Research Studies

Capacity planning or capacity management isn't just for networks anymore. In fact, while enterprise wide area networks (WANs) were once only optimized for transaction processing, it is now harder to find an enterprise WAN that hasn't been optimized in multiple ways to carry voice and video, Internet, and some mission-critical application that replaced a mainframe transaction system. With all of the new and interesting traffic types floating around in the WAN, it's a wonder anyone can keep things straight. Even Internet backbones, which should be application agnostic, are throttling certain applications to protect their own infrastructures. WAN capacity planning must evolve from an effort that network architects undertook alone into an effort that involves coordination among multiple infrastructure groups inside IT.

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This ECAR research study was designed in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges to analyze the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise in medical schools and colleges. As the potential of biotechnology, proteomics, informatics, computational genomics, and other IT-intensive disciplines continue to offer breakthroughs in medicine, research in these fields requires greater and higher-level technology resources for infrastructure as well as IT support and services. The study is based on the results of a web-based survey sent to 125 medical schools and colleges in the United States, as well as qualitative interviews with leaders at 10 institutions. Respondents to the survey were predominantly chief information officers or other top administrators from 50 medical institutions, yielding a response rate of 39.7 percent. The findings contained in this report echo the results of the ECAR 2006 study, IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study, illustrating that the role and importance of IT in research is growing, while funding and budget decisions remain difficult.

This ECAR research study was designed in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges to analyze the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise in medical schools and colleges. As the potential of biotechnology, proteomics, informatics, computational genomics, and other IT-intensive disciplines continue to offer breakthroughs in medicine, research in these fields requires greater and higher-level technology resources for infrastructure as well as IT support and services. The study is based on the results of a web-based survey sent to 125 medical schools and colleges in the United States, as well as qualitative interviews with leaders at 10 institutions. Respondents to the survey were predominantly chief information officers or other top administrators from 50 medical institutions, yielding a response rate of 39.7 percent. The findings contained in this report echo the results of the ECAR 2006 study, IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study, illustrating that the role and importance of IT in research is growing, while funding and budget decisions remain difficult.

This 2007 ECAR research study explores the information technology (IT) help desk as a complex enterprise operating within a dynamic environment that includes the goals and culture of the central IT organization, the resources and services of the help desk, service level agreements between help desks and their clients, practices for evaluating and improving help desk services, and the perceived success of the help desk organization. Findings are related to the principles and practices of IT service management literature. This study is based on a literature review to identify issues and establish the research questions, consultation with selected higher education chief information officers, a quantitative survey of IT administrators at 454 colleges and universities in the EDUCAUSE database, qualitative interviews with 36 executives at 24 institutions, and four case studies about help desk and service management practices at a total of five higher education institutions. A non-profit edition is available here.

This 2007 ECAR research study explores the information technology (IT) help desk as a complex enterprise operating within a dynamic environment that includes the goals and culture of the central IT organization, the resources and services of the help desk, service level agreements between help desks and their clients, practices for evaluating and improving help desk services, and the perceived success of the help desk organization. Findings are related to the principles and practices of IT service management literature. This study is based on a literature review to identify issues and establish the research questions, consultation with selected higher education chief information officers, a quantitative survey of IT administrators at 454 colleges and universities in the EDUCAUSE database, qualitative interviews with 36 executives at 24 institutions, and four case studies about help desk and service management practices at a total of five higher education institutions. A corporate edition is available here.

In February 2007, Google announced Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE), a collaboration and communication solution offered as software as a service (SaaS). Initially combining a portal, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), calendars, document sharing, and concurrent document creation -- all for the price of $50 per user per year -- the solution rapidly caught enterprises' imaginations.This Burton Group study suggests that quickly adopting GAPE without understanding its quirks or looking at other alternatives is likely to become a career-limiting move. Happily, looking at the larger picture -- studying a variety of SaaS-based collaboration and content solutions -- is a career-enhancing move. Issues for higher education to consider include the SaaS delivery model, the capabilities of the solution, and Google as a company.Links to documents within this file might require secure access to restricted Web sites.

This 2007 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

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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This 2007 ECAR research study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. The study is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures. A corporate edition is available here.

This 2007 ECAR research study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. The study is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures. A non-profit edition is available here.