Council on Academic Computing

December 16, 2004

Meeting Summary

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COMPUTER SERVICES AND SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONAL HEADQUARTERS

The Council’s December meeting was held at the RIDC park operational headquarters of Computer Services and Systems Development (CSSD). Jinx Walton, Director of CSSD, led the meeting. The facility was built in 1970 to accommodate the University’s computer facilities. For the next three decades, the only operations staff who worked at the site were machine room operators.

CSSD re-examined its use of the RIDC park facility when it decided to create a centralized location for enterprise operations and equipment. CSSD has now built a network operations center at the site and relocated the computer helpdesk to the site. The site possesses several redundant power sources: two power feeds, a diesel generator, and battery backup.

The network operations center monitors all traffic on the University’s network, which includes internet links within the Pittsburgh campus and between the Pittsburgh campus and the regional campuses, UPMC, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, AT&T, and Stargate. CSSD uses Netcool software to monitor and coordinate traffic on the University’s network.

CSSD moved its helpdesk to the RIDC park facility in July of 2004. Students had staffed the helpdesk prior to the move, but the CSSD hired full-time staff when they relocated it. CSSD also created separate helpdesk queues for students, staff, and faculty at that time.