CIO

Recent blog entries tagged with CIO.

Vendors and Contracts: Making Connections

Created by Theresa Rowe (Oakland University) on May 16, 2008

One of the challenges of IT leadership is working with vendors and the associated contracts, agreements and licenses common to the operation of an IT department. I'm trying to figure out how and when I learned to handle this part of my operation. I'd like to give my staff the benefit of attending classes and professional development that would improve their skills in this area (maybe an Executive MBA in IS Leadership that our university offers emba.oakland.edu). I'm seeking options that offer opportunities to develop skills in handling vendor relationships. I thought an occasional blog posting on this topic would help explore the nature of the environment and the skills required of IT leaders.

Making Connections

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Identity Management ...

Created by Theresa Rowe (Oakland University) on December 18, 2006

Identity Management assembles several streams of activity around identifying members of the university community and provisioning services for those community members. Universities need methods for discovering new members of the community and making sure those members have access to the services that the individual members need. Identity management can be used create a single-authentication environment, moving to a single sign-on environment, and then sharing that authentication among several universities in a federation. When used for service provisioning, access to private or limited resources can be controlled through identity management strategies.

A growing aspect of Identity Management is the creation of access and traffic logs. These logs allow us to differentiate the activities of those authorized community members from activities that are not authorized, particularly those originating from those outside the community. We can trace and answer “what happened.” Compliance requirements (e-evidence or HIPAA, for example) may require retention of logs for extended periods of time.

I like to think that university networks and systems operate within a set of ethical principles. Our networks are open highways where communities are free to travel. There may be limited entrance and exit ramps, particularly to special services (like interstate highways). Cars are licensed to travel wherever the driver chooses, but travel is not monitored or permanently recorded in a log. Some destinations are not easily accessible or have limited access; there are locked gates and perimeter walls.

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