A look ahead at UW-IT’s focus for the next year
Read about a few of our initiatives planned for FY 2022 and beyond to support the work of the University.
Lowering risk, improving cybersecurity at the UW
The UW Office of the Chief Information Security Officer will collaborate with Compliance & Risk Services and UW Medicine Security on six new projects: cyber insurance, incident response, business continuity, IT vendor risk management, account lifecycle management, and compliance. The initiatives are sponsored by UW Medicine and UW-IT CIOs, with support of the Board of Regents and UW President.
MyPlan feature and architecture enhancements
MyPlan, used by students for academic planning, will get new features to improve usability and cloud-based architecture enhancements to improve performance, scalability, security, and data insights.
Enhancing teaching and learning apps for a better student experience
To help students discover and progress in their UW journey, “DawgPath” will provide a single user experience, combining features of Prereq Map and the Pivot advising tool. Canvas will provide a more robust quizzing engine, with its UW-IT support team at-the-ready for instructors. For students who’ve applied for and confirmed graduation, MyUW will offer improved support for status and messaging, and priority course registration. MyUW also will help students connect with departmental advisers.
Investing in the UW’s tech infrastructure
To support the UW’s growth and modernization of facilities and spaces, UW-IT will continue investing significant funds in critical technology infrastructure. Multi-year efforts focus on replacing wired and wireless network and telecomm equipment as these technologies reach end-of-life, and more advanced technology is needed. The campus network equipment refresh, Routing to the Edge, is one key initiative. UW-IT is providing technology for many new University buildings and renovations — on all three campuses and beyond.
Hybrid cloud initiative for Hyak
A new dynamic “burst” hybrid cloud strategy for the UW’s supercomputer, Hyak, will optimize costs, energy, and resource availability and provide a better experience for researchers. This new strategy will burst data-intensive workflows to the cloud when the needs of the job favor the cloud or otherwise retain workflows on Hyak. This new capability will also allow short-term expansion of computing power for an executing job by supplying additional compute nodes in the cloud when faster overall throughput is needed.
New combined data portal, with better UX
The BI Portal is being consolidated with UW Profiles and rebuilt to create a single, more intuitive reporting portal that provides an improved user experience and enhanced metadata capabilities. Ongoing enhancements to the platform will allow for automated processes and easier, faster updates.
Reimagining technology website
IT Connect — the University’s go-to website for tech tools, services and support — is being rebuilt to better serve the UW community. The project entails multiple opportunities for students, faculty and staff to provide input to ensure the site has clearer navigation, better search and other user-driven enhancements.
Enable modernized support capabilities in UW Connect
UW-IT customers needing support will be able to chat with IT experts and use a virtual agent to quickly find relevant resources, as part of enhancements for the UW Connect service management platform. The enhancements will also modernize and streamline support functions for Technology Service Center staff and UW-IT service teams. These changes will influence the configuration of UW Connect for UWFT’s operating model and self-service resources.
Support for UW Finance Transformation (UWFT)
UW-IT continues investing considerable resources in supporting UWFT’s goal to unite disparate financial systems and processes into a single source of trusted, timely, reliable financial information. UW-IT teams will implement complex changes to the Enterprise Data Platform — data conversions, integrations and data architecture. For hundreds of downstream systems, UW-IT will contribute additional data, integration development and reporting capability.
BI Portal for coming legacy financial data
In preparation for the University’s future business needs for legacy financial data after UWFT’s Workday launch, a project is exploring use of the BI Portal. The work is expected to build on the success of the BI Portal for legacy HR and payroll data.