Technology Activity
and Status Report
April 2010
SCCUR 2010 Conference Update. This fall Pepperdine University will host the Southern Cali-
fornia Conference on Undergraduate Research (SCCUR). The conference draws awareness to faculty-
mentored, undergraduate research and other scholarly activities within academic institutions. Technology
and Learning staff will join Dr. Stephen Davis of Seaver College on Saturday, April 10 at the SCCUR
board meeting at Cal Poly Pomona to unveil an IT-developed web application that will allow under-
graduate students to submit conference presentation proposals online. Technology and Learning staff will
demo the application, answer questions, and collect design feedback from SCCUR board members.
New Cisco Telephone System Installed in Irvine and Encino. On Pepperdine's Irvine
campus, several IT staff members migrated 97 phones, extensions, and voicemail accounts to the new
Cisco telephone system with no downtime to end users. The Encino campus deployment also con-
cluded this month. The IT project team has begun to coordinate and plan for the West Los Angeles
campus deployment this summer. Following the West Los Angles deployment, Westlake and the Dre-
scher campus will receive the new telephone system. This fall, IT staff will begin the planning and assess-
ment phase for the lower Malibu campus deployment.
Page Conference Room to Receive Technology Upgrade. The Page Conference Room,
located in the Thornton Administrative Center, will receive new technology in May. IT staff will install a
high definition video conferencing unit, a new projector, a Smart Sympodium, and a new computer in
the conference room.
Public Safety Moves Toward NComputing. With the support of Pepperdine IT, the office of
Public Safety plans to purchase and install eight NComputing desktop units. NComputing is a virtual
computing technology that allows one personal computer to support up to 30 users. This technology
reduces the cost of a personal computer by nearly 75 percent and requires only 20 percent of the en-
ergy of a typical personal computer.
Data Center Virtualization Project Builds on Success. Last month IT announced an an-
nual cost savings of approximately $34,000 as a result of virtualizing 25 percent of the Malibu data cen-
ter. Given the success of this project, IT staff is working with University administration to explore options
for virtualizing an additional 50 percent of the data center. Staff members are collecting quotes and will
submit a formal proposal to University administration this summer.
The WaveNet Uppercase Login Problem Solved. Approximately a year ago, an unex-
pected change by the PeopleSoft vendor, caused IT staff to implement an uppercase-only username to
log in to WaveNet. This past month, IT staff members developed a fix to transform usernames to all
capital letters when the login button is clicked. Faculty, staff, and students can now enter uppercase, low-
ercase, and mixed-case usernames on the WaveNet login screen without issue.
Other News
NComputing Tours Take Place at Pepperdine. During the past month IT staff hosted rep-
resentatives from East LA College and from Riverside Community College District in Malibu. Represen-
tatives toured computer labs and learned about the NComputing implementation process. Pepperdine
University now has 155 virtual desktop units.
Presentations
IT Staff to Present at TechEd Conference in April. IT staff members Gerard Flynn and
Thomas Hoover will present "Virtual Computing: Riding the Wave of Virtualization at Pepperdine Uni-
versity” at the TechEd conference in Pasadena, California in mid-April. In addition, IT staff members
Prakash Sharma and Thomas Hoover will conduct a presentation entitled "Implementing a University-
wide Public Printing Solution: Can it be Done?"
Online Requests. In March 2010, there were 250 additional requests for support managed through
online web request forms. The top two types of online requests were audio-visual service (86) and de-
partmental phone service (33).
Anytime Support Desk User Survey Results for March. Through an automated feedback
process, all Anytime Support Help Desk callers have the opportunity to complete a web-based satisfac-
tion survey. In March, 238 (9%) of 2,799 survey requests sent to customers were completed. The five-
question survey uses a “1 to 9” sliding scale with “7.00-9.00” equal to excellent.
Staff Support by Major Area. All Pepperdine IT staff allocate their day-to-day efforts using cli-
ent, project, and task codes; using this data, total division-wide staff effort for March 2010 was distributed
as follows:
Support for Schools. Pepperdine IT staff effort provided to Pepperdine Schools, is as follows:
How to Subscribe to this Report. If you would like to be added to the distribution list for this
report, please contact Dana Hoover, program manager for communications, at extension x4948. The
Monthly IT Status Report archive is available online at services.pepperdine.edu/it/about/status-
reports.htm.