Dalhousie University

14
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Campus IT in the 21st Century Dalhousie CIO Dwight Fischer discusses the Halifax institution’s IT transformation Written by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Andy Turner

description

 

Transcript of Dalhousie University

Page 1: Dalhousie University

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Campus IT in the 21st CenturyDalhousie CIO Dwight Fischer discusses the Halifax institution’s IT transformation

Written by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Andy Turner

Page 2: Dalhousie University

Campus IT in the 21st CenturyDalhousie CIO Dwight Fischer discusses the Halifax institution’s IT transformationWritten by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Andy Turner

Page 3: Dalhousie University

3

Page 4: Dalhousie University

4

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

The world of information technology is changing, and it’s up to IT departments to change

with the times. What started with internal e-mail systems has become an expansive web of sensitive data that must be managed and cared for.

“I remember when e-mail first came out. In the first years it was the bastion of higher education,” says Dwight Fischer, CIO at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “But over the last couple decades, not just these applications but our ERPs, research data—you need more and more storage, more and more capacity. You’ve got the

evolution of technology, so the technology stacks at our universities just grew and grew.”

Technology is evolving and Dalhousie University is evolving to keep pace. This means a total IT transformation to keep the university supporting its faculty and students to the fullest.

Adapting to a new model For Fischer and Dalhousie University, transforming the IT department requires rethinking exactly what IT means and what is in store for its future. As with many universities today, for Dalhousie

Page 5: Dalhousie University

T E C H N O L O G Y

w w w. d a l . c a 5

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

this translated to going from a fully in-house infrastructure to building partnerships with businesses that offer the modern capacity and high-tech security that suit today’s demands.

“IT has a foundation in infrastructure and capacity, and what’s happened is we can no longer keep growing and providing it the way we were. It’s too expensive, and it’s being delivered in new ways now,” says Fischer. “In Nova Scotia, fiscal realities and reduced funding in this province are causing us to rethink our model. We can’t keep adding IT on premise if we don’t have the people to support it, and we can’t keep adding it under the assumption that it’s going to be safer and more protected here than it is on servers from Microsoft or somebody else who can do it at a scale that we can’t even dream of.”

“When you see what the industry’s doing, you can either get on board with it and carve it out like we’re doing, or someone else will come in and sooner or later you’ll be marginalized to irrelevance within your organization”– Dwight Fischer, CIO

Page 6: Dalhousie University

Data centre services in Atlantic Canada just got better.

Current as of October 1, 2015. Based on Uptime Institute Tier Certification.

If you need best-in-class, close-to-home data centre solutions for your mission-critical business applications, look no further. Our Atlantic facilities have expanded, allowing for greater scalability as your business grows.

With the largest data centre footprint in the region, Bell Aliant now offers improved geo-redundancy. And with the first and only Uptime Institute Certified Tier III data centre in Atlantic Canada, you also get access to the highest standards of security, performance, and availability — backed by the largest team in Canada.

For more information, visit bellaliant.ca/datacentre.

Page 7: Dalhousie University

Now faster.

Current as of December 1, 2015. Available to new customers in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, where access and technology permit and where Business phone service is not CRTC-regulated. Subject to change without notice and cannot be combined with any other offer. Taxes extra. Other conditions apply. FibreOP is a trademark of Bell Canada. (1) Speed and Wi-Fi signal strength may vary with your confi guration, Internet traffi c, server, environmental conditions or other factors. (2) Usage subject to compliance with the terms of service; see bellaliant.ca/legal-regulatory/acceptable-use-internet. (3) Wi-Fi modem rental included; must be returned upon deactivation of the service.

Choosing Bell Aliant for your business means continually getting access to faster speeds and new services on the world’s best network technology with 100% fi bre optics delivered right to your business. That’s why we’ve just increased speeds on all our business bundles, including double the download speed on our most popular bundle. You’ll take orders, process payments, check inventory, and more – faster than before. That’s just better.

• Business FibreOP™ Internet – up to 100 Mbps download and up to 50 Mbps upload1

• Unlimited Internet usage2

• Wi-Fi modem3

• Fully loaded business phone line

• Keep your existing phone number

Call 1 877 278-5114 or visit bellaliant.ca/fasterspeeds.

Page 8: Dalhousie University

SUPPLIER PROFILE

At Bell Aliant, innovation and collaboration is second nature.

As part of Bell Canada, the country’s largest communications company, Bell Aliant provides world-class communications solutions to customers throughout Atlantic Canada.

The company has a strong commitment to building infrastructure that fuels growth and creativity, including an unprecedented $2.1 billion commitment for investment in broadband wireline and wireless networks over the next five years.

This includes launching Gigabit FibreOP, the fastest Internet in Canada, and the most leading-edge mobile technology 4G LTE. This builds on Bell Aliant’s existing communications services, including FibreOP TV and Internet, Bell Satellite TV, wireless, home phone, data, video and business communications services like data hosting and cloud computing.

Bell Aliant is also the region’s leading data centre provider with Atlantic Canada’s only Tier III facility in Saint John, NB and is part a national network of 27 high-capacity data centres with Bell and Q9, providing customers with unparalleled reach, reliability, capacity and scalability.

Bell Aliant is proud to be part of the innovative culture of Atlantic Canada – fuelled by a region renowned for its plentiful and celebrated post-secondary institutions, an impressive start-up environment, and a thriving ICT sector. The company is a big believer in building long-term partnerships to meet the unique needs of its clients.

It’s that commitment to innovation and collaboration that has given rise to a string of innovations for Bell Aliant including FibreOP – the only FTTH network in Atlantic Canada. Its unparalleled speeds and capacity for meeting future demands are helping businesses and communities seize new opportunities and providing a competitive advantage.

Driving all of this innovation is Bell Aliant’s commitment to delivering for its customers. With the right people, products and solutions Bell Aliant is focused on helping customers succeed today and into the future.

Website: www.dal.ca

Innovation through collaboration

Page 9: Dalhousie University

T E C H N O L O G Y

w w w. d a l . c a 9

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

Dalhousie’s IT transformation fittingly started with a change of its e-mail systems, looking outside its walls to replace outdated proprietary technology.

“We started looking at what it would take to put in a new e-mail and communications system for a university today. You’ve got to have capacity, it’s got to integrate seamlessly with all our mobile devices, it’s got to be protected,” says Fischer. “We compared the cost of doing it ourselves—not just doing it, but sustaining it over the next decade—and then we compared that against Google and Microsoft, who are offering it to higher ed for free. Most people think it’s a Faustian bargain, that they’ll turn around and start charging us for it. But when you look at the schools that have already gone there, they’re not thinking about e-mail anymore.

It’s a commodity service. It’s been mastered.”

Ultimately Dalhousie chose to partner with Microsoft Office 365. “We selected Microsoft because it was a more familiar interface for most people, plus they offered the ability to house stuff on campus or in the cloud,” says Fischer. “We’ve been very happy with the decision to go with Microsoft, because it’s more built for the large organization, but with no hardware and no application needed. We have people who administrate it and make sure it’s tied to our all our identity management system, but I don’t think about e-mail anymore.”

Changing roles for a changing industry Dalhousie University soon followed this change with a similar overhaul of its learning management system,

Page 10: Dalhousie University

1 0

COMPANY NAME

moving into the cloud. “The option was clear for us: do you want to pay for it and do it yourself, or do you want to move into a cloud-based hosted service?” says Fischer. “We took the latter, and so this is changing the IT organization. We need fewer people to manage and prop up hardware. We need more people to start integrating these different cloud systems that are hosted in different places. We need to make them talk to one another, and leverage the data within them.”

“E-mail is a commodity service. It’s been mastered”

– Dwight Fischer, CIO

Page 11: Dalhousie University

S E C T O R

w w w. d a l . c a 1 1

COMPANY NAME

This difference in personnel needs and skill sets is a becoming a pressing concern as technology evolves. Dalhousie is among those understanding that university IT departments of the future will look very different compared to departments even 10 years ago, and skills must change if these departments are going to keep up.

“IT skills need to change,” says Fischer. “We need fewer hardware experts and more data analysts, fewer people monkeying with that

Page 12: Dalhousie University

1 2

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

hardware and more people helping other people figure out how to use it. That’s the shift. Some IT organizations are really struggling with that—but the fact is that the industry’s not waiting for us. Everybody here talks like we’ve got a choice. You can assume that if you

want, but when you see what the industry’s doing, you can either get on board with it and carve it out like we’re doing, or someone else will come in and sooner or later you’ll be marginalized to irrelevance within your organization.”

Page 13: Dalhousie University

T E C H N O L O G Y

w w w. d a l . c a 1 3

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

Narrowing your specialties A key change that has come with this technology transformation is that it is allowing Dalhousie University’s IT department to better focus its efforts. “IT is a large cost center, so we’re maturing in higher ed to be really clear about what it is we do and don’t do,” says Fischer, explaining that the school is cutting down on extraneous IT offerings like computer training and sales—both readily available elsewhere—to focus in on tackling its biggest challenges to deliver the features from which its faculty and students can benefit the most.

“We focus more on high value activities such as data management and analytics—helping with academics in the classroom, research support. We’re spending less time doing hardware setups and configurations and upgrades,” says Fischer, noting that this has also helped Dalhousie University become a greener and more efficient institution. “IT infrastructure is very power intensive. At a time when everyone’s looking at getting points for green policies and sustainability, hosting your own data center is not exactly where you want to be.”

By working with partners like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, Dalhousie’s IT department is able to provide the best of its own services paired with the best that technology has to offer.

Company Information

I N D U S T RY

Education

H E A D Q U A RT E R S

6299 South St

Halifax

Nova Scotia

Canada

B3H 4R2

F O U N D E D

1818

E M P L O Y E E S

1,100

R E V E N U E

Not Disclosed

Page 14: Dalhousie University

6299 South St

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4R2

Tel. 1-902-494-2211 www.dal.ca