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AARHUS UNIVERSITY. AARHUS UNIVERSITY. Building a New IT Infrastructure at Aarhus University. FLEMMING B Ø GE CIO, vice president. AARHUS UNIVERSITY. Agenda. Aarhus University in brief IT after the mergers Infrastructural components, the role of the Danish Research Net
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AARHUS UNIVERSITY AARHUS UNIVERSITY
Building a New IT Infrastructureat Aarhus University FLEMMING BØGE CIO, vice president AARHUS UNIVERSITY
Agenda • Aarhus University in brief • IT after the mergers • Infrastructural components, the role of the Danish Research Net • The organizational challenges • Status and next step, questions and remarks
Aarhus University, a Few Figures • More than 10,000 employees • Turnover: More than EUR 700 million • 35,250 students • 1,250 Ph.D. students • Among the top 100 in international rankings (e.g. Shanghai) • 25% of the public Danish research
Foundation and Mergers • Founded in 1928 – 80th anniversary in 2008 • 2006 merger: • Handels- og Ingeniørhøjskolen i Herning (business and engineering) • 2007 merger: • Danmarks JordbrugsForskning (agricultural research) • Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser (environmental researh) • Handelshøjskolen i Århus (business school) • Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet (university school)
Result of the Mergers • New common graphic identity in 2008 • Federation of faculties vs. cooperative organization • IT in a poor state • No common infrastructure • No common use of applications, no ERP • Low customer satisfaction
Why Does It Work ? • Even as the bumble bee flies … IT works at Aarhus University • The task: Build a new foundation for IT without loosing the collaborative strength
Priority 1 • Build a new IT infrastructure • Three components • Physical network, all major sites • Identity management: Employees, students, guest researchers, alumni • SOA architecture, service bus
Physical Network • Using the Danish Research Network as an intranet across all major sites • Pros • High-quality optical fiber network • High speed: 10 Gbps • Good redundancy solutions • Low latency • Cons • High cost • Bundle, core network and add-on services with limited usage at AU • ”Community culture” => Risk of delays / loss of milestones
Status: September 2009 • A multi-campus network is part of a large network project including LAN, Wi-Fi, firewalls, admission control etc. • A new MPLS core network is implemented • Fiber optics are in operation at the ”old campus” in Aarhus • The deployment of fiber optics by the Danish Research Network (”Forskningsnettet”) to all other major sites is delayed
Organizational challenges • Centralized technology calls for centralized work processes • Service Level Agreements need to be defined • Maintenance and support, centralized or local ? • Monitoring the network, errorhandling. Centralized or local ?
The political perspective • Very strong faculties and deans, prefer local IT-departments • Ambitious university strategy, strong vice-chancellor demands radical changes • Two options regarding the IT-organisation: • Build a centralized ”cooperative IT”-department • Build strong faculty-IT departments • Pay regard to the geographical issues
The organisational project • Establish a cooperative IT-department step by step. • Ensure ”critical mass” from the beginning • Scope: Infrastructure operations and administrative applications • Gain respect using best practices / best processes. Create results • Broaden the scope slowly
Where do we go from here ? • Complete the infrastructure-projects: • Continued deployment of physical network • Proof of concept, Identity Managment • Complete the merge between IT-departments • And choose the best application project….
