The sourcing of IT systems and services takes many shapes in higher education. Campus central IT organizations are increasingly responsible for the administration of enterprise systems and for the consolidation of operations into a single data center. Specialized academic and administrative systems may be run by local IT departments. In addition,…

Considering the unprecedented budget hardships in higher education, now may not seem to be an auspicious time to be emphasizing the importance of continuing, or even perhaps increasing, investments in information security. Decisions regarding these matters are usually in the hands of the CIOs, leaving information technology (IT) leaders in…

The eleventh annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey shows some very familiar themes among the top-ten IT issues of strategic importance to technology leaders in higher education. Indeed, all ten of the issues from the 2009 survey are back, albeit in a slightly different order. In addition, Strategic Planning returns as an issue of renewed…

Increasingly, IT organizations will move from providing IT services locally to becoming an integrator of IT services--some provided locally and others provided outside the institution. As a result, institutions must immediately begin to plan for shared services and must understand the essential role that identity management and trust services play…

This article presents the top-ten IT-related issues in terms of strategic importance to the institution, as revealed by the tenth annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey. These IT-related issues include: (1) Funding IT; (2) Administrative/ERP Information Systems; (3) Security; (4) Infrastructure/Cyberinfrastructure; (5) Teaching and Learning with…

Seeing an institution's name in the headlines for a security breach may be among a CIO's-- and a president's--worst nightmares. Whether the breached data involves social security numbers, credit card accounts, clinical records, or research, this is bad news. Federal agencies that provide research funding may lose confidence in data integrity,…

In t his article, the author discusses the role of higher education research and development (R&D)--particularly R&D into the issues and problems that industry is less able to explore. In addition to high-speed computer communication, broadband networking efforts, and the use of fiber, a rich service environment is equally important and is…

The EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee, whose members review and recommend the set of IT issues to be presented each year, conducted a Web-based survey in December 2005 to identify the five of thirty-one IT issues in each of four areas: (1) issues that are critical for strategic success; (2) issues that are expected to increase in significance; (3)…

Kenneth J. Klingenstein, Chief Technologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Project Director of the Internet2 Middleware Initiative, is the recipient of the 2003 EDUCAUSE Award for Leadership in Information Technologies. Klingenstein has been involved in computing technology for almost three decades. One of a handful of leaders who…

The concept of convergence has evolved significantly during recent years. Today, "convergence" refers to the integration of the communications and computing resources and services that seamlessly traverse multiple infrastructures and deliver content to multiple platforms or appliances. Convergence is real. Those in higher education, and especially…

In the past three years, higher education institutions have made a number of moves to secure their critical systems and protect their users, resulting in a marked change in the techniques used to combat security threats. Today, continued progress may depend on the development of an enterprise IT security program. (Contains 10 notes.)

The EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee, whose members review and recommend the set of IT issues to be presented each year, conducted a Web-based survey in December 2006 to identify the five of thirty-one IT issues in each of four areas: (1) issues that are critical for strategic success; (2) issues that are expected to increase in significance; (3)…

This article features the EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey. Administered by the EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee, whose members review and recommend the set of issues to be presented each year, the survey identifies the issues that leaders in higher education information technology see as their most critical IT challenges. The Top-Ten current IT…

Administered by the EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee, whose members review and recommend the set of IT issues to be presented each year, the sixth annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey was conducted in December of 2004. Survey participants--the primary representatives, typically CIOs, of EDUCAUSE member institutions--were asked to check up to…