Technology Exchange 

As networks become more complex and data grows at infinite volumes, virtualization and software control can help manage real-time automation and network performance by monitoring current statistics and logs. However, growing networks also means growing number of problems that need to be caught as soon as they happen, or trying to find faults in the network if there is down time. Engineers have to be on call and take a large amount of time trying to deduce these errors. With intent-based networking, we have shown how simple bots can help requirements capture and automatic configuration of networks to help users with their needs. However, these bots can also help engineers catch errors and optimize the network itself.
 

Autoregressive large language models (LLMs) \cite{touvron2023llama}, such as ChatGPT, have shown immense recent success in AI applications becoming more 'human-like' like in conversation, writing story books, creating art and more.
 

However, these model's performance relies heavily on volume of training data, number of parameters and computational cost. Among these representations, the transformer architecture, the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Generative Pretrained Transformer 2 (GPT-2)  have shown how natural language processing tasks (NLP) can help communicate with users in a human-like manner such as in biology and conversation applications. Adapting such a model for network engineering will allow considerable effort in building the training data sets, computational challenges and identifying the challenges it can help solve.

Best Practices in Identity & Access Management

Governance

Best practices in Identity & Access Management governance    In the highly collaborative world of higher education, effective Identity & Access Management (IAM) is foundational to the success of your institution. It affects every individual and service on campus, making engagement with leadership crucial for its success.

This session examines the often-overlooked outcomes, voices, and rhythms vital to IAM, guiding outcomes, and strategic meeting rhythms. Effective governance is the key to advancing university initiatives securely and seamlessly, ensuring data protection and exceptional experience. Any perception of misalignment between campus needs and what IAM provides can lead to the pursuit of alternatives or shadow IT.

Diverse campus expertise is critical to a well-rounded and well-grounded IAM program. We’ll explore the intricate balance between IT security, user experience, and the agility to adapt services swiftly—all while ensuring alignment with institutional goals.