Office of the CIO

While we use a number of methods (portal, e-mail, meetings, etc.) to communicate what is happening in technology, this website is intended to be an additional venue for distributing some key information.

The Challenges:

Many technology challenges face BSU and NTC. We have already taken steps to address some of these challenges in the past few months. A few examples include:

• Addressing SPAM issues. Through the implementation of a new solution, Ironport, we have dramatically reduced SPAM and phishing attacks, as well as false positives. To view a sample of some impressive statistics, click here: Nearly 5 million message delivery attempts were made in a 1 week period, of which 2% were deemed to be "clean" messages. Status: Complete.
• Interconnecting the BSU and NTC technology infrastructure through a high-speed, 1Gb link, laying the groundwork for resrouce management and enhanced fault tolerance and disaster recovery measures. Status: Complete
• Research, design, plan and implement a virtual server environment to provide fault tolerance and improve server performance. Status: We are now beginning the implementation process.
• Migrating from Novell e-Directory to Microsoft Active Directory, reducing the service and support demands of maintaining multiple platforms. Status: This is a multi-year project that we have already begun.
• Implementing required authentication (login) in labs. Status: Currently in progress. This will address security issues while also helping us acquire usage statistics in labs and lay the groundwork for future developments.

The Future:

Our vision is to create and sustain a robust, stable, efficient technology environment that delivers appropriate services to Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College. As stated earlier, we are now in the process of drafting a Strategic Plan for Technology. I have begun that process by writing rough draft based upon both the information I have collected and analyzed since joining BSU as well as information outlined in the previous technology master plan that was drafted three years ago.

Academic, administrative, and student feedback is being actively sought through task forces representing these various constituencies.