Guest column: An update on ITX

The University of Utah IT Exchange (ITX) group has been meeting now since June of 2016, and we thought this would be a good opportunity to provide a refresher on the kinds of topics covered, the meeting format, and how the meetings have generally been going over the past year.

For most of our meeting topics, someone will lead us with a short intro before transitioning to an open discussion that allows those attending to dive in to their areas of interest. The goal here is to discuss and learn from each other in terms of how things are done, as well as why things were done, needed or otherwise. That insight and perspective is one of the key values this type of conversation really helps to bring out.

Topics covered thus far include docker/containers, Kubernetes, object/cloud storage, Google Drive, RClone, the need for a campus archive solution, compute resources available to campus, IT training approaches, open source backup options, ZFS file system, campus science DMZ network and perfSONAR, monitoring and ananlysis, Ceph object storage, and object storage usage cases. 

We've had a good group of folks that attend quite regularly and would very much welcome additional participation to increase the diversity represented in the discussions. Additionally, I'd advocate that if others are interested in such a group meeting but have not yet seen a topic that really speaks to their needs and interests, please reach out to us and let us know about them so that we can get them into the queue. The topics of our meetings are really a product of the interests expressed by those participating, and we can always use additional suggestions and ideas.

There is a website for ITX that offers a basic charter outline for the ITX group, as well as the committee that oversees the group with contact info, links to our meeting schedule, topics (historical and current/future plans), and a place for file content sharing within the ITX group.

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in attending a future meeting, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at brian.haymore@utah.edu. You may also subscribe to our email list, where we announce future meeting information, by simply sending an email with the subject line SUBSCRIBE ITX to sympa@lists.utah.edu.

 

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