The following applies to any computing device (laptops, desktops, tablets) purchased with university funds (or virtual machines operating within a university datacenter) whether assigned to an individual user or group.
Technology Services Managed Devices:
Our default configuration (and strong recommendation) is to join Windows computers to the Active Directory domain. This setup provides several baseline configurations for usability, security, and data integrity. We offer full support for these devices and can quickly restore a device to a usable state in case of an incident.
Technology Services Managed Devices have the following benefits:
- NetID login (IT-controlled user access management, device/account password syncing)
- VPN connection to campus (for Windows/MacOS workstations)
- Automatic data backup (OneDrive, H drive)
- Software deployment, configuration, and licensing
- Security (automatic security updates, firewall configuration, virus and malware protection)
- Admin rights can be provided as needed with a "managed" local admin account - more information about this type of account
Additional information on using a Technology Services Managed Device.
User or self-managed Devices:
A user may request to "self-manage" their device, i.e. exempt the device from the standard managed device configuration policy. Support for such "off-domain" devices is provided by Tech Services on a "best-effort" basis. There is no guarantee that a system can be restored to a user-configured state. Technology Services will ask for a written agreement to the following terms when opting to self-manage a device:
- Technology Services will install and configure the operating system with access for the primary user (one standard user account and an administrator-level account) which is defined as the "base configuration"
Technology Services will install any licensed software applications requested by the user during setup. NOTE: Some university software cannot be installed on an user-managed device, such as those that require connection to a license server (MATLAB, SPSS, Tableau)
- The user is solely responsible for the data and non-SU application backup/retrieval on self-managed systems
- The user is solely responsible for maintaining the encrpytion on the local drive(s)
- Any security incidents such as malware/virus infections or other signs of compromise will result in a wipe and restore of the system back to the base configuration
- If on campus, the device will be registered on an internal network which can not be reached from external, non-SU networks
- You should not reuse your NetID password for a local user on the system
- Your primary user account should not run with full Administrator-level access on the system
- You may not access or store any "confidential" data on the system, as defined in the university's data classification.
- SU's VPN connection isn't available—connect to campus via RDS if necessary to reach other SU resources.