Chapter V

Physical Infrastructure Support

CURRENT POSITION

The physical infrastructure of the university, which includes such things as the physical networks (fiber backbone and LANs) and computing facilities, the university physical plant and desktop computing capabilities, is managed by several areas on campus: 

• Physical Plant manages the property on the main campus 

• Health Science Center Administrative Services division manages property at the Health Science Center 

• NERDC maintains the main UF network backbone 

• Healthnet, a division of Academic Information Systems, maintains wiring for the Health Science Center 

• LAN wiring is maintained internally among the colleges and business units 

• individual desktop computers are maintained at the department level in most areas 

There is no campus-wide plan for asset management and procurement. This means we have no solution in place for the replacement for obsolete devices. 

We have no clear policy for computing platforms and or desktop standards. 

We fail to take advantage of potential cost savings that might be realized from a procurement policy. 

We have no single facilities management system for the entire campus, which leads to duplication of data and inaccessible data. 

The fiber that is in the ground connecting UF's buildings is a major UF asset and needs to be managed by one organization. 

NERDC is the central computing resource that UF employs in many different aspects of its mission. 

KEY ISSUES

The continuous renewal of technology and equipment for faculty and staff is not coordinated at the university level. This has lead to several issues: 

• inconsistent computing capabilities across the administrative and academic units 

• duplicate systems maintenance 

• cost-saving are not realized 

• no standards are in place for a base-level compliance for competency or function 

In the area of facilities management, two main requirements need to be considered: 

• the need for one comprehensive, integrated facilities management system for all university buildings with web access to the information 

• the need for a telephone strategy that allows for a campus-wide system that is managed by the telephony provider that positions the university as a leader in telephone technology and wireless communication

RECOMMENDATIONS

The university should develop a strategy for infrastructure support including: 

• developing objectives and standards for technology replacement 

• coordinating technology replacement, enhancement, migration and advancement 

• developing strategic alliances with key vendors for technology support 

• coordinating the facilities management effort 

• coordinating and funding the needed support for NERDC 

• providing a policy for laying fiber and maintaining and expanding the fiber network 

• negotiating the new telephone contract for telephone support that will free the university from telephone infrastructure maintenance and allow UF to take advantage of new technologies as they mature 

Immediate Courses of Action 

1. Determine the staff of the Office of the CIO and their responsibilities. 

2. Negotiate with NERDC as the UF campus-wide user for administrative and network computing and create a new entity to work with UF organizations. The location and makeup of this new entity needs to be determined as well. 

3. Determine a price for NERDC network services. 

4. Set standards for administrative computing and network services. 

5. Determine an enforcement strategy for non-compliance. 

6. Begin work on a funding algorithm for providing network services. 

7. Provide the central infrastructure to offer document imaging as a campus utility by funding the purchase of the equipment at a central site. 

8. Establish a communication method for disseminating information and link it to training initiatives. 

9. Examine the potential for creating a publishing office. Buy proper equipment and software and determine staff for production quality publishing on the web. 

10. Purchase disk space for a central data warehouse. 

11. Purchase a web query tool. 

12. Mandate GatorLink accounts and e-mail address maintenance. 

13. Establish EAGLE as the preferred development tool for web enablement.

14. Establish technology-supported instruction as a campus priority. This policy would involve integrated course-building as well as administrative infrastructure.