April 2024 - Physics-Departmental-Computing

Physics Computing meeting - Please try to fill in today
by David Colling 01 May '24

01 May '24

Dear All, The next FoNS Computing Meeting will be 3->4pm on Wednesday 8th May. As you know I like to have a Physics Computing Meeting in the week leading up to this so that items can be fed from one to the other. There are plenty of things that I would like us to discuss and would like reports on: - General update from ICT - including the disk space issues highlighted last week, mailman, etc - Okan - Update from the RCS - Andy - Security - update and plans - lessons learnt from BL - including CE (CE Plus), Unified access (and VPN access) etc - Tom (happy to discuss this with you) - Update on ICILE - Andy (again) - do you want this to be part of the RCS update? - Possible involvement in national initiatives - All (possibly led by me). - Updated ToR - sign off (to be circulated by me in the next few days after comments in the last meeting) Wednesday this week is taken up (for some of us at least) by the ICICLE launch and Monday next week is a Bank Holiday (please ignore that I have said that I am available). So time is a little more compressed than I hoped. I have set up a doodle poll for this meeting. Because of the time compression I have included tomorrow, but I really don't think that it is fair to ask people to prepare reports on such a short time scale so unless Okan, Andy and Tom all click yes for tomorrow I don't think that it works. However, I have kept it in there just in case. As it is there I would ask people to try to respond by close of play today so I can announce a day. The doodle poll is at: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/dyJ64JWe As ever, if you have items for the agenda then please circulate them so that I can add them. A final agenda will come out before the meeting. Best, david

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Fwd: FW: Changes to storage offerings across Microsoft 365 Education
by David Colling 30 Apr '24

30 Apr '24

Hi All, I realise that most of you will not have seen this and so will not have understood what I meant in what I was asking Okan to include in his report. I think that this is significant. Best, david -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: FW: Changes to storage offerings across Microsoft 365 Education Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:23:51 +0000 From: White, Luke A <luke.white(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: Physics DHoD - Research <ph.res(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Physics DHoD - People <ph.poi(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Physics DHoD - Infrastructure, Health and Safety <ph.ihs(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Physics DHoD - Enterprise, Impact and Engagement <ph.eie(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Physics DHoD - Education <ph.edu(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Colling, David J <d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk> FYI *Subject:* Changes to storage offerings across Microsoft 365 Education *Importance:* High Dear Heads of Department and Department Operating Managers, Please find below an overview of changes to the storage offerings available to Imperial with our Microsoft 365 Education licences. We understand how important it is to have easy and secure access to data, and we want to reassure you that no decision has been made about the course of action to be taken. Please read on to hear an overview of the situation and next steps we will work on together. *What is Microsoft 365 Education?* Microsoft 365 Education is what Imperial uses as an organisation to access productivity tools such as OneDrive and Office 365. We purchase this from Microsoft with licenses for staff and students that provide a set level of capabilities, including a default amount of storage space. Microsoft provides storage for Education customers of Microsoft 365 with a default OneDrive allowance of 5TB per user (up to 1 August 2024). These storage allowances were based on counting all license products in Microsoft Education 365, whether paid or free. *What is changing?* On 1 August 2023, Microsoft announced changes to the storage quotas for all Education customers. moving to a model where Microsoft provide a pool of shared storage plus an allowance for each paid staff licence held by the institution. This total storage quota is then shared across all accounts (staff and student). These changes will be effective from 1 August 2024. Once implemented, the above changes will see a reduction in the free storage we have included in our licence across OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange (Microsoft Outlook). From 1 August 2024 Microsoft will provide us with a base storage of 100 TB plus an allowance of 50 GB or 100 GB per license. The total combined storage quota is then shared across all Imperial users and sites, which equates to approximately 91,000 OneDrive sites, 70,000 SharePoint sites and 60,000 Microsoft 365 mailboxes across the Imperial community. *How will this impact Imperial? * We’ve secured an agreement with Microsoft that these changes will not come into effect until October 2025, so long as we can demonstrate we are implementing measures to reduce our storage to bring us closer to Microsoft’s quota. Our current data usage exceeds Microsoft’s free storage limit, therefore, we will have to pay Microsoft a substantial fee in October 2025 to increase our quota. A positive outcome of reviewing our data usage is the knowledge we gain on the impact of data on our scope 3 emissions. Introducing a robust data strategy with effective governance could bring us closer to our target of net zero by 2040 <https://www.imperial.ac.uk/sustainability/>. *Our approach* No decision has been made on how we should respond to the changes imposed by Microsoft, and we look to this community to come together with our ICT experts to seek sustainable long-term solutions for data storage. We have identified the following options: 1.do nothing and continue to store the same volume of data and pay a fee to Microsoft for storing this data. 2.set quotas in line with Microsoft’s free quota limit (which will result in a reduction of individual storage space on OneDrive and SharePoint). 3.work with tooling partners to deliver the capability to archive appropriate data to alternative storage solutions and create robust guidelines for data recovery while ensuring a seamless user experience. In identifying options, we continue to be in discussions with other universities who face the same challenge because of these changes. *What have we learnt so far?* We have engaged a partner and are exploring the possibility of seamlessly archiving to alternative, cheaper storage solutions with appropriate guidelines for data recovery. ·We have piloted tooling on a small number of ICT accounts, which essentially archives data that appears redundant, moving it from OneDrive and storing it in an alternative location. ·This option being piloted has shown from an end user perspective, you still see your file in OneDrive where you saved it with a symbol to indicate the data has been archived. ·The user can then complete a simple action to “rehydrate” any data that has been archived and return it to OneDrive. The file will return after a short delay. ·Many organisations offer storage capability for archiving data, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. ·Through this pilot we have found we can manage Imperial’s storage costs more efficiently. We have also identified this can help with a reduction in our scope 3 carbon emissions. *Working together* It’s important we work together as a community to identify what we need as an organisation and to decide on a sustainable solution for data storage. Individuals from across Imperial have been identified to form a working group to assess the options and agree a way forward. You can find out more about the storage changes to Microsoft’s education customers by attending a drop-in Teams session: oWednesday 8 May, 14.00 <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NjYwZTQ5NTctMzUzOC00…> oWednesday 15 May, 15.00 <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDA4NzlhMWEtZjgyZC00…> oWednesday 22 May, 13.00 <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGIyODY5OGMtZGU2YS00…> *Support* If you have any questions, please attend a dedicated drop-in session. If that is not suitable, please contact Neil Hanham, Head of Digital Workplace <mailto:n.hanham@imperial.ac.uk>. Best regards, Jenny

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ICT: Azure and AWS services
by Bantges, Richard J 26 Apr '24

26 Apr '24

Dear Computing Reps, I'm currently on a Teams meeting with ICT concerning new MS Azure subscription service offerings and Amazon Web Service cloud offerings. A quick question to you all please: Are there any users that you are aware of in your groups/communities that consume these services, and if so do they access/subscribe these services independently of ICT? Please let me know if there are any cases and who the point of contact is so that I can relay this information to ICT. Many thanks, Rich RICHARD BANTGES (he/him) Scientific Project Manager / NCEO Scientist Ph.D. Department of Physics / Space, Plasma and Climate Imperial College London E r.bantges(a)imperial.ac.uk T +44 (0)20 7594 7664 M +44 (0)77 3631 8765

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ICICLE Launch event
by David Colling 09 Apr '24

09 Apr '24

Dear FoNS and Physics Computing Reps, You will know of the ICICLE collaboration between Imperial College, Intel Corporation and LEnovov Collaboration as we have discussed it various meetings. I have hopes that this collaboration will become very fruitful. There is a launch event for this collaboration on 1st May. Which is an opportunity to network and see some of the excellent work that is being done. You would be very welcome at this event. If you would like to come there is a link to the eventbrite registration page at the end of this email. Please do circulate this invitation to any of the people who you represent who you think would find this interesting. Best, david Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/icicle-launch-tickets-862922423197?aff=oddtd…

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