2022 Legislative Session Wrap-Up
The 2022 Legislative Session was an exciting time for DTS. Many great bills were passed and funded that impact DTS and employees. You can see the full tracking sheet here.
- DTS and state agencies received a lot of funding for IT projects. This is an exciting time! We will be working on implementing a new HCM/Payroll system, a Citizen Portal, a CCJJ data integration system, and many new systems for DHHS.
- The state will be observing a new holiday, Juneteenth. State employees will get this day off as a paid holiday beginning this year. The observance will always be on a Monday, so it will be on June 20th this year.
- Employees will receive a 3.5% salary increase. We are working on the details of any other targeted increases for certain positions. Stay tuned for more information soon.
- The state will be transitioning to a pay for performance plan. Watch for more information from DHRM with the changes over the next year.
- The CIO and CISO will sit on many task forces and committees to help with IT needs such as CCJJ data integration, blockchain, and cybersecurity.
Multi-Factor Authentication for UtahID
- Employees may see this screen if they have to use SMS or email for MFA
- Existing public users that do not have MFA turned on for their UtahID accounts will not see this screen.
- New public user accounts that are created will see this information since MFA is turned on for all new public user accounts
New DTS Technical Bulletin: Microsoft Office Perpetual Purchases Discontinued
Effective immediately, DTS procurement services will no longer offer perpetual versions of Microsoft Office on the DTS catalog. Executive branch agencies are expected to purchase Microsoft Office365 user-based subscriptions to fulfill their Office software needs. All Microsoft perpetual items in the ServiceNow software catalog will be removed and only the Office365 version will remain.
DTS will be coordinating with agencies to remove all unsupported versions of Microsoft Office from state owned devices.
In the event a device-based version of Microsoft Office is required for a business process, rather than a user-based subscription, an email must be sent to dtssam@utah.gov with a justification as to why this is needed. . If an individual needs to maintain the current unsupported license (i.e. MS 2010), an exception request must be submitted to DTS enterprise security using the DTS Form 525 Security Risk Acceptance Request (select ‘Vulnerability Risk Acceptance’). Please note that device-based licensing will require documented justification to meet the standard for approval.
Switching to a subscription-based licensing model reduces:
- Time spent by agency personnel in finding and tracking Office licenses
- Security vulnerabilities associated with software going end of life (EOL)
- Compliance/audit findings
| Office Version | Can I still purchase? | Allowed on the State Network? | Supported by DTS? | Microsoft Extended Support End Date |
| Office XP | No | No | No | July 12, 2011 |
| Office 2003 | No | No | No | April 8, 2014 |
| Office 2007 | No | No | No | October 10, 2017 |
| Office 2010 | No | No | No | October 13, 2020 |
| Office 2013 | No | Yes | Yes | April 11, 2023 |
| Office 2016 | No | Yes | Yes | October 14, 2025 |
| Office 2019 | No | Yes | Yes | October 14, 2025 |
| Office 2021 | With Approved Use Case | Yes | Yes | TBD |
| Office 365 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Never |
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Note: DTS will support existing MS Office installations until they reach end of life. Once software reaches end of life it is no longer allowed on the State network. Agencies must update to 365 or have an approved use case for a perpetual purchase.
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Please contact your agency’s IT Director if you have any questions.
Data Center Exit Project – March 2022
We are continuing to move forward with the data center exit project. This is the top priority for DTS and we are making steady improvements every day.
The plan calls for moving development and test servers to the Taylorsville Data Center starting on Monday, March 14. Then we plan to move production servers to Taylorsville Data Center starting on April 11.
We have completed approximately 37% of the server and system migrations as part of the data center exit. Some accomplishments include:
- DABC is 80% complete. The agency has migrated 21 of 26 servers.
- The Tax Commission is 76% complete, with 87 of 114 servers migrated.
- The Taylorsville Data Center is now operational; it is ready for the server migrations (we still have a power upgrade and network migration happening before April 8th).
- We have migrated nearly all of the hardware in the Richfield data center to new equipment. This includes development, test, and production servers.
- We have migrated nearly all of the Oracle development and test databases to new equipment. This migration included a significant security upgrade.
- We are migrating to a more robust firewall; 29 of the 36 individual firewall migrations have been completed so far.
You can see the current project status, progress, and timeline at https://dts.utah.gov/data-center-exit-project. Please contact your IT Director with any questions. We will continue to coordinate with you closely throughout this important project. Thank you for your continued support.
Utah Internet Speed Test Campaign
The Utah Broadband Center, powered by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, is launching the Utah Internet Speed Test Campaign. It’s a statewide effort for Utahns to report their internet speed at home, work, or wherever they connect to broadband. We encourage state employees to test their internet speed when they are at home.
People with or without internet access are encouraged to participate.
The Speed Test Campaign will help:
- Reveal areas of Utah that lack high-speed internet connection to homes and businesses
- Direct funding to provide reliable broadband access throughout the state
- Discover which households do not have an internet connection and the reasons why
Please help us identify Utah’s areas with the greatest need for internet speed at this URL: speedtest.utah.gov. It only takes 60 seconds.
Microsoft Windows 11: Call for Testers
Effective October 14, 2025 Windows 10 will no longer be supported by Microsoft or DTS. After this date, Windows 11 will become the only supported Microsoft operating system. DTS will continue to support Windows 10 until October 13, 2025.
As of April 1, 2022, any new orders placed for PCs will arrive from our vendors with Windows 11 preinstalled.
DTS has performed initial testing of Windows 11 over the course of several months and has not identified any compatibility issues. We are now requesting agencies to provide test groups to begin testing Windows 11.
We are also working to identify existing PCs that meet the requirements for upgrading, and will release a report in the coming months identifying how many machines in each agency qualify for the upgrade. Currently, machines that meet the requirements for upgrading do not have a cost associated with upgrading.
Participate in Testing
DTS Agency IT Directors will work with the agencies and the DTS Edge Technology teams to identify users or groups of users to participate in the testing.
Participation Requirements
Anyone participating in Windows 11 testing will need to accept the following stipulations.
- Existing PCs must meet the hardware requirements to run Windows 11.
- Basic Hardware Reqs
- Specific CPU Reqs: AMD, Intel
- Participants agree to be surveyed by DTS and will provide feedback on their experience.
- Participants agree to report issues with Windows 11 via a ticket if experienced.
- Participants agree to perform adequate testing and begin providing feedback as early as March, 2022.
- Participants agree to revert back to Windows 10 in the event it is deemed necessary.
- Participants agree to perform current job functions as part of their testing experience.
- While not expected, participants should be prepared to adapt in the event compatibility issues are discovered with their daily job functions.
Contacts
Please contact your agency’s IT Director if you have any questions or comments.
IT Director Updates
Reporting Spam in Gmail
Employees should use the spam reporting option in Gmail for messages that do not appear authentic.
Google Workspace administrators receive alerts on a daily basis for spam and phishing activity reported by users as well as when a user account is suspended due to spamming or other suspicious activity.
Since Google has added features to Gmail that allow users and administrators to manage suspicious message activity, it is not necessary to forward this type of email to spam@utah.gov any longer. This account will be deprecated on February 11, 2022.
For additional information please click on Mark or unmark Spam in Gmail
New Network Site Request Form
DTS Networking has published a new form for agencies to use when opening a new office location, moving an existing office, or closing a site. This form will help DTS collect the information and notify the proper teams needed to enable the service change for telephones, IoT devices, and other network services. The new “Network Site Request” form can be found here. Additional network information and request forms can be found here.
Data Center Exit Project Update – February 2022
We are continuing to move forward with the data center exit project. This is the top priority for DTS and we are making steady improvements every day.
Due to supply chain constraints, the project timeline has been impacted. The new target completion date is June 1, 2022. We will now be moving all the state servers and applications from February – May. Your IT Director will be coordinating with you on the updated schedule to identify when your specific agency applications, servers, and databases will be moved.
We have completed approximately 25% of the server and system migrations as part of the data center exit. Some accomplishments include:
- The data center facility at the Taylorsville State Office Building (TSOB) is almost complete and operational
- Equipment has been received and is in place to host agency applications that will be located in TSOB and the Richfield data center
- Equipment has been received and is in place for Oracle databases located TSOB and Richfield, with 188 individual databases migrated so far
- Network connectivity has been configured and installed to meet the requirements at the TSOB. Preparations are under way for the transfer of the complete network from the Capitol data center to the TSOB
- We are migrating to a more robust firewall; 15 of the individual firewall migrations have been completed so far
- 200+ servers have been moved to Amazon or Google
- 200+ servers have been decommissioned
You can see the current project status, progress, and timeline at https://dts.utah.gov/data-center-exit-project. Please contact your IT Director with any questions. We will continue to coordinate with you closely throughout this important project. Thank you for your continued support.
