Campus News

A Collaboration in UK’s Cybersecurity Efforts: Joint Services Operation Center Publishes Annual Report

photo of piece of computing technology

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 17, 2020) — “We remain diligent in our commitment to the university community to ensure a safe and efficient network environment. Establishing the Joint Services Operations Center (JSOC) at the University of Kentucky is a step in the right direction,” said Brian T. Nichols, chief information officer, UK Information Technology Services.

The JSOC was established, as a pilot project, in December 2017 as a collaboration between university and UK HealthCare IT leadership. Over the last 10 years, the technological landscape at UK has grown exponentially. During this time, more than $3 billion was spent on new infrastructure, making UK a complex, digitally robust organization. Today, JSOC’s mission is to provide real-time monitoring of the university’s technology to support the diverse infrastructure across the university and the Commonwealth.

"Information technology is becoming more and more foundational to the business operations of a health care organization," said Cecilia Page, chief information officer for UK HealthCare. "The 24/7 proactive support provided through this type of initiative is paramount to our delivery of high-quality patient care."

While the effort remains a pilot project, the JSOC team, composed of Information Technology Services and UK HealthCare Information Technology staff, monitors university systems and data across the Commonwealth to provide real-time status updates and detects potential technology incidents for a fast, proactive response. The systems they monitor consist of 149,406 network ports, comprising UK’s network which has an average of 90,000 customers daily. The team mitigates issues before the university community notices anything has happened.

“The opportunity to work with knowledgeable colleagues on top of such a diverse infrastructure has been invaluable,” Miles Fortner, a network specialist at the Joint Services Operation Center, said.

The JSOC is staffed by three university IT team members and three UK HealthCare IT members with various backgrounds and expertise in customer service incident handling, network infrastructure performance monitoring, and diagnostic tools process improvement.

The JSOC continues its mission of providing persistent monitoring 24/7, responding proactively, and enabling exceptional performance through defined policies and procedures. For more information about the JSOC, review the 2019 JSOC Annual Report here.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.