Studentnet Cloudburst

14 November 2014

We're all getting really busy preparing for the 2015 academic year, including forming new vendor partnerships (more to come) and implementing new schools using Cloudwork. By the end of 2014 Cloudwork will have grown to supporting over 45,000 school accounts. Thank you for your contribution to our continued growth and success.

Today, there's a lot we'd like to update you on:

V2 Mandatory Upgrade Migration - all clients must be migrated to Cloudwork v2 by end of March 2015, so schedule now to be ready for 2015 academic year
Password Reset - available in production
Chromebook Single Sign On - available in production
Apple OpenDirectory - available in production
AD Account Auto-Provisioning feature: we're coding this feature right now and we're looking for beta test schools
Security - Minimum Browser requirements
Convert your departing year 12s to alumni accounts

Cloudwork V2 Upgrade - Time to Schedule Your Migration

Version 2 of Cloudwork is now available in production. All new school clients are being implemented directly into V2. Existing V1 schools must be migrated by the end of March 2015. This is due to some service providers such as Google shutting down their existing API sets at this time. As migrating to V2 involves some disruption (see below) to your existing users we STRONGLY recommend that all schools complete the migration between the end of the 2014 academic year and the start of the 2015 academic year.

Now is the time to schedule your mandatory V2 Migration.

The disruptive effect of the migration includes:

during the period of the migration no sign on access will be available to users. Migration may take up to a day to complete
all accounts will be touched, most passwords will be retained but there may be some leakage
all service providers need to be reconfigured with new metadata

Please contact Studentnet to schedule your V2 migration.

Password Reset feature: Production V2 Feature

Our new Password Reset feature is now available in production as part of the V2 upgrade.

Password Reset provides a link on your login page that allows a user to request a password reset. This means that the password reset is available from any of your supported services without any change to your service providers and even if the service does not natively support password reset.

When a password reset is requested a special code is dynamically generated and SMSed, or emailed, to the user's mobile phone or external email address. The user then uses that dynamic code to authorise their resetting of the password. The password reset is immediately reflected in both Cloudwork's credentials and at the school's directory.

Chromebook Single Sign On: Production V2 Feature

Cloudwork now support true single sign on on Chromebook devices. Users of Chromebooks now need only sign in at their initial boot up screen and automatically they are authenticated for all of their services once their desktop is visible. This removes the need that previously existed to sign in a second time, at the desktop, to access the school's services.

Chromebook SSO is only supported in Cloudwork V2.

Contact Studentnet to enable Chromebook SSO.

Apple Mac client and OpenDirectory support: Production V2 Feature

Cloudwork supports Apple Mac laptops and desktops that are both operating inside your school network and those operating externally to the school network. Inside a Microsoft AD network, client Macs fully participate in single sign on to the network including applications running inside the network and cloud based services running externally to the network. When running externally to the Microsoft network, Mac clients fully participate as SSO users to all of your cloud based services and any applications hosted inside the school's network.

New to Cloudwork v2 is the ability to support Apple OpenDirectory networks in addition to Microsoft Active Directory networks. This feature permits Apple based schools to receive all of the advantages of single sign on and single credential maintenance within their chosen directory environment.OpenDirectory versions 10.6, 107 & 10.8 are currently supported.

OpenDirectory support requires version 2 of Cloudwork. It is now available in production.

AD Account Auto-Provisioning feature: Beta test schools required

Coding for the AD provisioning feature has now commenced. Studentnet is now seeking the assistance of schools that can act as development partner and beta test users. We are currently looking for schools that are using Edumate and Synergetic as their school information systems.

Please contact us via info@studentnet.net if you can partner with our development team.

Security: Minimum browser requirements

As a result of the announcement of the recent security vulnerabilities discovered in SSL3.0 protocol via the POODLE attack mechanism, Cloudwork no longer supports SSL3.0. This means that your users must use a modern browser capable of supporting at least TLS1.0.

Studentnet has prepared a list of browser versions that we now support available at studentnet.net/browsers.php. Please visit our minimal-requirements browsers page and ensure that all of your users are using a compatible browser and version.

Please contact us via info@studentnet.net if you require assistance.

Convert your departing year 12s to alumni accounts

As we all prepare for the forthcoming 2015 academic year please remember to prepare your list of departing year 12 students so that their accounts can be converted from active student accounts to alumni accounts. Remember alumni accounts are provided free of charge - they are not chargeable. Converting your accounts help keep your costs down!

Thanks for your attention to all of the above matters. Please contact us as soon as possible to schedule your V2 migration.

Best Regards
The Studentnet Team

STUDENTNET® ABN 90 001 966 892
Suite 1, 89 Jones St, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia
Email: info@studentnet.net Site: studentnet.net
Tel +61 2 9281 1626 NOC +61 2 9281 3905
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