We aim to deliver secure working practices at Cardiff Met, and protecting corporate data is a vital part of this. To ensure our data is kept secure, most Cardiff Met computers and corporate devices will were encrypted over the course of 2016. All new Windows 10 devices will be encrypted as standard.
New antivirus protection will be rolled out to all Cardiff Met PC’s this summer to better prevent, detect and remove malicious threats to the network, and keep our data safe! This process will not cause any disruptions to services; you won’t even notice it’s going on.
Windows 10, the latest operating system from Microsoft, combines new tools and features with a familiar and easy to use interface for a much more user-centric experience. Windows 10, has already been rolled out to all student Open Access computers, student loan laptops and selected staff early-adopter computers. An ongoing staff rollout of the new Microsoft operating system is currently in progress.
Find out more about how and when we will be upgrading to Windows 10.
AppsAnywhere is a project to deliver a centralised app store for all Cardiff Met staff and students, which will provide on and off-campus access to applications for staff and students where licensing allows. AppsAnywhere allows software to be delivered on demand, when and where you need it. The majority of software currently published through AppsAnywhere is delivered using CloudPaging technology, allowing the software to be streamed and locally virtualised on Windows computers but as it's device aware, it will also provide MacOS or tablet versions of software where available.
We are working towards establishing a Single Sign On solution to authenticate Cardiff Met’s current and future corporate systems. This will mean you will only need to sign into your Cardiff Account once to access any Cardiff Met Systems, even if you're not on campus!
The latest version of Microsoft Office products is now available to all Cardiff Met staff and students both on and off campus. Office 2016 offers many new, collaborative features to aid productivity and make working together a whole lot easier!
All SharePoint team sites are currently being upgraded to the 2016 version. The enhanced functionality and improved ease of use that SharePoint 2016 offers will allow us to get the most from our team sites, making working together that much easier.
OneDrive is a cloud-based storage service offered by Microsoft. Providing a secure, high capacity storage service for users to work flexibly, with quick and easy access to their documents from anywhere, on almost any device. Cardiff Met now utilises OneDrive for both student and staff storage.
We are currently in the process of moving our staff email service over to Microsoft’s cloud service, Office 365. Office 365 delivers a much more secure, robust service for corporate emails to be stored and accessed, helping us to keep corporate information safe.
This application deployment service has already been rolled out to all Cardiff Met open acess PC's. The service will deliver core educational software to student PCs and specific staff software to selected Staff PCs via CloudPaging Technologies. This will optimise PC performance as it reduces the volume of software installed on PCs as standard.
We aim to be able to centrally manage most Cardiff Met mobile devices, such as Laptops, Phones and Tablets. Such management will allow us to perform valuable tasks on remote devices and give us additionally security over devices that leave the campus.
We are in the process of updating the ‘behind the scenes’ technology that allow us to deliver Cardiff Met’s IT services to you. Networks, storage, security and servers will all be updated to improve reliability and performance of existing services.
Find out more details on infrastructure refresh, including updated schedule on any disruptions to services.
Cardiff Met will be adding Skype for Business to its services available for staff and students. Skype for business is a communications platform that provides: video, audio and web conferencing, instant messaging, presence details and screen sharing. Offering staff the opportunity to communicate effectively from the comfort of their own desk! Skype for business will also be installed in all the bookable study rooms so Students can also take advantage of the facility.
Upgrades to the Apple server infrastructure are currently taking place. The current servers have reached the end of life and need updating for Cardiff Met Mac’s to continue to run efficiently. This process should not cause any disruptions to service and Mac’s will still be available for use whilst the updates are being carried out.
At present, wee are investigating tools that will help staff communicate and collaborate more effectively. A simple improvement will be to enhance SharePoint staff profiles; adding useful information (e.g. phone number) and providing better integration with software such as Outlook. We are also looking at the potential of new tools, Yammer and Office 365 Groups, to evaluate whether they will be of use to Cardiff Met staff and students.