If I was hired as the university IT consultant, the first thing that I would do before giving my suggestions is to observe and study the current situation of the university in terms of its budget pertaining to IT-related projects and through these assessments I could come up with more realistic suggestions.
If the university have enough budget for IT-related innovations/upgrades these will be likely my suggestions in terms in:
TECHNOLOGY
In terms of technology, the university is not far behind compared to the private colleges and other universities here in Davao. But if we talk of universities in Asia. We are hundred miles behind from them. I have researched and gathered comparison on the different technologies that our university and other universities outside the Philippines are using.
I have chosen the University of Hong Kong as to where our university will be compared to, not only because the said university is the top university in Asia for 3 years till now, but mainly because the said school boast its technologies as the best not only in Asia but in the world.
Here is the comparison:
UNIVERSITY OF HONGKONG(Computer Centre)
Computers & Connections:
-46 Core 2 Duo (2.66GHz) 3GB PCs with 19" wide screen LCD display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
-25 Core 2 Duo (2.66GHz) 2GB PCs with 19" LCD wide screen display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-21 Core 2 Quad (2.33 GHz) 4GB PCs with 19" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-18 ACEnet connection points for connection of notebook computers
-60 Core 2 Quad (2.33 GHz) 4GB PCs with 19" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
-30 Core 2 Duo (2.13GHz) 2GB PCs with 17" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-30 Core 2 Duo (2.13GHz) 2GB PCs with 17" LCD display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-HKU High Performance Computing Cluster
In the academic and research arena, High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities are heavily used for solving computational problems that are not flexible to be done using conventional computers due to the huge amount of CPU power, memory, network and disk space requirements.
In order to facilitate intensive computations, the Computer Centre has set up a High Performance Computing Cluster, namely hpcpower.hku.hk in October 2003. Another 64-bit Linux cluster, namely hpcpower2.hku.hk is in service to augment the existing 32-bit HPCPOWER cluster system at late 2008.
HKU Grid Facilties
* hpcpower2: 64-bit Linux cluster consists of 24 nodes -
+ each node has TWO 64-bit quad-core Intel Xeon CPUs running at 3GHz
* hpcpower: 32-bit Linux cluster consists of 178 nodes -
+ 128 nodes of dual 2.8 GHz Xeon processors, and
+ 50 nodes of dual 3.06 GHz Xeon processors
* winhpc: first Microsoft Windows based High Performance Computing Cluster in Hong Kong
* condor: Condor pool in PC laboratory
Printers
- 3 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (single side printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4515x black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 5500DTN color single laser-printer
- 1 networked Fuji Xerox black & white laser-printer (single side by default)
- 3 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (single side printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4515x black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 5500DTN color single laser-printer
- 1 networked Fuji Xerox black & white laser-printer (single side by default)
Special Facilities
- Color scanner (in RR-104)
- RealVideo & VCD Production PC (in RR-104)
- DVD Production PC (in RR-104)
- Optical Mark Reading (OMR) Scanner System (in RR-104)
USEP(COMPUTER LABORATORIES)
I have been researching about the facilities that our university have for an hour and I haven't found any page that enumerates and discusses each of them one by one. Because of this, the records below are based on my observations as a current student in the university.
Computers & Connections:
-20 P4 (1.3-1.6 GHz) 256MB-512MB PCs with 15" CRT display monitors about 10 with 15" LCD display panels
-12 AMD Athlon (2.0-2.6 GHz) 512MB-1G PCs with 15" CRT display monitors
-36-64 port switch hub(networking in lab 1)
Printers
-1 Dot Matrix Printer
-1 Laser Printer(Nodal)
Special Facilities
-(none)
As you may see for yourselves our university is far behind form the later. This comparison is not meant to criticize our university but to examine on the points that our university failed to examine. If given enough budget I would definitely suggest for a total system upgrade. The processors that the computers in our computer labs have are very out dated. It would be a good thing to at least upgrade all the computers to have Dual Core Processors running with 1G memory. The display monitors can be left as it is. The important thing is that the computing power of the units will be increased so the the students could be more aware and could practice the latest software that is available these days. I would also suggest to have at least 3 more printers. As a student myself, I'm spending a lot of money in printing my proposals and other school-related papers. But if printers are available within the school, it would be very convenient for the students. It could also be a good source of funds for the university. In terms of purchasing special facilities, at this point in time, It would be very unwise for the university to purchase such advance technologies. Not only because they are very expensive, but mainly because as we look to the current course offerings of theuniversity in terms of IT-related courses, these special facilities are not of great relevance.
INFRASTRUCTURE
We may not know it but IT infrastructure is a very vital point in the success of a business or a program with a direct IT-relation. I have browsed the internet and found these interesting articles about the importance and difficulties in IT infrastructure and based on these I will derive my suggestions pertaining to the IT infrastructure of our university.
Infrastructure: IT's stepchild
By Bart Perkins
September 22, 2008 12:00 PM ET
Computerworld - Every enterprise needs a robust IT infrastructure in order to function effectively. Infrastructure is the foundation of corporate productivity and success. Many IT groups, however, don't have enough skilled infrastructure staffers to provide the solid foundation required. Unfortunately, qualified infrastructure people are hard to find. Here's why:
Applications are more highly valued. Most executives recognize that effective applications offer significant business value. Unfortunately, they usually assume that the underlying infrastructure is easy to construct and maintain. As a result, they often give less attention and recognition to infrastructure. (Even CIOs generally understand applications better than infrastructure.)
Infrastructure is increasingly complex. The infrastructure group now manages a number of new technologies, including virtualization, advanced networking and cloud computing. In addition, infrastructure frequently has primary responsibility for privacy, security and standards. As the biggest energy consumer, infrastructure is also responsible for "green" initiatives, such as cutting IT energy use and complying with hazardous-substances mandates. All the pieces must then be knit together efficiently. As a result, infrastructure jobs require far more technical breadth and depth than ever before.
Infrastructure is becoming more customer-focused. With the advent of software as a service, outsourcing and application software generators, IT needs fewer technical specialists. But infrastructure functions now require high levels of customer contact, because of ITIL v3's focus on customer service. Many technical staffers (often introverted, per the stereotype) are uncomfortable with this requirement.
Compensation is lower. Historically, infrastructure departments offered entry-level IT jobs to individuals without college degrees. HR justified paying them lower salaries by claiming that they had fewer technical skills than their applications counterparts. Even though most low-skill infrastructure jobs have been automated and eliminated, perceptions have been slow to change. Compensation plans have not been adjusted to reflect the higher levels of technical expertise infrastructure now requires.
Infrastructure is a thankless job. Unfortunately, many employees have a very limited understanding of infrastructure. Few people appreciate the difficulty of the preproduction testing or postproduction tuning associated with installing a new system. This lack of understanding often leaves infrastructure staffs feeling undervalued and underappreciated. When the servers are up and the network is functioning, infrastructure availability is taken for granted. But when work stops because an application is unavailable or the network goes down, all fingers point to infrastructure. Infrastructure gets attention only for failures.
Infrastructure education is insufficient. Few U.S. colleges offer IT courses covering infrastructure functions. In addition, most high school and college career counselors advise students that there are more job opportunities in applications than in infrastructure. Moreover, the head of applications is more often promoted to CIO than the head of infrastructure, so the long-term career path is not very appealing. The result is a shortage of qualified people pursuing infrastructure careers.
IT's infrastructure organization requires increasing levels of technical skills to deal with the complex and constantly shifting work environment. But lack of appreciation, lower compensation and a limited career path make it difficult to attract and retain qualified professionals. Infrastructure staffers need to be treated as invaluable employees who are critical to the success of the enterprise, because in today's IT environment, they really, really are.
As I read the article above, It is very obvious for a change in IT infrastructure to be very risky. We might be blinded on the positive effects that it may bring to our system but if a couple of mistakes may cause a disaster in the overall operation in the university. The article stated about requiring skilled IT personnel for considering IT infrastructure change. This is very true. And as I observed, our university lack these. We may have the option to hire more skilled IT practitioners but it would only mean more expenses for the university. The best thing to do in my opinion in terms of IT infrastructure in our university is to maintain it. It is not necessary to change it to a more complex one at present. The important thing is it is working without any alarming glitches. Time will come that It is necessary to upgrade or change the present structure, but as I have said today is not that time.
STEPS
*Check your web browser to see if you haven’t made it complicated and difficult for them through different network connections. For that, open up the Internet Explorer and click on “Tools” option at the top left hand. Then select “Internet Options” tab followed by “Connections.” Now click the “LAN settings” button and see if you find any check marks in any of the options listed. If you see any checkmarks, please deselect them. Then click Ok or Apply button.
*If you have come here to find a software or tool to download that will enhance your web speed, consider yourself lucky. Because there is a free tool that you can download from an entrusted source Google; it is called Google Web Accelerator. And it does speed up you surfing speed, making it seem like as if you have made your internet connection faster. It is just another internet speed booster.
*Do some basic maintenance on your PC. Run Disk Defrag, a scan disk, a virus scan, a malware scan, and clear your recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. Delete old files and temporary files. Never allow the free space on your C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM (which ever is larger). A well maintained PC will operate much better than a PC that has never had any maintenance. Google or your local computer repair store should be able to help you with this if you don't know how.
*A technical strategy to boost the speed of your internet would be to either rebuild your computer’s Winsock or use Tweaktester. Winsocks or Windows Sockets is what your Windows computer use to control the input and output datas. But they can sometimes be congested ad damaged to some extent by Spywares and softwares. This happens every day using normal usage. So sometimes professionals reset it using Winsock utility softwares to rebuild them. On the other hand, Tweaktester tool works with Recieve Window of your XP operating system. By default Recieve Window is set to a value much too low for today’s modern high-speed Internet demands. So you can change this to a larger number that improves the internet performance. There is also something called OpenDNS that is widely proclaimed as a good internet speed booster
*Reset Your Home Network. Sometimes restarting your home network if you have one will drastically increase the speed of your connection.
*Optimize your cache or temporary Internet files. These files improve your Internet connection performance by not downloading the same file over and over. When a web site puts their logo graphic on every page your computer only downloads it when it changes. If you delete the temporary files it must be downloaded again. if you disable the cache, it must be downloaded every time you view a page that uses it. This can be done by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on "Tools" at the top and choosing "Internet Options". On the General tab, click the "Settings" button next to Temporary Internet Files. Set Check for newer versions to "Automatically". Set amount of disk space to use to 2% of your total disk size or 512 MB, which ever is smaller. On Firefox, click "Tools" then "Options," and go to the privacy tab. Then click on the Cache tab within this.
*Never bypass your router. Most routers include a firewall that is very difficult for hackers to defeat. If you don't need to use Wireless then hook your computer directly to your router. Routers will only slow down your connection by a few Milli-seconds. You won't notice the difference but the hackers will.
*If you are using a Wireless router, make sure it doesn't conflict with a cordless phone or wireless camera. Wireless routers come in two varieties; 802.11bg (2.4Ghz) or 802.11a (5.8Ghz) If you are using a 2.4Ghz Cordless phone and 2.4Ghz Wireless router then your Internet connection speed will slow while you use the cordless phone. The same is true of wireless security cameras. Check on your phone and camera, if it's 900Mhz then it's fine. If it says 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz then it could be the cause of your slow connection speed while they're in use.
*Call your Internet service provider (ISP). Sometimes you just have bad service. They can usually tell if your connection is substandard without having a technician come to your home. Just be nice and ask.
*Upgrade your computer. If your computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. You can only access the Internet as fast as your PC will allow you to.
*Replace your old cable modem. Any solid-state electronics will degrade over time due to accumulated heat damage. Your broadband modem will have a harder and harder time 'concentrating' on maintaining a good connection as it gets older (signal to noise ratios will go down, and the number of resend requests for the same packet will go up). An after-market cable modem as opposed to a cable-company modem will frequently offer a better connection.
*Often your connection speed is slow because other programs are using it. To test if other programs are accessing the Internet without your knowing, Click Start, Click Run. Type "cmd" (without quotes). Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt". After a minute or so, hold down Ctrl and press C. This has created a file with a list of all programs using your Internet connection. Type activity.txt to open the file and view the program list. Ctrl Alt Delete and open up the Task Manager. Go to the process menu and delete those processes that are stealing your valuable bandwidth. (NOTE: Deleting processes may cause certain programs to not function properly)
*Call your ISP and have them verify all of your TCP/IP settings if you are concerned. Ask them to verify that your Proxy settings are correct.
* Don't expect dial up or high speed lite service to be fast. The Internet is primarily geared towards Broadband Connections. Sometimes, you have to wait a little.
*One thing you have to realize that everything has a limit, including the limited speed of your internet connection provided by your ISP (internet service provider). So we can not surpass the speed that you internet connection originally comes with it, what we can do is reach the fastest speed that is available through your ISP. Dial up (old fashioned) phone internet connection is very slow, Broadband high speed is bit faster and the fastest internet connection is provided by Cable Internet Providers, because they don’t use the phone line. So remember we are only trying to reach the top potential speed that is possible.
* Download programs that make browsing faster:
- Loband.org is a browser inside of a browser that loads web pages without the images.
- Firefox and Opera both have options to disable images.
- In Firefox, you can also use extensions such as NoScript that let you block scripts and plug-ins that would otherwise slow things down a lot.
- If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, try downloading Google Web Accelerator. It is meant to speed up broadband connections, but it can also slow your Internet connection. Try enabling it and disabling it and see when your Internet connection runs faster.
- If you are using Firefox, download the Fasterfox extension and Firetune.
- Reduce the amount of programs running that use your Internet connection (Instant Messengers, RSS Feeders, and MS Applications set to send Internet data)
- Google Accessible Is designed to search pages in order of how clean they are of junk. This will bring up pages that are usually not only easy to read, but are quick to load.
* Upgrade your RAM. This will not only improve your regular computer use, but it will affect the speed of your Internet connection because your computer works faster.
* Use the Stop button to stop loading pages once you've gotten what you want.
* Some times malware on your computer can eat up your bandwidth. Make sure you have an up-to-date malware protection program.
* Most Internet Providers have flaky DNS servers (no citation necessary, it's a given) - so, instead of using those provided by your ISP, switch your DNS servers to use those of OpenDNS. OpenDNS is far faster, and more reliable, simply using 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as your domain name servers will speed up most flaky DNS problems (may even speed up your networking since OpenDNS has large caches).
* Look into running your own local DNS server on your network. Some newer routers may include their own nameserver, otherwise, check into AnalogX.com's DNSCache program, it works great to hold commonly accessed domain names in the "cache" so that the IP addresses do not have to be looked up everytime you navigate to a new page.
*Last and most important, if your internet connection has gotten slower all of a sudden it could be due to malicious adware spware virus softwares running in your computer without your knowledge. There are lot of free anti virus scanning softwares on the web but they will charge you to repair or delete these viruses after they find them for you. So it is a better idea to buy a software to start with because the free or trial ones doesn’t work all the way. Also consider installing virus protecting softwares and leave it on all the time.
STEPS
*Check your web browser to see if you haven’t made it complicated and difficult for them through different network connections. For that, open up the Internet Explorer and click on “Tools” option at the top left hand. Then select “Internet Options” tab followed by “Connections.” Now click the “LAN settings” button and see if you find any check marks in any of the options listed. If you see any checkmarks, please deselect them. Then click Ok or Apply button.
*If you have come here to find a software or tool to download that will enhance your web speed, consider yourself lucky. Because there is a free tool that you can download from an entrusted source Google; it is called Google Web Accelerator. And it does speed up you surfing speed, making it seem like as if you have made your internet connection faster. It is just another internet speed booster.
*Do some basic maintenance on your PC. Run Disk Defrag, a scan disk, a virus scan, a malware scan, and clear your recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. Delete old files and temporary files. Never allow the free space on your C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM (which ever is larger). A well maintained PC will operate much better than a PC that has never had any maintenance. Google or your local computer repair store should be able to help you with this if you don't know how.
*A technical strategy to boost the speed of your internet would be to either rebuild your computer’s Winsock or use Tweaktester. Winsocks or Windows Sockets is what your Windows computer use to control the input and output datas. But they can sometimes be congested ad damaged to some extent by Spywares and softwares. This happens every day using normal usage. So sometimes professionals reset it using Winsock utility softwares to rebuild them. On the other hand, Tweaktester tool works with Recieve Window of your XP operating system. By default Recieve Window is set to a value much too low for today’s modern high-speed Internet demands. So you can change this to a larger number that improves the internet performance. There is also something called OpenDNS that is widely proclaimed as a good internet speed booster
*Reset Your Home Network. Sometimes restarting your home network if you have one will drastically increase the speed of your connection.
*Optimize your cache or temporary Internet files. These files improve your Internet connection performance by not downloading the same file over and over. When a web site puts their logo graphic on every page your computer only downloads it when it changes. If you delete the temporary files it must be downloaded again. if you disable the cache, it must be downloaded every time you view a page that uses it. This can be done by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on "Tools" at the top and choosing "Internet Options". On the General tab, click the "Settings" button next to Temporary Internet Files. Set Check for newer versions to "Automatically". Set amount of disk space to use to 2% of your total disk size or 512 MB, which ever is smaller. On Firefox, click "Tools" then "Options," and go to the privacy tab. Then click on the Cache tab within this.
*Never bypass your router. Most routers include a firewall that is very difficult for hackers to defeat. If you don't need to use Wireless then hook your computer directly to your router. Routers will only slow down your connection by a few Milli-seconds. You won't notice the difference but the hackers will.
*If you are using a Wireless router, make sure it doesn't conflict with a cordless phone or wireless camera. Wireless routers come in two varieties; 802.11bg (2.4Ghz) or 802.11a (5.8Ghz) If you are using a 2.4Ghz Cordless phone and 2.4Ghz Wireless router then your Internet connection speed will slow while you use the cordless phone. The same is true of wireless security cameras. Check on your phone and camera, if it's 900Mhz then it's fine. If it says 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz then it could be the cause of your slow connection speed while they're in use.
*Call your Internet service provider (ISP). Sometimes you just have bad service. They can usually tell if your connection is substandard without having a technician come to your home. Just be nice and ask.
*Upgrade your computer. If your computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. You can only access the Internet as fast as your PC will allow you to.
*Replace your old cable modem. Any solid-state electronics will degrade over time due to accumulated heat damage. Your broadband modem will have a harder and harder time 'concentrating' on maintaining a good connection as it gets older (signal to noise ratios will go down, and the number of resend requests for the same packet will go up). An after-market cable modem as opposed to a cable-company modem will frequently offer a better connection.
*Often your connection speed is slow because other programs are using it. To test if other programs are accessing the Internet without your knowing, Click Start, Click Run. Type "cmd" (without quotes). Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt". After a minute or so, hold down Ctrl and press C. This has created a file with a list of all programs using your Internet connection. Type activity.txt to open the file and view the program list. Ctrl Alt Delete and open up the Task Manager. Go to the process menu and delete those processes that are stealing your valuable bandwidth. (NOTE: Deleting processes may cause certain programs to not function properly)
*Call your ISP and have them verify all of your TCP/IP settings if you are concerned. Ask them to verify that your Proxy settings are correct.
* Don't expect dial up or high speed lite service to be fast. The Internet is primarily geared towards Broadband Connections. Sometimes, you have to wait a little.
*One thing you have to realize that everything has a limit, including the limited speed of your internet connection provided by your ISP (internet service provider). So we can not surpass the speed that you internet connection originally comes with it, what we can do is reach the fastest speed that is available through your ISP. Dial up (old fashioned) phone internet connection is very slow, Broadband high speed is bit faster and the fastest internet connection is provided by Cable Internet Providers, because they don’t use the phone line. So remember we are only trying to reach the top potential speed that is possible.
* Download programs that make browsing faster:
- Loband.org is a browser inside of a browser that loads web pages without the images.
- Firefox and Opera both have options to disable images.
- In Firefox, you can also use extensions such as NoScript that let you block scripts and plug-ins that would otherwise slow things down a lot.
- If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, try downloading Google Web Accelerator. It is meant to speed up broadband connections, but it can also slow your Internet connection. Try enabling it and disabling it and see when your Internet connection runs faster.
- If you are using Firefox, download the Fasterfox extension and Firetune.
- Reduce the amount of programs running that use your Internet connection (Instant Messengers, RSS Feeders, and MS Applications set to send Internet data)
- Google Accessible Is designed to search pages in order of how clean they are of junk. This will bring up pages that are usually not only easy to read, but are quick to load.
* Upgrade your RAM. This will not only improve your regular computer use, but it will affect the speed of your Internet connection because your computer works faster.
* Use the Stop button to stop loading pages once you've gotten what you want.
* Some times malware on your computer can eat up your bandwidth. Make sure you have an up-to-date malware protection program.
* Most Internet Providers have flaky DNS servers (no citation necessary, it's a given) - so, instead of using those provided by your ISP, switch your DNS servers to use those of OpenDNS. OpenDNS is far faster, and more reliable, simply using 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as your domain name servers will speed up most flaky DNS problems (may even speed up your networking since OpenDNS has large caches).
* Look into running your own local DNS server on your network. Some newer routers may include their own nameserver, otherwise, check into AnalogX.com's DNSCache program, it works great to hold commonly accessed domain names in the "cache" so that the IP addresses do not have to be looked up everytime you navigate to a new page.
*Last and most important, if your internet connection has gotten slower all of a sudden it could be due to malicious adware spware virus softwares running in your computer without your knowledge. There are lot of free anti virus scanning softwares on the web but they will charge you to repair or delete these viruses after they find them for you. So it is a better idea to buy a software to start with because the free or trial ones doesn’t work all the way. Also consider installing virus protecting softwares and leave it on all the time.
Moreover, the most common reason why internet speed slows down is a trojan attack that is why it is very advisable to have a good anti virus. As I have observed the antivirus programs that our university is using are only demo versions or for home use only. We must put into consideration the positive effects that having a good antivirus may bring to the security of the university's computers and files. I personally suggest these applications:
