|
Newsletter inside|out - IT news at ETH Zurich (05.12.2018)
|
|
 |  |
 |  |
 |
 |  |
|
Dear Readers,
Video conferencing is a popular way to hold meetings around the world in a cost effective and environmentally friendly manner. ITS offers fully equipped rooms for this purpose, which allow meetings to be held in high quality, including doctoral examinations. Many researchers also use video conferencing in their own offices. In order to improve the quality of these, ITS is now offering spatial and technical elements that guarantee good picture and sound quality in local meeting rooms.
The very popular polybox has now been equipped with the "Collabora Online" software, which means fast, synchronous collaboration in teams is now possible. Several participants can share and edit documents at the same time. This not only makes it easier to work together, but the documents also remain securely stored in our private ETH cloud.
Apropos security: Have you already changed the Wi-Fi connections on your devices? For security reasons, we have split up our public Wi-Fi network. Self-managed devices must be reconnected to the network. This only takes a minute, but helps to further improve the security of the ETH networks.
We look forward to receiving your feedback.
Warm regards,
Rui Brandao
|
|
|
| |
|
 |  |
| Collaboration via the cloud between ITS and LET: Gianluca Caratsch and Urs Gubler (ITS SD, from the left) underline the new polybox collaboration with the "VSETH-Erstibag" highlighter. |
From storage to collaboration |
The polybox success story continues. Thanks to the integration of the cloud version Collabora Online, polybox now also offers fast, informal and synchronous collaboration. The Educational Development and Technology department (LET) has been looking for an application that allows simultaneous processing of a shared and synchronized document by several people online. After a successful proof of concept phase (polyboxEdu), the online Office functionalities are now permanently available on polybox.With polybox, ETH offers all students and employees a free online storage facility. This simplifies the exchange of data at and within ETH and offers secure ETH storage space for the data to be exchanged. Larger amounts of data, such as video sequences, can thus be easily shared. polybox meets the requirements of ETH in relation to the fact that exchanged data is stored on the ETH storage system and not abroad (such as Dropbox). The integration of online Office applications into polybox represents the realization of phase 2 of an eCollaboration project (“digital tools to support group work”). polybox now makes it possible to jointly create and edit documents in common Office formats directly via the web browser. It is intended to facilitate collaboration between students, lecturers and researchers at ETH and beyond the campus boundaries. Further information is available in the ITS Blog and in the instructions there. Dr. Tilo Steiger, Group Manager Storage (ITS SD)
|
|
| |
|
 |  |
| Martin Wyss, Francesca Müller and Wolfgang Thißen (ITS NET, from the left) are preparing everything for the migration and are ready to cap the old network connections. |
Reconnect Wi-Fi and VPN |
In order to increase IT security, ETH Zurich has changed its Wi-Fi areas. Every ETH member must therefore reconnect his or her private network devices for security reasons. No matter whether a smartphone, iPad or laptop – every private device has to reconnect to the ETH network in the respective area. Each device in the internal ETH network is assigned to its protected network segment (realm). In the case of business devices that are managed by IT support staff, only the VPN usually needs to be reconnected.Until now, the configured ETH Wi-Fi networks eduroam, eduroam-5, eth, eth-5, public and public-5 were available at ETH. ETH Zurich has now split up its "public" network area into additional segments for security reasons. All ETH users in this area (public and public-5 Wi-Fi's) must therefore reconnect their private devices and select the segment assigned to them. Students: <username>@student-net.ethz.ch Employees: <username>@staff-net.ethz.ch This applies to Wi-Fi at ETH as well as VPN connections from outside the ETH network. Business devices that are maintained by IT support staff are rarely affected because they use other authentication mechanisms. This does not apply, however, to self-managed business devices. You can find out more about this and how to connect properly in the ITS Blog and on the Wi-Fi Change page. Dr. Armin Wittmann, Head of ICT Networks (ITS NET)
|
|
| |
|
 |  |
| Room dividers, sound bars and cameras are available from Christopher Sauder and Tom Rechsteiner (ITS MMS, from the left) to improve the quality of local video conferences |
Video conferencing: Do it yourself. But better. |
Video conferencing at the workplace or in the meeting room is popular as it not only relieves the strain on travel budgets, but also reduces one's carbon footprint as well as the time required for a meeting. ITS Multimedia Services support these requirements and, from 2019, will be offering special technical and spatial equipment. These elements improve video conferencing on site acoustically and visually. They are therefore intended to increase the number of self-managed video conferences as well as the quality for the benefit of all participants.ITS Multimedia Services offer video conferencing services in specially equipped and supervised rooms. A high-quality service, which is widely used – but not the ideal solution for all needs. In the scientific community, video conferencing at the workplace is of great importance, because it can be carried out quickly and spontaneously. The local computer is usually used for this, ideally together with a headset and a camera. This however also means that the quality of such a conference can vary between "very good" and "very poor". This is due to the often simple equipment and the surrounding conditions, with a clear tendency towards the latter. From 2019, Multimedia Services will therefore be offering a service for equipping local meeting rooms, which will improve the acoustic and visual quality of these conferences. The offer combines spatial (movable walls, lights) and technical elements (screen, camera, loudspeaker / microphone) and can be used with individual software solutions on your own computer as well as for video conferences in small groups. More information can be found in the ITS Blog. Tom Rechsteiner, Group Manager Videoconferencing & Collaboration (ITS MMS)
|
|
| |
|
 |  |
| Recertification of IT Services |
In mid-June 2018, the audits for recertification according to ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO/IEC 27001 took place. IT Services successfully passed the recertification process. The official certificates and final report have now arrived. What was reviewed? The two standards stipulate the requirement of a "Service Management System" and a "Security Management System". The audit checked whether we are actually able to control our service and our security in such a way that we get precisely what we wanted. The evidence presented and the interviews conducted convinced the auditors. Why have we done this? The external, neutral audit shows us where we are on the right track and where we need to make corrections. And there really are some areas in which improvements can be made. However, there is no need for urgent improvement, rather there were interesting suggestions and ideas. And by the time the next recertification audit takes place in 2021, we will have implemented many of these proposals within ITS. Further information can be found in the ITS Blog. |
|
| |
|
|
