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2023 Symposium

IT Symposium

IT Symposium is a conference-style professional development opportunity for all Virginia Tech employees. It is being sponsored by the Virginia Tech Information Technology Council.

The 2023 IT Symposium will be held fully online and delivered via Microsoft Teams. To ensure the security of these sessions, participants must sign in to their Virginia Tech O365 accounts. The presentation sessions can be accessed through the 2023 IT Symposium Team site, where you will find instructions for both presenters and participants under the "Files" tab in the "General" channel. All sessions will be automatically recorded and posted on the dedicated session channel after the event. We have created a Microsoft Teams list called "IT Symposium Concurrent Sessions" within the site, where you can access the information for all the sessions. Each session has its own channel with the presentation materials and a calendar event that can be used to join the session. Participants can also use the "Conversation" tab to communicate with their peers.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

9:45 - 9:55 AM

Welcome Session

Meeting Link

10:00 - 10:50 AM

In-Depth Analysis of Online Forms & Workflows - Part 1

Presenter(s): Blair Allen - College of Business; Brandi Robertson - Business and Management Systems

Meeting Link

Description: An in-depth analysis of online forms & workflows from the lens of academia at Virginia Tech. With telework and virtual instruction now being commonplace, what are the challenges of moving away from paper? How can they be overcome using services & technologies at our disposal? The College of Business & BAMS will share their development experiences, using the Microsoft Power platform, Microsoft Azure, Enterprise Directory, Active Directory service accounts, & custom tooling, to create online forms & workflows to solve various business problems. 

What ServiceNow Can Do for You

Presenter(s): Karen Floyd - Division of IT; Kevin Davis - ITEE

Meeting Link

Description: Wondering what ServiceNow can do for you?  This session will walk through ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) processes currently in use at Virginia Tech as well as peek at new and future features.

From managing user incidents and requests to solving problems and recording changes to assets, ServiceNow ITSM consolidates the core processes in one platform with associated knowledge available for users and staff alike.  Performance analytics, portfolio workspaces, project management, and continual improvement management provide insights, analysis, trends, and visualizations to anticipate, prioritize, and deliver on initiatives from initial idea through implementation and beyond.

Timeline of an IT Crisis and Lessons Learned (Kaseya Ransomware Incident)

Presenter(s): Scott Farmer - Outreach & International Affairs; Jeff Lang - IT Security Office; Warren Lucero - Mining & Minerals Engineering; Jeffrey Lewis - Engineering Dean's Suite; Dave Sindt - University Libraries

Meeting Link

Description: A panel discussion of a major IT incident at Virginia Tech. Discussion will begin with a brief overview of the incident and discussion of actions from both Distributed IT and the Division of IT. The session will then open up to a freeform discussion where participants can ask questions to perhaps understand the anatomy of the incident and/or plan for/harden their own IT operations against supply chain attacks.

11:00 - 11:50 AM

In-Depth Analysis of Online Forms & Workflows - Continued

Presenter(s): Blair Allen - College of Business; Brandi Robertson - Business and Management Systems

Meeting Link

Description: An in-depth analysis of online forms & workflows from the lens of academia at Virginia Tech. With telework and virtual instruction now being commonplace, what are the challenges of moving away from paper? How can they be overcome using services & technologies at our disposal? The College of Business & BAMS will share their development experiences, using the Microsoft Power platform, Microsoft Azure, Enterprise Directory, Active Directory service accounts, & custom tooling, to create online forms & workflows to solve various business problems. 

ServiceNow User Group

Presenter(s): Shannon Phillips - University Libraries

Meeting Link

Description: This session is intended for current users of ServiceNow as well as those interested in using the platform. A roadmap update will be provided by central IT.  Several topics will be discussed by the group including Asset Management, Kanban capabilities in ServiceNow, and the features available for those who wish to migrate from JIRA to ServiceNow for issue tracking. This meeting is also intended to bring us back together to pick up ongoing conversations about integrations with other university systems and the progress department and college IT units are making with the efforts to incorporate ServiceNow into their IT service delivery practices.

VT Security Incident Response

Presenter(s): Jeff Lang, Zachery S. Mitcham – ITSO

Meeting Link

Description: The VT ITSO is currently undergoing a transformation initiative whose goal it is to better respond to and remediate security incidents.  We propose to provide the audience with an informational overview of the initiative focusing on the following via a panel discussion format:

1) 2021 Deloitte consultation recommendation 6.2.

2) Changes to SOC Security Monitoring (OmniSOC)

3) Improving Threat Detection

4) ITSO Response to cyber-attacks – expectations

12:00 - 1:00 PM - Virtual Brown Bag Lunch

1:00 - 1:50 PM

Discussion and How-tos  of Certifications

Presenter(s): Justin Davenport - National Capital Region / DC Area

Meeting Link

Description: Are you curious about an IT or professional certification, such as a CISSP, PMP, or AWS cert? This talk is for you. Topics (and opinions) covered in this talk include:

        • Why you may want to consider a certification

        • Pros and cons of popular certifications

        • What a certification does and does not represent

        • Sharing first-hand experience and the how-to of popular certifications including AWS Certified Sys Ops Administrator, CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) 3 Expert and ITIL 4 Managing Professional, PMP (Project Management Professional)

        •  Q&A

Build Yourself a Data Dashboard Using O365

Presenter(s): Hikmet Gursoy – Student Affairs

Meeting Link

Description: Higher education institutions have been collecting a range of information through dozens of different processes. This in effect has a potential to create 'silos' of information with almost no standardization and many redundant data points. Power BI (PBI) is the most popular business intelligence tool in the industry when it comes to data analysis and visualization. As part of the Office 365 ecosystem, Power BI is PII and FERPA compliant and integrates seamlessly with existing Microsoft products like SharePoint, Teams, Excel, and OneDrive. We will demonstrate how to streamline and standardize data collections and analysis processes, by leveraging readily available and accessible technologies such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office, and Power BI (PBI).

Device Management versus Endpoint Detection and Response

Presenter(s): Matt Poor - User Engagement; Chris Shively - CCS

Meeting Link

Description: Come learn about Device Management versus Endpoint Detection and Response!  This roundtable will be a collaborative effort between CCS and ITEE and will focus on discussing the differences between Device Management and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and the benefits of each. 

• We will start by discussing how to securely monitor and manage department endpoints using both device management and EDR using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Service.

• Then we will move on to discussing the differences and why both are necessary.

• Finally, we will then open the floor to discussion and questions.

2:00 - 2:50 PM

Easy REST API Generation for Java Web Services Using Javadocs

Presenter(s): Adam Memisyazici - Graduate School

Meeting Link

Description: Easy REST API Generation for Java Web Services Using Javadocs.

Integrating Asset Management with Service Delivery

Presenter(s): Shannon Phillips, Ian Heflin, Cody Moler - University Libraries

Meeting Link

Description: Integrating Asset Management with Service Delivery - Join University Libraries at Virginia Tech for a look into how we are using ServiceNow for so much more than incident management.  See our process for adding new inventory to the asset database, walk through the form employees use to request a computer, and ride along with a technician as they set up the requested device. Along the way, we’ll use the service catalog, asset management, visual task boards, and reporting tools.

Isora GRC - Inventory and Assessment Roundtable

Presenter(s): Ryan Orren, Luke Watson - IT Security Office

Meeting Link

Description: Isora GRC - Inventory and Assessment Roundtable.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

10:00 - 10:50 AM

IT Common Platform

Presenter(s): Russell Fenn - Enterprise Systems

Meeting Link

Description: We will present an overview and demonstration of the IT Common Platform - a managed Kubernetes environment which aims to handle much of low-level work for you, so you can focus on your application. The platform allows you to easily deploy, update, and scale your applications through code.vt.edu. Other features include vulnerability scanning, secrets management, and logging to CLS.

Managing Windows

Presenter(s): Scott Shetrone - College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Meeting Link

Description: This session is to discuss how we are implementing patch management, software deployments, security standards, etc.  Come to connect with colleagues and reduce duplication of efforts.  I will be focusing on using BigFix & Windows.

You got the data, now what? Using IT Service Management Data for Data-Driven Improvement

Presenter(s): Anne Sheppard, Deyu Hu - IT Experience and Engagement

Meeting Link

Description: In this presentation, we will review and discuss our collaboration with a service partner in using IT service management data gathered from ServiceNow to improve their operation and the user experience. We will review how the collaboration started, what we have done in the collaboration, what major improvements have been realized, e.g., reducing 90% of incident escalated from the IT service desk to the service partner in three years and identifying the bottlenecks of their operation. These improvements enabled a tier support structure and additional knowledge articles to be created that greatly reduced the incident handling time. We will also summarize and discuss factors contributing to the success.

11:00 - 11:50 AM

Managing macOS

Presenter(s): Scott Shetrone - College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Rick Craig - College of Architecture & Urban Studies

Meeting Link

Description: This session is to discuss how we are implementing patch management, software deployments, security standards, etc.  Come to connect with colleagues and reduce duplication of efforts.  I will be focusing on using Jamf & macOS.

Visual Task Boards Introduction and Demo in ServiceNow

Presenter(s): Teresa Snavely - IT Experience & Engagement

Meeting Link

Description: ServiceNow’s Visual Task Board can be used in Kanban-style to look for bottlenecks in your workflow and to track and organize work for your team. The boards you create can be used to display personal tasks or group teamwork. The Visual Task Board is versatile and customizable. You can create tasks, pull in records from ServiceNow, add members, and assign work to individuals or groups.

During this session we'll highlight features and benefits of Visual Task Boards and see examples of how they can be used for individual work, daily teamwork, or even special projects.

Understanding Logos and Color in Websites and Web App User Interfaces

Presenter(s): S.B. Chandler - Office of Equity and Access + Technology-Enhanced Learning and Online Strategies

Meeting Link

Description: We'll take a brief tour of how logos and on-brand color choices affect your websites and web development work. We'll talk about color in general and some never-before-seen research that discusses how hard it is to make good color choices on the web, but we'll also provide solid, compliant answers that pertain to Virginia Tech and make your web products look their best.

1:00 - 2:05 PM

IT Transformation Initiatives Across Virginia Tech

Presenter(s): Zohaib Qazi - EVPCOO; Ryan Spoon - College of Engineering; Greg Kroll, Randy Marchany - Division of IT

Meeting Link

Description: This session will provide an overview of active IT transformation initiatives across Virginia Tech. We'll discuss their importance and how efforts in each of the 6 focus areas are related to changes and future success for efforts across the Division of IT and distributed IT.