Attending: Ed Anapol, Pakis Bessias, Ken Hirsh, Jim Coble, Nevin Fouts, Pete Goswick, Todd Orr, Alan Halachmi, Patrick Halpin, David Jamieson-Drake, Betty Leydon, Andy Keck, Melissa Mills, Caroline Nisbet, John Oates, George Oberlander, Lynne O'Brien, Mike Pickett, RafaelRodriguez, Robert Wolpert, Ginny Cake, Pete Boyd, Ken Knoerr.

Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Robert Wolpert

Review of Minutes and Announcements:

the minutes from March 9 were approved as posted.

Project Enterprise Update

  1. applying implementation to back offices and Health System first,
  2. masking implementation within the University by only applying application to central back office functions (Accounting, Procurement Services, Payroll),
  3. minimizing the impact on feeder systems through use of "mappers",
  4. limiting significant process changes to Health System only.

  5. Todd Orr, Director of Administrative Systems Management Group and Integration Manager for Project Enterprise reviewed an excellent summary and overview of the project. The Project Enterprise scope, both functional and organizational, was overviewed.

    The approach to the project's implementation was described as "medium bang" with goals of:

    Mappers provide transaction translation for SAP without having to make direct changes to feeder systems. There was a strong emphasis on use of vanilla SAP processes and code. This strategy proved valuable, and the number of issues associated with customized code were minimal based on Duke's experience through one SAP software upgrade.

RoadRunner update

Rafael Rodriguez provided an update on discussions with Time-Warner/RoadRunner. RoadRunner is the name of the new cable modem service available in the RTP area. There are currently 2,500 customers online in the greater RTP area and new customers are being brought online at a rate of 400/week. Duke is taking a two-phased approach to the discussions. First, we are working together with the four large universities in the area (Duke, NC Central, UNC-CH, and NC State) regarding discounted rates. There is a 5,000-user threshold to obtain rate discounts. Secondly, since three of these institutions are on NC-REN, we are investigating leverage of the high-speed ring and use of IP-aliasing to avoid pushing traffic out onto the Internet.

Cluster/Site License Discussion

Ginny Cake led a discussion on current system levels/mix within the various public computing clusters on campus and associated upgrade plans. There was a discussion about the appropriate depreciation schedule and the desire to replace some workstations every year to avoid getting behind. It was noted that 36 Sun Ultra 1 systems are due for replacement in 2000. The discussions included interest in leveraging wireless and new client computing paradigms going forward.

Patrick Halpin asked about the possibility of directing endowments towards ongoing support/upgrade of clusters.

Robert Wolpert asked that we do a final review of student CD content plans prior to the production process.

Ginny Cake reported that we are investigating offering a basic web authoring tool for undergraduate students.

Robert described the need to remove Telnet and other non-secure tools from the site license suite.

It was noted that suggestions for additional software to be put on the CD be sent to Ginny Cake.

Preparations for Academic Council meeting

  • Security
  • Y2K
  • recent list of issues/focuses brainstormed by ITAC at the end of 1999,
    • Wiring Project,
    • upgrades,
    • CIT,
    • network growth,
    • migration of administrative services onto Duke network,
    • remote access,
    • team work.

  1. ITAC has been asked to report to the Academic Council on its activities,progress, and successes. Robert Wolpert will be attempting to get this report on the agenda for the upcoming (Spring) meeting and asked for inputs/concerns that need to be taken forward.

    The ITAC members/rep's present suggested that we include the following:

Other Business

Several members asked about Charlie Register's recent surgery. Mike Pickett reported that Charlie was doing well.
The ITAC passed on their support and wishes for his rapid recovery.