The enterprise CMS is on its way! We’re still on track to begin implementation in the next few months, but there are a few discussion USF and the vendor need to have to make sure their software and our servers can talk to each other successfully.

Last week, the CMS Workgroup met to discuss the technical requirements the enterprise CMS will need for USF. The group discussed nodes, platforms, flow of data, and configuration – information that can easily go over many people’s heads (including your faithful blogger’s). However, our technical staff understood it all and stressed that the CMS will need to have high availability (meaning it needs to always be on) and not hosted by the vendor (meaning it will live on campus with the rest of our business systems, like Blackboard, GEMS/FAST, and Oasis).

After lengthy discussion, the group decided the platform that will be used to run the enterprise CMS will be Windows 2008 R2 based on the expertise of the USF IT staff that will be supporting it, and the existing infrastructure in the Tampa Data Center. Additionally, the CMS will be easier to replicate in our redundant locations of Winter Haven and Clemson University.

So what are the next steps now that we decided on the platform? Build it out of course! USF IT staff are currently readying the servers and scheduling the big move!