NHTI Concord s Community College Technology Strategic Directions FY2016 FY2019 CONTEXT The college has adopted its Strategic Directions: Goals and Objective for 2016 to 2019, dated October 2015, that serves as a tool to move upon the current educational foundation of excellence in the classroom and across all programs and services. Below are strategic information technology issues that relate to the overall college goals and objectives. PRINCIPLES The following principles underlie the IT issues: 1. Student-focused, user-centric computing 2. Stability, reliability and sustainability 3. Security risk management 4. Ubiquitous connectivity 5. Innovative learning experience ALIGNMENT WITH NHTI GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Goal 1.0 Teaching and Learning The college is committed to providing an accessible and rigorous education, and the pedagogical and support mechanisms to form a learning environment where students can flourish, find direction and meet goals. 1.1: Backend systems refresh The backbone of the college s information technology environment consists of servers, storage arrays, network switches and firewalls. These devices range in age from one year to more than six years. The total hardware procurement costs were approximately $350,000. Annual contracts for hardware support are approximately $54,500. Endorsed by ITT: January 22, 2016 Page 1
In addition to the hardware, operating software for virtualization, data storage and networking represent procurement costs of approximately $104,000, with annual support contracts totaling $37,000. All total, the backend infrastructure has an initial procurement cost of $454,000 and annual operating costs of $91,500. The backend systems are aging, with several critical components reaching end-oflife status. Additionally, the infrastructure does not support the growing demands for increased compute power, virtualization and data storage capacity. 1.2: Wireless expansion Although there is wireless network access in all campus buildings, the footprint coverage and bandwidth capacity is sporadic and inadequate. Wireless access is lacking at outside areas such as the quadrangle, residence halls and parking lots. Wireless devices (laptops, tablets, and smartphones) are ubiquitous. Increasingly, students and faculty expect (and are demanding) robust wireless network connectivity at all times throughout the campus. 1.3: Education Design Center With the emphasis on increased alternative delivery of academic programs to transform and support the success and retention of students, an education design center would foster collaboration in changes to pedagogical practices and educational paradigms. The center could be a community gathering space and technology lending library to encourage students, professors and instructional designers to utilize multi-media, online learning, social media, mobile and hand-held devices, laptop computers and other tools as they emerge as a way to deliver instruction and facilitate learning. 1.4: Innovative classrooms Going hand-in-hand with establishment of an Education Design Center, creation of classroom environments that takes advantage of appropriate technologies would assist with the delivery of instructional content and the engagement of students in the learning process. Endorsed by ITT: January 22, 2016 Page 2
Goal 2.0 Relationship Building The college is committed to work with both the internal and external communities to foster an understanding of the economic, political and social capital realities involved with operating a top-notch higher education institution and to cultivate respect, goodwill and support. 2.1: Public-facing web site The official NHTI.edu web site is not only a marketing tool to attract potential students, it is also a primary means to communicate the accomplishments of the college. The web site provides an opportunity to connect with the broader outside community. 2.2: MyNHTI This is a secured portal into CCSNH and NHTI online resources particular to employees of CCSNH. Many organizations are now deploying enterprise social networks, such as Yammer or Slack, that support synchronous and asynchronous communications that foster internal team collaboration and sharing of information. 2.3: Social Media The use of worldwide social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter are additional means to connect with external constituents to share information and market the college. Goal 3.0 Sustained Operations The college will manage its operations to make the most efficient and effective use of its current human, physical and financial resources and to explore other avenues to support the mission. 3.1: User-centric computing Educational institutions are quickly shifting away from the traditional device-centric computing model to a user-centric model where data and applications are provisioned and accessible on demand, irrespective of the user s location or the device being used. Endorsed by ITT: January 22, 2016 Page 3
Virtualization is making this user-centric model a reality. Software applications and data are being decoupled from the underlying hardware so that they can be managed centrally in the datacenter and securely delivered to users on any device at any location, whether online or off. Virtualization allows the college to deliver a high-performance desktop experience to a broad range of use cases; from on-campus labs to distance learning students. The end user can access their endpoint environment on a wide variety of devices and can play rich media content, choose monitor configurations and access locally attached peripheral such as printers and mass storage. As the college pursues the goal of expanding enrollment and increasing revenue from new course delivery methods, students will have the benefit of receiving a consistent user experience regardless of the age or location of the devices they are using thus enjoying the flexibility of not having to travel miles to attend classes on the central campus. 3.2: Sustainability As an information technology issue, sustainability encompasses the provisioning of technology in a financially, socially and environmentally responsible manner. As noted above in the User-centric computing issue, moving toward a virtualized delivery model allows the IT support organization to reduce the time, resources and costs associated with provisioning and managing campus endpoints, thus providing a more sustainable eco-friendly technology platform. A virtualized platform allows for the use of energy-efficient end user devices that save both procurement and power consumption over traditional PCs. College purchases of lower-costs, virtualized devices allow for extended life cycles for replacement equipment. Study shows that for every dollar spent on desktop hardware in a traditional computing environment, roughly three dollars are spent on managing that environment. The real cost savings of virtualization occur from the saved time and resources required to fulfill help desk tickets, pushing out updates and patches, and provisioning new images to individuals and pooled users. Less operating resources at the college campus and less travel of students has the potential to reduce the environmental footprint of delivering academic programs. Endorsed by ITT: January 22, 2016 Page 4
Goal 4.0 Data Management NHTI will manage data to inform decision making at all levels of the college s operations. 4.1: Security risk management paramount to providing the technology platform for the entire college environment is the responsibility to ensure that all systems and data are secure. Risk management includes: - Assurance that critical technology systems are operational and functional at all times. - Securing sensitive information such as medical records, banking transactions, student records and personally identifiable information. - Intrusion detection and prevention from malicious activities. - Processes to recover from disruptive events and to return IT services as quickly as possible with minimum adverse impact on operations. 4.2: Managed storage, backup and recovery - Managing and protecting data are at the heart of the college. Collectively, our data volume is growing and issues of performance, security and reliability are more critical. It is more than just being able to recover data in the event of a catastrophic failure - it is about how quickly we can recover, and how we can avoid failure in the first place. Regulatory requirements about how data is protected, about where it is stored, and about who can access it apply to every user. In a worst case scenario we not only must be concerned about being able to recover data in the event of failure, but also being sure that it is not recoverable by someone with malicious intent. Endorsed by ITT: January 22, 2016 Page 5