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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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UDC Network Upgrades

The network in the University Data Center (UDC) will soon be upgraded to ensure continued stability and performance. The current data center network was purchased in 2010 and is near its end of vendor support. 

The new network has already been installed in parallel to the existing network and is undergoing testing. Migration of approximately 750 customer devices will take place starting in late October.  Migrations will be done  one rack pair at a time, in order to lower the risk for individual customers as the migrations take place.  The old

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Upcoming SHA-256 SSL Certificate Requirements

Most web sites, e-mail servers, database servers, and other internet services protect their data with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates to ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of the site and its data. An SSL certificate is a small data file that associates a cryptographic key to an organization or end user. Any time you use a browser to access a web site with the https:// protocol, the server is using an SSL certificate

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CNS Sites Vanity Names Now Available

As we published last week in CNS Sites: A Self-Service Web Hosting Platform, we've made available a self-service web hosting service called CNS Sites.

One of the problems with migrating an existing site to CNS Sites is changing the URL of your existing site.  To help with this, we've set up a proxy to provide "vanity domains" for existing sites moving to CNS Sites.  This means that if you have an existing site you want to move to CNS Sites, then in most cases you can keep

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Updates to Central ITS Services

Over the last several months, the university-level Information Technology Services (ITS) group and the Information Security Office (ISO)  have made some important upgrades to several of their service offerings.  We wanted to review some of these changes here to make sure you know about these changes.

  • Wireless network bandwidth increases:  The wireless bandwidth quotas for faculty and staff have been raised to 2 Terabytes per week (previously 500 GB/week)
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Web Central and UTS Retirements

In the summer of 2016, Information Technology Services (ITS) will retire Web Central, the legacy shared Web hosting and UNIX Timesharing System (UTS) email service at the university.

Web Central Websites

• All Web Central websites within the www.utexas.edu domain and virtual hosts must be migrated or archived by the end of June 2016

• If you have not yet set a deadline for migrating your websites or determined that they can be archived, please email web@utexas.edu

• The

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Upcoming SHA-256 SSL Certificate Requirements

Most web sites, e-mail servers, database servers, and other internet services protect their data with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates to ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of the site and its data. An SSL certificate is a small data file that associates a cryptographic key to an organization or end user. Any time you use a browser to access a web site with the https:// protocol, the server is using an SSL certificate to authenticate the identity of the server and secure that connection.

One of the recent security shifts in the IT industry is the transition from

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UTBox -- An Introduction

UTBox is a free cloud storage and file sharing service available to UT Austin faculty staff and students for business and academic purposes.  UTBox features:

  • Unlimited storage and file sharing for approved group accounts (e.g., departments, research groups, etc)
  • 2 TB (terrabyte) storage and file sharing account for Faculty and Staff
  • 150 GB (gigabyte) storage and file sharing account for students
  • Certified for storing some kinds of Category I data
  • Built-in collaboration tools
  • Securely share files across campus or across
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The Benefits of Moving Your Commodity Servers to the UDC

Effective September 1, 2014, a change in University policy requires all commodity IT services to be either physically or virtually located within the University Data Center (UDC). The policy applies only to commodity IT services. "Commodity" IT servers are defined as "web servers, mail servers, file servers, database servers, and directory servers" in colleges, departments, and units.  (Exceptions may be requested via the UT ISO office).

The University Data Center is a professionally managed enterprise-class data center located on campus, and available (at reasonable cost) to

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