XplanaZine

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported this week that university IT budgets will increase an estimated five percent for the coming year. At first glance, that number seems promising. That is, until one reads further in the article and realizes that last year IT budgets grew by approximately 14 percent. The bottom line is that university IT budgets are shrinking (like everyone else’s) and these under-resourced divisions now face the difficult task of expanding connectivity with less money than they need. The five percent pales in comparison to the percentage increases in software and hardware upgrades that universities need.
One solution, of course, is to be found in purchasing smarter technology. University IT managers, like their enterprise counterparts, have been frustrated until now by expensive software and hardware that does not scale easily and must be replaced too frequently. Thankfully, new developments are coming along that promise to make it possible for us to do more with less. Take edge appliances, for example. These devices were originally conceived as hardware alternatives to running software on servers. Now their projected usefulness is being extended to accommodate new security requirements, the influx of XML data, and the reality of integrated data networks.
Customers like the new services available and expect our networks to support them. Expanded functionality means increased demands on performance and scalability. And, the only way to do all of this without increasing budgets dramatically is with hardware that comes with ease-of-maintenance built in. That’s why edge appliances are so important. They offer that ease of maintenance.
But not all of the “smarter technology” solutions are hardware fixes. Microsoft announced its new Systems Management Server recently, a solution allowing enterprises to move more quickly, and at a much lower cost, in providing the relevant software to the designated users in a timely fashion.
Smarter technology means universities can save money while providing better services. Sound too good to be true? Well maybe it is. Because, regardless of what monies are saved at the network level, expensive portal, student information system, and course management software keep increasing both the complexities of information flow and the frustration of users. The result, often, is that schools are paying more and more for technology that requires too much training and too many people. In other words, the network vendors are finding good solutions while the “soft” side vendors are charging more for technology that, unfortunately, does not make people glad they have left legacy technologies behind.
If schools are to save real money with technology, vendors will have to come to the rescue. They will have to construct software that reduces the strain on users and eliminates the redundancies common in our information handling. What we want is simple.

• Student information systems that handle information they way we need them to;
• HR systems that make it easier to be an employee and better to be an HR staff member;
• Course management systems that really are easy to use;
• Technology in general that makes more people want to use technology.

That’s not asking too much is it?