ITS bolstering systems, exploring better access

When Pantheon was unavailable for a few hours on Sat., Feb. 18, and classes.yale.edu was out of commission for a similar span on Wed., Feb. 23, students could not get information from their e-mail accounts or class webpages. For Information and Technology Services (ITS) Director Daniel Updegrove, such outages are something to work on. But making these improvements are just pieces of a grand plan to strengthen Yale's information systems.

One of Updegrove's goals is to increase access to e-mail. In addition to developing web-based e-mail, Updegrove is also looking at unified inboxes that combine e-mail and voice mail into a system that can read messages and take dictations. "We're constantly evaluating our resources," Updegrove said. "In a well-ordered universe, some of the resources would be devoted to leading-edge research and development, and some of the resources would be devoted to rock-solid, required, ubiquitous services."

COURTESY YALE.EDU Daniel Updegrove is the man who makes Yale computing work.

Updegrove also wants to explore opportunities for a wireless network that would deliver information and phone calls to palm computers, pagers, digital phones, and laptops. Because Yale does not have its own wireless network, students and faculty pay companies even when they are just talking within the campus to one another. "Right now we have all of these disconnected systems," he said. "I think there would be a big value in overlaying a mobile, wireless infrastructure."

Eventually, experimental technology becomes so popular that more University resources should be allocated for it. Classes.yale.edu—serving 235 courses this semester—is a perfect example of this phenomenon. "You start off with something exploratory, and typically you try to respond quickly to an opportunity or problem, just to explore feasibility," Updegrove said. "If it does look good, you try to make it scalable and supportable, you discover that a lot of people consider it mission-critical."

Pantheon and Yale's web server are also in need of upgrades. New machines have been installed after delays stemming from compatability problems were solved, and more new machines are on the way. However, certain problems—like the fact that damage to 175 Whitney could result in permanent loss of e-mail due to the lack of off-site storage—remain unaddressed.

The dilemma that ITS has always faced is the tension between investing in the future and confronting the problems of day-to-day operations. "We're always being asked to justify our budget requests and constantly talking about where do we need new hardware, where do we need new software, where do we need new people," Updegrove explained.

The ultimate goal is helping the campus operate better. "I think that we have a lot to do to explore the feasibility of next generation technologies and, frankly, how they fit into student life," Updegrove said.

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