Emory Report

September 5, 2000

Volume 53, No. 2

Mapping a future for Emory's IT Donna Price is communications coordinator for Information Technology Division. The rapidly shifting technological landscape places increasing pressure on major research universities. They must maintain their fiscal balance while designing information technology that best supports their educational and research missions. While demands for complex technical needs must be met for individual academic and administrative units, expanding opportunities for collaboration depends on the unimpeded flow of cross-unit information. Designing fail-safe systems and ensuring security have become major priorities as dependency on IT for vital communication needs has increased. Infrastructure must keep current with prevailing trends to function competitively, but today's cutting-edge technology may be obsolete tomorrow. To lead a process for navigating this environment at Emory, Provost Rebecca Chopp chartered the Information Technology Architecture committee (ITA) as a subcommittee of the Council on Information Resources and Technology (CIRT) in the spring of 1999. Co-chaired by Law School Dean Woody Hunter and Information Technology Vice Provost Paul Morris, the committee is facilitating the development of a Universitywide set of guidelines, common policies and standards for shaping Emory's present and future information technology infrastructure. These guidelines are called an "information technology architecture." "When properly implemented," Hunter said, "an IT architecture ensures that our systems are compatible, that everyone can communicate and exchange information, that we do not waste money on reinventing systems, that we do not waste time and effort on reevaluating alternatives, that we take appropriate advantage of economies of scale in buying and using technology, and that we can change the IT environment as quickly as needed to meet changes in requirements." While ensuring consistency with similar activities in the Emory Healthcare system, the primary focus of the ITA committee's work is the University, including Health Sciences. The committee has contracted with META Group Enterprise Architecture Strategies service for coaching and guidance, and an architecture process model has been tailored to Emory's environment. The 20-member ITA committee began the process by identifying the Emory goals and priorities the architecture would support. "Our first task was to draw together all the documents that already discussed what Emory wants to become, crystallize the various statements or goals into a single set, and then get approval of that wording by the University's leadership," Morris said. "This became the starting point for our first document, 'Emory Priorities and Architectural Requirements.'" From this beginning, the committee determined principles: The architecture should be simple to use, facilitate exchange of and access to information across units, divisions and schools, and incorporate embedded methods for the protection of private and proprietary information. To minimize disruptions, it should include systematic upgrading, replacement and repair of hardware and software, and provisions for the University to take advantage of external technologies. The architecture must also offer the flexibility to adapt to expanding new technologies and rapidly changing technology trends. After reaching a consensus on goals, the committee advanced to the next phase of identifying and selecting design principles and categories (architectural domains) that form the conceptual framework for the project. The conceptual architecture provides principles, strategies and goals that will guide implementation of campuswide systems. A draft for discussion of proposed principles and an outline of the domains, "Designing Emory's IT Architecture," can be found at www.emory.edu/EITA. The third phase of work, which will result in policies, technologies and standards for each domain, has already begun. Members of the community are encouraged to participate by reading draft documents and communicating their feedback to the committee. A listserv (IT-ARCH@listserv.emory.edu), to which anyone may subscribe through the website, allows open participation and provides a forum where anyone may raise relevant topics for discussion. Committee discussions and draft documents are posted in Adobe Acrobat formats. The website contains other information of interest, including contact information for the members of the ITA committee and domain task force charters. Return to September 5, 2000 contents page