Campus Projects
Recently Completed Projects
Border Router Upgrade
DoIT Network Services completed the upgrading of the campus border routers to new Juniper M320 routers in Spring 2008. The new systems allow campus to maintain two redundant connections to the Internet, Internet2 and research and education networks using 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The previous border routers only supported up to 1 Gigabit Ethernet connection. The two systems are located in different buildings to enhance reliability in the event of an outage.
Program Release
In early 2008, UW-Madison completed work on Program Release, a large-scale effort to provide UW System and the Madison, Milwaukee and Extension campuses with new tools for administering grants, travel, staff effort reporting, accounts payable, and accounting processes. Program Release was a two-year project that has reduced processing time for UW administrative staff while making data more available to end users. For more information on Program Release and its component projects, contact the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration.
21st Century Network Upgrade
After years of design, testing, and deployment, UW-Madison completed the upgrade to its state-of-the-art 21st Century Network in late 2007. This secure network provides faster connections, smoothly presents streaming media by efficiently handling video, audio and data traffic, and guarantees the quality of service for critical network traffic. UW-Madison’s campus backbone network is one of only a few at higher-education institutions to provide 10-gigabit-per-second speeds. It enables the campus to provide a ubiquitous wireless service, centralized firewall solutions, guest NetID service and more bandwidth capacity to meet the needs of researchers. Improvements to the campus network continue with replacement of outmoded wiring in campus buildings, and new electronics will be installed in many buildings in three or four years. For more information, contact Jim Hilby.
Elimination of SSN-based UW IDs
In early 2008, the Office of the CIO led the project to eliminate SSN-based photo ID cards for all UW-Madison faculty and staff. A letter was sent in March to all those who had SSN-based ID cards advising them to take immediate action to acquire new ID cards. Individuals had been asked several times over the past few years to switch to a non-SSN card, which resulted in some changeover, but not 100 percent compliance. As of April 15, 2008, all UW ID numbers that were based on the owner's Social Security Number (SSN) were invalidated. UW ID cards with the old number are no longer accepted as proof that the card holder is an active member of the UW-Madison community. More information.
WiscAlerts-Text
UW-Madison students, faculty and staff are encouraged to enroll in the new campus emergency text messaging system launched in May 2008, called WiscAlerts-Text. The service is used to send critical safety information via text message from UW-Madison Police in the event of a real emergency. Users can enroll through the My UW portal. Read more.
BOREAS/Northern Tier
BOREAS is the Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network, a collaboration of four major research institutions in the upper Midwest: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. BOREAS intends to build and operate a Regional Optical Network to service the advanced production and experimental network requirements of the research and education institutions in our region. More information