Website Hosting Options Overview

Sites@USC (Campus Press)

Easy to use, hosted WordPress based system for creation of standard websites containing text, images, video embeds etc. Provided by USC ITS and administered by USC Viterbi MarCom. Users are limited to the templates and plugins provided by ITS and no 3rd party plugins can be self-installed. This is the recommended solution for any basic faculty or staff website need.

USC Viterbi provides campus press requests, configuration help, basic training (if needed) and is available for basic trouble shooting questions. Site owners are in charge of site built out / maintaining their content on an ongoing basis.

The standard url for CP sites is sites.usc.edu/xyz. After site launch, site owner may request a DNS alias (“USC url”) directly from USC ITS. https://itservices.usc.edu/usc-urls/. Such are administered by ITS and no guarantee can be made that an alias will be granted.

Who’s eligible:

  • Faculty and staff for personal, lab, center or initiative sites. Also Postdocs for their personal / research sites.
  • Students or student organizations are NOT eligible.

Example websites built on sites@usc

Resources:
Lynda Training Videos
https://sites.usc.edu/lynda/

New site owner guide
https://sites.usc.edu/new-site-owners/

If you would like to learn more about Sites @ USC or start the process please review this pdf (link to the pdf I sent out when we get a request) for template choices and guidelines and then contact Andreas Tillmann tillmann@usc.edu or your department’s Viterbi Web Content Staff member with some info about your site such as full lab name, type of content presented and what you want your url to be. The standard url for all the new CP sites is “sites.usc.edu/xyz”. Please let us know what you want the “xyz” part to be.

“Viterbi-Web” Linux Server

Limited Linux based hosting solution for those that insist on doing their own HTML coding. Users must be self-sufficient and interact with ITS for all support needs. All Viterbi faculty and students automatically have an account on this server and can log in to viterbi-scf1.usc.edu or viterbi-scf2.usc.edu via SFTP or SSH to work on their site. For login or other issues, users must submit a ticket through the ITS ServiceNow Ticketing system. https://itservices.usc.edu/servicenow/ . USC Viterbi does not provide any help or support with this server. Requests for class / student or other accounts must be submitted via the ITS ServiceNow Ticketing system.

Who’s eligible:

  • Faculty and specialty (e.g., class) account websites on https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~accountname
  • Students for class work, not personal web pages as their data on the filesystem is good through end of semester only.
  • Postdocs and staff are NOT eligible and should consider Sites@USC or other options.
  • Student organizations are NOT eligible and should use EngageSC, which provides a site option to all Recognized Student Organizations.

Google Sites

Google Sites allows current USC faculty, staff, and students to create free, custom web sites using their USC-provided Google accounts. This service is provided by USC ITS and USC Viterbi does not provide any help or support with this service. For detailed info and to get started please visit https://itservices.usc.edu/googlesites/

Who’s eligible:

  • All current USC faculty, staff, and students.

Self-provided 3rd party hosting

Self-host your website or choose any company available for hosting services. Anybody, including faculty, staff, students may choose to pursue their own hosting option at their own expense to meet their specific website needs. No support is provided.

University and branding guidelines apply to all digital properties associated with the university. Please consider details on the following pages:

Site owner may request a DNS alias (“USC url”) directly from USC ITS. https://itservices.usc.edu/usc-urls/. USC url is administered by ITS and no guarantee can be made that an alias will be granted.

Who’s eligible:

  • All current USC faculty, staff, and students.

Blackboard

It is strongly recommended you use the USC Blackboard system for course related postings. This ensures privacy and confidentiality of the information posted. To learn more about USC Blackboard or for help visit this site: https://blackboardhelp.usc.edu

If you decide to use a solution besides the USC provided Blackboard System, please be aware that you are responsible for the protection of any sensitive / non-public data.

Who’s eligible:

  • Class Websites

You may also chose to review the USC ITS Web Publishing page for info
https://itservices.usc.edu/web/

Published on October 24th, 2018

Last updated on November 22nd, 2022