rollouts planned for 2010.

Identity Management Architecture Strategy and Roadmap Development Project (IdM Strategy Project)

At Monash it is not easy to identify who has access to what systems because that access is not managed in a holistic way. Identity Management (IdM) assists and controls users’ access to electronic and physical resources.

The IdM Strategy Project is now underway to develop a roadmap for the maturation of the University’s identity and access management (IAM) environment.  Consultants will conduct a number of workshops with faculty, students and administrative personnel in order to map the major business processes that depend on, or contribute to the IAM infrastructure. 

The project is due for completion in early December.

VoIP: Gippsland migrated to IP telephony

Staff at Gippsland are now using the new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system after a successful deployment in July.

As part of the Integrated Collaboration Environment (ICE) program, 900 new phones were installed across the Gippsland campus. A further 200 analogue phones were converted to IP telephony.

Gippsland, Berwick and Frankston are now fully reliant on the new VoIP telephony infrastructure and the Siemens PABX system at each of these campuses has been decommissioned.

Caulfield campus will be migrated to VoIP telephony by the end of this year. This will be the largest VoIP site rollout in 2009 with 3000 phones being deployed.

The most extensive site rollout will happen in 2010 when the entire Clayton campus adopts VoIP.