Use of IT facilities in Research

Underlying Ethos

Users who are primarily dependent on Microsoft systems for their IT needs, tend to view their PC as personal to them (as the name implies). This maybe fine for isolated home computing where no one else depends upon what you do, but here you are part of a Research Institute with responsibilities to the University and your sponsors.

The most important aspect of your work is that data should not be lost nor your work hampered by failure of the machine on your desk. In the event of the machine on your desk failing to function, you should be able to turn to any other machine and continue working. Thus, the IT facilities should be viewed as a tool set enabling your academic work and not as a distraction in their own right.

These are benefits that accrue from subscribing to a "corporate IT policy" rather than a DIY "home-style" PC policy. Thus, in this period of change, at the price of sacrificing some individualism, there is a lot to be gained in the longer term.

Policy: Data Storage and "My PC"

1. All source data, code developments and documents representing your intellectual and business contribution to the University and/or your sponsors should be stored on the corporate network file servers.
2. The School provides a dependable filestore with adequate backup and recovery procedures.
3. No "master" data or code development should be stored on local desktop hard-disk storage.
4. Temporary or "scratch" space, eg full un-summarised simulation results should be generated on the local hard disk, with definitive summaries transfered to the network filestore within hours of completion.
5. The School does not provide a backup service for hard disks in user's individual workstations. - please use the network filestore in the first place!
6. The contents of the hard disk in your PC or workstation are to be considered ephemeral. More often than not, fixing a software problem with a PC, will result in the Hard disk being erased and rebuilt using the School's managed installation service.

The School's Network file store is accessible from all clients running Windows, Linux or Unix. (equally, so are many other corporate services).

Policy: Running what I like on "My PC"

1. You must not! You are operating in a corporate environment. Thus, there are strict guidelines as to what you may install on a PC provided by the School and the software you can run irrespective of whether it is a school owned or a personally owned PC operating on the School premises.
2. At all time you must operate within the School IT Regulations.