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Technology Advisory Council Meeting- February 7, 2003

Attendees: Tony Coulson, Steve Cuddigan, Javier Torner, Kurt Collins, Joe Scarcella, Cathe Stevenson, Jeff Hicks, Matt Richardson, Ian Jacobs, Owen Owens, William Aguilar

The first issue addressed was this year’s computer specifications and allocation. Quotes from Dell were passed out addressing different configurations. The consensus was to not include the zip drive. It was generally agreed that CDRW/DVD should be included but the zip drive was optional. Another option discussed regarded the internal speaker and the general agreement was to include this $7 option. Regarding the video card, Jeff Hicks was to get a quote for adding a VGA/DVI card that adds $20 to the cost.

Another option that was turned down was adding a 4^th year to the service contract for $59. This option can be purchased by the colleges along with the zip drives if needed.

The estimated cost for this year’s baseline computer with a CDRW/DVD would be about $1,050.00. It was suggested to make sure that this year’s baseline specs for laptops should include wireless network cards. The observation is that within 4-5 years laptops might be required for CSUSB students and wireless technology should be required within the baseline specifications.

A review of the laptop quotes noted that the CDRW/DVD needed to be included in the quote. Jeff Hicks will get amended quotes and email them to the BATS listserv.

The committee addressed whether or not to create baseline specs for Apple’s eMacs. The pricing is aggressively priced at $899 for a 700mhz machine with OS X, CDRW and 128mb ram. However, there are some technical concerns about these machines. The other Apples are as follows: the iMacs?verbal quote is $1199 with an integral, flat 15?monitor. These machines are 800mhz with a 60gb hard drives. The tower G4 Macs are $1299 with a 60gb hard drive and no monitor. The technical concerns about the eMac are being weighed because of the CSU’s budget issues.

Dell flat panel monitor prices are as follows:

15?are $374

17?are $499

19?are $649

The following colleges have reported the need to replace the following:

CBPA 190 machines (this number needs to be verified)

COE Cathe to email BATS listserv the quantity

A&L 70 Macs

SBS n/a

Natural Science n/a

A request was made that after this year’s allocation that all 350mhz machines should be removed from eligibility for BATS funds because of the lack of future funds and the tremendous number of machines that need to be replaced. Dr. Aguilar then requested that all options to deal with the current inability to replace machines be gathered together by BATS and then forwarded to Drs. Aguilar & Fernandez. It was suggested that an alternative consideration would be to ask Dr. Fernandez for the money to get ride of all 350mhz machines.

Kurt Collins will get the complete number of machines from the College of Arts & Letters. Accurate numbers are necessary in determining how much money is needed.

CITRIX ?The ongoing Citrix discussion focused on whether to buy more clusters or to push current cluster to its limit. It was disclosed that Citrix is contemplating a grant to cover the cost of licensing and software. Jeff Hick requested that the Citrix discussion be tabled because of the potential grant. Current Citrix licensing costs is $200 per seat. Current hardware costs $4,000 per server. It was pointed out that the Achilles heel to the Citrix server is storage of student’s files on a college server. A viable option for this is a NAS storage device. There was discussion about the need for infrastructure for NAS storage and whether it should be decentralized or centralized.

It was determined that BATS needed to come up with a position for centralization or decentralization. This could be a cornerstone document. Part of decision would determine if what system network should be. Another point was that the campus would naturally migrate to a centralized system if that system was reliable and cost them no money to maintain. Regardless, BATS definitely needs to address this issue. Currently, every college is doing “its own thing?and recreating the wheel, which is another justification for standardization.

An obvious question for the Citrix issue is: how to make it work like a dream? Because of this quest a subcommittee is to create a whitepaper and assist in determining how much money should be allocated to the Citrix solution.

A motion was made to create a committee to establish the infrastructure needed for storage and authentication for the campus. The members of this committee are to be Jeff Hicks, Tony Coulson, Owen Owens, Ian Jacobs and Javier Torner. The results are to be presented at the first BATS meeting in March. The motion was seconded and it passed unanimously.

The meeting ended at 3:00 pm. The next meeting will be on February 21, 2003 at 1:00 pm in the PL-002 conference room.