Information for System and Data Administrators

If you are unfamiliar with information technology services on the medical campus, we suggest you begin with the overview in the Information for Newcomers before reading this page.  If you have a problem, or questions of any kind, you can always begin with our Help Desk.  It's open 24/7.  Use the Get Help form, send email to help@med.miami.edu or call 305-243-5999.

Core services and service providers

A summary of information technology services from the School of Medicine's Department of Information Technology is provided here, in the Core Services listing, and in other "Information for" pages.  For more detailed information, you can use the links in the services directory.

Medical Information Technology is one of several UM groups providing IT support and services for the medical campus.  For a list of the others, along with their functions and contact information, click here. 

Working together

System administrators provide technical support services to their organizations by maintaining computer hardware, servers and software applications.  Data administrators (also called data custodians, data stewards and data owners) are responsible for critical organizational data collections.  Information Technology maintains the infrastructure used to support and assist in the administration of these services.

We encourage you to become familiar with our Core Services.  Also, please consider joining our team of Information Technology Liaisons.

Medical Center Network Directory

IT maintains the Medical Center Network Directory to which all users authenticate (login) with their Medical ID in order to access information resources.  It is important to unify all network domains under this directory structure.  Independently managed directory structures have created many problems for Medical Center network users in the past, and are not authorized. 

We can provide system administrators with their own Organizational Unit (OU) within the network directory, which they can administer for their organizations (including management of all user accounts, workstations and group policies).  Alternatively, we can manage your user accounts as we do for the rest of the Medical Center.  If you would like more information on the Medical Center directory structure, please contact the Data Center Services Manager, Luis Necuze, at 305-243-5999.

Data storage and hosting

The Medical Center's secure data center facilities provide a fully-protected place for your organization's data, including secure off-site storage of backup copies.  These facilities can also host your server(s) or provide the resources to to host specialized applications.  We also offer Enterprise Storage Area Network (SAN) resources to store and manage your data as well as an enterprise tape/DVD Library storage solution to back up data. 

Please visit our Data Center Services page to learn more about these services.

Hardware and software acquisitions

All hardware purchases, including servers and computers, are approved by Information Technology, to assure compliance with enterprise computing standards where appropriate, promote hardware/software acquisitions aligned with enterprise strategic planning/direction, and help the Medical Center take advantage of enterprise license agreements and volume pricing.

Our Procurement group can assist in selecting appropriate computer resources for you and/or the users you support.   We also have site licenses for a broad range of software, available for University faculty, staff and students, at no charge, for work-related use.  (In some cases the software is available under a discounted fee structure, but is not free.)

Network infrastructure acquisitions

For the on-campus networks, independent procurement and installation of infrastructure/networking equipment such as wireless access points and routers/switches are prohibited.  So are procurement and installation of services such as firewalls, proxy servers or devices that mirror/spoof MAC or IP address.  If you need these services, please contact our Network Engineering group.  

Most locations now have both wired and wireless access. If you need additional cable connections for wired access, or enhanced wireless coverage, contact the Network Engineering group.

Anti-virus and -spyware, software updates

We have site licenses for both anti-virus and anti-spyware software.  These services are part of a managed solution which automatically updates the anti-virus signature and data files for the clients, requiring no intervention.  Our team can show you how to connect your users to this service or we can manage it for you.

We also manage software on Windows PCs centrally, using Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).  If you manage Apple systems, or have a collection of Windows-based systems that have been exempted from SCCM management, you are responsible for keeping software on those systems current.

Policies and procedures

The University of Miami has a standard set of IT policies and procedures that must be adhered to by all IT Professionals.  You need to become familiar with these policies, particularly if you are system administrator.  

If you are responsible for managing any electronically stored or accessed protected health information, you need to become familiar with the appropriate Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations and attend all appropriate training as required.  You can find information on local HIPAA policies here.

If you are responsible for collections of educational records, financial data or other types of sensitive information, you need to become familiar with the policies related to those data categories.  For more information, and a list of local contacts, see the discussion of protected and sensitive information.