Not Our Problem But Ours to Solve

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Not Our ProblemBut Ours to Solve

• Sally Jackson
• Chief Information Officer

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Who Owns a Problem?

• The person whose job description contains the
  problem.
• The person who caused it.
• The person who most wants it solved.
• The person who has means for solving it.

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Unclaimed Problem 1
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Haves and Have Nots
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Haves and Have Nots

• Haves
• Equipment on regular refresh cycle
• Fully staffed IT support
• Abundant bandwidth
• Flexible resources for experimentation

• Have Nots
• Aging equipment, not up to date
• Overtaxed IT support
• Substandard network
• All resources locked in to current use

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Haves and Have Nots

• We cant afford any true Have Nots
• Security compromises
• Obstacles to campus-level change
• Cost displacement
• Degradation of overall IT environment

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Haves and Have Nots

• Solution components
• ICTs seen not as personal amenities but as
  platform for an expected level of performance
• Entitlements defined to meet that level

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Unclaimed Problem 2
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Duplication, not Abundance
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Duplication, not Abundance

• Despite constrained resources, we duplicate
• System administration
• Email services
• Course management systems
• Collaboration tools
• Business application development

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Duplication, not Abundance

• Why we duplicate
• Difference between what something costs the
  campus and what it costs the doer
• Significant costs concealed by longstanding
  financial practices

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Duplication, not Abundance

• Solution components
• Hidden costs exposed through decentralization
• Activity Based Costing
• Transparently priced Shared Services

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Unclaimed Problem 3
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High Risk Handling of Data
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High Risk Handling of Data

• Breached systems are not the problem!
• In 2007, 22 of security incidents were due to
  system penetration (source ESI)
• Loss, theft, and unauthorized release are far
  more common

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High Risk Handling of Data

• Solution components
• Equip departments adequately
• Focus on people and behavior
• Make data safer for ordinary use

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Unclaimed Problem 4
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Fragmented Cyberinfrastructure

• CI Elements
• Computing
• Data, tools, visualization
• Virtual organizations
• Workforce

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Fragmented Cyberinfrastructure

• Highlights
• High performance computinglatest Blue Waters
• Advanced network
• Superb programs

• Deficiencies
• No entitlement HPC
• Virtual organizations not well supported
• Balkanized collaboration environments
• CI not integrated with campus plan

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Fragmented Cyberinfrastructure

• Solution components
• Review campus CI against national vision
  statements
• Align research proposals with plan for filling
  known gaps
• Build CI Impact Analysis into proposal process

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Unclaimed Problem 5
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Conservatism
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Conservatism

• Conservative in the oddest places
• Collaboration technologies
• Virtualization
• Business informatics of all kinds
• Open Source/Community Source

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Conservatism

• Why isnt Illinois first and best?
• Tolerance for have nots reduces ambition
• Duplication uses up fungible resources
• Heterogeneity makes change unpredictable
• Fragmentation makes change ponderous

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Lets claim these problems
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Ours to Deliver

• Ambition
• Abundance
• Self-assurance
• Edginess