To All,

January is the Data Privacy Month for Higher Education. Many events are going on around the country and online in support. BU Information Security has elected to schedule our semi-annual hard drive destruction service to align with this important effort.

This service is free to University clients.

Toward the middle of January, Information Security will be collecting media that needs to be securely disposed of (any device that was used to store sensitive information) arranging for its proper destruction. If you have media that needs to be destroyed—non-serviceable hard drives, magnetic tapes, etc.—place it in a box, with the amount of tapes and the amount of drives written on the outside and then contact me with those numbers.

Contact me before the end of the day, January 10th, so I can plan for your needs. I will arrange for multiple pickups on both campuses. If you have a large amount of drives (50+), I will arrange a pickup at or near your location.

Arthur Rosata
Director, Information Security
Boston University
(617) 353-9004
http://www.bu.edu/tech
ithelp@bu.edu

AppleCare OS Support delivers phone and email support for integration, migration, and advanced server operation issues. This includes AppleCare Help Desk Support, an annual technical support plan that covers an unlimited number of help desk-level support incidents for hardware and software diagnosis and troubleshooting and issue isolation for Apple-based solutions. Products covered include, but are not limited to, iPads, iPods, all Mac hardware, Mac OS X, iOS, Final Cut Express, and the iLife suite.

Why did we purchase this plan?

• The Apple platform has a strong presence on campus and it continues to grow. IS&T has heard from you, our partners, and our clients that true solutions to enterprise issues are desired. This plan will help facilitate accomplishing this, and IS&T has purchased it in response to your feedback.
• Apple mobile devices (iPads, iPhones) are rapidly growing in popularity across campus. They are being purchased and used in innovative ways in offices, in meetings, and in the classroom. The Preferred Plan will assist IS&T and its partners in providing support for these devices.
• The rise of iPads and iPhones on campus has also demonstrated the need for the adoption of a Mobile Device Management tool/software package to assist in deploying and managing these devices. The Preferred Plan will allow us to look to Apple for assistance in supporting and integrating this tool.
• Boston University is participating in Apple’s App Store Volume Purchasing Program. This is Apple’s solution to allow tax exempt institutions such as BU to purchase apps for iOS devices without paying sales tax. There is an additional benefit to this program as a volume discount on some apps is offered through the App Store when purchased in quantities of 20 or more. This program will likely encourage students, faculty, and staff to utilize Apple mobile devices even more than they already have, as schools begin to offer or require apps for classes. Again, this means BU will greatly benefit from the Preferred Plan, as a faster response time and no limitation on number of incidents that can be submitted will be key for technology that is becoming crucial in the classroom for education.

What’s the process for getting support?

You can create a ticket by calling the IT Help Center (353-4357), submitting information via TechWeb, or by sending an email to ithelp@bu.edu. Alternatively, partners already using ServiceNow can create a ticket within the tool and assign it to the assignment group “Service Desk.” When the Help Center receives the ticket it will evaluate whether the issue appears to be infrastructure/systems related. If it does, the ticket will be escalated to Systems who will then initiate contact with Apple. If it does not, the IT Help Center will initiate the ticket with Apple.

Please feel free to share this communication with your colleagues.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Stacy

Stacy Gianoulis
Director, IT Help Center
Information Services & Technology
T (617) 353-6884
stacyg@bu.edu
www.bu.edu/tech

In consultation with the Communication & Collaboration technology governance committee and various student and faculty representative groups, Information Services & Technology has developed a new email strategy that will be implemented this year. Student email services will move “to the cloud”; faculty and staff email will move to the latest Microsoft platform – Exchange 2010.

The student announcement will be made today: students may opt-in to a Beta version of BU Google Apps, a suite of services that includes BU Google Mail. All student email will be moving to the cloud over the next several months so that the student email transition is completed before the start of school in September 2011. In addition to Google Apps’ many useful features, this change also allows BU to offer another benefit: graduating students will be able to keep their login@bu.edu email address indefinitely.

The faculty and staff email transition will begin as early as June when we will transition faculty and staff currently using Exchange 2007 to a new Exchange 2010 platform. When this upgrade is complete, we will begin working with schools, colleges and departments to move faculty and staff who are currently on the ACS platform to Exchange 2010. One of the main benefits of moving all faculty and staff to Exchange will be the ability to schedule inter-departmental meetings and reserve conference rooms; another benefit is Exchange’s enhanced features and security. We anticipate that the move to Exchange will be completed in the spring of 2012, enabling the retirement of the ACS email service in September 2012.

In conjunction with the development of these plans, we reviewed regulations related to the privacy, security, and retention of email. SecureMail should continue to be used for sending email containing confidential or restricted use information, including HIPAA and FERPA data and social security numbers. For business and compliance reasons, we strongly encourage faculty and staff to migrate to Exchange as soon as it is offered to your department.

If you do not wish to use Exchange, and your administration does not require you to use it for calendaring or collaboration purposes, we recommend that you use BU Google Mail instead of forwarding BU email to a consumer service. This will let us provide you with enhanced services and helps meet compliance requirements.

The BU Google Apps collaboration services – BU Google Mail, BU Google Calendar, BU Google Docs, and BU Google Sites – are available to all faculty and staff. Instructions for enabling your BU Google Apps account are available on our website.

Please contact us with any questions or comments at 617-353-4357 or ithelp@bu.edu. We look forward to working with you to make this transition a smooth one.

Boston University Information Services & Technology
IT Help Center
ithelp@bu.edu
617-353-HELP(4357)
www.bu.edu/tech