Documents Contributed by ECAR and Network Infrastructure and Equipment

In recent years, server virtualization has evolved from a technology with significant usage in development, training, and test environments to one that also has a viable place in the data center. Space and power limitations in the data center have fueled a large consolidation movement, with server virtualization and clustering at the forefront. While virtualization allows organizations to run multiple unique operating systems on the same physical host simultaneously, it also offers benefits in high availability and system portability. Naturally, the benefits come with tradeoffs. There is little room for error when it comes to managing data center resources. Understanding where each virtualization technology is best suited in the data center allows organizations to realize the benefits of virtualization without falling victim to its weaknesses.

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Presentation at the Fifth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, June 28-30, 2006, Coronado, California. This presentation describes the study objectives, scope, focus, and analytical framework for ECAR's forthcoming study of IT collaboration.

This research bulletin discusses the results of the first (2005) survey conducted by the ResNet Applied Research Group (RARG), the research arm of the ResNet organization. The ResNet organization also sponsors the ResNet Symposium, an annual gathering of some 300 higher education administrators and specialists who plan, purchase, implement, and support residential IT at more than 160 colleges and universities. The survey, which ran from March 7 through April 6, 2005, collected data from 224 institutions, including 10 outside the United States.

This is the June 2004 ECAR survey instrument used for ECAR Research Study on Networking in Higher Education.

This research bulletin analyzes the evolution of network technologies that support residential communities in higher education. It traces the impact of residential network services from the early demand for connectivity to today's broad-spectrum educational services. Infrastructure, governance structures, and the unique role that ResNet service areas play in student life are discussed. Major contributors to this research include The ResNet Organization and six U.S. universities: Indiana University, North Carolina State University, Purdue University, St. Mary's College, University of West Florida, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Based on principles relating to the impact of technology on building design and construction, this research bulletin describes how the University System of Georgia developed and implemented statewide facilities-planning guidelines and policies that require information technology professionals to provide guidance and expertise to architects and facilities administrators to ensure an effective combination of technology and facilities, or "clicks and bricks."

This ECAR research study is designed to illuminate a host of current network management practices related to IT in higher education; opportunities for connectivity to external networks; the institutional context of organization, leadership, and management; current and emerging technologies and converged networks; and the future of networking. The study is based on five major research initiatives: a literature review; consultation with the EDUCAUSE Net@EDU Integrated Communications Solutions Working Group; survey responses from 517 chief information officers and network directors in higher education; qualitative interviews with 12 higher education leaders about their view of the future of IT networking in higher education; and three in-depth cases studies involving four U.S. institutions and SURF, a Dutch higher education and research partnership.

This ECAR roadmap is designed to illuminate a host of current network management practices related to IT in higher education; opportunities for connectivity to external networks; the institutional context of organization, leadership and management; current emerging technologies and converged networks; and the future of networking. The roadmap is based on five major research initiatives: a literature review, consultation with the EDUCAUSE Net@EDU Integrated Communications Solutions Working Group, survey responses from 517 chief information officers and network directors in higher education, qualitative interviews with 12 higher education leaders about their view of the future of IT networking in higher education, and three in-depth cases studies involving four U.S. institutions and SURF, a Dutch higher education and research partnership.

Presentation at the November 2004 ECAR Symposium. In the past 20 years, we have seen the establishment of the global Internet and the Web. We are now seeing the emergence of universal grid infrastructure, providing researchers from many disciplines interactive visual access to remote scientific instruments and enormous distributed data archives. Smarr believes this will induce another transition in campus infrastructure, perhaps on a larger scale than previously, due to the creation of optical networking "clear channels" or "lambdas" across the campus, state, nation, and globe whose entire bandwidth can be dedicated to a single campus researcher. In the United States, the backbone is the recently live National LambdaRail, which is linked to the international Global Lambda Integrated Facility. Smarr discusses examples of applications that require "personal lambdas" and reviews some of the research on how to couple these enormous data pipes across campuses to link into the clusters of individual laboratories.

Faced with the challenge of quickly developing, delivering, tracking, and reporting customized HIPAA training for 17,000 workers and students, the University of Minnesota leveraged important pieces of its information technology infrastructure. This research bulletin describes how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act catalyzed the design of an online training model that initially brought the institution into compliance and has since been repurposed for other educational endeavors.