NSIT at the University of Chicago
Introduction
NSIT services include most of the telephony and voice services, data networking and network services (such as electronic mail), dialup facilities, instructional computing, mainframe computing and server management, core central administrative systems ranging from registration to finance, large-scale and cross-project research computing, central user support, and information technology resale on campus. (Note: Several other IT organizations at the University-for example, those responsible for certain library systems, for most hospital and medical systems, and for information technology in several Schools and Divisions-report to their various Deans and Directors.)
Section I - NSIT Organization
NSIT consists of five major overlapping units. Each is headed by a Senior Director leading a team of Directors. Three of these units focus on providing services to different categories of users. The other two focus on maintaining and operating the underlying infrastructure. We will link in an organization chart as soon as it is available
The Executive Director works with the VP & CIO on various issues, represents NSIT within various campus administrative committees, and oversees NSIT's internal finance, HR, procurement, space and similar processes (much as administrative deans do in academic units). The Senior Directors for Client Relations and Integration work in the bully-pulpit mode across NSIT, the former seeking to ensure that our services correspond well to the campus's needs and are communicated clearly, the latter seeking to ensure that our various systems and services interconnect and interoperate efficiently behind the scenes.
For more information about the groups that comprise NSIT, see the NSIT Groups page.
Section II - NSIT Services
The organizations within NSIT provide numerous services to the campus. For example, NSIT manages
- The entire campus network, wired and wireless, including commodity and high-performance links to Internet2®, National LambdaRail®, and various regional and international research networks;
- Telephony, including voicemail, automatic call direction, local and long-distance calling, and specialized services (UCH uses University telephony);
- Central email (about 25,000 users), the University's and most departments' web pages and sites, campus ID cards, CNetIDs, network security, and myriad other services touching day-to-day work;
- The principal instructional-management system at the University, three "public" student computing clusters, centrally-scheduled electronic classrooms, and most audio-visual and digital-media services;
- All major administrative systems, new and old, except a few departmental systems and a few specialized systems where NSIT collaborates with other units (such as the Libraries, Facilities, and University Police);
- Central machine rooms housing mainframe, servers, and network switches; and
- Most central-administration desktop computers and most procurement of desktop and server computers University-wide, including leasing and fee-for-service support.
There are only a few major exceptions to central IT at the University. Research IT (except for high-performance networking) is provided and supported locally by principal investigators and their graduate students and research staff. Desktop support beyond the basic call-the-helpdesk level is provided by departmental units and staff. Other exceptions are the email, file and related services provided internally by GSB, BSD and a few other units.
NSIT's services fall into three principal categories: those focused on the academic program, those focused on administrative processes, and those focused on the general University community. Underlying the services are central data center computing and the campus networks. The following is a general summary of each of these categories.
Academic
Principal activities in this space involve the instructional-management system ("Chalk"), the "public" and centrally-scheduled computer clusters and media classrooms used by faculty and staff, and the groups providing digital-media and audio-visual support to faculty and others.
Administration
This area includes support for essentially all of the University's core administrative applications: Gargoyle and related student systems, alumni-development systems (Griffin, ADDS), HR/benefits/payroll systems, financial and procurement systems, research administration systems, network information systems, and certain facilities management systems, as well as a wide array of Web-based sites and systems, plus Business Objects and other distributed query/reporting access to administrative data.
General
These are the services used by most of the University community: telephones, email, ID cards, directories, help desks, field support, the Campus Computer Stores (sales and service) and so on.
Network
The University benefits enormously from network infrastructure that was largely re-architected and replaced in the early 1990's. Since then, it has been steadily renewed and extended. New construction and major renovations follow a Universal Wiring Plan, which ensures consistency and flexibility across the campus networks.
Currently data and voice services share network infrastructure. For the most part, redundant fiber interconnects buildings, and bundled copper runs within them. Although voice and data share infrastructure, the two services use separate fiber strands and wire pairs. Voice Over IP will change this, and we are currently upgrading network closets and switches to accommodate it.
The University is a charter member of Internet2, National LambdaRail, I-WIRE, the Metropolitan Research and Education Network, CIC OMNIPOP and the CIC Chicago Fiber Ring (which interconnects most of the major network facilities in Chicago including the StarLight international facility). We connect from campus to these high-performance networks and to the commodity Internet over two separate paths to downtown, and we are working on a third. We have similarly redundant paths for off-campus telephony. We also have dedicated connections to certain off-campus locations, such as the Gleacher Center, Argonne, and a new BSD facility in the Prudential Building.
Data Center
The University's sole data center is in the 1155 Building, south of the Midway. At the systems level, the data center is gradually moving from free-standing servers to more highly integrated systems of clustered rack-mounted or blade servers. Additionally, the data center provides a flexible and growing Storage Area Network (SAN), and elaborate mechanisms to provide robustness, redundancy, backup and other capabilities. New administrative and network-based systems rely increasingly on the SAN for their data storage, as do some departmental systems.
Middleware
This is the set of services, processes, and applications enabling systems to interact efficiently and to reduce the complexity users encounter. It includes authentication mechanisms such as CNetIDs and CNet passwords, mechanisms that move or synchronize data among various systems, tools that enable back-end systems to interact with users through Web pages, conventions and standard practices involving names and other identifiers - the boundaries of the set are flexible.
Section III - NSIT Within the University
The University organizes information technology to serve its mission of research and teaching. The Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Greg Jackson, reports to the President and is a member of the Executive Staff. As Greg Jackson began his tenure at the University as an Associate Provost, he also continues to be a member of the Provost Staff.
In addition to this source of guidance and direction, staff within Networking Services and Information Technologies (NSIT) and in other departments draw on the statutory faculty Board of Computing Activities and Services (BCAS) appointed by the Provost; on the Administrative Systems Council (ASC), comprising senior managers from administrative units with major IT systems; and the Forum on Academic Technologies (FACT), comprising the IT heads from various academic units. The VP & CIO also meets somewhat regularly with the Deans Group, the Committee of the Council, the Council, and various other groups.
Last updated: 4/7/08