The 2008 University of Iowa computer bid is complete, and the review committee has chosen the winning vendors. Dell won all categories except tablet PC, which was taken by HP.

• Desktop (small form factor) – Dell Optiplex 755 ($765)
• Desktop (mini-tower) – Dell Optiplex 755 ($765)
• Laptop (standard) – Dell Latitude D630 ($925)
• Laptop (light) – Dell Latitude D430 ($1,198)
• Tablet PC – HP 2710p ($1,331)
• Standalone Monitors – Dell
  • 17” ($195)
  • 19” ($215)
  • 20” ($365)
  • 20” wide ($215/$250)
  • 22” wide ($250)
  • 24” wide ($350)
  • 30” wide ($1,700)

The Dell prices listed above are available via the standard ITS Help Desk link (http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/demo/). The HP tablet PC is not currently available at the discounted price. We are working with HP to get this updated and have been told it will be ready soon. If you find discrepancies on the purchase sites or have questions, please contact Ryan Lenger.

Thanks to Jim Chaffee, Jayne Keiser, Les Neu, and Jenifer Steil who took time out of their busy schedules to help determine the best configurations for campus.

The Wiki Service has been moved out of pilot phase and is added to the list of ITS services. Wikis can be used for things such as instruction, research or just general collaboration. Access rights can be set to allow any allowed user, including users outside of campus, to edit pages through a web browser. For more information on the Wiki service, go to http://wiki.uiowa.edu/.

Planning continues for the new campus data center, which is expected to open on the UI’s Oakdale campus sometime in 2011. Currently, ITS manages primary and secondary data centers on the main campus.

Data centers are complex facilities, and whether new or old, they require periodic down times so that maintenance and upgrades can be performed. This work – which can take the form of electrical, mechanical, network, or firewall infrastructure maintenance – can require extended outages. (The most visible example of this type of maintenance was the electrical work that took place at the primary data center in June 2007, which required that we shut down the entire facility for several hours.)

Scheduling infrastructure work requires considerable coordination, and it’s important that it occur when it is least intrusive for the entire user community. It’s also important that we have key staff and vendors on-site … and all this coordination can takes weeks – or even months – of advanced planning.

To that end, the Systems & Platforms department in ITS has reserved the following dates in 2008 for data center infrastructure work that may require extended outages:

Saturday, June 14 & Saturday, October 11

The dates were chosen to coincide with periods of low IT activity at the UI. And while the dates may or may not be used for maintenance, it’s important that they’re reserved well in advance, just in case. A list of dates for 2009 will be developed later this year. Generally, SPA staff will reserve three dates each year, in January, June and October.

Managing the data centers for the UI is a complex undertaking. SPA is implementing processes to ensure that our customers’ receive the very best possible service with the least amount of interruption.

For a list of frequently asked questions about data center maintenance, visit http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/articles/datacenter.htm.