February 10, 2026
Enterprise Technology Staff Presents About UT Sage at AWS Bedrock Workshop
Campus Solutions
In collaboration with Enterprise Platforms, Applied Research Laboratories
Alex Knox, a Principal Software Engineer with Enterprise Technology (ET), led a session highlighting UT Sage as a real-world AWS implementation at the Amazon Bedrock Workshop focused on enterprise generative AI and agentic systems hosted by AWS on January 23, 2026.
ET’s participation in high visibility industry events strengthens organizational credibility, highlights technical leadership, and supports broader recognition of ET’s expertise. In attendance were also technical staff from Enterprise Platform within Enterprise Technology and Applied Research Laboratories who were learning about AWS Bedrock. It was beneficial for those in attendance to see how AWS services led to a real-world use case here at UT Austin. Alex's session demonstrated how the University leverages AWS services to support instructional innovation through ET developed solutions. UT Sage continues to show strong adoption. In Fall 2025, over 2,100 students used 366 tutors across 90 Canvas courses, generating 128K interactions. Participation is expected to increase in the current semester.
F5 Deployment Significantly Reduces Bot Traffic and Stabilizes Library Services
Campus Solutions
In collaboration with Infrastructure, UT Libraries
Enterprise Technology (ET) partnered with UT Libraries to deploy and tune F5 bot‑defense capabilities that dramatically reduced malicious traffic and restored stability to key academic journal services. The solution blocked 17 million malicious requests in 24 hours and eliminated service outages following implementation.
Post‑tuning, the F5 solution blocked 98-99% of malicious traffic during peak surges and filtered roughly 80% of inbound requests daily. UT Libraries experienced zero outages and reduced compute demand, improving user experience and creating momentum for a broader campus rollout. UT Libraries faced escalating bot traffic that destabilized high‑visibility academic resources. Campus Solutions, with support from UT Libraries and ET Networking, deployed a dedicated virtual F5 Web Application Firewall (WAF) and leveraged try‑before‑buy licensing to validate advanced modules. Traffic surges reached 3300% of baseline prior to tuning.
Successful demonstration of the new web page for ID Card Services to the ID Center Team
Campus Solutions
We delivered a near-production‑ready demo of a modern, web-based ID Card management portal that replaces mainframe workflows that showcases secure SSO, role‑based administration, streamlined user self‑service, verified data migration, and reliable integrations which establishes a clear, low‑risk path to cutover.
We have incorporated user feedback and are prioritizing enhancements by criticality to deliver the highest‑impact improvements first. The ID Card Modernization project retires a legacy mainframe application and launches a secure, maintainable web portal—advancing the university’s broader digital modernization initiative.
Successful migration to new IBM z16 Mainframe
Campus Solutions
In collaboration with Enterprise Platforms, Infrastructure, D2I, Operations, Engagement & Experience
The Mainframe and Administrative Systems team completed the migration to the new IBM z16 mainframe on December 17, 2025. The transition followed months of planning and preparation and was executed successfully with extensive collaboration across Enterprise Technology, and especially with partners in University Data Center (UDC) and Networking.
The new IBM z16 delivers faster processing and I/O performance, lower latency, and modern AI capabilities that strengthen support for mission critical University workloads. The platform enables improved reliability and future scalability for high volume administrative and academic systems across campus. The successful migration of the new IBM z16 mainframe relied on extensive engagement from across ET, including the entire Mainframe and Administrative Systems team, coordination with networking and UDC staff, and leadership from Rachel Graham, who oversaw planning, communications, outreach, and vendor alignment. More than 50 partners from Enterprise Technology and across campus also contributed to testing and validation.
January digital Engagement
Operations
Enterprise Technology (ET) sustained strong cross-channel engagement in January 2026, maintaining healthy email performance while extending reach on LinkedIn, Instagram, and the tech website. Collectively, these channels continued to connect campus audiences with timely technology news, updates, and resources.
ET Informational sent 10 emails with a 54% open rate and 12% click rate, while three UT Works emails achieved a 37% open rate. Instagram content generated 617 views and reached 389 accounts. On LinkedIn, 3,667 impressions and eight new followers brought the audience to 331. The tech website saw 31,308 sessions and 26,370 unique users, with News as the top page. January’s metrics reflect continued maturity of ET’s integrated communications approach across email, social, and web. ET Informational and UT Works remained the primary email channels; no ET / CIO Official emails were sent this month. Instagram and LinkedIn supported storytelling and awareness, while the website served as the central hub for news and in-depth content.