UTS intends to remain focused on ADS and Exchange and the next year will be a time of change.  Additional changes are in store as Dr. Alvarado promotes the TTS and Center for Teaching Excellence.  I have prepared my views on these projects and will be sharing them online at the Netmanag site as time permits.  In the meantime, email me for a copy.  I will also share the myriad documents I prepared on ADS, central IT authority vs. distributed etc.

 

In general, I am prepared to return Netmanag to an active venue.  Most of you know me rather well and know that speak in earnest.  I hope you will show up and participate in Netmanag meetings.  I am of the belief that more can be accomplished by honest discourse than by mandate.  I also believe in the benefit of engaging the community.

 

The Past...

We are at a crossroads and there are different ways to proceed.  The one most familiar is the one in which we push against one another.
 

I started at the USC when IT leadership was a scarce commodity.  We eschewed those who attempted to impose will without expertise...and we were quite successful.  I made a fine little place at the COP and did great things by going it alone.  I have no doubt we could continue to go it alone....but at a cost.

 

If you have been here long enough, you know that the IT players have changed....and so have the plays.  The structure is quite different now with a real CIO and a new parity between UTS, UIS, and the CTE.  A structure is now in place to promote progress.  While there is nothing wrong with doubt...there is something to be said for standing aside when you see benefit.  I believe the benefit is in a new approach. 

 
We must find ways to leverage the University's investment in UTS and identify how they can best help distributed IT serve the academic units.  This will require adjustments on both sides.

The Present...

Academic unit IT is not going to continue managing application servers in isolation.  Your email server could be outsourced for dollars a month http://www.webmail.us/ .  When you convert to Active Directory, your sneaker-net will be a thing of the past and you will have time to provide additional support.  If you don't believe me, ask Michael Casdorph or Mike Lemons in Aiken.  Ask how much time they spend on desktop maintenance.  Not much I suspect. 

 

You should be planning how best to redirect service to something more than backing-up, patching, and rebooting.  I will spend significant time this year demonstrating the power of Active Directory.  That power lies in the tool-set you will have to enhance the capabilities of your charges. You can do some impressive things when you refocus on delivery of IT services beyond the mundane.  And your job satisfaction will improve.

 

The Future...
 

I spent the last 18 months visiting universities to see how they manage IT and I can tell you that USC IT is fine.  In comparison...we are pretty standard.  It's always a challenge to deal with the mixture of distributed and centralized IT.  However, if we are to be successful in the future, we will need to expand our horizons.  We will need to share our successes and our failures.  We will all need to improve on the community and move together in order to make a go at being something more than the standard.

 

I will share everything I have in order to move the IT community forward.  I enjoy working at USC and I enjoy the people with whom I work.  I hope you will meet the new opportunities with some enthusiasm.  I will always recognize honest skepticism and will be among the first to challenge blind change.  I will also act with the knowledge that good things can come from change.  I hope you will take this new approach with me and together we raise the standard.

 

Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros,

 

 

Michael Dollar