Networking Technologies Available
University Information Technology (UIT)
uses technology to foster employee
participation in important
conferences and trainings, a
valuable solution to university
travel restrictions now limiting
employee attendance at out-of-state
and distant events. Streaming media
technology closes the distance
between far away events and
participants in Houston.
In FY 2010 so far, UIT saved over
$20,000 by asking UIT employees to
stay in Houston where they engaged
in training and seminars via video
streams or audio files. Several UIT
employees participated in a May 2010
"webinar" session sponsored by
Educause, an organization for IT
professionals working in higher
education. Numerous staff members
also participated in
Gartner
webinars ─ Gartner is a global IT
advisory group.
Others completed professional
training using
SkillPort courseware
available through UH.
Members of the Network Planning and
Development Group trained on new
networking technologies via online
courses. A network engineer spent
two days training on the new DNS and
DHCP servers for UH. DHCP servers
provide Internet addresses users
require. DNS servers convert
Internet domain names to Internet
protocol addresses (IP addresses).
In another example, a network
analyst sat at his desk rather than
traveling to a session by Cisco
Systems that updated him on the
border gateway protocol (BGP) the
Internet uses to allow the campus
network to communicate with other
networks outside UH.
Two security analysts with UIT
Security took online training on
perimeter defense designed to
protect the network from attacks.
SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Networking,
and Security) Institute provided
this training. The same organization
trained both analysts on wireless
security. Doing so saved UH over
$3,000.
Staff from UIT participated in 20
Educause sessions via video or audio
during the group's annual
telecommunications conference. Chat
features allowed staff to interact
with conference presenters in Denver
and others from participating
universities. Those attending the
conferences and webinars reported on
the benefits they gained from their
experience, including:
� Cost avoidance: Average conference
attendance costs (registration,
travel, hotel) up to $2,000 for some
events. This year, 13 staff members
participated in an Educause
conference for a total cost of $495.
� Staff interaction: Watching a
streamed presentation together in
one room, encouraged UIT staff to
engage in discussions and to share
ideas on the sessions. They also
analyzed methods used at UH, and
brainstormed about ways UH can
improve based on the experiences of
other universities (benchmarking).
� Easy access to conference
materials following the event: Those
who watched presentations are not
the only ones who can benefit from
the conference presentations at Educause. Employees who could not
attend were permitted to link to
streamed sessions and to Powerpoint
presentations for self-paced
learning. (A CD with copies of
streamed and audio presentations is
available. Ask your manager about
how to obtain the CD.)
� Greening UIT: Going to an online Educause conference helps the
university create a Green UIT,
greatly lowering the carbon
footprint generated by air travel,
as well as requiring only a single
system for training.
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