Federation technology has become a very important connective technology that enables efficient distributed identity management (IdM) and enhanced convenience for users. The trend toward outsourced applications and more collaboration between business partners strains the capabilities of traditional IdM technologies. The industry is responding to growing demands by offering federation in a range of delivery models that includes open source, identity federation as a hosted service, as well as on-premises software form factors. While federation implementations grow at a healthy rate, the industry continues to address barriers to further adoption

available to UM staff via password

TechWatch is pleased to announce the publication of its latest report, Low carbon computing: a view to 2050 and beyond. The report looks at short-term technology ‘quick fixes’ based on simple staff actions and/ or low cost investment as well as longer term solutions that either represent a more costly investment, or are based on more experimental technologies. It also presents a low carbon ICT roadmap – a first stage attempt at drawing together information about how technology is likely to develop and combining it with what is currently known about the targets associated with the Climate Change Act. Finally, the report goes on to speculate about the long-term future for HE/FE, observing that we may be entering an age when data-intensive institutions may need to become producers of electricity in order to supplement energy available from the national grid. It also recommends investigative work into the practical realities of a wholly DC- supplied data centre built near a source of renewable energy.

The report is available at:

Since 2004, the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2009 survey of 30,616 freshmen and seniors at 103 four-year institutions and students at 12 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 62 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2009 study also includes a special focus on student ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices.

contents include:
Greening Technology in U.K. Higher Education; by Rob Bristow with Mark Samuels
Green Desktop Computing at the University of Oxford; by Howard Noble, Daniel Curtis, and Kang Tang
Powering Down From the Bottom Up: Greener Client Computing; by Tom O’Donnell
Bottom Up and Top Down: Making IT a Key Part of the Campus Sustainability Effort; by Dennis Cromwell, Kristin Hanks, and Sarah Engel
Green IT Best Practices at the University of Michigan; by MaryBeth Stuenkel
Sustainable Technology at WPI; by Jon Bartelson
Renewed Innovation: IT’s Role in the Sustainability Efforts of Lourdes College; by LeRoy Butler
Three Approaches to Green Computing on Campus; by John T. Thompson
Asset Management and Sustainability at the University of Richmond; by Wendy Burchard
Video Tutorials: A Sustainable Method for Campus Technology Training; by John Bowers, Julie Dent, and Kathleen Barnes

Universities pull apart data centres to consolidate at Fujitsu park.

Three Victorian universities plan to disassemble their internal data centres and consolidate their compute power in a new facility in Melbourne’s South East.

Monash University, RMIT (The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and the University of Melbourne have signed a multi-million dollar deal with Fujitsu for ten years, consolidating all three of their production data centres at the Japanese outsourcing company’s Noble Park data centre.

The three universities will initially move their enterprise computing environments into 500 square metres worth of Fujitsu’s existing data centre…..

The main focus of this research was to assess the impact of the economic downturn on university library and IT services. We conducted 40 interviews with representatives of each of these services in 36 different institutions across the UK.