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Information Technology Strategic Plan

Related Links Background Communications Current State Future State Gap Analysis Annual Achievement Report Academic Plan Leadership Agenda

Contents  IT Strategic Plan (pdf)  Overview  Message from the CIO  Executive Summary  Ohio State's Information Technology Vision  What Ohio State Needs: Critical Success Factors  Strategic Initiative: Network Access and Quality  Implementation  Conclusion  Appendix A: Project Participants  Appendix B: The Planning Process  Appendix C: Current State Analysis Details  Appendix D: Current State and Academic Plan  Appendix E: Technology Days Details  Appendix F: Focus Group Discussion Details  Appendix G: Future State Emerging Themes  Appendix H: Gap Analysis Details  Appendix I: Strategic Initiatives Details  Appendix J: Strategic Initiatives Funding

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Network Access and Quality  Strategic Initiative

 Summary
 Full Description
 Benefits
 Proposed Leadership
 Metrics
 Estimated Investments/Potential Funding
 Recent Actions
 List of Strategic Initiatives

Summary
The university needs a project similar to Internet2 to improve the quality and sizing of connections inside the university and a final building delivery network as sound as the main campus backbone. Investments in both the backbone network and the edge equipment owned by departments will enable the university to better manage and deliver multimedia content for eLearning and to attain Quality of Service (QoS) functioning. The reliability of the campus network will become more robust as Ohio State completes a specified checklist that includes high-quality connectivity for faculty, students and staff at the Columbus and regional campuses; upgrades and appropriately sizes network bandwidth inside buildings for Internet2 capabilities; network reliability and continuous information flow for data-intensive services such as video and collaborative computing; telephony integration; network access for university employees without a computer during working hours; and quality connectivity for faculty, students and staff from off-campus locations, such as the Columbus university district. The components needed to improve network reliability can be handled best by separating them into on-campus and off-campus goals.

Full Description

Part 1 - Provide high quality, connectivity for faculty, students and staff on the Columbus campus and to/ from the Regional campuses using “last mile” connectivity to the Dark Fiber project.

Part 2 - Upgrade and appropriately size network bandwidth from inside buildings in order for faculty to take advantage of the Internet2 capabilities in the support of research.

Part 3 - Provide network reliability and continuous information flow for data intensive services, such as video and collaborative computing. As more university services become web-based, provide network access to those Ohio State University employees without access to a computer during working hours.

Part 4 - Provide high quality - low cost connectivity for faculty, students and staff from off campus locations, such as in the Columbus university district.

While the Internet2 project is well underway linking universities, the university needs a similar project to improve the quality and sizing of connections inside the university and a final building delivery network as sound as the main campus backbone. In many campus buildings, the current network infrastructure does not permit heavy transmissions of data to and from collaborative researchers due to the lack of bandwidth. Investments in both the backbone network and the edge equipment owned by departments also will enable the university to better manage and deliver multimedia content, thus more fully realizing the benefits of eLearning. To attain Quality of Service (QoS) functioning, every piece of equipment in the path from end to end must be capable of recognizing and enforcing it.

The reliability of the campus network will become more robust as Ohio State completes the following: (1) provides high-quality connectivity for faculty, students and staff on the Columbus campus and to/ from the regional campuses using “last mile” connectivity to the Dark Fiber project; (2) upgrades and appropriately sizes network bandwidth inside buildings so research faculty can take advantage of Internet2 capabilities; (3) ensures network reliability and continuous information flow for data-intensive services such as video and collaborative computing; (4) provides network access to university employees without access to a computer during working hours; and (5) provides high-quality, low-cost connectivity for faculty, students and staff from off-campus locations, such as the Columbus university district.

The components needed to improve network reliability can be handled best by separating them into on-campus and off-campus goals. On-campus steps required to improve network reliability include: backbone improvement to address parts of the problems on end-to-end capacity, reliability and service guarantee; completion of in-building wiring and electronics upgrades to address the rest of the end-to-end problem and the remaining service guarantee problem; provision for a separate ultrahigh speed network for local infrastructure and research use; network of wireless access points for main campus; convenient access to the network for those employees (e.g., Physical Facilities and Residence and Dining Halls staff) who normally do not use, nor have access to a computer during working hours so that they can access university services online; and regional campus "last mile" connections to the Dark Fiber project.

To meet the off-campus requirement, the Office of the Chief Information Officer is working with Internet common carriers for peering arrangements for low cost Internet connectivity options for faculty, students and staff; faster on-campus connections for all faculty, staff and students; an ultrahigh speed network enabling researchers to have outstanding connectivity to resources such as Ohio Supercomputer Center and Internet2; a guaranteed minimum level of service across the campus, both wired and wireless; greater classroom use of technology; standardization that simplifies troubleshooting and upgrades (central and some distributed IT staff); and a Quality of Service capability that enables the use of IP-based video and audio services, facilitating digital convergence and possibly permitting better bandwidth management (central IT).

Benefits

• Faster on-campus connections for all faculty, staff and students
• Ultrahigh speed network enabling researchers to have outstanding connectivity to resources such as the Ohio Supercomputer Center and Internet2
• Guaranteed minimum level of wired and wireless service across the campus
• Greater classroom use of technology
• Standardization that simplifies troubleshooting and upgrades
• Quality of Service capability that facilitates digital convergence and possibly permits better bandwidth management (central information technology)
• Increased bandwidth to support data intensive research

Proposed Leadership

• Chief Information Officer
• - Office of Information Technology
• - Enterprise Networking
• Colleges and Departments

Metrics

• Universal availability of 100 Mbps to campus buildings
• Gigabit or faster backbone and QoS in the network – core through desktop
• Redundant fiber paths to key buildings
• 1 or 10 Gbps dedicated research network connections to selected buildings

Estimated Investments/Potential Funding

• Quality of Service capability that facilitates digital convergence and possibly backbone upgrade project: $800,000 - $1,000,000 - existing CIO funds and new sustainable central funds
• Building wiring and electronics upgrade project: new and existing CIO and department funds
• Redundant fiber links to buildings: depends on availability of fiber – existing CIO funds
• Ultrahigh-speed research network project: $500,000 (estimated) - new sustainable central and distributed funds
• Wireless access points and maintenance costs

Recent Actions

• As a member of the Committee on Institutional cooperation (CIC), Ohio State joined the National Lambda Rail (NLR), a national optical fiber networking collaboration working to build advanced research networks
• CIO upgraded campus backbone network to gigabit speed
• Requested for FY05: $78,000 in annual funding to increase bandwidth

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