Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the myUFV website was upgraded to a new system and a new interface. The two-year project was spearheaded by the UFV IT department and will serve as the baseline for future UFV e-infrastructure.
Felix Aksentsev, manager of IT Applications at UFV, who is also project manager for the upgrade, explained that it was a necessary change.
“The old program was no longer supported by Microsoft, and because it was so old the environment was no longer secure,” he said. “We take the security of students’ information seriously, which is the most important reason for the overhaul of the website.”
Aksentsey also noted that upgrading the myUFV site is the beginning of multiple changes to other parts of UFV’s aging software.
During the two-year period, the project had three different project managers, which slowed progress each time there was a turnover. One of the greatest challenges was to implement interface changes onto the platform.
On paper, there were many opportunities to make the update, but in reality, there are only a few key windows during the year that these changes can happen. IT couldn’t shut down the site during exam week, or registration week, and had to measure the periods of low traffic to find the best-suited date. The most time-consuming challenge was uploading student’s data onto the new platform, which was a very delicate process, as they were dealing with student’s personal information.
Kerry Friesen, the web applications analyst for the project, stated that in addition to the upgrade, there are a total of 14 servers, ensuring that the website can handle large amounts of traffic.
“The servers are massive,” she said. “The myUFV website can now hold just over 1,000 students simultaneously using the site, which is more than double what the old servers could handle.”
Another feature of the new website is the automatic creation of a mycampuslife profile for new students. Because their information is seamlessly transferred over, new students can instantly access clubs and events without having to create a separate account.
Both Aksentsev and Friesen encouraged student feedback on the website. The IT department is currently looking at testing a mobile app for the myUFV platform. Students can contact the IT department in B building with questions, or contact Student Life for more information.
