for
The University of Hong Kong
2005 - 2008
Quality IT Services for a Digital University
Ng Nam
Director
Computer Centre
The University of Hong Kong
November 18, 2004
1. Introduction – Planning for The Next 3 Years
2. Mission and Vision of the Computer Centre
3. Review of Current IT Services
3.1. HKU Portal Services
3.2. University Information System and Student Connect
3.3. HKU Electronic Services Delivery (HKUESD)
3.4. IT Support for Teaching and Learning
3.5. High Speed Campus Network
3.6. High Performance Computation Support
4. IT Strategies for 2005-2008
4.1. State-of-the-Art Network Infrastructure for Ubiquitous Access
4.2. Responsive Servers and Sufficient Storage Capacity to Meet the Needs of Our Users
4.3. Campus Portal for Personalized Information and Services
4.4. Innovative Deployment of HKUESD Applications Platform
4.5. IT for Teaching and Learning
4.6. IT for Library Information and Services
4.7. IT for Research and Innovation
4.8. IT Support for e-Administration
4.9. Management of Quality IT Services
4.10. Promotion of IT Innovations and New Services
4.11. Sustaining the Best IT Professionals
1. Introduction – Planning for the Next Three Years
The HKU Computer Centre has developed three 3-years IT strategic plans for the University since 1996. These systematic IT development plans have kept our University at the forefront of the advancing information and communication technologies. We have built a world-class IT infrastructure for our University and implemented numerous innovative IT applications working towards our long-term goal of a paperless digital university.
In developing the IT strategic plan of the University for the next three years, the Computer Centre had held a one-day retreat in May 2004 to gather views and visions of our colleagues. Prior to the retreat in March 2004, presentations were made by the various sections and teams of the Computer Centre to review their current work. The retreat had focused on reviewing the Computer Centre’s mission, vision, core values and contributions to the University, and, more importantly, discussed our planned work and IT strategies for 2005-2008.
Our colleagues had drawn a common consensus to maintain our University’s leading position in good use of IT. In addition to keeping pace with the deployment of advanced technology applications and facilities development, we shall focus on the provision of quality IT services from the users’ perspectives. We aim to provide user-centric and good quality services to staff and students to support teaching, learning, research and innovations. We shall also extend our services to foster closer relationship with our alumni, potential students and members of the community at large.
After thorough discussion in our retreat and subsequent follow-up discussions, we have identified the following goals and objectives in defining our strategic plan:
With the identification of our direction and focus for future development as mentioned above, a new IT strategic plan in 2005-2008 for the University has been developed and will be elaborated in the following sections.
In summary, our vision is that our University would be a leader in the forefront of the emerging paperless digital world by providing its members with fast and reliable network bandwidth and adequate information storage; anytime and anywhere access to the vast resources on the Campus Network and Internet; facilitation of teaching and learning; state-of-the-art computing and IT facilities for cutting-edge researches and innovations; web-based administrative and management information systems to facilitate planning; and a user-oriented information and communication portal for supporting an efficient and user-friendly knowledge hub for the benefit of all staff and students.
2. Mission and Vision of the Computer Centre
The HKU Computer Centre serves to provide leadership in the deployment of Information Technology (IT) to support the University’s vision and to facilitate University staff and students in the use of IT for their teaching, learning, research, innovation and administration. It is the mission of the Computer Centre to assist the University in moving towards achieving a paperless digital university environment. The Computer Centre reaffirms its vision as follows:
(i) Facilitate the use of the latest information and communication technology in our University’s teaching, learning, research, administration and out-reach to community;
(ii) Provide an excellent network environment that facilitates the access and exchange of information;
(iii) Enable our staff and students to use our computer and network resources effectively and efficiently;
(iv) Put innovation in our technology transfer to assist the University in her mission; and
(v) Aim to provide the best quality IT service in Hong Kong as well as in the global perspective.
The Computer Centre reaffirms its role to provide advanced and reliable IT services to the University community so that staff and students could readily access all the network services anytime and anywhere. We work in support of the vision and mission of the University, namely, to sustain and enhance the University’s excellence as an institution of higher learning through outstanding teaching and world-class research so as to produce well-rounded graduates with lifelong abilities to provide leadership within the societies they serve.
3. Review of Current IT Services
Following closely the proposals in the last strategic plan on “IT Strategy for Accelerated Development of a Paperless Green University”, the Computer Centre has turned most initiatives into implementations, facilitating the University to sustain and enhance its outstanding teaching and world-class research. Extensive IT services have been set up to facilitate the daily activities of all students and staff in the University. The highlight of our current services is summarized in the following paragraphs.
The HKU Computer Centre runs 24-hours non-stop computer and network services to support the IT needs of the University. Every staff and student is given a unique user-identification, i.e. the HKU Portal UID, which together with a PIN (the personal identification number), allow all members of the University to readily access a wide range of network services and applications through our single sign-on platform, the HKU Portal.
The HKU Portal provides a user-friendly and easy-to-access interface through which University members can access all the centrally-provided IT services including electronic mail, Intranet services, web-based administrative applications, web-based courses and HKU Electronic Services Delivery (HKUESD) applications through our high-speed campus network. With a personalized and customizable interface of the HKU Portal, users are free to choose the types of information they wish to receive and the format to display the information.
3.2. University Information System and Student Connect
The Computer Centre has developed a web-based UIS (University Information System) and Student Connect, which are accessible through the HKU Portal, to provide our teachers and students with comprehensive management information. The UIS supports all the administrative applications including human resources, finance, estates, student records and alumni information, while the Student Connect enables students to select courses, view course/examination timetables, enquire examination results and change personal particulars. These two core systems provide up-to-date information that helps our staff and students in their daily teaching and learning activities.
3.3. HKU Electronic Services Delivery (HKUESD)
The Computer Centre has also developed extensive web-based applications for use by staff and students to support their daily activities in the University. An innovative HKUESD (HKU Electronic Services Delivery) platform has been established to deploy the use of digital signature based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology to provide secure and authenticated online transactions, to replace the traditional use of paper forms to achieve higher processing efficiency and improved user convenience. Numerous applications and services for central administrative offices have been set up under the HKUESD platform, e.g. application for annual leave, booking of amenities facilities, etc. Staff and students are given free HKU digital certificates to facilitate their use of digital signatures in the HKUESD applications when they are issued with a staff or student smart card after joining the University.
3.4. IT Support for Teaching and Learning
The University recognizes the importance of IT to support teaching and learning. A “Campus Notebook Programme” has been incorporated since 1998 which enables freshmen undergraduates entering the University to own a notebook computer, at affordable cost to students, to facilitate their access to the network services anytime and anywhere. The Computer Centre works towards the same vision of the University and endeavors to provide the best service available. Free access to the Internet and ample disk storage, up to 120M bytes, are provided to each staff and student to facilitate their electronic mail communications, participating in open electronic forums, setting up personal webpages, etc.
A web-based electronic course platform, WebCT, has been set up since 1998 to support interactive web-based teaching and learning over the network. The WebCT platform has gained popular use among the teachers over the years and we now have over 1,000 WebCT courses. Regular induction courses and training workshops on the use of multimedia design software and web page authoring tools are also arranged for teachers to acquaint themselves with the related IT skills.
3.5. High Speed Campus Network
To support all the IT services in the University, the Computer Centre has installed a high-speed and sophisticated campus network infrastructure with extensive coverage in the University. More than 22,000 readily accessible network points have been installed in the buildings and over 500 wireless access points are installed across the campus. A ubiquitous network access environment, known as ACEnet (Access-Everywhere Network), has been established to provide staff and students with anytime, anywhere access to the campus network. Wireless connectivity is set up in all centrally-administered classrooms and public areas in the main campus. Students can easily connect to the campus network in the residential halls via the Hall Network. Home access to the campus network is supported via HKUVPN gateway for users of commercial ISP services or via HKUPPP services.
The HKU campus network is also connected to other tertiary institutions in Hong Kong through HARNET (the Hongkong Academic and Research NETwork). A 300 Mbps link connects the HKU network to HARNET, which in turn is connected to HKIX (the Hong Kong Internet Exchange) via a 1 Gbps link and to the global Internet via a 240 Mbps ISP link. Two 155 Mps links connect HARNET to China’s CERNET (China Education and Research Network) and Taiwan’s TANET (Taiwan Academic Network) respectively. Another dedicated 45 Mbps link is established and connects HARNET to the Internet2, which is a collaborative effort of over 200 universities in U.S.A. working in partnership with industry and government to support advanced Internet technologies and applications development for academic applications and research. The Internet2 connection provides a resourceful channel for the University staff to enhance their research collaborations with other academics on a global scale.
3.6. High Performance Computation Support
The Computer Centre has installed advanced computer servers to support computational-intensive research activities in the University. Starting with the implementation of an IBM SP1 Parallel Computer system in 1993, the Computer Centre has constantly provided assistance to the researchers in the University to develop parallel programs that improve the computational speeds by orders of magnitude. An IBM 128-node high-performance PC cluster with dual-Xeon 2.8Ghz CPUs has been installed in October 2003. This 256-CPU cluster has a theoretical peak processing power of over 1,400 Giga-FLOPS which is currently the fastest computer in Hong Kong and was ranked 240 in the Top 500 Supercomputers list in November 2003 and again ranked 308 in the same list in June 2004.
Other high performance servers in the Computer Centre also include a Compaq 64-CPU parallel PC cluster with over 75 Giga-FLOPS of processing power and the new installation of a HP rp8420 system. Another powerful 24-node SUN SunFire 6800 system has also been installed to provide the most up-to-date software tools and nucleotide and protein databases to support bioinformatics research and studies through collaboration with the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre and funding support from the HKSAR Government Innovation and Technology Fund. The databases are updated daily with an average of 250 Megabytes of data transmitted over our Internet2 link.
4. IT Strategies for 2005-2008
Our previous Digital University Initiatives that were first initiated back in 1996 have led to the development of a sophisticated and advanced campus network at the University of Hong Kong, which is comparable to any world-class campus network infrastructure. To capitalize on our foundation and experience in the deployment of paperless and digital processes to create a highly efficient workplace and a user-friendly and environmental-friendly environment, we shall continue to advance our technology provisions and improve our varied applications to help transform our University into a resourceful knowledge hub.
To accomplish the above goals, the Computer Centre would like to propose the following IT strategies for a holistic IT development for the University in the triennium 2005-2008. While we would be bold in our proposals, we must also be aware that under constrained budget, we should plan our development with a cautious approach. Our strategies are focused in the following eleven areas:
4.1. State-of-the-Art Network Infrastructure for Ubiquitous Access
Building on our high-speed campus network infrastructure, the Computer Centre will continue to enhance and improve the network facilities employing state-of-the-art technologies to provide adequate bandwidth, good performance and high reliability for all our users. As our teachers and students are relying heavily on the availability of all network services any time of the day, network security issues are also becoming an important area of concern to the users. We would continue to incorporate additional and sophisticated security devices into the campus network so that our vital communication channel remains open at all times.
4.1.1. Adoption of Open Standards for Building the Network Infrastructure
As computing and networking technologies change rapidly, the life cycles of these new technologies become much shorter than before. While we should continue to deploy state-of-the-art technology in strengthening our infrastructure capabilities, functionalities and capacity, we would adopt the open standards in building our network infrastructure to make it more adaptive to change of technologies and to maintain scalability and interoperability of products from different vendors and at different periods of time to protect our investment and skill in our network infrastructure.
4.1.2. Advanced and High Speed Campus Network
Our campus backbone network is currently based on Gigabit Ethernet technology. We are quite aware that 10-Gigabit Ethernet has been formally approved and products supporting 10-Gigabit Ethernet are emerging in the market. With the anticipated growth in demand for network bandwidth and the expanded applications on various network services, we will study and test 10-Gbps technology with a view of adoption at the earliest opportunity. We have already started to pilot-test optical network technology in setting up a WDM link between Main campus and Sassoon Road campus. The performance and usage of this optical network will be monitored to determine how the optical technology could be extended to other remote campuses and the HARNET for supporting high-bandwidth applications such as large database and GRID technologies. Other possible applications include setting up a disaster-recovery network in the remote campus and conducting concurrent video-conferencing sessions in the main and remote campuses of the University.
4.1.3. High Speed Connections to Internet, Internet2, CERNET and TANET
Our Computer Centre has taken the leadership to work in conjunction with other JUCC tertiary institutions for the last 15 years. We shall continue to foster our good working relationships with JUCC to lead the development of high-speed network links with other parts of the world, to facilitate everyday work as well as advanced research that have special bandwidth requirement, including the upgrade of the network bandwidth for the HARNET, CERNET, TANET, ISP Internet and Internet2 connections so that our researchers will have sufficient communication bandwidth to cope with the increasing collaboration with organizations and institutions in the world-wide networks.
4.1.4. Wireless Connectivity and Ubiquitous Network Access
The need for ubiquitous access to network for our teachers and students requires that we should continue to expand our wireless connectivity to supplement our fixed network access points. Our campus is already quite well-covered by Wireless LAN Access Point (WLAN AP) using 802.11b protocol which supports a maximum transfer rate of 11Mbps with mobile PCs. There are more than 500 802.11b WLAN APs installed in locations such as centrally time-tabled classrooms, libraries, departments and offices, podium areas, etc. Indeed, we have already started to enhance the WLAN coverage and deploy the new WLAN 802.11g protocol, which is backward compatible with the 802.11b protocol, to improve the speed of WLAN access of the mobile PCs from 11Mbps to 54Mbps in the centrally time-tabled classrooms. Through coordination with departments and the Estates Office, we shall continue to enhance the wireless network access in the campus for all offices, buildings, student halls and open-access areas.
4.1.5. Strengthened Network Security to Maintain a Clean Campus Network
Network security has become the major concern for the Internet community in the last two years. With the drastic increase in spam email, virus attack, security intrusion and peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted materials, etc., a substantial amount of overhead and valuable resources have been expended to handle these unproductive activities. There is however no sight that these security issues will slow down in the next few years. The Computer Centre will continue to work closely with the security alert agencies and to guard the security of our campus network and servers with the state-of-the-art firewall systems, anti-virus software, intrusion detection and prevention engines and network traffic management engines so as to minimize the impact from disrupting the performance and affecting the operation of the campus network. Related network policies and guidelines and network security awareness programme for users would be instituted in consultation with the Computer Committee and its advisory groups. We shall work closely with the PC and Network Coordination Group to ensure that all departments would follow these guidelines and policies to maintain a clean campus network for our University.
4.1.6. IP Telephony to Integrate Data and Voice Deliveries
IP telephony enables transmission of voice over a data network (VoIP) and provides for integration of voice and data. This saves cost on cabling and relocation of phone lines from one location to another. Our campus network infrastructure has the necessary coverage, bandwidth, resiliency and security to support IP telephony. But high cost of the IP phone handsets in the past has prohibited it from large-scale deployment in the University. However, with the development of new SIP protocol standards, the cost of the IP phone handsets is expected to come down in the next few years. We have already started to work with ASTRI to pilot test their new low cost systems. We propose to work closely with the Estates Office to plan for the coexistence of the existing PABX telephone system with IP phone implementation in the University buildings in due course.
4.2. Responsive Servers and Sufficient Storage Capacity to Meet the Needs of Our Users
Adequate computing facilities and storage should be installed to support the learning, research and administration functions of our users. The Computer Centre will continue to adopt the latest cluster technology and the SAN technology in building high performance servers and high availability storage systems respectively. To cater for seasonal peak workload of different functions, grid computing and dynamic relocation of processor technologies would be adopted as the standards in setting up our computing server systems. Storage virtualization in the form of storage grids would also be implemented for better utilization and management of the storage of different SAN systems.
4.2.1. Responsive Servers
It is our plan to set up enough server capacity in the Computer Centre so that the performance of the servers would not be affected when there are surges of activities that need extra processing power. Email is probably the most frequently used service in our network. We should ensure that all emails could be delivered expeditiously, even when there are a lot of virus attacks and spam activities. Powerful servers running in high-availability mode or grid set up would be maintained.
4.2.2. Sufficient Storage
With increasing use of our numerous IT services and our direction to move towards a paperless university, we must ensure that there is sufficient storage capacity so that all information could be properly stored in digital form. Whether the storage is implemented in the form of SAN or NAS technology, each user should not have to worry about the problem of insufficient storage, though we must be careful to monitor excessive usage, which should be charged accordingly, to ensure accountable use of resources. Of course, the security and integrity of the data stored are critical to the vision of a paperless environment.
4.2.3. Planning for Disaster Recovery
The importance of our network and servers need not be over-stressed. We must ensure the continuous operation of our network and servers without interruptions. Other than planning for adequate power supply and air-conditioning capacity in our computer room, we must also plan for additional space to cater for expansion, as well as serving for disaster recovery in a remote location. The University’s Millennium Plan should give us an excellent opportunity to plan for an additional computer room for our network and server equipment to provide for expansion and redundancy. At the same time, we must also plan for a properly set-up computer room in a remote site, e.g. in the Sassoon Road compound, which could serve as a remote back-up site with a high-speed link to our central computer room in the main campus.
4.2.4. Adoption of Open and Cost-effective Technologies
With reducing budget but increasing demand for more applications on the network, we must choose cost-effective technologies which will help to reduce our hardware and software cost. We shall adopt open technology approach wherever possible. We will also monitor closely all technologies that will give us the most cost-effective approach rather than just one standard. However, with a diversified approach, it will also be necessary to provide training to our professional personnel so that they could master the various technologies at the most opportune time.
4.3. Campus Portal for Personalized Information and Services
The HKU Portal has been playing the role of a one-stop service provision for our abundant information via a secure single sign-on step by our users since its launch in January of 2003. Since then, more than 600 central and departmental information and service web sites have been made available on HKU Portal. Over 10,000 users are regularly making use of this convenient and customizable platform to access online services of HKU. We shall continue to enrich the services provided in the HKU Portal with the help of the faculties and the departments.
4.3.1. Intelligent Search of Information and Services
In order to further enhance the usefulness of HKU Portal for our users and to better utilize the information and services available on the HKU website site (http://www.hku.hk), we propose to develop the HKU Portal to become an ‘intelligent’ portal serving as our knowledge hub. The Portal search functions will be further enhanced to assist users to locate web sites and information in HKU Portal by entering keywords or phrases. In addition to the capability of allowing choices for users to select web sites relevant to their interest, users will be presented with the services potentially useful to them at appropriate times. They will be alerted with the latest important news from the University; they will be able to find the most popular services among their peer groups; and they will be notified of all new services launched through the HKU Portal.
4.3.2. Enhanced Communication Using Hand-held Devices
The HKU Portal has included the web-mail function to provide asynchronous text-based communication. It has been very useful and it is the most popular service on HKU Portal. We envision that the demand for enhanced communication quality will be fast emerging and we propose to build a real time collaboration function in HKU Portal whereby users can have real time video, video chat and application sharing with their colleagues, etc., anytime, anywhere over the web. With the emergence of various mobile devices in the market such as mobile phones and palm devices that are becoming more popular and versatile, we shall also explore the integration of the use these handheld devices to enhance communications among university members.
4.3.3. HKU Event Management System
The HKU Portal announces events and activities organized by HKU departments via the ‘HKU Today’ function. It has been a convenient channel for departments to announce their functions. However, with more and more events posted up, users will need a more featured announcement channel to receive the information they want. We shall enhance the HKU event management system so that departments could easily announce their events, initiate the event registration process, incorporate payment procedure and communicate with their registrants readily, while users could subscribe to those interested events without being over-flooded with information on all activities.
4.3.4. Personal Event Calendar
Users in the University usually involve themselves in many activities like attending courses, booking of facilities for holding activities, participating in seminars, etc. everyday. They typically need to register at various locations and mark their calendar carefully for each activity. We propose to include a personal calendar function in the HKU Portal so that subscribed university activities of users will be shown on their personal calendars. Users can also add in their own events to complete their online calendar which can be accessed anywhere on the web. The personal calendar should be able to synchronize with mobile devices to make it handy for use.
4.4. Innovative Deployment of HKUESD Applications Platform
The HKUESD platform has been developed for almost 5 years. It has been providing efficient workflow for service deliveries and supports paperless applications that require digital signatures using our staff and student smart cards. The HKUESD applications have been largely deployed on desktop or notebook computers, though we have some pilot runs on some palm-top devices. And with the development of wireless technologies becoming more widespread, we should widen our areas of development to include the deployment of HKUESD applications on handheld devices so that we could reap the benefits of cost-effectives tools to support our sophisticated development in the University.
4.4.1. HKUESD Support for HK Post e-Cert and HK Smart ID Card
The Hong Kong Immigration Department has started issuing HK Smart ID Cards to the general public from June 2003. Hong Kong residents are given the option to apply for one year’s free use of the HK Post e-Certs which are embedded in the new HK Smart ID Cards, enabling Hong Kong citizens with "electronic-ID" which can be used for authentication of identity and for ensuring integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation of the data transmitted in electronic transactions. We shall extend our HKUESD applications to support the e-Certs issued on the HK Smart ID Cards, in addition to the HKU-e-Certs that we have issued on the HKU Staff and Student cards. This is a convenient way of attracting the use of HKUESD applications and the approach will work in line with the HK SAR Government’s strategy of promoting e-government and developing Hong Kong into a digital city.
4.4.2. Wireless Applications
We have been monitoring for a few years the insurgence of portable computing and hand-held devices connectable to network through wireless communications that provide a convenient means of access to information. As these portable hand-held devices are becoming more powerful in terms of higher processing capability and communication speed, we feel that the market is now more mature to develop applications that could be enabled for access through these portable hand-held devices.
We shall explore and provide the necessary infrastructure to support new mobile applications to allow University members to use their hand-held devices with built-in browsers to access information anytime and anywhere in the university. Some wireless applications had already been started at the E-business Technology Institute and the Libraries. The Computer Centre would focus on how to make available selected Intranet applications for such deployment. It would involve the extension of these Intranet applications in order to fit into communication devices with a smaller form factor and whose input mechanisms are more limited than using the keyboard and the mouse. Some suitable platforms would also be developed to enable departments to deploy their applications using the wireless technologies. Possible initial applications could include Computer Centre’s FAQs, mobile registration for sports facilities, general education courses and webmail services, etc.
4.4.3. Diversified Database Technologies
The latest Oracle database architecture, Oracle 10g, builds upon grid technology that allows the database to be spread over multiple hardware systems. It enables the use of low-cost modular servers and more affordable infrastructure management with guaranteed performance, availability and security to meet users’ demands. While grid technology has predominantly been developed in the domain of specialized environments such as scientific applications, the Computer Centre would also explore the benefits of database applications that employ grid technologies.
Other than the use of Oracle database technology, we have also observed that Microsoft SQL Server 2005 will be the next-generation information management database supplied by Microsoft and represents a major overhaul of the technology at all levels. It could represent a more cost-effective database deployment in terms of both hardware and software acquisitions. While we have already started to deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on some of our applications, we shall further study the feasibility of deployment of the SQL server technology on a larger scale to better utilize the increased scalability, availability and security to enterprise data and analytical applications.
4.4.4. Deployment of Web Services
“Web Services” is designed to support interoperable computer-to-comptuer interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web Services in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards. We shall study the deployment of web services technologies which can be shared by applications running on different platforms in order to provide cost-effective use of hardware and software.
4.5. IT for Teaching and Learning
The Computer Centre has been supporting the WebCT e-learning platform since 1998. Since then, over 1,000 WebCT courses had been created. Our usage statistics also shows continuous growth in the use of WebCT by teachers and students. In response to request for additional platforms, two home-developed systems, namely ILN and SOUL, had been added to give more choices to our teachers. Computer Centre would continue to work with the teachers to review the provision and support of central e-learning platforms.
4.5.1. Enhance HKU Portal to Facilitate Access to Information
All staff and student joining the University are assigned with an email account automatically to facilitate electronic communication amongst teachers and students. With the introduction of the HKU Portal which has incorporated the advantage of single-signon capability, our users have found much convenience of getting access to the multitude of applications without remembering many account names and passwords. Much administrative overhead in managing different user identification and password has also been eliminated. The Computer Centre will continue to enhance the HKU Portal services and to accommodate additional hardware platform and software applications. We shall monitor the server capacity and default disk allocation for the teachers and students to ensure that there is sufficient storage for effective and efficient teaching and learning support. We plan to provide greater assistance to teachers to support their use of technologies in their teaching and learning processes.
4.5.2. The Student Laptop Computer Program
The undergraduate student laptop computer program has been running since 1998. It has helped to provide our students, at affordable cost, with access to a personal computer that could be connected to the network any time. It has also been a big attraction for our prospective students. We should continue to support the laptop computer program and keep the program under constant review.
4.5.3. The Central PC Laboratories
The Computer Centre would continue to support the central PC laboratories with laser printing services to facilitate the use of IT for supporting teaching and learning. There should be an optimal replacement cycle for the laboratory PCs to support the latests version of application softwares to ensure that our students are not disadvantaged in the exchange of information with outside users. To support the green campaign in the University, the Computer Centre will continue to increase the use of recycled toner and paper, and to devise incentive schemes to promote the wider use of duplex printing to reduce paper consumption.
4.6. IT for Library Information and Services
We shall continue to work closely with the Libraries to provide them with the necessary support to develop their library information and services. The libraries could play an important role in developing the infrastructure of the knowledge hub and should be our strategic partner to turn this vision of the University into reality.
4.7. IT for Research and Innovation
To support the numerous advanced research projects and innovative developments in the University as we strive to advance the standing of our University in world-wide competition, it is essential to provide strong IT provisions with advanced capabilities to satisfy the needs of our researchers. Other than high-bandwidth network and communications services, provision of high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure is essential for a leading University like HKU. Good HPC facilities will support research activities and collaborative projects that require intensive computing and large database capabilities. It will serve to attract and retain researchers in those areas having such requirements.
4.7.1. Further Enhancing our HPC Facilities
Many staff and research students are now making good use of the HPC facilities installed by the Computer Centre in their research projects. With the addition of another 100 CPUs to our High-Performance Computing Cluster from the contribution of the Department of Physics, we have a total of 356 CPUs with a theoretical 2,000 GFLOPS. In addition, we have already started our collaboration with the Microsoft Hong Kong Limited and the Cornell Theory Centre to set up a HPC Cluster on the Windows Platform which would facilitate users who have needs to link their computations with software facilities on the Personal Computer platform. We would be actively improving our HPC provisions to provide our members with an excellent computing environment.
4.7.2. GRID Computing
GRID computing has been the buzz word for IT development in the last few years. The Computer Centre has already embarked on pilot runs of grid computing for computational-intensive applications two years ago with the objective of initiating some real production use of computational grids. We plan to extend, after proof of concept, the grid computer cluster to include HPC clusters in other departments of the University. We aim to take advantage of our leading position in HPC area and to establish the University as the HPC and Grid Computing hub in Hong Kong.
4.7.3. Access Grid
Video-conferencing has become more and more popular since it facilitates collaboration with organizations or institutions at a distance. However, video-conferencing with participation of multiple-parties together with the support of applications sharing and viewing of presentation slides at the same time is still not easily achieved. The Computer Centre will explore the Access Grid technology, which is an advanced video conferencing system designed to address the above shortcomings. It is an IP-based system and requires multicasting enabled network connection preferably with QoS. We hope to be able to deploy Access Grid technology so that we could organize meetings that could be held simultaneously in multiple locations in our main campus as well as the three major remote campuses at Sassoon Road, QMH and PPDH. We will also work together with the JUCC institutions to enable inter-institutional multi-party video conferencing.
4.7.4. Bioinformatics Support
The Computer Centre has built up a bioinformatics server (the BIOINFO), through the BIOSUPPORT project, which now hosts a rich set of genome databases and application programs for supporting life science research in the University. The bioinformatics resources on the BIOINFO server are opened for public access since 2004. These bioinformatics resources are kept up to date through regular daily updating to ensure the latest databanks and programs are available to our users. The Computer Centre will continue to expand the bioinformatics resources to support teaching and research purposes. We shall work closely with the bioinformatics group in the University to better understand their computational needs so that we could respond effectively.
4.7.5. The Next Generation Network and IPv6
IPv6 Protocol is the Next Generation Internet protocol which has been available since 1997 and is getting to be popular. Hardware and software products in markets are now by default supporting IPv6 Protocol. The IPv6 Protocol is designed to address the inherent shortcoming of the 25-years-old IPv4 Protocol such as the address space of an IP address, efficient header processing, plug-and-play device, data security and improved QoS (Quality of Service). The Computer Centre has started to explore the applications of IPv6 and will keep pace with its development so that we could introduce IPv6 into our campus network at the most appropriate time.
4.8. IT Support for e-Administration
Over the last decade, we have developed a substantive number of applications in support of the daily operations and information needs of the administrative offices. The University has been developing at a fast pace and more expansion is expected in view of the proposed 4-years undergraduate curriculum that will be introduced. The Computer Centre will continue to work closely with the administrative offices to introduce more web-based HKUESD applications to our users, which are accessible anywhere with stringent security management.
4.8.1. Business Process Reengineering and University Resource Planning
With the rapid development in the University, the Computer Centre would continue to focus on working with the administrative office to assist them to reengineer their mode of operations to cope with the new needs of the University. All the administrative applications will be tightly-integrated with efficient access to our centralized database for timely and accurate information. All data will be captured at source wherever possible so that the accuracy and timeliness of data will be ensured. The resulting integrated e-administrative infrastructure would form the basis of our University Resource Planning platform, to provide a user-friendly environment to facilitate University members to access all services, with the ultimate goal of creating a paperless working environment in the University.
4.8.2. Integrating UIS and Student Connect Applications under HKU Portal
The Computer Centre has developed numerous applications over the last decade in support of the administrative offices, under the UIS (University Information System) and the Student Connect platforms. Both the UIS and the Student Connect platforms provide very important authentication services for our Intranet applications for our staff and students respectively. However, some of the these applications were developed some time ago with legacy technologies. The Computer Centre will work systematically to replace these applications developed using the old client-server technology and turn them into web-based applications at the earliest opportunity.
4.8.3. Staff Profile and Student Profile Systems
Academic profile and student profile systems are becoming very popular. We have started to develop these platforms for use by our staff and students. In addition to data that are extracted from our administrative database, we shall structure these systems to allow the users, i.e. the staff and students, to enter and update their data and information at their convenience and at appropriate times when we have to collect data for reporting purposes.
4.8.4. Extending the HKU Portal to Serve the Wider Community
With the successful implementation of the HKU Portal for staff and students, it is natural to extend our HKU Portal services to the larger community in support of the University’s mission. We have already taken the lead to introduce the Admission Portal to serve potential undergraduate students last year, with the target to attract more top-quality students to join the University. We have also extended the portal to serve retirees of the University to keep a close tie with those long-serving staff who have retired from the University. In the next few years, we shall work closely with the administrative offices to further extend the HKU Portal services to prospective postgraduate students, potential job applicants, alumni and friends of the University to bring closer tie with the alumni and the community.
4.9. Management of Quality IT Services
Advanced and reliable IT services are essential in supporting the University’s teaching, learning, research and administration activities. The Computer Centre would continue to place top priority in providing high-quality and user-oriented IT services to meet users’ requirements and their satisfaction through quality management. Quality service will mean fast response to service requests, ability to sustain continuous service of 365 x 24 hours from anywhere, anytime throughout the year, provision of user-friendly and intuitive user interface to enable users to make use of the services with minimal training and assistance, high system security against network intrusion and virus invasion and strong protection for personal data privacy.
The Computer Centre will continue to improve user’s satisfaction in using our IT services. This would include the deployment of state-of-the-art technology, multiplicity of new applications, user-friendly one-stop portal services, data protection and security and quality managed services. In order to achieve the goal of good-quality service, the Centre has adopted the ISO 9004-2 model as the process to continuously refine and improve the quality of our service provision. Apart from gathering user input and feedbacks from various channels, including user surveys, input at the Centre’s Help Desk, Computer Committee’s advisory groups and our electronic ccbox, the Computer Centre has set up a Quality Assurance (QA) Team led by senior management of the Centre to ensure quality service offerings with systematic review of its service provisioning.
In particular, it is our aim to extend our current QA practice, which occurs towards the end of the development cycle before the products are delivered to users, so that the QA process would be started at the project initiation phase. Continuous efforts will be put on producing comprehensive system documentation to facilitate and reduce maintenance efforts. We shall strive to provide faster responses to system service requests and enable users to make use of our services with minimal training and assistance. High security and strong protection for personal data privacy will continue to be enforced in our systems by adopting world-class information security management standard. Performance pledges will also be formulated to set goals for ourselves.
It is also our strategic plan to allocate more staff resource to our “User Service Support” functions so that we can strengthen our user advisory and consultation services, improve the user-friendliness and accessibility of the various indispensable IT services, as well as proactively promote the use and transfer the skills of newly available IT facilities and services to the University community. We will continue our co-operation with other sister institutions in Hong Kong, in the areas of applications development and best practices.
4.10. Promotion of IT Innovations and New Services
The Computer Centre will continue to develop innovative applications and to promote our IT innovations and expertise to the University members as well as to the Hong Kong community. We have successfully organized monthly seminars for the Departmental PC and Network Support Coordination Group to share the best IT practices and knowledge. We are gearing up to provide regular seminars to other users to promote our IT expertise and services and to inspire users on possible system developments and enhancements in the future. Speakers from the academic arena and the industry would be invited to give seminars related to the latest development in IT.
To improve our communication with users, we shall strengthen our effort in collecting their comments and feedbacks on our services through user surveys and direct meetings with different groups of users. To promote innovative and newly launched services among our users, related promotional campaigns, trainings, launch events, exhibitions and showcases would be organized.
4.11. Sustaining the Best IT Professionals
The use of IT is so pervasive and extensively immersed in everybody’s daily life that IT services are now taken for granted. Many people are unaware of the important roles of the IT professionals, who work behind the scene, in developing and supporting the various innovative services. However, high-calibre and experienced IT professionals and experts are always in short supply, and the competition in recruiting experienced IT professionals by companies and organizations is extremely keen.
Our University has gone a long way in building up a world-class information infrastructure in the campus and a solid foundation for IT applications development. These are the accomplishments of a pool of high-calibre, experienced and dedicated IT experts who have worked very hard around the clock to maintain the well functioning of our information infrastructure. The Computer Centre places high value on its staff expertise and experience and would develop strategies to retain our experienced core IT professionals.
To maintain the morale of our professional IT staff members, especially in an environment of continuing reducing budget, we would adopt a staff development strategy with the following incentives:
I would like to thank the contributions from all Computer Centre colleagues for their ideas and suggestions expressed in the preparation of this proposal of “IT Strategic Plan 2005-2008” and in developing new visions and strategies to guide the University’s development in IT infrastructure and services for the next three years. The input from our senior colleagues Dr Ho Pui Tak, Ms Anita Chan, Ms Margaret Chung, Dr Pong Man Chi and Mr Ying Wan Chong are expressly acknowledged.
Ng Nam
Director
Computer Centre
The University of Hong Kong
November 18, 2004