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Our Last Blog Post

This post will be our last blog post.  Since starting this blog in 2015, we've published each week of the school year on various IT topics.  We'd like to thank the readers, as well as those who helped to create the blog content, for sticking with the blog these last 3 years.  It has been a pleasure serving you with this blog over the years, and we hope you have enjoyed reading it.

Instead of this blog, we will be shifting our attention to our public wiki pages at https://wikis.utexas.edu

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Cloud Computing Options

Cloud computing services are a hot topic right now.  While there are many options available to the UT-Austin community, in this blog I want to highlight three services offered by the University.

First, UT offers a virtual machine infrastructure housed in UDC called UT-VMG (UT Virtual Machine Gateway).  This service is based on the VMware vSphere Virtual Infrastructure suite and vRealize Automation. You can quickly provision your own virtual machines, even modify them on the fly1.  The cost is fairly modest for virtual machines.

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Skype for Business

Skype for Business (sometimes known as Microsoft Lync, and not to be confused with the commercial version of Skype) is a feature-rich instant messaging and video chat client that is available to faculty and staff at no extra cost as part of our Office 365 service.  Skype for Business features instant messaging, voice or video calling, online meetings with video conferencing for up to six concurrent users1, screen sharing, whiteboard, and more.

Skype for Business is available for Windows, Mac, and most mobile devices.  If you

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Spring Break

Spring Break is almost upon us! While many of you will be on vacation for Spring Break, others of us will be busy working to further improve your Information Technology resources here on campus.  CNS planned work can always be found at http://status.cns.utexas.edu/  (you can subscribe to alerts here to make sure you are always informed about both schedule maintenance and unscheduled incidents).

If you will be on vacation for Spring Break, and haven't been told otherwise,  please consider turning off

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OneDrive for Business

Microsoft’s OneDrive for Business is now available for faculty and staff, providing the UT community yet another cloud-based storage service option that allows easy access to files from anywhere on any device. OneDrive users get 1TB of available storage space.

With OneDrive for Business, you can select which files you wish to sync. You can then access synced files on your device from anywhere, and unsynced files from anywhere with an Internet connection. (Synced files will automatically reconcile your changes with copies in cloud storage once your device has an

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Welcome Back, Happy New Year!

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope you had a relaxing break and that you're refreshed and ready for an outstanding spring semester.

As you return, please make sure that you do your operating system and software updates if you are responsible for your own systems -- no need to end a nice relaxing break cleaning up your machine after a break-in or compromise.  (It is also a good time to make sure you've updated all your personal machines and mobile devices.)

We'd also like to take the opportunity to remind you to have strong passwords or

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Holiday Break

The Holidays are upon us! The university will be closed next week, with only skeleton crews working when and where needed.

Of course IT needs to keep running, so some of our OIT staff will be either working or on call. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all OIT employees, including those working over the breaks.

Unless you've been told otherwise by your system administrators or TSCs, please remember to turn off your computers and printers over the break.  Not only will this save money and electricity, but it helps prevent attacks

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Speed up your Old iPhone

If you have an older iPhone or iPad that you've been using for a while and that has been through several iOS upgrades, chances are you've noticed its running ever slower.  This happens for two reasons:

  1. Each new OS release has more features, meant to take advantage of the latest, fastest new iPhones' and iPads' hardware.  Hence, each new release runs slower on older devices.
  2. Over time, use and upgrades cause the system to slow down due to a variety of reasons.

The first cause can be fixed only by buying a newer

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Start the Year Off Strong -- With a Strong Password!

As the fall semester starts, we'd like to take the opportunity to remind you to have strong passwords, or passphrases, for all your online accounts and to change them at least yearly.

(Check out this list of the world's weakest passwords: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/21/what-is-the-worlds-weakest-password)

Please remember that the security of any system is only as good as its weakest link. Don’t make your accounts vulnerable with 

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Welcome to UT Austin

With the start of the Fall Semester, we would like to welcome all the new students to UT Austin!

Among the first things that students new to UT Austin should do, is getting their laptops and cellphones set up to gain access to campus IT resources.

You will want your cellphone configured for:

two-factor authentication (via Duo Mobile)
access to the campus WiFi network
access to your university email account

You will want your laptop configured for:

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