Western Carolina University

About the Client

Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system.

The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded to educate the people of the western North Carolina mountains.[7] WCU provides education to students from 48 states and 35 countries. Enrollment for the Fall 2020 semester was 12,243 students.

Challenge

Western Carolina University’s Department of Information Technology rolled out an RFP and was looking for a company to provide external assessment for the department including:

• Assess the services of the Data Center Services (DCS) Department in the Division of Information Technology (IT) organization
• Data Center Services Environment Assessment
• Security Risk Assessment
• Identify Improvement Strategies

Solution

Post rigorous evaluation via an RFP process, the University awarded OculusIT, due to OculusIT’s extensive experience with higher education institutions performing assessments in the domains of compliance, data protection, cybersecurity, data loss prevention and security monitoring / breach notification implementations, augmenting their team capabilities to better manage other strategic student engagement projects.

OculusIT conducted external data center and security risk assessment for the University within 5-6 weeks. Scope of services include:

• Assess the services of the Data Center Services (DCS) Department including:
  • Data Center Servers and Storage
  • IT Internal Data Center Services Support
• Data Center Services Environment Assessment
  • Existing current environment documentation review
  • Assessment of the current staffing model, allocation and management structure and conduct interviews.
  • IT Infrastructure Review including:
    • Security
    • Network Operating System Standards
      Server Deployment, Acquisition and Maintenance Strategies
    • Storage
    • Server Backup/Recovery Capability
    • Server Architecture – current and planned
  • DCS processes review including:
    • Project Management Processes
    • Planning Processes and Tools
    • Communications Processes
    • Tracking and Reporting Processes (milestones, financial, outcomes achievement)
    • Risk Management
  • DCS Operation Support Processes review including:
    • Monitoring, Notifications, and Reporting
    • Technology Deployment and Support (Break/Fix)
    • Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery Planning
    • Technology Growth and Refresh Planning
    • Staff Skills Planning
  • One Workshop with the University representative to review, clarify, and refine the findings
  • Deliver a High-level assessment document of the current DCS department
• Security Risk Assessment
• Identify Improvement Strategies
• High-Level Assessment Report
• Overall Recommendations and Identify Improvement Strategies
  • IT Service Delivery Processes
  • IT Operations and Maintenance
  • IT Roles and Responsibilities
  • IT Organization Structure and Staffing

• Major Success
  • Proposed MIM solution has given the confidence to the University to plan the next step of identity management roadmap
  • Auto Provisioning / De-provisioning of ID’s in Active Directory helps the University maintain responsive access and high security