Mountain Grove Campus Task Force
Computing Recommendation
- Submitted by Jim Taylor
President Nietzel’s Task Force on Mountain Grove has been charged with determining the role the campus will play in support of the Missouri State University System. Specifically, assess what is the best focus or direction for research and scholarship at the campus that will foster prominent, influential and important programs. To assure that the campus can gain focus as a research facility of international significance, the computing infrastructure must be reliable and adequate. This infrastructure is comprised of three main parts: (1) administrative computing, (2) specialized research computing, and (3) collaboration. All parts have an overwhelming need for support.
The new MEN (Metropolitan Ethernet Network) has provided the Mountain Grove campus with excellent connectivity with the Springfield and West Plains campuses (10 Mb) and increased capacity to the Internet (the three campuses share a 55 Mb connection). While separate Internet2 connectivity is not financially feasible, access to Internet2 resources is available through the commodity Internet by MOREnet without a separate high-speed connection.
Information Technology is a support service. It is used to support the mission of the organization using it. However, it is an essential service that, if implemented efficiently, will make that mission possible.
Administrative Computing
Everyday administrative computing is an integral part of any computing infrastructure. All employees need access to word processing, spreadsheets, terminal emulation, and the Internet, as well as various other applications. The College of Arts and Letters (COAL) uses a self-produced waterfall plan that maximizes the use of all computers within the college. Each year the dean can pinpoint where all computing resources will be used, and know exactly what additional resources might be needed. This maximizes the usefulness of older computers. The use of a "thin client" structure can be used to simplify support and allow for quick expansion when needed. Windows Remote Access and the University’s virtual private network (VPN) allow employees to access their computers from off-site locations and get access to resources only available to authorized users as well as saving unnecessary driving time and expense.
A formal study of the campus computing needs should be conducted before detailed recommendations on the type of equipment to be purchased should be made.
Preliminary recommendation: The campus should re-evaluate the computer replacement schedule and consider replacing more computers each year to maintain an environment where the computing equipment will consistently handle the tasks at hand. A written waterfall plan, identifying where computers will be redistributed, should be developed to show the yearly redistribution of computers to a secondary use. The use of a "thin client" architecture should also be considered to provide an easier way to support the administrative computing infrastructure. Finally, training on the use of Windows Remote Desktop and the use of Missouri State’s virtual private network should be provided to all employees.
Specialized Research Computing
Academic computing requires different hardware and software than administrative computing. This is especially true on the Mountain Grove campus. The use of an alternate operating system (OS) can become necessary since the biological research community relies on Linux/UNIX platforms for many scientific applications. For example, bioinformatics research requires the use high-powered computing that usually requires a high-performance computing cluster (HPCC). This computing uses Windows, Linux, UNIX, or the Apple OS X operating system. We need to accept the fact that computing in this environment should be OS-agnostic and look for the best tools to do the job. Funding of research computing can expensive and the use of grants may be necessary to support it. The scientific community is beginning to create shared resources that are available to multiple institutions through the use of authentication software called Shibboleth. The University of Missouri, Columbia, maintains a regional bioinformatics database protected by Shibboleth.
Preliminary recommendation: The University should develop plans for administrative computing and academic computing as separate entities, and recognize the different needs of each group. The purchase of a high-performance computing cluster should be considered, and since this can be a relatively expensive purchase, methods of funding should be identified first. Once funding is possible, the choice of cluster should be considered. The University should also consider the installation of a Shibboleth authentication system, especially since this system can have many uses, including authentication of users of our music download service. The University of Missouri uses it to protect both the bioinformatics database and their music download service.
A "waterfall" computer redistribution plan should be developed for academic computing, also.
Collaboration
Collaboration plays a pivotal role in research and the ability to work with colleagues in distant places is critical to the rapid realization of goals. In addition, frequent collaboration allows the researchers to have closer relationships with those they contact and this provides an opportunity for others to become familiar with the work done here. Whether collaboration is to be on a regular schedule or ad hoc, systems need to be in place that provide this important aspect of research. The College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS) owns Macromedia’s Breeze classroom/conferencing software and can make it available to the employees on campus for long-distance audio conversations and application sharing over the Internet. Live video-conferencing is also available on campus. Even the use of Windows Messenger for application sharing can be beneficial in many circumstances.
Using the Internet not only provides a quick and convenient method of collaboration, travel expenses can be reduced by occasionally substituting a virtual conference for a physical meeting, especially when international participants are involved.
While collaboration is ostensibly needed by researchers and their teams, it is also useful for administrative computing.
Preliminary recommendations: Those who need collaboration services should be identified and matched to the service that most closely meets their needs. Other methods of collaboration should be investigated and implemented if they prove useful. The video-conferencing equipment on campus should be upgraded (including the associated computers) to the Tandberg brand of equipment that is being installed on the Springfield campus. This particular brand of equipment has proved to be highly compatible with systems in use at other locations.
Support
Often the most overlooked aspect of a computing infrastructure, support is absolutely critical to the success of information technology. The current support structure at Mountain Grove is not adequate. Complicating matters further is the need to use alternate operating systems in research with no support expertise available from either the Springfield or West Plains campuses. Three support options available to the campus are (1) on-site support staff, either full-time or part-time, (2) paid vendor support, or (3) paid, private support from a local company. On-site support is difficult because of the cost, and because of the need for a person with a broad range of expertise, including multiple operating systems. Paid vendor support is expensive, and paid support from a local company may not be available.
Keeping the employees informed of the computing capabilities available to them can keep support focused on actual problems. Well-informed employees not only work more efficiently, they are much more inclined to request support only when it is really needed.
Preliminary recommendations: A well-defined support plan should be developed that provides the campus with quick and complete handling of all computing issues. To supplement the plan, methods of keeping the campus community informed of the capabilities available to them should be implemented. Dissemination of information can be delivered in several formats, including live instruction, written communication, live video-conferencing, or even podcasting.