Information Technology is responsible for planning, implementation, and management of technology services to support university instruction, research, service and administration. Information Technology has over 120 staff providing operations, technical support, systems analysis, programming, and consulting functions for the university.

Computing Services

The primary computing datacenter for the university is located in the Miller Information Technology Center on the Belknap Campus. At almost 10,000 square feet, the UofL Datacenter was designed to provide a secure, scalable, and environmentally conditioned location for the major administrative and academic computers at UofL.

The datacenter currently houses over 200 university servers and has a data capacity of over 20 Terabytes. The systems located in the datacenter include a high-performance parallel computing system and departmental servers.

Uptime is ensured by an un-interruptible power supply (UPS) system with a 500kVA diesel generator backup. Environmental conditions are controlled by Liebert HVAC units, and systems are protected by water detection and intrusion alarms. The facility is manned 24 x 7 365 days per year with a staff of 30 FTE. System and data redundancy (including data mirroring capability) is being implemented via a satellite datacenter at the University’s Health Sciences Center.

Security

UofL has undertaken to ensure a high level of security for campus networks and systems. The university has firewall systems protecting the systems in the data center, and has perimeter firewalls to protect the campus network from malicious Internet traffic. Departmental and specialized systems can be protected by custom firewalls when enhanced security is required. Access to the wireless networks on campus is restricted to authenticated users and all traffic is encrypted.

Campus e-mail is centrally scanned for viruses, and Symantec Anti-virus software is required on all network attached systems. Spam filtering and E-mail encryption are available for all faculty, staff, and students.

Communications

The University has extensive networking, including an 8 gigabit campus backbone network, a high-speed intercampus fiber network (77 miles of fiber in a ring), campus telephone systems, cable TV, microwave, and IP video networks. A satellite uplink connects to Kentucky Educational Television (KET) Star Channels system. The University is licensed for Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) and is member of KET. Wireless Internet service (54Mbps 802.11g) is widely available across Belknap and Health Sciences campuses, with access in scheduled classrooms and many public areas.

Kentucky Postsecondary Education network

The University has access to high-speed (155 Mbps) Internet service through KPEN (the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Network). The KPEN network also forms that backbone of the state-wide network interconnecting all public postsecondary education institutions. UofL is connected to KPEN at a speed of 1Gbps, and other universities are connected at either 1Gbps or 100Mbps. KPEN is a robust MPLS network that provides control over quality of service (QoS), supports multi-point and multi-cast communications, and is used for a variety of applications including Voice over IP telephone service and IP video.

Internet2

UofL is a member of Internet2, and is a connector node on the existing Abilene network (at 155 Mbps). Over the next year, Internet2 will be migrating to a next generation network with greater capacity and capabilities. The University of Louisville will be migrating to the Internet2 “NewNet,” and will have a direct connection via fiber to a NewNet node located in Louisville. This node has the capability of being the connection point for a regional optical network covering the entire state. This optical network (the Kentucky Optical Network or KON) is currently in the planning stages.

Additional information concerning Information Technology services can be found on the UofL web pages at http://louisville.edu/it/.

Note: This information is available as a Microsoft Word document that you can use in preparing grant applications or other documents at https://docushare.louisville.edu/dsweb/Get/Document-19697/