Vice President for Information Technology Status and Activity Report for October 2024 Prepared by Timothy M. Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT) 1. Key Items for Faculty and Staff Meetings •
Fall Network Maintenance Rescheduled: EITS network maintenance, originally scheduled on Sunday, September 29th, was postponed due to inclement weather. The maintenance is now being rescheduled and will be on Sunday, October 27th from 4 a.m. until midnight. Network maintenances are necessary to continue to support the network, allowing EITS to provide ample bandwidth and Internet capacity to the University in the future. We typically conduct large network maintenances twice a year, during which campus Internet and campus information systems are usually inaccessible; the spring maintenance will be on Sunday, March 2nd. For questions, contact Rayid Tartir at rayid@uga.edu.
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Information Security Town Hall October 28: On Monday, October 28th, from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., EITS will hold an Information Security Town Hall meeting in Room 271 of the Special Collections Library. During this time important security-related topics will be discussed. University Vice President’s, Dean’s and campus IT leaders are encouraged to attend this town hall meeting.
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State of IT Scheduled for November 20: Dr. Timothy M. Chester’s annual State of Technology at UGA address will be held on Wednesday, November 20 at 1:30 p.m. The address will be fully virtual and will be held as a Teams webinar. More information will follow as it becomes available.
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Fall Cybersecurity Training Due October 31: University System of Georgia employees, including student workers, must complete spring cybersecurity awareness training by October 31. This required training takes place twice a year in April and October per USG policy and a directive by the executive order of Governor Brian Kemp. This professionally developed training is conducted online through KnowBe4 and provides a comprehensive education on good cybersecurity practices. To complete the training, log in to the KnowBe4 Portal at https://training.knowbe4.com/auth/saml/8840131a04b53 with your UGA MyID and password. Through October, you may receive several reminders about completing the training to your UGAMail. These automated reminders will come from Ben Myers at bmyers@uga.edu and will have the subject line: USG Mandatory Cybersecurity Awareness Training Due October 31, 2024. Faculty, staff, and student employees who have questions about the training should contact the EITS Help Desk at 706-542-3106 or email at helpdesk@uga.edu.
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Request for proposal process under way for enterprise survey tool: A search is underway to potentially identify a new enterprise survey research tool for the University of Georgia, which could result in a decommission of Qualtrics by August 1, 2025. Current plans are to share an update on the outcome of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process and the name of the next enterprise survey research vendor by mid-fall 2024. As part of this evaluation, all campus units that rely on Qualtrics should review their current and future Qualtrics use. Regardless of the tool chosen through the RFP process, any forms built in Qualtrics that are currently being used for purposes outside of survey research projects will need to transition to other platforms before August 1, 2025. More information on the enterprise survey tool project, including alternative tools, is available on the EITS website:
VPIT Status and Activity Report for October 2024
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