Higher Education in Texas: Serving Texas Through Transformational Education, Research, Discovery & Impact M. Dee Childs, Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer
v Texas A&M at a glance v Texas A&M v Aligning for the Future v IT Governance v Transforming IT at Texas A&M (and higher education in general) v Securing Information and Reputation + Obligatory Pie Chart v Shared Challenges & Opportunities v Dialogue/Conversation/Q&A Today s Presentation
Texas A&M University Highlights
How I got to Texas A&M Indiana University Louisiana State University University of Alabama in Huntsville Texas A&M University
Texas A&M at a Glance Second largest university in the U.S. (student size) 68,625 students enrolled (Fall 2017) 469,000+ former Aggies! Largest university in the U.S. (physical campus) ~ 94,000,000 ft. 2 of indoor space (think WiFi!) Committed to research Designated a land, sea and space grant university $892 million in research expenditures (FY2016)
Texas A&M Core Values Excellence Integrity Leadership Loyalty Respect Selfless Service
Texas A&M Division of IT Quick facts, current mission, structure and role
The provides IT services and resources that support the academic and research pursuits of Texas A&M University.
IT Service Areas Accounts & ID Management Security Operations Websites, Applications & Software Data Centers & Hardware Help & Consulting Audio, Video & Telecommunication Networks & Internet Access Academics & Research Email, Messaging & Collaboration
Infrastructure & Networking Provider of one of the largest university data network in the country ~200,000 network ports ~110,000 unique Wi-Fi users daily 3 campus data centers Manage statewide wide-area backbone + provide I2 connectivity for the A&M System TTVN video conferencing in network
Texas A&M System Wide Area Research and Education Network: Expanding the boundaries of the traditional classroom to distance education, data-intensive research, delivering health care and ag extension services to all counties in Texas Partnership with University of Texas for TX-BB 100 Gbpsring
Cross-Institutional Collaboration Empowers seamless collaboration between institutions through the InCommon Federation Use TAMU credentials to securely access: Eduroam Wi-Fi National supercomputing resources Libraries Scientific resources
Campus-wide IT Services Account creation & management over 30 sources single sign on for hundreds of applications Software and Application contracts & licensing IT Support for students, faculty and staff 24x7x365 support from Help Desk Central ~ 100,000 questions answered per year IT Security operations
Meeting & Exceeding Legal Standards Be more proactive instead or reactive for technology needs for grants Campus-wide IT planning, policy and strategy IT policy development Public information requests Legal holds & related services Coming soon: HIPAA Security Office NIST 800-171 secure enclave / pcui prototype
Information Technology at Texas A&M
Aligning for the Future Renovations to meet campus needs
West Campus Data Center Reliability of a Tier 4 data center Redundant power & network Operationally AND security staffed 24x7x365 7 layers of Physical Security Pre-positioned, co-lo, build-to-suit & Aggie cloud options available late 2017-early 2018 LEED certified & supplies power back to the grid Working with President, Provost & CFO on additional investments for excellence
Incident & Operations Center Command center that actively monitors the health of our infrastructure Identify issues so we can respond as quickly as possible Seating for 14 operators 36 46ʺ LCD Planar panels in a 3x12 grid Multiple configurations possible
Help Desk Central IT assistance for Texas A&M students, faculty and staff Staffed with full-time and student staff 24x7x365 ~100,000 questions answered per year Newly renovated space to improve campus members experiences
IT Governance
IT Governance is the assurance that Information Technology aligns with the outcomes required by the University for successful fulfillment of its mission. Successful IT Governance includes input from all stakeholders, and assurance that their input is taken seriously.
Texas A&M University-wide IT Governance Framework
Transforming IT Increase Research Competitiveness Enhance Transformational Education / Accelerate Student Success Position Texas A&M as a premiere Technology University
Increase Research Competitiveness Position capacity ahead of demand. Leapfrog investments. Augment internal investment (HPC & storage for example with infrastructure grants (NSF/NIH). Increase research computing staff member engagement with faculty to help plan their technology needs during the development of research proposals. Improve the efficiency of research administration and compliance processes (e.g., Maestro enhancement or replacement acknowledging this will be a challenge). Address security risks appropriately for the sensitivity of research data. Understand impact/unintentional consequences of current incentives (e.g., startup packages, RDF). Optimize our own environment for success. Optimize use of Free national compute resources XSEDE, Jetstream, DOE funded, etc.
Enhance Transformational Education & Accelerate Student Success Eliminate boundaries of the traditional classroom Optimize use of technology Promote student engagement Facilitate active-learning Increase adoption of effective learning technology in courses and programs Face-to-face, blended, completely online & study abroad Create more digital learning objects and have them readily available for reuse in courses. Academic analytics to accelerate student success and completion rates
Position Texas A&M as a premiere technology university Make technology a signature reputational goal for A&M Use technology to differentiate from Vision 2020 peers, instead of competing on their areas of expertise (in life sciences, informatics, data science ) Technology infrastructure, human resources, security and compliance will be a competitive advantage for: Faculty recruitment Graduate student recruitment Extramural funding (NSF, NIH, DOE, DoD) Public/private partnerships IMPACT to the health, education, workforce development of TEXAS!
Securing Texas A&M s Information & Reputation IT Security overview
10 25 What is IT s highest priority? 60 Cyber Security Cyber Security Cyber Security
Shared Challenges & Opportunities Cybersecurity, Privacy, Compliance Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery / Resiliency Enterprise everything at scale Cloud everything? The Future of the Commodity Internet /Net Neutrality/ Ensuring ALL Texans have access to our services
Thank you! M. Dee Childs, Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer IT.tamu.edu CIO.tamu.edu @aggiecio