The IT department has spent the summer doing everything in its power to tackle the speed problems that have been afflicting the computer network of the EUR for the past six months. Holidays were postponed and dozens of measures were taken. Now that the campus is busy again, the big test will come. Pieter van der Wilk, head of the IT department, expects ‘an upward trend in the evaluation’.
‘@wEURk 2.0 is noticeably much faster and there is no instability any more’
In June, an EM survey showed that many employees found the workplaces (Dutch) ‘slow’ and ‘sluggish’. Even before the summer some employees were able to test the new @wEURk 2.0 IT workplace and the test phase has now been considerably expanded. More and more workplaces are being switched over. “These changes have been enthusiastically received and users have been letting us know that it is noticeably much faster and there is no instability any more”, says Van der Wilk. “We are now going to speed up the replacement of the remaining @wEURk 1.0 workplaces. Places with considerable performance problems will take priority in this.”
Polak building
Furthermore, many measures have been taken behind the scenes to boost the total speed of the network. For example, all kinds of components of the IT infrastructure have been renewed and implemented ‘in duplicate’, so that the likelihood of breakdown has been limited even more. There is also far more storage space on the network.
Problems with working at home should also be a thing of the past. From 1 September there is a new ‘remote desktop environment’. This will lead to a great improvement in speed, says Van der Wilk.
In addition, the IT department has been busy during the summer working on the fitting out of the workplaces in the new Polak building, improved Wi-Fi and the audio-visual facilities in 85 lecture halls. In spite of all the commotion, the atmosphere in the department has been good, says the head of IT. “Things are clearly a little calmer now. We are now able to build on the new foundation that has been developed and delivered during the past few months.”
New survey
In October, EM will conduct a new survey about the IT facilities at the university. Van der Wilk is optimistic about the results, in spite of the scathing conclusions of the previous survey. “As far as performance and stability are concerned and the way in which people are helped by the service desk, I expect to see an upward trend in the evaluation.”
