It is not the first time the network has been brought to a standstill by a virus. What's more amazing is that this time, the virus in question was already a couple of weeks (if not months) old. Oh, said a spokesperson who is fairly senior in the ICTS cogs, "McAfee didn't pick it up". No sh*t Shurlock. The virus took my friends computer out for at least a morning. Fortunately I picked it up and cleaned the virus off before it had a noticeable impact on their work.
Almost a week after it was cleaned off the friends computer, they got a mail saying they (ICTS) now knew what the problem was. These people are real rocket scientists! It also took out all the computers in their department; but those people weren't lucky enough to have an IT guy on-hand and had to wait for ICTS to send someone to fix it. So the wait began.
Now get this. Despite paying huge sums to McAfee, no doubt, ICTS responded that the free AVG, was able to detect this virus and that all staff should download and install AVG on their computers to avoid the risk of a re-infection while ICTS mopped up. So, on goes AVG. Then a week later, the affected person asks why AVG updates are not coming through, only to be told that ICTS has blocked AVG updates because they don't want people using it! So now they resort to updating AVG in the evening from their broadband connection.
Network
For the past 2 months, the person in question has complained that on some days, they have no network at work; other days no Internet. But this does not apply to all staff in the same department. Some do, some don't. Then on other days it may be the reverse. They have Internet, others don't.
Log a call they're told! Great. Here's to another long wait. And I thought Telkom was incompetent. In addition, what with TENET doing the switch from some Telkom service to SANREN or some other provider, Internet is so slow it's not worth using. Some (and I suspect many) have resorted to buying a 3G modem and data bundles which they use at work; off their research grants. That way they've got Internet when they need it. No cr*p with ICTS. Sure, they're not protected by a firewall or have a proxy (which forces them to log in first - sometimes also not working properly), but they can at least get on with their real work. In other cases, departments have multiple ADSL connections and a complex setup of rotating the accounts when they reach their cap.
An IT organisation worth it's salt has now got spam scanning down off-pat. I mean, 1 spam per week is just acceptable. This person gets about 30 to 50 a day. No, they do not sign up their email address all over the show! Like others, this person has resorted to giving out a Gmail email address instead of the official UCT one and is assured of getting less spam that way.
The upshot. They work from home more often now, as they can still get email. They've resorted to get IT support from me (as this stage at no charge) if need be, they don't not have to log onto the network, or put up with ICTS nonsense at every turn. They are thus more productive.
I guess the the question then is: Why is nothing done about ICTS at UCT? Is it because the big cheeses get a 'different' level of service to the rest of the University and are oblivious of this sort of non-service? Perhaps it's because there's some political wrangling with the ICTS department - hey, corruption is not limited to government officials :-)
Finally, if ICTS employees were paid badly, I could half understand. However, I know that ICTS people on the whole are paid more than people in the industry. How do I know this? Because I was put forward for a position with them through an agent. No, I did not take it. And no, I am not bitter. I had to ask myself this question:
"Did I want to be associated with a department/division that is literally the laughing stock of the rest of the university?"
Could I live with myself, getting up in the morning knowing that today I could contribute nothing to the greater good of the organisation?
And perhaps this is the nub of the problem: which competent IT professional would want to tarnish their reputation working for ICTS. The good people that do work there are so dis-empowered to make a difference they loose the will to want to.
In the end, I turned down an interview (which I may add, I only received confirmation of almost a month and a half after my CV was submitted - the HR department at UCT! but that's a story for another blog). I had reservations from the start with the personnel agent, but this has all been confirmed by events surrounding this virus thing.
It's well understood now that having excellent IT facilities is what will make business competitive into the future; but academic progress is just as dependent upon good IT infrastructure. Poor IT services on the other hand leads to organisations being left behind....
VC, DVC and heads of faculties - please take note and do something before this leading African University becomes a dinosaur in our history books.
No comments:
Post a Comment