to provide access to a series of mobile-developed applications including events, courses, grades, news and maps.
Strategic sourcing Strategic sourcing leverages managed, hosted or “cloud” services in certain areas to supplement staff and facilitate the rapid migration to next-generation technologies and interactive learning environments. Focused on customer needs, organizational goals and market conditions, strategic sourcing improves operational efficiency and productivity, increases quality, creates partnerships with providers and saves money, while letting staff focus proactively on customer support needs.
Technical information security The information technology technical security team continued to secure system and network resources and protect the confidentiality of student, faculty and staff information. In 2012-2013, the college underwent a desktop security audit to ensure compliance of standard desktop-builds processes, patching and presence of antivirus, as well as identifying potential risks to known exploits. In the coming year, the security team will assess and improve its alignment with the critical security controls identified by wellknown standards such as NIST, SANS and ISO.
Sustainability and green IT initiatives Sustainability efforts in 2012-2013 included improvements to the secondary data center that reduced electricity by half. Virtualization efforts continued with the reduction of the number of physical hard drives required to provide storage capacity by an average of 50 percent when compared to traditional network storage. Desktop virtualization, where a single physical server can host 10 or more virtual desktops, reduces power and cooling by as much as 90 percent. Other sustainability efforts to reduce energy consumption included a multimedia resource management software tool to centrally manage and support multimedia classrooms, automatically powering down computers when not in use, smart power strips, dual boot configurations, virtual tape libraries and energy-efficient form factor computers.
Home design star: Hong Sievert Hong Sievert is in the business of making dreams come true. At least the kind that involve kitchen and bath remodeling projects. Sievert is a graduate of the JCCC interior design program and the recipient of the Gold Award for the Kansas City Home and Garden Magazine Remodel of the Year Award. As a design consultant in the kitchen and bath department at one of Olathe’s Home Depot stores, she truly enjoys interacting with customers every day, helping them fulfill their design aspirations with ideas that only skilled professionals can turn into realities. In 2012 Sievert also received a National Thomasville Kitchen of the Month Award. Home Depot Television came to Kansas to tape a segment of its Spotlight on Success. The crew interviewed Sievert and the customer whose kitchen she designed. The inspiring footage was shown to employees across the country. Sievert was born and raised in Vietnam and worked in the secretarial field for a couple of U.S. companies in Hanoi, but her true passion was helping friends decorate for weddings and wedding receptions. “When I came to the United States in December 1997, I felt that it would be too challenging for me to find a clerical job, so I decided to go back to school to learn interior design – to follow my passion,” she said. “JCCC had a great reputation and I thought it would be a place where I could fulfill my dream.” She was also impressed that JCCC is recognized by the National Kitchen & Bath Association as an accredited program. She completed the curriculum, and her JCCC internship at Home Depot turned into a gratifying job she has maintained for eight years. “The greatest reward I’ve received from my career is I am working at the job that I love. Being able to help customers and making them happy makes me feel happy,” she said. “It’s all possible because of JCCC.” From the time Sievert walked in the Student Center at JCCC, she was very impressed with the professionalism, helpfulness and knowledge of the staff. “The teachers in my program made me feel at home and they were very nice and helpful any time I needed them,” she said. “I still apply what I learned at JCCC every day at work.”
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