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Formation
of Systems and Network Technical Group
By
Raymond Poon
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In
view of the increasing importance of computer facilities and the
complexity of networking in the University, ensuring smooth running
of the computer systems and networks have become a high priority
issue in departments as well as in the Computing Services Centre
(CSC).
Since many
departmental computer facilities are managed and supported by
departments’ technical staff, close cooperations between
technical staff of various departments and of the CSC are therefore
essential in order to achieve a reliable and seamless integration
of computer network. This kind of cooperation is crucial as we
are aiming at maintaining effective distributed management while
mastering the complexities of the computer network. Moreover,
standards, compatibility and consistency in set-up, good practices
in operations, etc. across the entire campus network will also
have to be agreed and adopted.
The CSC has
therefore invited departments to nominate one or two of their
staff who are responsible for managing their departmental computing
facilities to join the newly formed Systems and Network Technical
Group as members. The objectives of the group are:
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Exchange
information on access to departmental and central computer facilities
with an aim to improving existing facilities and establishing
new ones.
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Exchange ideas on resource planning, management, and monitoring
as well as on policy formulation for central and departmental
facilities.
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Issue and collect timely alerts on service interruption, virus,
security, and performance.
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Discuss technical issues such as: standards, common practices,
configurations, settings, compatibility, etc. and their subsequent
adoption and implementation.
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Discuss and resolve problems of systems and networks encountered.
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Assist in deploying and evaluating pilot tests on new departmental
and central services.
The first
bi-monthly meeting of the Group was held on Dec 7 1999 and already
proved to be a very fruitful one. Members-only Web pages and forum
have been established to provide members with the most up-to-date
information as well as a place for discussions and exchanging
ideas. It is believed that the Systems and Network Technical Group
will bridge the gap among different groups of University technical
staff in managing our distributed and complicated computer network.
