Report: UCLA needs to leverage IT strengths
BY cynthia lee
UCLA Today Staff
UCLA’s network infrastructure — all the e-mail systems,
data centers and other components that make digital communication
possible — typically gets high marks for service. But compared
to other large research universities, UCLA is almost unique in the
way information technology (IT) is so broadly distributed, said
experts who were recently brought in to evaluate how IT works on
campus.
That poses a challenge, said the high-level group from the universities
of Washington, Maryland-College Park, Southern Califor-
nia and Colorado at Boulder. Nearly all of UCLA’s network
coordinators and central information officers participated in the
review, along with deans, faculty, campus executives and students.
Major research universities are moving toward an integrated IT
environment to support collaborative team science and share processes
and resources vital to the future of research, teaching and administration,
the experts explained. Emerging are new research environments that
enable researchers to access advanced computational, collaborative
and management services.
UCLA must preserve and leverage its IT strengths, and “harness
the exceptional expertise at local levels more globally across campus,”
the reviewers said in their report.
“This report points out a great opportunity for us,”
said Associate Vice Chancellor Jim Davis, UCLA’s chief information
officer. “Our job now is to fully engage the campus in planning
for the network services infrastructure. Right now we’re forming
work groups that will take the network review to the next level.”
The report recommends that UCLA:
* Pull together its central and distributed network engineers and
architects to design and implement the next-generation network infrastructure;
* Take a close look at how students are affected by UCLA’s
IT infrastructure;
* Address security concerns on an institutional level;
* Identify IT services, facilities and infrastructure that can
best be leveraged by a shared model, then develop the best approaches
for such a model.
UCLA’s Information Technology Functional Oversight Committee
is analyzing the report, and working groups are being formed to
plan for improving the network infrastructure.
Staff, faculty and students are encouraged to read the reviewers’
report, available at www.oit.ucla.edu.
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