Informationsinfrastrukturen im Wandel. Changing ... - DINI

Ulrich Hohoff, Leopold Eichner 231
software operation with decentralised data administration. Such tools encourage
the cooperation of various institutions and the ‚cooperative‟ responsibility
assignment within the ITS. Particular emphasis will be laid on
creating an infrastructure that allows for a smooth flow of information
within the ITS as well as between the ITS and the outside world.
In May 2006, the ITS service group ‚Server infrastructure and security‟
was founded. All staff members who are concerned with operating a server
belong to this group; they come from the computer center, the university
library, the video laboratory, the DP department of the administration and
the decentralised IT service units of the faculties. Their aim is to develop
and implement university-wide unified work strategies; right now, they are
taking a review of the situation in order to achieve clarity about their future
fields of action.
Identity management and campus file system
For more than four years, Augsburg University has been using a university-wide
user and data management system on the basis of IBM
DCE/DFS. All personalised services of the computer center can be used by
employing just one codeword and one password. The possibilities offered
by identity management and a campus file system have been accepted quite
enthusiastically and have unmistakably had positive effects on the supply
structures.
We want to profit by these experiences and, due to the cancellation of
the IBM products, devise a university-wide follow-up solution which may
be extended to include all personalised services within the university. Apart
from a standardised administration of digital identities, a cross platform
management of user files (campus file system) will be an essential cornerstone
of the supply strategy.
Integrated operation of workstations
The workstation is one of the most important tools employed by university
staff in their daily work; at the same time, it is unfortunately one of the
most vulnerable tools. Our basic idea is to conceive of the workstation not
as a separate device, but as a part of the infrastructure, comparable to a
telephone and just as reliable and unproblematic in its use. Of course, such
a view has its limits. But we have to exploit to the fullest the technological
possibilities available today and to create an appropriate framework at the