We Have a Plan

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We Have a Plan

5/6/2003

By Terry Calhoun

Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

In this issue of IT Trends, Princeton Internet Guru Howard Strauss shares with us his observations based on a 216-year-old information technology plan—the U.S. Constitution.

A Guest Opinion by Howard Strauss

Given that more departments have found it valuable to hire their own educational technology support staff, larger centralized servers are being retired, and given that the proliferation of student-owned computers has reversed the trend of software delivered by servers, what role is left for a central IT organization?

Insight on the answer to this question may be found in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States (Sept. 17, 1787). It established some of the functions that a central government must provide, which are similar to the functions that a central IT group must continue to provide, even in the face of a secessionist movement on the part of university departments that IT groups traditionally supported. Here's the preamble and a quick look at its implications to central IT departments.

The Preamble
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Form a More Perfect Union Departments may be as independent as they want, but they need to all be connected to each other and to the outside world. Central IT still needs to build and run the overall network plan, creating the high-speed backbone, the redundant ISP connections, and the wiring to at least each building, if not to each computer within each building. The network also needs to include wireless networking, remote dial up facilities, and VPNs.

Another network that requires the control of the central IT organization is the telephone network, which increasingly has a great deal in common with computer networks. The potential integration of voice mail and e-mail, the movement toward voice over IP, and the increase in digital services and controls on the phone network make it a utility that requires central IT support.

The network has become so critical to the operation of a university that a central disaster recovery plan that includes the network and key services on the network must also be coordinated—if not controlled—by central IT. If CNN says there has been an explosion at Euphoric State, you can be sure that concerned parents will be calling the university. Many others will be checking the university's Web site. Both of these must remain operational—or get operational quickly—in the event of foreseeable disasters.

While every department might have its own Web site and even its own Web server, the central IT organization must provide a university presence on the Internet with a central Web site. IT must also provide network redundancies to ensure that at least one ISP remains connected to the university network and that there are alternate network paths to each building. The same is true of the internal telephone network. A disaster recovery plan must be centrally administered that plans for unavailability of phone network elements.