Welcome to the new electronic version of the Inside ITS Newsletter! Inside ITS will continue to keep users informed about technology services available at Weill Cornell.
In this issue:
- Online Directory Beta debuts at WCMC
- Inaugural SMARTFest presents latest ITS and Library services to WCMC community
- New HPC Co-op to facilitate advanced computing needs at WCMC
- What are the Disaster Recovery gains from the BRB data center?
- eFax service changes bring free tier to WCMC users
- New WCMC templates on the way
- iLab offers solutions for core facility, lab, and inventory management
- Enhancements to eIRB and Conflicts systems
Have you updated your profile?
Online Directory Beta debuts at WCMC
ITS released
Online Directory Beta to the WCMC
community-at-large last fall. The new directory contains more robust data about faculty and staff at the college,
including phone numbers, location, division, and more. Throughout the next year, additional features, such as
profile photos, will be released.
But first thing's first: it's time to update your profile. Since the Online Directory is currently in beta, it's pulling from older databases that may contain outdated information. So far, over 20,000 searches have been made on the Online Directory. Checking your profile will ensure that your colleagues are able to find the most accurate information during a search.
As of now, 1,400 users have actually logged into the directory with their CWIDs to navigate the site, with some updating their personal information. If you have not had a chance to log into your profile, now is the best time to check! You can view our instructions in the Help section if you need assistance to log into Online Directory Beta and update your profile.
Please note that there will be some fields you can't edit, including:
- CWID
- Employee ID
- Legal First, Middle or Last Name
- Job Title
- Department-Division
- Department Name
- Division Name
- Department Administrator
- Division Administrator
- WCMC Email
Human Resources handles any errors or necessary changes in these fields. Changes should be submitted via an Employee Change Form to your Department Administrator (this excludes legal name changes, which you can submit yourself to hr-infomanagement@med.cornell.edu with a Personal Data Change Form).
If you experience any other issues using the directory, please contact the Service Desk at support@med.cornell.edu or 212-746-4878.
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Inaugural SMARTFest presents latest ITS and Library services to WCMC community
Since its inception a year ago, the SMARTDesk at the Wood Library has been well received among faculty, staff, and students at WCMC. In celebration of the SMARTDesk's first year, ITS and Library staff held SMARTFest on December 19 to reach out to users and inform them of achievements and upcoming projects and services.
Held at the Wood Library, patrons were able to visit tables where staff could assist them in demoing different services, like Virtual Desktops, uCentral, Microsoft Lync, VIVO, and other services. Visitors were also treated to a pizza lunch while they explored what ITS and the Library had to offer.
ITS Computer Technician Dannie Boncenor (left) demonstrates how Virtual Desktops work across several devices during SMARTFest.
Here is the full
list of services presented at SMARTFest. If you have any questions about these services, please contact the
Service Desk at support@med.cornell.edu or 646-746-4878.
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New HPC Co-op to facilitate advanced computing needs at WCMC
In mid-2013, ITS, along with research faculty and staff, started the High Performance Computing Co-operative (HPC Co-op). The HPC Co-op’s mission is to facilitate communication and share information about the advanced computing needs and approaches of research scientists at Weill Cornell. The Co-op also assesses upcoming advanced computing purchases and, when practical, pools those purchases to create negotiating leverage with vendors.
In preparation for the influx of new researchers and their associated high performance computing needs, ITS has designated specific sections of the new data center in the Belfer Research Building (BRB) with this type of computing. In addition, we are assessing whether our current data center in 1300 York Avenue can be reconfigured to support the extreme power and cooling requirements that come with HPC.
To facilitate moving large amounts of research data at high speeds between these data centers, as well as to and from data acquisition points (e.g., gene sequencers and radiology imaging) throughout the Weill Cornell network, we are building a high-speed network designed specifically for this type of data movement. This network – already complete in the BRB and currently being extended to other areas of campus – runs at 10 to 100 times the speed of the current data network. A message regarding the implementation of the high-speed network and how to add systems to it was sent to department chairs and administrators in November. If you are interested in learning more about this network, please contact Ben Nathan at ben2001@med.cornell.edu.
The HPC Co-op is open to all and has at least quarterly meetings, facilitated by ITS. If you would like to learn more
about the co-op, or are interested in joining, please contact Krishna Sankhavaram at mas2193@med.cornell.edu.
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What are the Disaster Recovery gains from BRB data center?
Who could forget Superstorm Sandy and the havoc that it wreaked?
To ITS, it was one of our worst nightmares; ConEd had informed us that 575 Lexington power was going to turned off.
Needless to say, having a data center without a generator is risky business. Fortunately, we were already building
the new data center in the Belfer Research Building (BRB) before the storm. These are just a few of the benefits the
new BRB data center will provide in the event of another disaster:
Power benefit. The BRB data center will be a generator-supported operation from day one. As we invest millions of dollars on new IT hardware, we have the confidence knowing that we have a generator to fall back on if power gets disrupted plus having greater uninterruptible power supply (UPS) capacity. Power is our lifeline.
Re-architected services benefit. Rather than shipping the existing 575 Lexington devices to the BRB data center, time is being spent to re-architect our compute and storage capabilities to optimize our services for our customers, and improve our recovery times when future disasters occur. For example, we expect our recovery times for departmental file share service to dramatically improve from 11 days to one day, and voicemail to bounce back as a self-healing recovered service when it previously took one to four days to restore (see table below).
Infrastructure services benefit. The BRB data center wins on two fronts. First, better cooling capacity will be available immediately. Second, the data center will soon have a 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC) where we can proactively monitor the health of our BRB data center.
Inside the new data center at the BRB.
Non-NYC presence benefit. The hardened 4,000 square-foot BRB data center does not replace the need to establish a non-NYC presence. In early 2014, ITS will offer an archival service that will be hosted in Ithaca. Beyond this, other clinical, infrastructure, and backup services are being seriously considered at Ithaca and/or in a different co-location site.
One thing is for sure - there will be no shortage of disasters. What should change is how well we respond to these
challenges, and the new BRB data center is a key building block of ITS' improved resiliency to our customers.
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eFax service changes bring free tier to WCMC users
Starting in 2014, ITS will be changing its eFax pricing
structure to implement a service tier that will be free for users who need faxing services on an infrequent basis.
Currently, ITS offers a flat service fee of $50 to users who send and receive faxes electronically through their PCs, or via traditional analog or multi-functional machine. To accommodate more users, we will now be offering a new tier of service in which users can electronically send less than 100 pages a month via eFax at no charge. (Received faxes are always subject to a fee.) Users will also be able to set up this service on their own.
Another lower-cost tier will charge users $35 per month to electronically send and receive faxes. These messages can be output to an email address, listserv, network printer, and/or a file share.
The highest fax volume includes sending and receiving 100 or more faxes electronically or through a multi-functional printer for $65. Any analog machines connected to eFax would also include a $25 monthly charge.
On the technical side, users can look forward to improved functionality as ITS upgrades our eFax servers at the end
of the year. As we get closer to implementing these service changes, more information will be sent to users on what
they can expect and how they can set up their eFax service. Please contact the Service Desk if you have any
questions about eFax.
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New WCMC templates on the way
Having clear and
consistent branding is critical for any institution and Weill Cornell is no exception. As a result, the ITS Web
Communications team is currently working to create better WCMC-branded document templates for various uses.
Faculty, staff, and students who need to create business documents or presentations will benefit from better
typography and optimized formatting. Templates are being developed for both Microsoft Office and Apple iWork
application suites, as well as Adobe Illustrator format for posters. Look for the new templates in the first quarter
of 2014; they will be automatically installed for VDI users, and available through Microsoft SMS and the ITS
Downloads page.
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iLab offers solutions for core facility, lab, and inventory management
The Research Administrative Computing team is excited to continue
the rollout of iLab, a hosted browser-based, facility management software, to additional cores and laboratories at
WCMC.
The application allows the cores' customers to request services and schedule the use of and training for equipment specific to each core or lab. Core personnel will use the software to manage reservations, track equipment, and automate billing through integration with WCMC's SAP system. Communication with core customers is facilitated by the system, allowing core managers to respond to requests and provide the status of services being provided.
iLab is used by nearly 10,000 researchers in labs and core facilities across more than 50 institutions worldwide. iLab is now available at no charge to all WCMC faculty and students who require the equipment and/or services of an iLab core.
You can register for an account on our iLab page (available on the WCMC network). Currently, there are five core facilities using iLab with many more to come soon.
While iLab will be replacing the Enterprise Enabler Laboratory Information System (eeLIMS), it is not a LIMS system in the traditional sense. iLab is a Core Facility Management System that facilitates the administrative management of the lab. LIMS have traditionally been informatics-based systems centered on sample data analysis, management and reporting. Frequently, laboratory personnel are seeing a convergence of many of these tools into a single software offering.
Please note that eeLIMS will be sunset by the second quarter of 2014, when all WCMC cores currently using the
software will have been migrated to iLab. For any questions regarding eeLIMS or iLab, please contact Janelle Estes
at jae3003@med.cornell.edu.
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Enhancements to eIRB and Conflicts systems
In the past year, Research Administrative Computing (RAC) has scheduled several deployments to enhance the eIRB and Conflicts of Interest (COI) systems. eIRB's changes include:
- System-wide color change to enhance readability
- Removed the interface between COI and eIRB for simplified workflow
- Numerous text and branching logic changes to questionnaires to ease the submission process
- Added 4,000 character count text boxes to specified questionnaires; additionally, creating a character counter and red warning box within these fields indicating when the limit has been reached.
- Made additions to the search functionality
- Renamed many fields for ease of use
- Added a lock-out window for expiring protocols
- Provided several email enhancements
- Removed specified departments from the protocol routing
- Provided enhancements for reviewers, including a link to the Currently Active Protocol from the Amendment, CR or CR w/Amendment; and an option to view all attachments within a review guide, in addition to generating a PDF of the protocol from any review guide
COI has also undergone system-wide color changes for easier readability. Other enhancements include:
- Fiscal year rollover
- Added functionality for the administrators; including add new columns to search and allowing the ability to filter by CWID
- Created character count for the Title field of Study Specific Reports
- Created new branching logic that sends an Annual Survey with a new entity through the review process again
- Reconfigured notification templates
- Added the option of "N/A" to the third question on the first page of Annual Survey
If you have any questions about these systems, please contact the RAC team at rac-support@med.cornell.edu.
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