JSOE Web Platform Terms of Service

JSOE Web Platform - Terms of Service

effective 5/15/2020


These Terms of Service outline the roles and responsibilities of OEC and Site Owners using the JSOE Web Platform.

Definitions

  • OEC: Office of Engineering Computing; Department within Jacobs School of Engineering that provides IT support for the Jacobs School of Engineering including staff, faculty, and labs for the various departments within Engineering; also for various campus entities via our recharge system. https://support.eng.ucsd.edu/about-us
  • JSOE Web Platform: Server infrastructure designed, implemented, and maintained by OEC; includes load balancers, web servers, and database servers.
  • Site Owner: person that requests a website, is responsible for any content on said website
  • Site Admin: may also be Site Owner, may be delegated to someone else; technical owner and administrator of a website and its contents
  • Developer: may also be Site Admin; person that writes and maintains code for a website
  • Site Account: LDAP account created by OEC; used to access storage for website for purposes of uploading/modifying/deleting website files
  • Site Group: LDAP group created by OEC; used for assigning ownership of website files
  • CMS: Content Management System; software application that can be used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system)

OEC Responsibilities

  • Manage / Maintain:
    • Underlying JSOE Web Platform, including operating system, virtual/physical hardware, backups, storage
    • Core JSOE Web Platform software such as PHP, Apache
    • Drupal, the current OEC-managed shared CMS
    • Quotas on websites
    • LDAP user account access, with the exception of account stores that are defined within the website and/or customer-installed CMS
    • DNS hostnames, CNAMES for websites
    • SSL certificates for websites
  • Develop new platforms, as needed
  • Respond to website issues, such as vulnerability alerts from campus, security & accessibility
  • Notify Site Owner of any issues that may arise in regards to their website, or the JSOE Web Platform

Site Owner Responsibilities

  • Editing and uploading content to the website should be done primarily through the Site Account. Any content files developed and/or uploaded should be owned by the Site Account and Site Group.
  • All websites will be actively maintained, including content and code/scripting.
    • The use of a commercial or community developed and supported CMS is encouraged since those responsible for the CMS should be actively maintaining their code.
    • Any CMS installed and/or code developed is considered content and is the responsibility of the Site Admin to actively maintain. This includes any updates for the installed CMS. OEC can work with the Site Admin in cases where the underlying platform needs to be updated to facilitate the maintenance of code.
  • If a commercial or community developed and supported CMS does not satisfy your needs, and a Developer, either in-house or externally contracted, is utilized to develop the code base for your website, either the Developer or the Site Admin is still responsible for the constant upkeep, maintenance, patching, and securing of the code.
  • Providing a valid index code/CCOA for monthly hosting fee and any requested technical support surrounding the hosted website

Websites out of Compliance

The JSOE Web Platform is a shared resource. OEC cannot allow one insufficiently maintained website or application to cause the 300+ other websites and clients to be impacted.

  • Websites may be taken offline immediately due to any these issues, and not returned to service until the issue has been resolved:
    • Failure to implement these practices and adhere to these rules
    • Website is shown to be vulnerable
    • Website is actively compromised
    • Website is hosting software that is end-of-life
  • Websites may be quarantined depending on the severity of the problem. A quarantined website remains up but only visible to campus until it is repaired.
  • A moratorium on future websites by the offending Site Owner or Site Admin may be implemented, and no new websites created for them until current and previous websites have their issues resolved.