After testing ZOOM (a product chosen by ESNet last year) and comparing functionality and cost to our prior offering, we have decided to make a change. In December we will start deployment and training which allows a one month overlap with the current tool while we make the transition. (We will continue to offer and recommend Google Hangouts when appropriate - easily accessed via Gmail or Google Calendar)
Our documention is being updated (go.lbl.gov/vc) and we are preparing to offer training (including one-on-one sessions with Help Desk staff members). ZOOM is also on all the Video conferencing carts.
Key features
With our Zoom contract, we are acquiring one 1000 person Webinar license that can be assigned as needed. Zoom also has a remote control feature that lets a participant screen share and let someone else take control (great for troubleshooting or providing assistance in areas outside of Video Conferencing). Up to 50 participants can join a meeting.
Getting Access
The Linux Foundation the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, has announced an intent to form the OpenHPC Collaborative Project. This project will provide a new, open source framework to support the world's most sophisticated High Performance Computing environments. Warewulf, our cluster provisioning tool developed by IT's HPC architect Greg Kurtzer, is specified as the provisioning tool for the OpenHPC standard cluster building recipe.
Smartsheet will be offline for 90 minutes on November 7 at 1:00pm PST (2015-11-07 21:00 UTC) for system improvements. Smartsheet status can be checked here.