About Information Technology

The DevOps team consists of Planning, Platform Services, Infrastructure Services and Application Services.

DevOps - Planning

Identity & Access Management (IAM) relates to the systems and processes that allow each university community member a single digital identity, with authenticated logins, and authorized access to appropriate resources based on their role. The IAM team is responsible for designing, configuring and implementing IAM Solutions, and managing related systems. Other responsibilities include user provisioning and deprovisioning; managing access management options (e.g., single sign-on); conducting research, analyzing data, and creating reports; serving as the IAM subject matter expert and trusted advisor; providing advisory and consulting services as needed; participating in solution architecture design; and leading efforts associated with the integration and implementation of IAM solutions.

Data integration involves providing users with a unified view of data combined from different sources. The Data Integration team models, maps, and executes all activities related to the integration of data across various sources, including conception, design, and development of interfaces and integration architectures, as well as monitoring data flows between databases, servers and cloud services. This group also creates strategies for data integration processes by developing data definitions and standards, and ensuring high quality and optimum performance of data integration systems. They strive for continual improvement by assessing new formats for data interchange, rewriting procedures as needed, improving physical designs, and optimizing data integration for increasing data volumes.

Application & Systems Security team members recommend and coordinate the implementation of technical controls to support and enforce defined security policies for applications and systems. They identify and define system security requirements, and ensure that security is factored into the evaluation, selection, installation and configuration of hardware, applications, and software. They also work with the enterprise information security team to ensure that there is a convergence of business, technical and security requirements; they forge strong working relationships with the security operations team to develop and implement controls and configurations aligned with security policies and legal, regulatory and audit requirements; and they manage and coordinate operational components of incident management, including detection, response and reporting for application and systems.

The Interlock Group is unique in that its members change regularly. For each project, an Interlock Group is created with members from each DevOps team (planning, applications, platforms, infrastructure), the IT Portfolio Management Office, and Client Services. The DevOps Service Teams will be cross-functional teams that own all aspects of services in their scope of responsibility.

The Analytics Team helps to bridge the gap between the data you collect and the data you need to see. Their diverse team has decades of collaborative experience helping derive insights from data throughout the lead-to-alumni journey. They support the legacy reporting environment in WebFOCUS as well as develop new content in Microsoft PowerBI located in the Fordham Analytic Portal: https://analytics.fordham.edu/. They are always happy to help and talk about data needs. Feel free to email them at [email protected] and one of their data experts will schedule some time to talk.

DevOps - Application Services 

The Enterprise Applications group is responsible for Banner, Touchnet, Transact, Hyland, ChromeRiver, Jaggaer, Pyramed, Titanium, EAB SSC, Courseleaf and similar types of enterprise-level applications. This team supports and maintains enterprise applications according to business needs. They assist in designing, developing, testing and troubleshooting enterprise applications; developing effective programming solutions to meet project requirements; reviewing and recommending changes to improve performance; and developing documentation related to design, configuration, processes/workflow, integration/interface requirements.

Core Applications include Google, Microsoft, Zoom, Pharos, SugarCRM, Acoustic, EZVista (soon ServiceNow) and similar applications. This team supports and maintains core applications according to business needs. They assist in designing, developing, testing and troubleshooting core applications; developing cost-reduction initiatives while maintaining productivity; reviewing and recommending changes to improve performance; troubleshooting technical issues related to functionality; tracking and following issues through to resolution, including communications to all stakeholders; developing documentation related to design, configuration, processes, workflow, integration/interface requirements; and developing and maintaining troubleshooting and solution process and procedure documentation in order to build and enhance the knowledge base.

The Web Team is responsible for the university’s web systems, currently in transition from Jadu to Terminal4. They also identify the design and structure of web pages; oversee production and maintenance of web application user interfaces (UI) and websites; participate in web design features development; generate prototypes and mockups; enhance website performance speed and scalability; guarantee the optimization of web design on multiple devices; integrate user-facing components to server-side elements; conduct UI testing; design UI features; enhance interaction with various browsers; determine data protection and security measures; ensure responsiveness; test the site for usability; and manage technical and customer needs.

The Database Administration (DBA) team is responsible for database applications, the performance of database servers, setting and maintaining database standards, managing database access, etc. In addition, this team troubleshoots database issues, recommends and implements emerging database technologies, provides data management support, documents and enforces database policies, procedures and standards, monitors database performance, implements changes and applies new patches and versions when required.

The Rapid App team understands and recognizes the needs of customers, and creates new applications answering those needs. They invent new ways of handling problems, develop innovative applications, and write high-quality source code to program complete applications within deadlines. They focus on having all parts of applications working together; making decisions that move projects forward; and performing unit and integration testing before launch. This is a front-facing team working directly with clients and customers. 

The Physical Security Systems group manages all physical security software-related applications at the university. They are responsible for configuring access control badge templates and access control panels, generating electronic security reports, defining operational and system requirements for Integrated Access Control systems designs, conducting site surveys, and designing access control/ video management systems to counter threats and reduce vulnerabilities. They are the point of contact for all Access Control and Video Systems technical issues; they oversee, install, and configure Access Control and Video Management Systems software; collaborate with Campus Safety and Information Technology to research and develop physical security design standards, IP-based video safety, access control, and alarms; and facilitate design discussions in order to evaluate cost, risk, and benefits of design options.  

DevOps - Platform Services

The Cloud Services team oversees the creation of an efficient, reliable cloud infrastructure that enables applications to achieve high availability. They are responsible for cloud (not onsite) implementation, monitoring and maintenance; detailed knowledge of a cloud's operation and the ability to set up and configure resources, including servers, storage, networks and an array of cloud services; focus on different areas of cloud operations, such as networks, databases, security and so on; provide support and maintenance; keeping design in line with the overall business IT standards and working with other stakeholders to keep cloud architecture aligned with business goals; developing and implementing policies for the use of cloud services; and identifying, analyzing, and resolving infrastructure vulnerabilities and application deployment issues. They also regularly review existing systems and make recommendations for improvements.

The Systems team installs, configures, tests and maintains operating systems, application software and system management tools. They proactively ensure the highest levels of systems and infrastructure availability; maintain custom scripts to increase system efficiency and develop automation; lead technical efforts for upgrades, patches, and data migration, for server software; configure and tune standards in accordance with Microsoft and Linux recommendations. They also develop and maintain system documentation for server/software configuration and customizations; research, develop, and recommend solutions to current organizational challenges as it relates to virtualized infrastructures; assist with technical roadmaps for future virtual infrastructure implementation and growth; research, identify, test, and certify technology products required for server and storage solutions; and design disaster recovery solutions based on application recovery point objective and recovery time objective.

The Platform Operations group provides support to operational teams for mission critical systems. They manage the release management practice for the organization’s IT change management standards, including overseeing activities pertaining to release scheduling, software builds, deployments, installations, configurations and patches across a wide portfolio of applications. This team also responds to priority issues impacting service levels; ensures issues are logged and assembled for prioritization, resolution and follow-up; and ensures technical and user manual documentation is up-to-date and available.

DevOps - Infrastructure Services 

The Network Architecture team designs the technical network infrastructure for the enterprise. They optimally integrate solutions into existing networks, document current state network architecture, develop architectural standards, conduct proof of concept and design certification testing, partner with network engineering, and develop, maintain, and drive progress for our strategic roadmap. This group also leads the Life Cycle Management (LCM) for Infrastructure technologies, provides technical and process expertise to support operations engineers, evaluates and projects capacity growth, ensures we maintain scalable and flexible core technologies, and periodically reviews solutions to ensure network systems and associated processes align with IT and university strategies and roadmaps.

The Network Engineering team installs, configures and supports all equipment related to the university network, including routers, proxy servers, switches, WAN devices, wireless controllers, UPSs, etc. They also  maintain, install, and configure all network-related software, such as firewalls, routing and switching to maximize network efficiency. This team Investigates and troubleshoots network issues, and creates and maintains documentation related to network configuration, mapping, processes, and service records. Additionally, they work closely with the network architects to ensure their smooth and reliable operation for fulfilling business objectives and processes. This includes optimization, monitoring of wired and wireless network equipment, and other network hardware. They serve as the senior technical resource and escalation point for all services relating to networks in the organization. 

Network Operations responds to all requests, internal and external, regarding network issues and related services. They ensure availability of on-call network support, which includes determining problem severity and deciding the appropriate course of action. They provide direction, procedures and security for supporting a mobile workforce. The network operations team ensures that all support requests are resolved to the satisfaction of customers in good time, and they take 100% responsibility to restore service as quickly as possible. When a problem is beyond the network technician’s expertise, they escalate to other support teams for resolution. All the while ensuring that all work practices, procedures, and systems adhere to established security and quality control standards

Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of two or more communication services (e.g.,  telephone, video conferencing, voicemail, faxing, email) into a single interface. The UC team of specialists in voice products and services, oversee intercampus, local and long distance telephone services, maintain university-issued handsets, and provide training for using the University's unified communications system. Additionally, they lead the design, configuration and implementation of integration between UC and other systems, serve as technical leads for major implementation projects of UC systems, including understanding needs, designing, and implementing best practices for UC deployments to ensure investment in technology is consistent with business objectives. They monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of existing systems and assist with development and implementation strategies for improving efficiency, reliability and performance.

Network Security relates to the policies, processes, and practices used to prevent, detect, and monitor unauthorized access to university networks. This team designs, implements, and supports firewalls, as well as site-to-site and remote access VPNs. They help to maintain all security platforms and related software, such as routers, switches, intrusion detection or intrusion prevention, and firewalls, etc. They also guarantee network security best practices are executed, reply to security-related events and support in remediation efforts, and maintain network security devices to enable proactive defense of networks. This team collaborates with appropriate stakeholders to ensure customers have devices that are fully operational and secure, and with customers to create and fix appropriate policy and signature rules.

Information Security and Assurance is critical to the privacy and integrity of Fordham University community members and its historical, educational, research, and operational missions. This team is responsible for developing and implementing an information security program, including procedures and policies designed to protect University communications, systems, and assets from internal and external threats. They set the overall direction of information security functions relating to the university, including IT risk management, security policies, security awareness, incident response, security architecture, IT privacy, business resilience and data assurance. Partnering with the business and other IT areas, they cultivate relationships with users and department liaisons to set priorities, discuss issues of common concern, and manage expectations.

Key areas of focus include the security of enterprise-wide applications, communications, networks, computing services, and university-wide data stewardship. Additionally, they promote the quality, assurance, and integrity of information security throughout the university, develop and oversee implementation of information security policies, build a culture of information security, and educate the community about the implications of legislative requirements. This team collaborates closely with the Office of Public Safety to enhance the university’s physical security, and with the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in maintaining privacy within the university for faculty, students, and staff.

The IT Administration team is responsible for everything related to the care and wellbeing of IT staff, including talent management, which relates to the entire employee life cycle at Fordham: hiring, job descriptions, scorecards, on/off boarding, retention, professional development, engagement, wellbeing, performance management, awards & recognition, and providing a safe space to be heard. 

This area is also responsible for policies not related to information security, such as the Standard Operating Procedures and Hiring Protocols.

Also under IT Administration is the communications team, which provides strategic communications planning and messaging on behalf of Information Technology. They work closely with the CIO and other stakeholders to develop content that promotes IT resources, services, and initiatives to IT staff and the Fordham community. They also provide messaging for service interruptions and outages, and ensure all communications uphold IT's brand and are aligned with overall University branding. Our assets include IT web pages, blogs, social media, an email-marketing platform, and digital signage.

The IT Business Operations area is responsible for processing purchase orders and invoice payments, managing contracts, and organizing and managing office spaces to ensure they are in good repair, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. This team also maintains office supplies and equipment, and ensures they adhere to our ‘green’ initiatives.

The Business Analysis team is the initial collection point for all IT and University capital and operating project requests. They record all requests in TeamDynamix (TDX), (the portfolio management system of record), and collaborate with other PMO teams, project owners, and constituents to prepare full-scope documents for project governance review and approval. This includes: identifying project business goals and objectives; ensuring alignment with the University Strategic Plan; documenting major activities, key deliverables, costs and funding; preparing a project timeline; identifying resource requirements and team members; documenting functional user’s expected outcomes, milestones, dependencies, interfaces, risks, and key stakeholders; preparing functional and technical requirements; mapping business processes in collaboration with the Process Improvement team; conducting needs and gap analyses, collaborating with other IT areas to prepare them for pre- and post- go-live solution support (user acceptance testing).

The Process Improvement Office serves as the IT liaison with project owners, subject matter and technical experts, and other stakeholders for the analyses of business processes. They facilitate the documentation and mapping of existing processes (“as is”) to improved (best practices; efficient; automation where possible; etc) processes (“to be”) and the identification of processes to be added or eliminated. This group works closely with the Business Analysis team to better understand project requirements and with the Change Management team to ensure that process improvements are incorporated into project deployment.

The Project Management Office provides overall accountability for the successful completion and deployment of medium to large-scale and/or complex projects through the management of all operational and tactical aspects of the projects. This includes standardizing templates and tools for project tracking; developing and managing detailed project plans; monitoring resource allocation and usage; monitoring project timelines and project costs (budget vs. actual); managing relationships; identifying and tracking issues and risks and developing mitigation/resolution strategies; developing user acceptance testing timelines; managing scope changes and determining impact on the project and overall project portfolio; preparing project close-out documents and securing stakeholder sign-off; creating dashboards for leadership, CIO, and other directors and managers; developing project implementation performance metrics and standards; and for non-PMO projects--provides support when possible.

The Change Management Office develops the “script” for introducing change into business and other stakeholder units and the University community where appropriate. They conduct impact analyses to identify affected stakeholders; develop communication strategies; prepare training plans and/or modify vendor training plans; facilitate training; create and execute deployment plans; co-develop training documentation with the project sponsor; and facilitate train the trainer workshops in tandem with the Process Improvement team to incorporate new processes into change management strategies.

The IT Service Desk & IT Service Desk-Students/Relationship Manager oversee 100% of requests, incidents and problems. They manage and coordinate urgent and complicated support issues, and act as the escalation point for all requests and incidents. This team develops and matures phone/ticket escalation processes to ensure free flowing escalation and information within the organization; they determine root cause of issues and communicate appropriately to internal and external customers; train, coach and mentor all Service Desk Specialists; and oversee staff activities. They work to make the Service Desk the single source of truth and delivery channel for IT. They monitor and manage the phone queue (participating in escalated calls as needed), and manage high profile, critical, or complex incidents and provide updates to management and Customers where necessary. They also obtain customer feedback to continually evaluate and improve the level of customer satisfaction.

Level 1 Support are the frontline technical support professionals who receive and handle tickets. They are responsible for providing customers with information, restoring service, providing specific services, and escalating tickets to a higher level of support where appropriate.

Level 2 Support are the technical support professionals who handle the tickets escalated from Level 1. These folks have greater technical skills and/or access rights than Level 1 Support, and typically participate in root cause analysis of problems.

The Endpoint Services team builds, maintains, and/or enhances technical products and services. They become involved when the ticket cannot be resolved by either Level 1 or 2, and when there is high business impact or urgency. This team provides appropriate solutions to technical issues; they prioritize and handle issues in a timely manner; and ensure that issues are completely rectified such that they do not recur. Endpoint Services staff resolve incidents remotely, at a user’s location, or via equipment returns. Their responsibilities include hardware and software deployments, moves, adds, and changes; testing web apps and device updates; identifying potential points of failure, areas for improvement, pain points and bottlenecks; maintaining detailed and current documentation of computer configurations; and working closely with departmental partners (Law, Gabeli, Library), providing expertise as needed.

The IT Asset Management team maintains and monitors an inventory database of university-wide hardware and software to ensure compliance, cost control, governance and performance objectives. They manage the entire hardware and software product lifecycle. This team identifies savings opportunities for renewals, software licensing, and services; tracks and renews hardware and software maintenance agreements and warranties; they procure, inventory, and provision software and hardware; review and revise standard equipment configuration policies; review software and hardware utilization and make recommendations on requirements; and research new equipment and software to make recommendations on vendors, manufactures, and product versions.

The Learning Spaces & Events Management team ensures the technology deployed in supported spaces (large venue areas, public spaces, conference rooms, classrooms, and labs) throughout the University is continually working as designed. This includes continually reviewing and refining documentation, policies, and procedures for these assets; establishing and maintaining service level agreements to meet community needs; planning, training, and support for new equipment and software; defining an annual methodology for evaluating current spaces and needs to determine appropriate capital and operating expenditures to support community activities; and documentation, signage, tutorials, and other content to assist patrons (faculty, students, guest, etc) with the use of technology. This team also manages equipment available for borrowing (and its return). In collaboration with the Learning Space Design Lead, they define audio visual, hardware and software specifications for labs and classrooms; provide technology support and training for audio visual equipment and technology in supported spaces; and manage audio visual monitoring software and train technical staff on its usage. They also provide event support through pre-event technology consultations and coordination of technology assets and human resources for supported spaces.

The Client Services Operations team provides data, KPI’s, and trends to IT leadership and others regularly and as needed. They monitor the performance of the Service Desk against SLAs; drive ticket deep dive and develop strategies for improvement; and develop an effective and workable framework for managing and improving customer support in the organization. This team also advises management on situations that may require additional client support or escalation; oversees the solutions repository and ensures top quality solutions are available; and manages the process to communicate outage and emergency activities to the organization. Additionally, Client Services Ops develops, gains agreement to, owns and maintains the Incident, Critical Incident, and Service Request processes (ITIL) and procedures, ensuring procedures are followed, including reviews and problem analysis. They also own the knowledge base tool and develop policies and procedures for its effective use, including review and compliance. 

The Educational Technologies group is responsible for supporting faculty across all currently installed and supported educational technologies (applications). They consult with faculty on incorporating technology into their teaching; administer and maintain academic enterprise tools and integration (with DevOps) for faculty and students; provide training and support opportunities for these systems, tools, and services; provide consulting services on leveraging technology tools for teaching to deans, chairs, and faculty including supporting the setup of non-research (content sites etc.) technology needs.

The Research Computing team supports faculty researchers with their compute/IO needs for their university supported research. They provide consultative help with research computing; work on all requirements from small research computing needs to HPCC; design and support hybrid HPCC; support Internet2 for research; and have a dotted-line relationship with DevOps - Platform Services.

The Labs and Training team is responsible for supporting both the physical and virtual computer labs across all campuses of the university. They plan and maintain the software applications needed for courses; plan for decreasing the physical lab footprint by 50% while increasing the digital footprint of labs; innovate on new ways for students to use software from where they are; and train on different software tools for students to prepare them as they graduate and begin their careers.

The Emerging Educational Technologies & Learning Space Design team is responsible for all emerging educational technologies related to teaching and learning, and for the oversight of the LITE center and its programming. They collaborate and work with faculty early-adopters to use new edtech to enhance learning, and they are entrepreneurial in getting faculty to try new technology. They perform regular assessments of new tech on learning; create plans to scale new technology when there is adoption; and develop programs for students to use new edtech for their projects. For all emerging technology that is not ‘EdTech,’ the assistant director will partner with members of the Innovation Hub, and has a dotted line to CIO and Innovation hub.

The Learning Space design person spends 75% of time enhancing learning spaces and 25% with the director of learning spaces and events technology to support on-ground needs. They will also develop plans in collaboration with deans (or designee), faculty, director of learning spaces and other members of IT and the university for discipline specific experimental classrooms and other learning spaces.

The AVP - Special Projects supports the CIO with strategic projects, for example, the LC data center, Service Now, Internet2, Google licensing, and contingency planning.

Assistant VP IT Planning serves as an air traffic controller for the leader and the senior team: as an integrator connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed; as a communicator linking the leadership team and the broader organization; as an honest broker and truth teller when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations; and as a confidant without an organizational agenda.

The Digital Innovation Hub is not a permanent role, and is led by an AVP for 6 months. The ‘Hub’ is for IT individuals to work on innovative ideas, without a specific script or framework. 

The Enterprise Architect creates an architectural roadmap and reference architecture for all technologies across the enterprise, and provides architecture governance in all software systems & infrastructure programs. They are responsible for cataloging, developing, coordinating, communicating, maintaining, and enforcing overall enterprise architecture models, representations, initiatives, capabilities, and components to adequately perform the organization's business and technology activities. They create roadmaps for rationalization & achievement of architectural objectives for all software systems across the enterprise; design the structure of enterprise level IT systems, oversee the project implementation, and measure the performance of the new system. The Enterprise Architect develops an IT Ecosystem Application Specification document, selecting a framework, for example – TOGAF, FEAF, with senior leader peers to drive a coordinated program of architectural exploration and innovation, constantly monitoring developments in the market and seeking out disruptive technologies/vendors. 

The Assistant Manager of IT Finance & Administrative reviews, analyzes, prepares, and reports on budgets and budget performance for the Office of the CIO, as well as oversees all financial aspects of capital projects. They also provide high-level administrative support and assistance to the CIO and Executive Team.