We are pretty aggressive about keeping on top of regular systems patches and security updates. It used to be that some users didn’t want to take the time to do an update “right now,” but we have to do them constantly to keep on top of security. Everybody is aware of that now, so we don’t get as much pushback.
MORE FROM EDTECH: Here are three ways universities can be sure their data stays safe.
EDTECH: How do you choose the nonemergency upgrades you take on?
Allison: There’s always a balance between keeping things stable and secure with behind-the-scenes infrastructure improvements and introducing new capabilities with more visible benefits to the users or the campus as a whole.
You’re not going to be a successful IT department if you’re only keeping things stable and secure. That’s part of the job, but it’s not the whole job. You’ve also got to help people work more effectively.
EDTECH: How do you prioritize projects?
Allison: Berkeley is a large research university and we’re quite decentralized. There's not a lot of top-down governance except for major new initiatives. Most decisions are made collaboratively by teams and our functional and IT leadership.
In cases where we’ve learned about an unexpected impact of the project on some segment of campus, we give people a chance to voice their concerns and adjust the timing to accommodate them as much as possible. For example, we implemented Berkeley’s piece of UCPath, a project in which the University of California system standardized on a single human resources system for all its campuses and locations in March.
That was a massively ambitious project with a high-level priority set by Berkeley’s executives as well as the UC system leadership. We avoided any other projects in that time frame and pushed other upgrades out to April or May so they wouldn’t conflict with the major implementation.
EDTECH: What’s in the future for Berkeley, in terms of upgrades?
Allison: There’s a lot of focus on student systems and improving student, faculty and research capabilities and experience. We want to make it easy for students to use technology to simplify their lives and make them more productive. We want to enable our community to manage their research and advance their studies with cutting-edge technology.