This was the first time UIT delivered a major OS upgrade remotely. New technology helped, but it was our dedicated team members who made it a true success. From design to deployment, the project team kept the focus on the community and ensured they communicated early and often, solicited and actioned on feedback, and offered personalized scheduling and support when needed. The best upgrades go unnoticed, but it's important that we take a moment to reflect on the lessons we learned (especially the positive ones) and celebrate the accomplishments that brought us to where we are today.

Phase 1: Design

The design phase involved multiple groups coming together to share what has and hasn’t worked in past deployments and to apply those lessons to create a new strategy centred on delivering the best possible experience to our community.

The project’s success was due to its teams, but more importantly, to the incredible individuals who make up those teams. The following people were instrumental to Phase 1’s success.

CTS were among the earliest adopters of the new OS, taking the initiative to test and familiarize themselves with what would quickly become the new normal. As that early work progressed, CTS partnered with OEWB to help shape the design approach. OEWB promptly assessed the impact of Windows 11 on the 91��ɫ community, confirming the upgrade as a critical technological change. They also collaborated with Employee Relations to keep YUSA staff updated throughout the project. Infosec was responsible for creating our Windows 11 security baseline and ensuring it aligned with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks. WTS identified the compatibility and readiness of core Infrastructure services and business-critical software applications. They also designed standard OS images and automated the migration and upgrade workflow from Windows 10 to 11. Together, their teamwork set a strong launch pad for the next phase’s successful rollout.  

Phase 2: Deploy

If a traditional OS upgrade wasn’t already hard enough, the Windows 11 deployment was complicated by Microsoft’s tight support deadlines and exacerbated by the new challenge of remote deployment. CTS not only met these short deadlines but ensured the pace of work didn’t leave the community’s needs behind. The secret to CTS's success was their conscious effort to deliver human-first customer support; throughout both phases of the project, CTS acted as the community’s voice. This included an early-and-often approach to communications as well as a form-based feedback mechanism used to gather community information and input. You may even have received one of their forms asking you to join the early adopters or to provide feedback on the apps you use.

CTS did an incredible job scheduling and executing the rollout stages. They created customized adoption schedules based on end-user role responsibilities and organizational needs, while avoiding peak periods for key resources. The team also scheduled key blackout dates during which critical systems wouldn’t be touched. They started small with an initial deployment of 40 people, and steadily expanded outward. This phased approach allowed the team to scale support, control early issues, validate the rollout process, and apply valuable lessons before moving to the broader community.

Kudos

The upgrade would not have been possible without Rick, Jeremy, and Prabhjot from CTS. They oversaw communication, scheduling, troubleshooting, and the implementation of changes. While known for their incredible operational work, the CTS members stepped into the project lead and team roles and shone. That meant the rest of the CTS team had to step up and cover for their team members, and so our first Kudos goes out to the too-oft-unsung operational staff doing the good work of keeping the lights on and the macro-machine that is 91��ɫ running. Thank you to Jeffrey Ciprian, Paul Clack, Jeff DeRosa, Akhil Justin, Alireza Kharazmi, Akash Mahmood, Ninara Sada and Liana Simons for taking on the extra work to make this success possible.

“With proper planning, deploying smoothly to the whole community (over 4000 machines) is not that daunting of a task. Having grace with people who have technical debt was crucial, and was done by identifying technical limitations early on, and working with affected groups to maintain continuity of service without having unforeseen expenses. I am most proud of not needing to purchase any Windows 10 extensions.”  

Prabhjot, Microcomputer Analyst, was also integral in the Windows 11 deployment. She was thrown into the deep end of this project only a few short months after joining UIT. Charged with managing deployment schedules and maintaining communication with managers and directors, Prabhjot more than equalled her task. She showed an aptitude for adapting her communication style to fit 91��ɫ’s different team and individual needs. In any moment, she might be going toe-to-toe with our most technically minded IT workers, then switching it up to explain it to the people who couldn’t tell you what an operating system even means. Prabhjot effectively instructed thousands of remote users with high-quality, step-by-step guidance. Prabhjot demonstrated the courage and verve she has since become famous for, rising to meet a daunting challenge early in her time at 91��ɫ. A team player to her core, when we sat down to talk to her about her accomplishments and what she was most proud of, she took the opportunity to praise her colleagues:

“I am proud of the entire project. Jeremy was a great team member who constantly provided me with technical support, while Rick was there every step of the way to encourage me. I am thankful to him for giving me a chance to work on such a big project and always pushing me.”  

The crew's success depends on a steady hand at the wheel. We need to acknowledge and celebrate the man who steered the ship. CTS Manager and project lead, Rick Sambhi, led his team masterfully, keeping his finger on the pulse of the entire project. Rick led daily standups to keep his team ahead of problems that crop up on projects of this scale and ensured everything stayed on schedule. His constant support of the team and belief in them played a huge role in the project’s overall success. Rick had the following to say to his team:

"This project’s success was driven by strong collaboration, careful planning, and effective execution. With support across UIT and valuable feedback from early adopters, we were able to confidently deploy Windows 11 to the UIT support community."

The implementation was a huge success. The feedback that CTS received was very positive. We wanted to take a second to share some feedback we got back from the community. One member wrote, “Just wanted to send a note to say that I’m impressed with how smoothly this upgrade went. Ran like clockwork per the instructions that were provided. In comparison, my wife’s workplace upgraded their laptops to Windows 11 last month, and it did not go well, at least for her.  After something like 5 attempts, they gave up and just replaced her laptop.”  

Kudos to the team behind it all!

The post Human Touch in a Virtual��World:��The��Windows 11��Upgrade appeared first on Office of the Chief Information Officer.

2025 was the year of AI, both at 91��ɫ and beyond. Our Innovation team has worked on some truly incredible initiatives and projects, not just keeping up with the continuously changing world of AI but actively shaping it and leading the way in higher education. They helped to launch 37 new websites, created and enabled the student absence reporting feature for students on eClass, created an AI course assistant on eClass, worked on process automation with GitHub Copilot, and created many AI ‘agent’ prototypes.  

2025 was also a big year for the Cyber Security team. This year, they streamlined the vendor risk assessment process, reducing average review time from 8 months to 3 weeks; a 91% in time improvement! They also launched a university-wide cybersecurity training program and achieved a 67% completion in its first 7 months!  

The Workgroup Technology Services team had a big��year, with the launch of the Azure Virtual Desktop service in 2025. This launch made��91��ɫ the first Canadian University��to do a cloud-native implementation.����

���ܰ������ʴ���initiative also kicked off in 2025.��The��initiative��is helping to revolutionize how data can be used to make informed decisions. By combining data from various sources and��leveraging��advanced tools like AI and machine learning, the��initiative��simplifies reporting, improves efficiency, and builds powerful models.��UIT is always looking for ways to improve our technologies and processes, and this project speaks to��the innovation and ambition of our teams.��We look forward��to��seeing��the continuation of the project in��2026!����

Often,��the biggest��accomplishments��in UIT��aren’t��heard��about by the��community;��it is��just the nature of our��jobs. When things are going well, we fade into the background.��This is why��we wanted to take��this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of our quieter achievements.��We��accomplished��so much with our��network��modernization��initiative,��which��provides��the community��with��a��faster, more��secure,��and more reliable��network.��UIT strives to ensure that our services work as efficiently as possible, so you can too.������

Although 2025 was a year of success for UIT, the work��doesn’t��stop.��We��wanted to take a moment to thank��everyone who has supported us this��year; your partnership means everything, and we will continue to work hard to provide you with the help and services you need.

The post UIT Retrospective, 2025�� appeared first on Office of the Chief Information Officer.

IT Day is more than a series of presentations or keynote speeches—it’s an invitation to explore your part in what aptly calls our “human machine.” More importantly, it’s a day to connect with the people around us. A day to break down silos and pull up a chair beside someone you’ve never met or someone you’ve only ever met on a screen. It’s a day of discussion and expanding minds. A day of aha and haha moments that each generate their own sparks of inspiration.

IT Day began with a challenge. Tim Hampton, Director of Information Technology and our emcee, dared us to introduce ourselves—even to those we’ve worked with for years. It was a lighthearted but powerful way to break down the first barrier that can keep us from truly connecting.

Connection is the purpose of IT Day. Tim describes that, above even new technologies and techniques, IT Day is about seeing the humanity in what we’re up against and how that creates a camaraderie that naturally chisels away at the tribalism that can grow between groups as we work in vacuums and silos.

Resilience

The theme of this year’s gathering was resilience. A word that means something different to everyone—and can feel trite if only examined at a surface level. To , resilience is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” For us in IT, it means something far more.

For Sarah, resilience isn’t just an ability but an act and an art—even, at times, a martial art: “Sometimes we think about resilience as meeting the challenge head-on in a direct, even adversarial way. Like we're going to battle this thing to the ground. But other times, it's about absorbing even accepting the challenge and finding another way around, like in many martial arts.” Sarah expounds on this idea of absorbing challenge and redirecting that energy by likening resilience to a cork in water. “If you push a cork down, the cork offers no resistance, but the minute that you let go, the cork pops up with the force that submerged it, plus extra energy.”

To Tim, resilience is less the cork in the water and more the ship on stormy waves. He describes being truly resilient not as merely putting things back together after the storm but as having a clear purpose that serves as our north star and recognizing that “the ways we achieve that purpose can change with time, and so resilience is improving everything we do to achieve our purpose. The sails could be up to the left. They could be up to the right, but we're still going in the direction we need to achieve our purpose.” Brad Strom defined resilience in much the same way, as “the ability to stay the course” and drew on a simple yet powerful lesson from his children’s VeggieTales days—to “keep on keeping on.” To Milena Jeremic, that keeping on means, “giving "100% even when the situation is hard or things aren’t going the way that you imagined”

Mention of VeggieTales had Erin Skopitz thinking back to her earlier career working on the production of the Magic School Bus: “On that show, the kids were constantly being put in situations that required them to use their combined knowledge to think fast and adapt to new and changing environments. I think this notion of adaptability, often through trial and error, really lands with me in terms of how I view resiliency. So to quote Ms. Frizzle, ‘Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!’” 

The paradox of resilience is that it’s an independent journey we each share. We are all in our individual ships (or floating school buses) on the same stormy sea; some of us are hit by different waves—caught by different crosswinds, but we each keep on keeping on. You may see your colleagues from a different crew drifting off to starboard, others off to port; the important thing is that we acknowledge that while our journeys may be different, our destination is the same. As the storm worsens, we need to lash together in new ways and find new strength in our connections.

Value

IT Day offered more than just opportunities for connection—it provided attendees with unique and meaningful takeaways. For Milena, who did so much behind-the-scenes work for the event, IT Day showed how valuable being creative is and gave her a chance to leverage some of the soft skills that don’t always get to shine in her everyday work. Erin appreciated the opportunity to gain insight into what others are doing—removing the blinders that our busy schedules naturally force over our eyes to see the bigger picture. For Brad, it was watching the IT Team showcase their knowledge and gifts of communication and seeing those hidden talents clawing out from under their operational workloads.

These are vital aspects of our daily lives that we often overlook in our busyness. IT Day offers us that moment to pause, reflect, and broaden our perspective. It’s up to each of us to carry that outlook forward in the weeks and months ahead—extending the spirit of IT Day from a single day to every single day.

Taking the Plunge

IT Day owes its success to all of you—brave presenters and gracious attendees alike. The most valuable things we can share are our time and our thoughts, and IT Day thrives because of your willingness to contribute both. Beyond the day’s highlights, IT Day also offers opportunities for professional growth—but it’s up to you to seize them. When asked how to grow as IT professionals at 91��ɫ, Brad encouraged everyone to take the leap and submit a presentation.

“Where there is risk, there is growth. Standing before your peers can be intimidating—they know your strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. But every time someone shares, it benefits the whole community. Your courage makes the event possible and inspires others, showing them they can do it too. There’s something powerful about watching someone face their vulnerabilities, creating a ripple effect of growth and connection. The community's gonna benefit, both from your knowledge and also from your example, but you're gonna grow too. And I think that's some of the best fruits you can get.”

Tim describes this risk-growth mindset through the concept of misogi, a Japanese ritual where participants endure a freezing cold waterfall to prove to themselves that they can do something hard. Similarly, stepping up to present at IT Day can feel daunting, but it’s an opportunity to embrace the challenge, grow from it, and pave the way for others to do the same.

When the IT Day 2025 call for proposals opens, take the plunge and submit your idea. And if you’re not quite ready yet, we look forward to seeing you in the audience!

In the spirit of connection, growth, and taking the plunge, Brad offered another valuable piece of advice to carry with us as we prepare for IT Day 2025: the importance of openly sharing your aspirations and goals.

"It’s always amazing when someone approaches me and says, ‘I have aspirations in this area—can you offer any advice on how to get there?’ I’m always happy to come alongside them, but it takes courage to start that conversation."

Brad encouraged speaking not just to your manager but also to others, your directors or colleagues across teams. "Make sure your aspirations are known. People are busy, and your goals can easily go unnoticed. By sharing them, you create awareness and position yourself for opportunities when they arise."

He also recommended coming prepared with ideas or solutions when discussing your aspirations. Bringing something other than a blank page shows initiative and makes the conversation more real and productive.

Finally, Brad stressed the value of seeking advice and building connections. "Talking to others—not just your leaders—can give you valuable insights and help further your growth. Don’t be afraid to start those conversations."

The post Looking Back on IT Day 2024 appeared first on Office of the Chief Information Officer.