Board of Governors, June 24, 1999 - APPENDIX III, Annex 3

YEAR 2000 UPDATE REPORT

FOR INFORMATION

Year 2000 preparedness and contingency planning are progressing at the University on several fronts.

• The computer compliance review and update is focussed on the centrally managed systems and their state of readiness, and are defined as follows:
• The telecommunications systems are currently 25% compliant, and will be 100% compliant by November 1999 with the installation of the new telephone switch.
• The data communications and computing systems are currently 70% Year 2000 "ready" and will be 95% ready by September 1999. It is expected that there will be a small number of applications, mainly on the MVS mainframe systems, that will not be fully compliant by September 1999. These will be identified well in advance, and will not have campus-wide impact. ITS will work directly with the users of any systems which will not be compliant to develop contingency plans.
  The "Centrally-managed Systems" include:
  
• The UWO Telephone system and services managed by ITS.
• The basic connectivity provided by the UWO Backbone network, including access to the Internet, access from campus buildings to the backbone network, access to student residences (RezNet), etc.
• The UNIX network services, including the DNS / DHCP, NIS+ (authentication) and NFS services provided and managed by ITS.
• The Cray High Performance computing facilities.
• The MVS mainframe system and the applications that reside on that system.
(NOTE: The MVS mainframe system is planned to be decommissioned by September 1999.)

• The Administrative systems, managed through the PeopleSoft Resource Group, including:
• the PeopleSoft systems and their related infrastructure and access components
  
• the main Research Services ("FR") system and the associated Oracle database
  
• the Marcam PPD systems, running on the AS400 platform
  
• the Pension and Benefits ("BenPlus") system
  
• the Occupational Health and Safety ("Parklane") system
• The central e-mail services available on "Julian".
• The centrally-available UNIX file and application services (via "Panther") and the Web server services.
• The infrastructure to support the Library's Sun JavaStation network.
• The Novell File & Print services for all units who have contracted with ITS for "access to the central file server" by signing a formal Service Agreement for 1999/2000 (see http://www.uwo.ca/its/services/agreement.html)
• The ITS-supported labs, including the Student Computing Lab services, the public e-mail Lab services, the computers within those rooms and the software made available through those facilities.
• While computer compliance is pursued centrally, the distributed networks and workstations can receive support to ensure compliance. This support is being offered by ITS in the form of a guide book, workshops, and on-site consultations.
• Contingency plan activities have focussed on two main fronts:
• The identification and risk assessment of the University's business functions. This exercise involves every administrative and academic department. These work plans will be assessed to determine common elements which will be developed centrally.

Each administrative and academic department will be required to develop contingency plans particular to their unit, and to test those plans from August to October (depending on activities which impact each unit).

A special Research Subcommittee has been defined to assess the special risks associated with Research. Research is impacted by potential loss of rare materials, by retention of intellectual records, and by contractual obligations to funding agencies.

• The identification and planning of major infrastructure support systems. Planning is underway to minimize the potential impact on University facilities and occupants.

The levels of priority for U.W.O. have been defined as:

1. Safety and Security
2. Critical Business Functions:
• Residences
  
• Animal Quarters
  
• High "Risk" Experiments
  
• Command Centre
  
• Communications
  
3. Heating of Buildings
4. Telephone Communications
5. Lights, Power, and Water
6. Computer Systems

It is considered prudent to plan and implement contingencies for levels 1 to 4 inclusive; the provision of backup for lighting, full power, full water supply, and complete computer services is considered to be impractical.

• The University community is being informed and made aware of the Year 2000 challenge and the need for preparedness:
• A Y2K Readiness Guide is published for selective distribution.
• A web site is available to educate and to provide the tools required for compliance.
• The Western News is highlighting the issue in a continuing series of articles.
• Workshops and symposiums are being offered to the University community to increase awareness and participation.
• Special meetings will be organized by a representative of the compliance group (ITS) and a representative of the contingency group to discuss compliance, contingency preparations, Faculty responsibility, and due diligence with each Dean.