On Sept. 10, Verizon announced that its 5G Ultra Wideband network is now live at U-M’s Mcity test facility, where they’re using various 5G solutions designed to improve pedestrian and auto safety. That includes 5G-connected cameras installed at intersections inside the Mcity test track to help identify traffic and pedestrian patterns to prevent collisions. Signal controllers were installed at… Read More »
The Network and Data Center (DC) teams recently partnered to perform a power validation for the network devices at the Michigan Academic Computing Center (MACC). The focus of the effort was to conduct a field audit to evaluate the current state of the network device power, identify areas of improvement, and make recommendations for future changes. This validation… Read More »
A paper co-authored by Harsha Madhyastha, professor of computer science, has been awarded an Applied Networking Research Prize by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Madhyastha and researchers from Facebook and three other participating universities presented a system called Edge Fabric that large content providers can use to smartly direct traffic over the internet. Facebook uses this system to… Read More »
Squirrels and backhoes can cause havoc for the university’s core fiber network. But thanks to redundant design, campus is protected from outages.
Many of you are familiar with the Verizon commercial “Can you Hear Me Now?” Thanks to the partnership between ITS, HITS, and Verizon, the answer to that question for folks in the North Campus Research Complex is a resounding “Yes!”
School of Information graduate student John Traylor knew the work he was doing in Puerto Rico to shore up communications infrastructure some nine months after Hurricane Maria was important, but it wasn’t until the project was finished that he fully understood the impact. That’s when one of the residents came by and uttered one very recognizable word—”Wi-Fi”—and delightedly… Read More »
Members of the ITS CITP (Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Program) technical team, working with the ITS Hostmaster, have created a Domain Name Service (DNS) authoritative server in Amazon Web Services (AWS) to increase resiliency. There are two types of DNS servers: resolvers and authoritative. Computers send DNS questions (queries) to a DNS resolver. The resolver then finds the right… Read More »
Michigan basketball players, athletics staff, and Wolverine fans are benefiting from improved Verizon cellular service at Crisler Center this season. ITS partnered with Verizon, Facilities & Operations, and Athletics to install a Distributed Antenna System in Crisler Center that went live just before the first game. Antennas throughout the arena, concourse, and player development facilities will enhance overall… Read More »
The ITS Network team has successfully delivered a new ITS network in the North Campus Data Center (NCDC). Because the network was brand new, the teams explored some exciting network advancements as part of the project, including: adopting more modern networking practices, and including a network architecture that leverages EVPN-VXLAN in lieu of less-stable, legacy protocols. In addition… Read More »
The University of Michigan has been working on a effort to ensure that the university is compliant with the new regulations concerning the use of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). The next step is to develop a CUI public cloud strategy and proof of concept in AWS. That is where the ITS Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Program (CITP) technical team… Read More »
The ITS Identity and Access Management functional and operations team successfully upgraded the MCommunity ecosystem in October, 2018. This project involved upgrades of the Identity Manager and eDirectory systems. It was the final phase of an 18-month effort to transition the MCommunity ecosystem off of virtual hardware and onto a hybrid virtual/physical hardware architecture with an eye towards… Read More »
The Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Program now has a new website—http://its.umich.edu/projects/cloud-program/ The website is designed to provide information to campus about the Cloud Program, the various projects that are currently running under the program, as well as provide the latest updates and news. The site offers information in six areas: Why Cloud?: U-M is expanding our use of cloud services. Learn… Read More »
For the past three years, a dedicated team within ITS Infrastructure has been working hard with Facilities and Operations (F&O) staff, to improve WiFi in 275 buildings that make up the heart of the Ann Arbor campus. The Campus WiFi Upgrade project is scheduled to complete on-time at the end of August, 2018, and has vastly improved connectivity… Read More »
A team from Dearborn’s Information Technology Services were among more than 75 staff members honored with Chancellor’s Staff Recognition Awards. Rex Chang, Chundao Che, Emily Hamilton, Sherie Modelski, and Jerry Van Couwenberghe from the Facilities ELB Hub won the exceptional team award. The award recognized their work with the Engineering Lab Building construction and renovation. The team led the effort… Read More »
We all have read plenty of stories about organizations moving their systems and applications to the cloud. Many individuals and units at U-M have made their own forays into the cloud, and it’s now time for ITS to provide a way to facilitate the university’s use of cloud services. In March, 2018 ITS formed the ITS Cloud Infrastructure… Read More »
Picture this: it’s a beautiful summer day in Ann Arbor. You have lots of work to catch up on, but don’t want to spend this day inside. Now you won’t have to! Information & Technology Services (ITS) recently announced approval of funding to install WiFi in portions of the Diag. At the request of students and with the… Read More »
Recent improvements allow the Michigan Academic Computing Center to consume less energy and reduce cost without compromising performance.
In early February, ITS retired its oldest running production system—the Uniqname Service (UNS). Implemented in 1992, UNS was running on outdated hardware with an old homegrown “UMCE Linux” operating system. Due to high risk, the system had not been shut down or upgraded since 2012. “We were concerned about the fragility and technical debt associated with the homegrown… Read More »
In an effort to further secure and reduce the complexity of U-M networks, ITS Infrastructure has worked for the past year with unit IT representatives to change the IP addresses of U-M’s domain name system (DNS) resolver servers from public to private. The goals of the project were to: Improve security by reducing internet threats that exploit DNS resolvers.… Read More »
As the landscape for research and high performance computing keeps growing, ITS support is critical to the success of the university’s data intensive research efforts. The demand for compute, storage, and faster network connectivity has challenged ITS to evaluate its data center strategy in a more holistic way. Rather than incur the high costs of a brick and… Read More »