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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.