UIS Staff and IT Community Engagement 2021

Given the plan to decommission the Managed Web Service (MWS) later this calendar year, we will hear from and can engage with the Cambridge-based Mythic Beasts who have extensive understanding of our University systems and challenges, and local/international hosting options.

In addition, following the successful Network+ training pilot, the four Universities comprising the COGEnT (Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow, Edinburgh) consortium have agreed with CompTIA to follow up with some Cloud training. CompTIA will introduce their Cloud Essentials and Cloud+ courses, and next steps for a mixed cloud training pilot (with a few sponsored places, and favourable academic pricing).

This session will provide updates about the service migration from Hermes to Exchange Online.

There will also be an update about a paper being sent to the Email Scrutiny Committee on 30 March concerning:

1. the deprecation of TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1 in PPSW

2. hosts using PPSW to send email from the CUDN

3. SPF and DKIM.

The presentation will be followed by time for questions and discussion.

Presentations from Dr. Philip Hazel on Perl Compatible Regular Expressions PCRE & Deloitte - Robotic process automation RPA

Philip Hazel (retired UCS staff, developer of exim) will provide an overview of the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) library, used by many high-profile open source (e.g. Apache, exim, KDE, PHP, Postfix, Nmap) and commercial (e.g. Apple Safari) projects.

Deloitte presenters will introduce and share examples of their use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Matthew Spaul (Robotics and Intelligent Automation Consultant) and David Adams (Risk Advisory) will show evolving use cases for RPA "to capture and interpret existing IT applications to enable transaction processing, data manipulation and communication across multiple IT systems."

Presentations from representatives of Amazon Web Services

Agenda:

• Migration, Modernisation and Transformation
• Different Migration Paths
• Patterns of Modernisation
• Technology to help
  • Serverless (e.g. https://www.serverless.com/learn/why)
  • Containers (e.g. https://www.docker.com/resources/what-container)
  • Infrastructure as Code (e.g. https://www.terraform.io)
• Research and Ronin (https://ronin.cloud)
• Thinking Beyond

• 14:15: Some Light in the Cloud - Azure at Cambridge Enterprise

Dr. Paul Seabright (Deputy Director) and Matt Whiting (CTO) of Cambridge Enterprise <http://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk> will share some of the ups and downs of their transition from on-premise to the cloud, which has been more rapid and radical than many of our institutions. As the University's knowledge transfer organisation, Cambridge Enterprise uses commercial avenues to develop the outputs of University research into successful products and services that benefit society. Their lessons and caveats may help others consider the practicalities when implementing a 'cloud first' strategy.

• 15:00: Software Sleuthing - National Frameworks & Software Licence Resellers Agreement (SLRA)

The new SLRA, available via SUPC <https://www.supc.ac.uk/frameworks> and other University purchasing consortia <https://www.ukupc.ac.uk>, provides multiple pre-negotiated agreements (lots) for software and services, working with a range of suppliers to help save institutions time and money. Academia, key supplier for lots such as with Adobe and VMware licensing <https://edu.academia.co.uk/software-slra>, will provide an overview and practical introduction how to make use of the new SLRA.

• 14:15: Web Accessibility

Web accessibility has become essential for better and more inclusive interaction, helping address barriers to effective communication.

• 15:00: TLS Certificate Service

UIS' TLS Certificate Service is changing, to offer a more comprehensive range at no cost, a faster self-service model, in many cases automatic renewal.

A more advanced look at options and use of the Azure cloud, including discounts via a framework agreement.

Presenters from Microsoft and Phoenix Software, Cambridge's key Microsoft partner, will explore options for using the Azure cloud for office, teaching and research purposes, with particular reference to:

• Azure AD - key features, options for using it
• Consultancy services to assist with transitioning from traditional on-premise infrastructure to the cloud
• Ongoing support services to ensure that institutions get the best out of their investment in Azure moving forwards
• Facilitating access to a range of free of charge Microsoft/Phoenix training workshops, learning platforms, etc.
• Providing information on access to grants/funding from Geant and Microsoft
• 15% discount on Azure PAYG metered prices, via Phoenix Software and OCRE framework (Jisc notice)

Along with this overview, there will be an opportunity for Q&A, and options for individual follow-ups for anyone wishing to explore the possibilities further.

Updates on UIS's Relationship Management and Portfolio Management

• User Needs, Project Priorities, and Portfolio Developments
• Relationship Management overview
  • interactions, processes, examples
  • Schools, Colleges, NSIs, UAS, et al
• IT Portfolios overview
  • purpose, governance, processes
  • Education, Research, Business Systems, Infrastructure

Customised Clouds?

• Amazon presenters will provide an overview of:
  • AWS (Amazon Web Services) workstations
  • various options for virtual workstations

Please note that there is a UIS AWS framework agreement - https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/network-services/hosting-services/AWS

• Hashicorp presenters will provide an overview of:
  • Terraform - https://www.terraform.io
  • Infrastructure-as-Code options
  • enabling portability of servers and workstations

• Framework for University IT Community, sharing information, expertise, support, CPD
  • collaborating with Oxford, Glasgow, Edinburgh (COGEnT)
    • and US universities (Harvard, Yale, Cornell, etc.)
  • possible ‘cloud club’ - in discussions with Amazon, Google, Microsoft
    • potential for shared credits, sandbox, mutual testing (any interest?)

• Reviewing concerns of IT Community, e.g. shared planning and troubleshooting
  • From the archives - particular issues raised by the community - 2019-2021

• TechLink Advisory Group
  • improving collaboration, feedback, communication and sharing

• For Reference: Technology in higher education: defining the strategic leader - joint Jisc and EDUCAUSE report
  • https://www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/technology-in-higher-education-defining-the-strategic-leader#how_to_use

Customised Clouds? - Google Cloud presenters will provide an overview of:

• Google Earth Engine - 20 minutes
  • Review of this new offering, e.g. for researchers and IOT use cases

• Cloud Journey - 20 minutes
  • perspective on evolution and applicability of cloud
  • from "Cloud 1.0" (migrating VMs from on-premise to a public cloud data centre)
  • to Digital Transformation and adoption of cloud native technologies

• Containerisation, Cloud Run & Kubernetes - 20 minutes
  • where, when should you consider it, what are the benefits?

• Review of Google Cloud Research Credits and Teaching/Learning Credits - 10 minutes
  • potential applicability at the University

• Open Discussion, Q & A, Contingency - 15 minutes

For reference: Hands on guide to Google Cloud - https://techdesign.uis.cam.ac.uk/en/latest/guidance/hands-on-google-cloud

We are undertaking a short exploratory research project on Identity and Access Management (six weeks). Reporting recommendations and findings from interviews with SMEs from the wider Cambridge communities, to understand the broad range of topics, issues and needs in the organisation.

This will be submitted to the UIS Technical Design Authority and associated groups for consideration. The aim is to evidence the need for a more robust Discovery and Requirements phase to inform and design the right solution for the future of IAM. Also to help shape the roadmap of how we move from our current situation to a far more robust and modern future.

During this project we will be capturing & understanding a broad range topics including but not exclusively:

• Defining Identity and access management
• Business needs
• Internal & end user needs
• Technology limitations, issues & needs
• Future technology needs
• Organisational impact
• Processes & governance
• Risks & Issues (immediate & longer term)
• Legal and security issues

We would like to share the project process with you and would like to have an initial discussion about your burgeoning issues, concerns and topics.

An open discussion:

• Following MCS review and report ('Review of managed desktop provision (UIS)' - 13 April 2022)
• User Requirements - hardware, software (local, inter-institutional, visitors)
• Decommissioning & Future Direction - emerging technology options
• Requested by CITMG (https://www.citmg.group.cam.ac.uk)

• 14:15-14:55 – Microsoft Defender – Overview of environment, followed by Q&A
• 14:55-15:05 – Brief Break
• 15:05-15:45 – Internal and external collaboration on Teams, following by Q&A
  • Federated Collaboration vs Guest Collaboration (communications & file sharing)
  • Shared Channels
  • External and Guest collaboration governance
  • Q & A

Phoenix are happy to follow up and engage individually as well, to discuss specific requirements as appropriate.

• 14:15-14:55 – Microsoft Viva (https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-viva) - 'unify the employee experience'
  • 'brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights ... [into] Teams and Outlook'
    • 'Please join us for an overview and immersive demo showing the 'art of the possible' with ...
      Microsoft Viva: Topics, Connections, Goals, Insights, Learning'
  • Presented with Phoenix Software (https://phoenixs.co.uk)
    • followed by Q&A

• 15:00-15:45 – Egress (https://www.egress.com) - demonstrating their 'Intelligent Email Security Software'
  • (interactive, anti-phishing, AI-enhanced inbound/outbound protection, integrated into Microsoft 365)
    • "Avoiding the blame game when humans make mistakes, and
      empowering your colleagues to avoid the phish and outbound threats that bypass Microsoft."
  • Presented with C-STEM (https://www.c-stem.co.uk)
    • followed by Q&A

The Next Generation of IP Register at Cambridge

This seminar kicks off the consultation on the future of DDI (DNS, DHCP and IP address management) at the University of Cambridge.

You'll learn how these services currently work, and how they are managed. Then we'll describe the challenges we're facing with the current systems, and some of the opportunities we have to make improvements. Finally, we'll introduce our proposal for future development of these services.

Presented by Rob Bricheno of the UIS Network Systems group

• 14:15-14:55 – Egress (https://www.egress.com) - demonstrating their 'Intelligent Email Security Software'
  • (interactive, anti-phishing, AI-enhanced inbound/outbound protection, integrated into Microsoft 365)
    • "Avoiding the blame game when humans make mistakes, and
      empowering your colleagues to avoid the phish and outbound threats that bypass Microsoft."
  • Presented with C-STEM (https://www.c-stem.co.uk)
    • followed by Q&A

• 15:00-15:45 - TrueNAS (https://www.truenas.com) - Software Defined Storage (SDS)
  • Open Source ZFS - Scalable Open/Community and Configured/Commercial SDS
  • Ransomware Protection, Immutable storage, Virtualisation and Containers, scale-out / scale-up options, mixed storage management
  • Presented with Esdebe & iXsystems
    • followed by Q&A

• 14:15-14:55 – Elastic (https://www.elastic.co) - Free and Open Search - Creators of:
  • Elasticsearch, ELK stack, Kibana dashboard
    • Data Search/Analytics/Visualisation (e.g. IoT, NASA Rover, Shared Cybersecurity)
      • e.g. Oxford Infosec, Edinburgh (IoT), OmniSOC (shared security operations center for HE/research)
  • Presented by Elastic - followed by Q&A

• 15:00-15:45 - Getech (https://www.getech.co.uk)
  • Some advanced and novel computer uses in education technology - e.g.
    • Lego Education - e.g. IoT (Internet of Things) potentials
    • Merlyn Mind - e.g. AI in Education/digital assistant examples
  • Presented by Getech - followed by Q&A

Phoenix Software are University partners for Microsoft and also work with a portfolio of other vendors, including in the Security Data Protection fields. Phoenix will provide a brief overview of the areas and vendors they cover.

They also are partners for Microsoft and other providers of options for virtualising more of the IT environment, whether locally or in private and public cloud systems.

Among the areas of increasing significance is the flexibility of software-defined storage (SDS) and software-defined networking (SDN), both of which are key aspects of working with virtual machines and cloud-based systems - and an overview of these will be included.

• 14:15 – Vendor/Solutions Overview
• 14:30 – Storage/Connectivity Overview
• 14:50 – Q&A
• 15:00 – Close

Getech are bringing their partners from Lenovo and Lego Education for a hybrid event:

• Lego Education will share some of their smart learning tech (e.g. AI/ML & IoT options)
• Lenovo showcasing some of their XR (AR/VR) tech - e.g. ThinkReality smart glasses
• this is a hybrid event - online for those who cannot attend - in-person with hands-on with the Lenovo & Lego tech
• the venue is kindly provided by our colleagues in the Judge Business School

Agenda (TBC)

• 14:05 – Vendor/Solutions Overview
• 14:30 – Lego Education tech
• 14:50 – Q&A
• 15:00 – Lenovo XR (AR/VR) tech
• 15:30 – Q&A
• 15:45 – Hands-on with the tech

Hope you will join us!