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Opinion
Bankrolling IT Infrastructure
9/12/2006
Then HWS tested wireless gear from Meru Networks. The technology coordinates across a wireless installation’s access points, thus eliminating the task of making sure access points and channels don’t overlap. By choosing a technology that helped streamline the process, HWS completed the first phase of its wireless rollout in less than half the time originally slotted for it. And, says Ruiz, “we discovered that by not having to do multi-day surveys, we reduced the cost.” As a consequence, he says, the school had more money than anticipated to roll out new locations.
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Once a piece of infrastructure is in place, the investment focus shifts to the technology refreshment cycle. And those upgrades can be problematic – they may well bust the annual budget
Yet savvy institutions have devised ways of dealing with periodic maintenance investments. Northwestern University (IL), for example, has developed a “sustainable model” for upgrading the school’s network and server infrastructure, according to Patricia Todus, the school’s associate VP and deputy CIO. When Northwestern’s servers need to be upgraded, the dollars come from the appropriated server budget and the IT department’s rate base – its recharge model for faculty and staff. In previous years, schools and departments of the university were charged separately for telephone, data connection, and other resources. Last year, that model was retooled; IT has converged the various services into a single rate. The fee is about $30 per month per user: a head tax, in effect. This sustainable model allows the university to upgrade servers on a three-year cycle, says Todus. The service bundling also makes it easier for departments to order services.
Jeri Semer, executive director of the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, says that such fee-for-service models allow institutions to provide for the maintenance of existing infrastructure and services. She adds that schools in past years tapped into revenue from long distance telephone service as a good source of infrastructure funding. “However, since long distance revenue has steadily declined, and other revenue sources such as governmental funding have also decreased, alternative funding models must be found,” she explains. The examples above illustrate that investment management is more than pinching pennies: Organizations need to maintain a wide-angle perspective and think creatively as well.
John Moore has been writing about information technology in education, government, and healthcare for 20 years.
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