Network Gatekeepers
Filed under: Discovery,News & Resources,Scientific Ocean Drilling
(Click to enlarge) Grant Banta, IODP marine computer specialist, readies IT equipment before setting sail on another expedition of the JOIDES Resolution. (Photo by William Crawford, IODP-USIO)As malware grows in volume and sophistication, colleges and universities add new layers to their security defenses.
(Excerpted from EdTech Magazine / by Melissa Delaney)
Ship-Shape Network
For two-month stretches, scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution research vessel drill deep into the seafloor. They capture rock, volcanic lava and sediment dating back 80 million years to learn about the Earth’s formation and changes in climate, sea levels and marine life. Then the ship returns to port for five days before a new team sets out on another expedition.
Five days — that’s how long the IT department at Texas A&M’s Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), which operates the ship, has to connect all of the new users and devices to its wireless network. It’s a challenge that’s all too familiar at college and university IT departments. But instead of enrolling thousands of new students each year, the IODP has about 100 users, each with their own computers, to set up every other month. “The numbers are different, but the same principles apply,” says Grant Banta, IODP marine computer specialist.
In the past, the IODP IT staff manually checked each computer during port call and connected it to the network. But in 2009, they automated the process with the Enterasys Network Access Control solution. “It has saved us many, many, many staff hours,” says Banta.
Before each expedition, passengers get credentials to connect to the network and instructions to install the Enterasys agent on their computers. Once installed, the system scans their devices to ensure that their systems meet IODP’s acceptable usage policy, which requires that users’ firewalls be enabled and that they have up-to-date antivirus software. If not, users are given a quarantined role with access to instructions or links to resolve the problems, such as a page where they can download McAfee antivirus. Once connected, users are divided into groups with different sets of policies based on their needs. Banta can prohibit certain processes and applications, such as Skype, and have the system scan
for them at regular intervals.
Most expeditions have at least one educator who hosts a video conference so that students and teachers at schools and museums around the world can interact with the scientists and learn about the research vessel’s mission. With the Enterasys platform, Banta created a wireless network used solely for video conferencing so that, if need be, he can move all the users aboard the ship to a group with no Internet access, freeing up bandwidth for the video conference.
“There are all sorts of options, depending on what you’re dealing with,” he says.
About IODP
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring, and monitoring the subseafloor. The JOIDES Resolution is a scientific research vessel managed by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP (USIO). Together, Texas A&M University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership comprise the USIO.
