Projects in Progress

Revised September 2005

IT Governance and Decision Support

OIT is evaluating methods of IT Governance and Decision Support that would enable Georgia Tech’s leadership to make enterprise IT decisions that appropriately consider strategic alignment, innovative or competitive potential, benefits, costs, risks, and impact. IT governance could also allow unit-level leadership to make IT decisions that either complement enterprise endeavors or vary with purpose and knowledge as appropriate. IT governance at Georgia Tech may combine culture, communication, committees, and business processes as follows:

• Coordinating and prioritizing enterprise and unit IT initiatives.
• Aligning IT initiatives with academic, research, and Institute strategic goals.
• Enabling executive management at all levels to form consensus and jointly support IT direction and decisions.
• Implementing and communicating a logical, structured, and transparent process for proposal, selection, implementation, support, and termination of IT initiatives.
• Driving efficiencies through selection and endorsement of common systems.
• Enacting a process for making good decisions and monitoring execution in a way that ensures success and alignment.
• Enacting comprehensive change control and configuration management processes.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

OIT is creating an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system as a core component of the campus information technology architecture. We will interface this system with the administrative, academic, and research support infrastructure. Every student, faculty member, and employee will have a “digital identity” that defines the individual’s roles at the Institute and determines which services the individual can access at any given time. The IAM initiative promotes self-service and ease-of-use, eliminating unnecessary interactions between users and support staff. Self-service functionality offers the customer a higher level of control over their information and the timeliness and accuracy of institute data. Self-service is an enabler for all constituents, whether for a student registering for classes online, an employee enrolling for benefits online, or a staff member registering for a parking permit online. We will identify, prioritize, and implement self-service functions that bring the most benefit to each customer.

International Networking

The International Networking initiative will enable both day-to-day university business and collaborative research. We will establish high-performance network interconnection for Georgia Tech campuses and international programs, including the GT Lorraine campus and Georgia Tech programs in Paris, Munich, and possibly Barcelona, Pretoria, and Lisbon. A one-Gigabit-per-second network connection between GT Atlanta and GT Lorraine will be in place within two years for remote teaching and learning, and for videoconferencing for academic and research uses. Georgia Tech will partner with European research network providers to jointly provide these services. To enable Southeastern research centers (in partnership) to access Europe and Asia, Georgia Tech will partner with STARLIGHT in Chicago as well as Atlantic Wave, Pacific Wave, and other open network transit providers. We will leverage connectivity to the Institute's remote locations to help enable worldwide network access into Africa.

Collaborative Learning Spaces

OIT is working in partnership with the Library and other campus organizations on the current renovation of Library East Commons. Technology, art, refreshments, and flexible gathering spaces will turn the Library East Commons into one of the Institute’s most innovative spaces for collaborative learning. OIT and the Library are starting another renovation project this fall in space contributed by the Library on the ground floor west. This space will be transformed into new facilities for services that are primarily used by students, such as OIT support, advisement, and tutoring. In a collaboration of Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE), the Library, and OIT, DLPE will be the primary liaison with the academic units for the identification and development of content; the Library will bring their expertise in information management (indexing, archiving, etc.); and OIT will lead in the utilization of leading-edge, high-availability server and network delivery methodologies.

OIT Professional Leaders Program

The OIT Professional Leaders program is designed to identify emerging leaders in information technology at Georgia Tech and prepare them for executive level leadership roles. The program will begin each year on January 1. The nomination package must be submitted by September 15 of the preceding calendar year. For more information, please read the OIT Professional Leaders Progam brochure (PDF).

Secure Remote Access

Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff need secure access to appropriate and authorized services from wherever they are located. We will require and provide a set of strategies and mechanisms for segregating our assets and systems with a “role-based access control” mechanism that combines good stewardship, good business practice, and good tools. Building upon the successful deployment of two-factor authentication for critical systems and a current proof-of-concept Smart BuzzCard pilot, we will acquire, develop, and deploy a set of technologies that link to the Identity and Access Management (IAM) system, to provide secure and reliable access to information and services for our community.