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Proposed Software Standards: 2009-2010

Status: Approved

These are the software standards for academic year 2009-2010.

There are relatively few software changes planned for 2009-2010. Routine upgrades (minor version changes) of supported software will be made as possible according to vendor recommendations. There are two changes worth noting:

  1. CIT is planning to upgrade GroupWise to version 8 at some point during the next year. The exact time frame for this upgrade is not yet determined. While the user interface in GroupWise is not significantly different than version 7 there may be some impact for PDA users who "cradle sync" their device to GroupWise. CIT is currently investigating this impact and possible alternatives for cradle syncing.
  2. Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) will become the standard version for all new installations. Creative Suite 3 will continue to be supported. Creative Suite 2 support will be discontinued. Users with CS2 will be automatically upgraded to CS4. Users with CS3 may request an upgrade to CS4 if they want to upgrade. Teaching Labs and Classrooms with Creative Suite installed already will be upgraded to CS4. This upgrade will take place throughout the summer.

2009-2010 Hardware Standards

 

General Office Productivity Applications

Office Productivity
  • Current Standard
    Microsoft Office 2007 (Windows)
    Microsoft Office 2008 (Mac)
  • Also Supported
    Office 2000 Professional (for Windows 95) by special service level agreement only.
    Access 97 by special service level agreement only when there is a demonstrated business need to support an Access 97 database.
  • General Upgrade Policy
    CIT adopts the newest version of Microsoft Office the summer after Microsoft releases it. Microsoft releases a major version upgrade of Office approximately every 2 years (Windows version one year and Mac version the next.)
e-mail
  • Current Standard
    GroupWise 7 (Windows)
    GroupWise 7 Platform Independent Client (Mac)
  • Upgrade Plans
    GroupWise will be upgraded to version 8 sometime during the next year. The time line for this has not yet been determined. See note #1 above.

Web Page Authoring

Dreamweaver
  • Current Standard
    Dreamweaver CS4
  • Also Supported
    Dreamweaver CS3
  • Upgrade Plans
    Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) will become the standard version for all new installations. Creative Suite 3 will continue to be supported. Creative Suite 2 support will be discontinued. Users with CS2 will be automatically upgraded to CS4. Users with CS3 may request an upgrade to CS4 if they want to upgrade. Teaching Labs and Classrooms with Creative Suite installed already will be upgraded to CS4. This upgrade will take place throughout the summer.
Fireworks
  • Current Standard
    Fireworks CS4
  • Also Supported
    Fireworks CS3
  • Upgrade Plans
    Fireworks is part of the Adobe Creative Suite. CIT will be upgrading to Creative Suite 4 in the summer of 2009.

Desktop Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows
  • Current Standard
    Windows XP Professional SP3
  • Also Supported
    Windows XP SP2 is also supported. Prior versions of Windows are supported only by special service agreement when there is a demonstrated business need.
    NOTE: Windows Vista is not supported. Computers purchased with College or grant funds independently from CIT and running Windows Vista will not be supported on the campus network (see Upgrade Plans below.)
  • Upgrade Plans
    Windows XP SP2 machines will be upgraded to SP3 over the summer.
    CIT will continue to deploy security patches and updates as they become available from Microsoft.
    Windows Vista will not be deployed or supported on college-owned machines. CIT will evaluate deployment plans for Windows 7 as it is released from Microsoft.
  • Encryption
    All Windows laptops will come with hard drive encryption software (Utimaco SafeGuard) installed. This is required for the protection of confidential data.
Mac OS
  • Current Standard
    Mac OS 10.5
  • Also Supported
    Mac OS 10.4.1
  • Upgrade Plans
    Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) may start shipping with all new Macs starting this summer. CIT will install the latest OS possible on all new deployments and all re-deployments. We will continue to support versions down to 10.4.1.
    Mac users running less than OS 10.5 may request an upgrade. CIT will upgrade Mac systems to the current standard as new systems are deployed or as older systems are reimaged.
  • Encryption
    All Mac laptops will come with hard drive encryption software (FileVault) enabled. This is required for the protection of confidential data.

Software Support Levels

CIT maintains a list of all supported software and the service level provided by CIT for each application.