Page 28 - OIT Progress Report: 2025 Edition

The team responsible for building the student data
warehouse continues to make significant progress
expanding the breadth of available data sources
for analytics and visualization purposes. Recent
integrations include data feeds from Canvas, card
swipe systems, SSO login activity, and SMU360.
In close collaboration with University Decision
Support, the team has also finalized validation for
approximately eighty core data warehouse tables,
collectively supporting around twenty information
mart objects critical for university reporting needs.
“The student data warehouse isn’t just where
we keep the data—it’s where we make sure the
business rules are baked in. That way, when
AI shows up to help, it’s working from clean,
consistent, and agreed-upon information,”
reports Curt Herridge, Associate CIO for Data &
Application Services.
Developing our
Infrastructure Services
Microsoft Teams
The transition from Skype for Business
to Microsoft Teams was a multi-year
initiative to modernize SMU’s
communication infrastructure
by migrating all university
phone services to the Teams platform.
During the Fall semester, common area phones
and shared department lines were migrated,
with extra support provided for call centers. In
total, 3,200 telephone lines were migrated, and
approximately 1,000 headsets and desk phones
were distributed to the university community.
Entra ID & Net ID
In August 2024, OIT announced that SMU would
be moving to Microsoft Entra ID as a new form of
user authentication, enabling new functionality
such as biometric authentication, passkeys, and
passwordless authentication. This change would
require users to sign in using their NetID rather
25 OIT PROGRESS REPORT 2024
than their SMU ID number, a significant change
for most of the user populations, including
alumni and parents. OIT initiated an aggressive
communication campaign including numerous
emails and a new “My Profile” web page to make
the entire SMU community aware of the coming
change and encourage early adoption of the new
login format.
While there is never a good time to implement
such a major change, the decision was made to
transition during the winter break. On December
26, the University switched to Entra ID for SSO
service. To support this change, the IT Help Desk
was open for service on two additional days during
the Winter Break to answer questions and assist
with any problems. Over 500 calls and tickets were
handled during the break, and users successfully
transitioned to the new system.
Networking Changes
OIT continued to replace existing aging
infrastructure to ensure all services are powered
by a robust and reliable network. Thousands of
wireless access points were replaced as well as
numerous switches and hardware components. A
host of new servers were installed to support larger
file storage required by Guildhall. New storage
arrays were configured to increase functionality
of the network drives. Additionally, upgrades to
the wired network allow increased bandwidth
capabilities to support research.