News Archive

With the launch of the IT Portal and others in 2020, a new, all-encompassing “Iowa State University Service Portal” managed through the ServiceNow platform will serve as customers’ home base and a means to navigate between the other portals (IT, HR, Finance and Planning) available. Students, faculty and staff can access the Iowa State University Service Portal through the new “ISU Service Portal” tile that has been automatically added to their Okta dashboards.

The ServiceNow platform

This year, Information Technology Services (ITS) endeavored to help 'good St. Nick' set up his Okta dashboard as a means to efficiently manage his holiday operations.

Okta serves as Iowa State University’s single sign-on solution; when users log in to Okta, a dashboard displays their personalized collection of software applications. Okta first rolled out to campus customers in 2018 as part of the WorkCyte initiative to modernize business processes and technology, and university employees adopted Okta’s multifactor authentication login shortly after.

A change in the contract between cloud storage service provider, Box (known to Cyclones as CyBox) means the days of unlimited digital file storage are coming to an end. Starting June 30, 2021, any additional storage over 1.2 petabytes (PB) will incur an additional cost of $130/terabyte/year. Today, Iowa State University stores approximately 1.8 PB of data on CyBox. 

Information Technology Services is helping lead the way as service “portals” managed through the ServiceNow platform are growing in popularity across campus, allowing users to more confidently locate helpful information for self-service and submit service requests. 

The MyState app development team will be releasing the much-anticipated 4.7.0 update in the coming weeks to include dark mode, a library widget, capacity tracking optimization and more. The MyState app draws approximately 27,000 individual users every month, proving it to be a vital tool to students and staff in their adventure at Iowa State.

On Tuesday, September 8, Cisco Webex released their latest Webex Meetings update that included a number of user experience enhancements. Campus users should not need to reinstall the Webex Meetings application to see the changes, however, fully closing and reopening the Webex Meetings desktop application may be required.

The ISU Technology Standards committee, led by Darrin Fischer, Information Technology Services (ITS) endpoint technologies, released comprehensive hardware and software recommendations for devices owned and managed by the university. The committee convened in October 2019 to define and document inclusive technology standards that drive towards a consistent user experience for all Cyclone users.

Ideal for cross-campus or remote collaboration, Cisco Webex Meetings will serve as the preferred video conferencing solution for university users beginning spring 2020. All campus users have access to an enterprise-level Webex license via desktop download or web application in Okta, which offers enhanced conferencing features compared to other free or basic software. Users can also go to visit iastate.webex.com directly to access the software or even start meetings.

Iowa State University’s Computation Advisory Committee (CAC) recently approved a $24,264 funding request to create a physical space on campus where students with disabilities will have access to assistive technology resources.

The project proposal for an assistive technology lab — spearheaded by university Digital Accessibility Coordinator Cyndi Wiley — was outlined during a CAC meeting on March 28, and requested committee financial support to create a location dedicated to accessibility resources, peer mentoring, and community building for Iowa State students with disabilities.

After more than a year of planning and implementation, Project Neptune, an ambitious initiative to retire and replace many of Iowa State University’s legacy systems and decommission their servers, has been completed.