A Virtual IT Professionals Forum with select sessions was presented on June 4, 2020.
This spring’s theme, “Share the Vision,” examines ways technology enables research and innovation, connects our infrastructure and architecture, provides opportunities for us to learn, grow and collaborate, and focuses on current services, projects, and promising opportunities.
Partner with friends and colleagues at #ITPF2020 and continue to Share the Vision through one of these tracks:
- Vision: Looking Forward
Leadership and goals | Personal and professional development | Research and Innovation - Sharing: Everyone’s Welcome
Teaching and Training | Campus Partnerships | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | Accessibility and Usability - In Focus: Here and Now
Current services and projects | Campus infrastructure and locations | Shared standards and practices - Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud | Automation | Containers - Free-Floating
Don’t see a track description that suits your idea? Put it here! Anything goes
2020 Spring
9:00am – 9:45am
Greg Gulick
Interim Chief Information Officer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Interim Chief Information Officer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
James Quisenberry
Director Student Affairs Technology
Director Student Affairs Technology
Chris Tidrick
Senior Director of Information Technology Partners @ Gies
Senior Director of Information Technology Partners @ Gies
10:00am – 10:45am
- CrowdStrike Spin: Spiders and Webs They WeaveDrew Coobs, Technology Services; Josh Burgess, CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike is now processing over 3 trillion cybersecurity events per week from companies and organizations all across the globe. Its 2020 Global Threat Report is one of the industry’s most highly anticipated reports on today’s most significant cyber threats and adversaries. Please join us in a discussion about current cybersecurity trends, how to leverage this data to address current security challenges in higher education, and an overview of the ecosystem of Spiders (CrowdStrike Named Threat Actor) and the webs they weave. This overview includes a look into the eCrime world of tools and tradecraft used by some of the most active and collaborative e-Criminal organizations tracked by CrowdStrike. (The recording of this session is only available to campus affiliates. Log in to Mediaspace with your NetID and NetiD password to watch it.)Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- Learn PowerShellMichael Cervone, Technology ServicesAre you curious about PowerShell scripting, but haven’t had the time or opportunity to help you get started? Join us for a session on the basics of PowerShell scripting. We’ll examine useful tools, and best practices for setting up your scripting environment. We’ll also try a few basic commands.Location: OnlineTrack: Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
- MyIllini Student Portal: Dynamic College ContentMichael Painter, College of Education; Dan Harmon, Enrollment ManagementEnrollment Management partnered with IT Partners at Education to build an API that a college can use to show dynamic, student-specific content in the MyIllini student portal. We’ll provide an overview of the portal, integration options, and the Azure-hosted app Education is using to feed the portal.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- The Good, Bad and the Chatty: Implementing a ChatBot for Donor SupportWilliam Reynen, University of Illinois Foundation; Lea Ann Gross, University of Illinois FoundationMeeting a donor’s expectation of immediacy, on-demand availability, and consistency can be the lynch pin in resolving an issue, providing needed info, or even finalizing a decision to make a gift. The University of Illinois Foundation chose to expand donor service by implementing a chatbot to complement existing, and more traditional, donor service avenues. We will take you through the idea, vendor selection, implementation and plans for the future. Hear about the challenges, opportunities and benefits of offering a chatbot for donors. See how it works, and how the donor can ‘leave a message’ or request a time to be contacted back to further discuss their needs. We will also share the metrics of use, donor feedback and plans for expansion beyond the core websites to other areas of the University system.Location: OnlineTrack: Free-Floating
11:00am – 11:45am
- Are You Authorized? Real-World Use-Cases Using AuthManErik Coleman, Technology ServicesAuthorization Manager (AuthMan for short) is an access policy registry that’s been in a soft rollout/pilot for about a year. In that time, we’ve had several high-profile services leverage the power of group management and access governance using various available IAM tools. Come see how Splunk, AWS, Office 365 and other services on campus are leveraging this software today, making sure the right people are authorized for the right resources.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- Automating Transfers Between Campus and the Cloud With GlobusColleen Fallaw, University Library IT; Jason Colwell, University Library ITAfter migrating some digital object storage and related web applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) last year, we have created custom workflows that involve the transfer of files between campus storage and cloud storage: dataset files of up to 2TB into and out of Illinois Data Bank by campus researchers, and millions of files into and out of our Medusa digital preservation system by University Library staff. Our initial solutions included using a combination of the AWS S3 API and rclone. Hoping to make transfers more robust, transparent, and faster, we set up Globus endpoints using features supported by our campus Globus subscription. Since Globus is useful to the campus and research community in proportion to how many of our sharable files are accessible on endpoints, we would like offer pragmatic details about integrating Globus into our systems to help anyone else considering adding Globus endpoints for storage systems.Location: OnlineTrack: Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
- Bringing Data Into FocusMichelle Rome, College of LAS – ATLAS; Todd Reese, College of LAS – ATLASBringing Data Into Focus will introduce the ATLAS Data Services Center, a data system designed to help those seeking data find data.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- What Does a Digitally Accessible Culture Look Like?Tim Offenstein, Technology ServicesDoes digital accessibility really matter? What would our University culture look like if we fully embraced the idea of being accessible? What would this embrace require? How much would it really cost us? These are a few of the questions and thoughts we will talk about in what can be a truly pivotal discussion. Bring your thinking cap and join in!Location: OnlineTrack: Vision: Looking Forward
12:00pm – 12:45pm
Lunch and Social
An opportunity to connect up with colleagues in a free-form and social digital environment.
1:30pm – 2:15
- Data Analytics and the University of Illinois CommunityAshley Hallock, AITSThis will be a panel discussion with feedback from Nick Vance (Tech Services), Michelle Rome (ATLAS), Travis Ashmore (Engineering IT Shared Services) and Xiaobei Chen (Office of the Provost). We will discuss some of the current data opportunities throughout the University, how data projects differ from other IT projects, how we go about solving them and any questions you bring yourself!Location: OnlineTrack: Sharing: Everyone’s Welcome
- Endpoint Services BOFDrew Coobs, Technology Services; Gary Bernstein, Technology Services; Beth Shirk, Technology Services; Evan Taylor, Technology Services; Keith Sumlar, Student Affairs Technology; Scott Balsamello, Technology Services; Paul Roberts, Technology ServicesThis birds of a feather session will be an open discussion about Endpoint Services tools including MECM (formerly SCCM), Workspace ONE, Munki, MunkiReport, WSUS, Dell Data Protection, and CrowdStrike. Members of the Endpoint Services team at Technology Services will attend, discuss, and answer questions related to the use of these endpoint services tools with the attendees. Please come ready to share your questions and feedback for the team!Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- Solutions with Azure-Colored GlassesBryan Jonker, College of Education; Aaron O’Banion, Gies College of Business; John Cox, Gies College of BusinessWe at IT Partners have been working with Azure to reduce the number of virtual machines (and maintenance), to automate our development work, and to ensure our systems are secure and available. Are you interested in moving some or all of your infrastructure to the cloud? Do you use .NET? If so, you can learn from us. We’re going to go over some of your options (web app services, function apps), how to link your application to GitLab or your source control of choice, how to integrate it with what virtual machine apps take for granted (single sign-ons with Active Directory, external URLs, access to on premises SQL databases, and that sort of thing), and, above all, how to manage your costs.Location: OnlineTrack: Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
- W3C ARIA Authoring Practices 1.2 for Developers and EvaluatorsJon Gunderson, Disability Resources and Education Services; Mark McCarthy, AITSThe W3C ARIA Authoring practices are designed to help people understand how to create interactive accessible content for the web using the HTML5 and Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) 1.2 standards to meet the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 requirements. Whether you are a developer trying to understand the keyboard requirements for creating menu button, a designer looking to integrate landmarks and heading structure into a web application, or a quality assurance specialist identifying the roles and properties needed for describing an automatically rotating image carousel the practices have the information you need, including fully tested working examples to compare to. The session will provide an overview of the organization and the types of resources contained in the ARIA Authoring Practices and demonstrate how the resources can be used to support design, coding and quality assurance activities.Location: OnlineTrack: Sharing: Everyone’s Welcome
2:30pm – 3:15pm
- Putting the Security in SecDevOpsEdward Delaporte, Technology Services; David Riddle, Technology Services; Michelle Pitcel, Technology Services; Zachary Carrington, Technology ServicesWe will walk through a high level overview of the ways a DevOps pipeline can make your work day better and while making your products secure – even if the product is from a vendor!Location: OnlineTrack: Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
- State of Cloud Platforms at IllinoisJoshua Mickle, Technology Services; Kevin Bird, Technology Services; Tom Grissom, Technology ServicesOverview of the current state of Cloud Platform services from Technology ServicesLocation: OnlineTrack: Cloudy with a Chance of Terraforming
- Tableau at the University of IllinoisMichael Wonderlich, AITS; Jayesh Patel, AITSWe will review the services available related to Tableau and how to get started including an explanation of Tableau licensing. We will also provide information about new features in the most recent release of Tableau Server. Finally, we will have an open discussion about how Tableau is being used throughout the university. The participant’s discussion is highly encouraged.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
3:30pm – 4:15pm
- All Your Logs in one Analytics and Automation Platform: Splunk @ IllinoisJim King, Technology Services; David Lewis, Technology Services; Ryan Thomas, Technology ServicesThis is a formal introduction and invitation to all IT professionals at Illinois to learn about Splunk as a service. We will present how Splunk fits into the overall security portfolio of the University, and present stories of current users and how they are using the service to get value from their own data.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- Collaboration Across the Stacks – Four FREE, EASY Ways to Bootstrap a WebsiteRobert Slater, Technology ServicesA dizzying array of campus web hosting options await you – but which one is best for you? This presentation will show you a subset of those options, all available to you with no mediation or cost-simply sign up and dive in, right now, through the University of Illinois Amazon Web Services cPanel suite (web.illinois.edu), or through our managed WordPress multisite offering (publish.illinois.edu). You can do an amazing amount with cPanel, given the inclination and knowhow, while getting up and running on publish.illinois.edu is ridiculously quick and easy. While cPanel is capable of a vast range of configurations, we will focus on three of the most popular cPanel web hosting options: hosting a “plain old” static website, using Drupal, and using WordPress. We’ll show you how to get your site up and running on all four options, as well as suggesting sane starting points and best practices for configuring important features.Location: OnlineTrack: In Focus: Here and Now
- How to Create Interactive Virtual Spaces: Creating 3D Interactions on 2D platforms.Sarah Delaporte-Holmes, Technology ServicesThe online realm can be interactive, engaging and fun. Lifelong relationships, friendships and partnerships can be formed. In the light of recent events, it is imperative we use online spaces to create interactive engagements. The world-wide-web offers significant opportunities for interactive engagements, yet most people still engage their audiences using 2 dimensional methods. In this talk, we will explore the many ways where websites, social media platforms, and online classroom spaces can be an engaging and interactive experience. This talk will be a broad stroke overview with many ideas on how to turn your online audience into a virtual community space where participants are engaged and excited to keep coming back.Location: OnlineTrack: Free-Floating
- Illinois Mobile App COVID-19 Features PreviewIsaac Galvan, Technology ServicesTechnology Service and the Rokwire team have been working together on adding new features to the Illinois app that will help our community stay safe during the COVID-19 crisis. We’ll discuss how our privacy-first approach and partnerships with local healthcare providers brought this tool to life, and how you can help get the word out about this new resource. Isaac J. Galvan will describe the new features and demonstrate what a user will see when enabling the COVID-19 features of the Illinois app.Location: OnlineTrack: Free-Floating
4:30pm – 5:00pm
Closing and Social
Join us to wrap up the day, reflect on our first all-digital conference, and look forward to the next!
Sponsors
A special thank you to Technology Services,
premier sponsor of the IT Professionals Forum Conference
for over 25 years!
Committee Members
- Troy Gagne, Co-chair, Technology Services
- Laura Galvan, Co-chair, Technology Services
- Neeru Batura, Technology Services
- Kanchan Bulbule, Facilities and Services
- Chris Burdette, Administrative Information Technology Services
- Debbie Fligor, Technology Services
- Rick Hazlewood, Technology Services
- Matt Macomber, Administrative Information Technology Services
- Kala Maturi, Technology Services
- Mark McCarthy, Administrative Information Technology Services
- Maged Messeh, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Todd Nelson, Administrative Information Technology Services
- Candice Solomon-Strutz, Administrative Information Technology Services
- Dena Strong, Technology Services
- Dejan Trencevski, Technology Services
- Marques (Q) Webster, Technology Services
- Leon Wilson, Library Administration
- Kenn Wislander, Technology Services