Three Year Plan
The Information Technology Services is always expanding the services offered to faculty, staff, and students. Specific projects that Information Technology Services will be pursuing for the fiscal years 2005-2007 are listed below. Please be aware that the completion of many of these tasks is subject to sufficient funding being provided.
- Increase web-based services
- Target to equip an increasing number of classrooms for wireless access to the campus network
- Establish a Campus wide technology upgrade/replacement program
- Establish a Help Desk to provide end-user support for LSUS campus-wide services
- Develop a disaster recovery program for networks
- Migrate administrative applications from existing mainframe to a Unix platform
- Supplement the technology support staff
- Establish regular training plan for technology support staff
It is important that LSUS provide improved web services to our current students as well as prospective students. We will continue to increase web-based services.
Target to equip an increasing number of classrooms for wireless access to the campus network
Even though remote learning is becoming more prevalent today, it is still important to make optimal use of the rooms themselves. It is likely that the future will demand that all teaching and learning is done through technology-enabled methodology. We must prepare classrooms to allow for technology-enabled instruction
Establish a Campus wide technology upgrade/replacement program
It is important that technology remains relatively current. There are many areas that should be assessed and replaced on a regular basis to ensure the University is current in technology. Information Technology Services suggests a separate line item in the budget for the purpose of retiring equipment in a three-year cycle.
Establish a Help Desk to provide end-user support for LSUS campus-wide services
Develop a disaster recovery program for networks
The past several years have been remarkable for the increase in the number of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks, fiber cuts, and power outages that have disrupted service. It is imperative that a disaster recovery plan for the Campuswide network is in place.
Migrate administrative applications from existing mainframe to a Unix platform
Supplement the technology support staff
The explosion of LANs, desktop computers, file servers, and the use of networks have caught many organizations off-guard in dedicating the necessary support to keep networked resources available. Staffing for this level of support is both difficult and costly. An industry rule of thumb is one full-time equivalent (FTE) support person for every 40 to 50 workstations, where it is generally assumed that each user has his/her own dedicated desktop computer. This rule can be further broken down into approximately one full-time equivalent LAN administrator to every 100 workstations for the connectivity infrastructure (e.g.wiring hubs, bridges, routers, and gateways). With only three FTE support persons this level of support will require an increase in staffing in Information Technology Services to meet the industry standard.
Establish regular training plan for technology support staff
Just as important as providing training for faculty is the need for appropriate and purposeful training of the technology support staff. Technology tasks such as networking are so critical and complex that the University could face delays and wasted effort while support staff attempt to solve problems that they are unequipped to address.