\n\tBy SHANNON O. WELLS<\/p>\n
\n\tVirtually everyone who works at Pitt is connected to, if not dependent on, an elaborate digital network that \u2014 in providing myriad services via WiFi or hard-wired internet service \u2014 involves a complex infrastructure of specialized equipment and components, multiple provider contracts, and the steadily rising costs of system software licensing, maintenance and replacement costs.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs Mark Henderson, Pitt\u2019s chief information officer, reminded Faculty Assembly at its April 15 meeting in Posvar Hall, all this effort and expense is secondary to Pitt\u2019s core mission.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn the grand scheme of things, to you, the University\u2019s business is not to run the network,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really to teach, to support faculty, to support students, to do outreach, to do research. And what we at Pitt Digital do is in support of that, to enable \u2014 to the best of our abilities \u2014 the work that you all do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s how Henderson framed his presentation on Pitt Digital\u2019s initiative to evaluate long-running practices with an eye to adopting a potentially more sustainable network-as-a-service model. This includes assessing costs and various pros and cons of hiring vendors to replace or further augment operations currently handled in-house.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOne of the things that we\u2019ve been evaluating, because of escalating costs, is how do we best provide services to the University community that we are here to support in ways that are sustainable,\u201d he said, as in Pitt\u2019s ongoing ability to efficiently purchase and manage essential services. \u201cWe started looking at network-as-a-service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis refers to the system that Pitt community members connect to in their offices or through the wireless campus network.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re evaluating this today because costs continue to escalate,\u201d he said, noting the University is largely affiliated with Cisco technology for digital connectivity services, and \u201cour maintenance costs go up every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlso, licensing costs for the software that run the network, along with network elements such as wireless access points and controllers, switches, routers and security-related components \u201ccontinue to escalate year over year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHistorically, Pitt has purchased its network equipment from Cisco, but Henderson expressed uncertainty that the University is well positioned for the ongoing maintenance and refreshing of networking equipment, \u201cparticularly in the context of escalating costs,\u201d he noted. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing hardware costs increase (and) demand on the network continue to increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWith aging network hardware and actual life expectancy of equipment between three and five years, he said Pitt Digital will \u201ctry to squeeze more out of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHolding up a wireless access point component manufactured by Cisco in October 2022, Henderson noted that the company no longer supports the device, which won\u2019t work with its new controllers or switches. \u201cWe have thousands of wireless access ports.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tChanging to network-as-a-service, he suggested, would \u201cmake more sense\u201d for Pitt to keep \u201cour capital dollars free\u201d for addressing classroom-related needs and improvements, acquiring residence halls to accommodate a growing incoming class, and \u201cany number of things that we would be better served than spending (on) something (with) a useful life of three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHenderson shared a diagram illustrating what the current campus network landscape \u2014 including administration- and classroom-oriented buildings \u2014 looks like.<\/p>\n
\n\tThrough wireless access points in administration buildings, \u201cwe have devices, and all of these connect to switches,\u201d he explained, adding that most switches \u201cconnect to a very large set of routers in the Cathedral (of Learning).\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTraffic from these \u201cend devices\u201d transmits to networks that Pitt Digital currently manages. \u201cBecause we do not provide connectivity all the way, end-to-end for access to the various systems and solutions that our University community utilizes in our everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPitt therefore relies on vendors including Salesforce, Internet2, DQE Communications, Crown Castle and AT&T to \u201cactually carry the traffic that we offer to the end solutions that are required to do our work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe University has partnered for the past several years with Bolden Consulting to support connectivity in Pitt\u2019s residence halls.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey have done a very good job in assisting our students,\u201d Henderson said, including during the (COVID) pandemic, when students spent considerably more time in their dorm rooms and homes. \u201cBolden, of their own accord, were able to upgrade the speeds for network connectivity to those points as part of our increasing needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPitt Digital proposes investigating benefits associated with \u201chaving the network managed by an outfit whose primary job is doing this,\u201d he said. \u201cThey focus on it, they optimize it, they support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs part of the service, they would upgrade equipment as needed within the footprint of the service, \u201csomewhere in the neighborhood of five-to-seven years for a service of this nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCost effectiveness<\/p>\n
\n\tPitt\u2019s various schools use a range of service providers, including Coursera and Everspring, while Pitt Digital relies on a company called Infrastructure along with Dell for storage needs.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ll ratchet it up when we need it or manage it when it needs to be replaced. We do the same thing with something called VMware, which allows for virtualization of various servers in the data center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Pitt Digital provides network connectivity for residence halls and the Petersen Events Center, \u201cwe rely heavily on Red Hat\u201d for support services.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe same goes for cloud-based services through companies like AWS, Microsoft Azure storage, and Sales Force. \u201cWe run very (few) enterprise services on campus,\u201d he said, adding that Oracle business and human resources systems \u201care all cloud natives, so we acquire them as services. It\u2019s just a continuation of a trend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPotential benefits include modernizing Pitt\u2019s \u201caging fleet\u201d of network equipment and \u201cbasically having a simplified environment,\u201d he noted, comparing the situation to his home TV service. \u201cI have no idea what the network looks like that allows my television to be served the content that I\u2019m interested in viewing. That is all as a service, and there\u2019s a very significant network behind (it) serving up content.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHenderson also touted the advantages of predictable year-to-year expenses, illustrating his point by holding up a wireless access point device. \u201cThey\u2019re about $700 a piece, but because we buy 3,000-or-4,000 of them, that sheer number becomes a capitalizable expenditure, but the useful life, again, is between three and five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen a wireless passage device conks out, it\u2019s sent to Cisco, which delivers a brand new one, if it\u2019s still under warranty. A tiny optical converter box, which converts an input from optical to copper, \u201cwhich is all the wiring in our offices \u2026 alone costs $34,000.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is no longer being manufactured,\u201d he explained. \u201cOn the open market, we might get $300 for it, so it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense \u2026 to invest $34,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tNoting that Pitt has more \u201cpressing things to spend our treasure on,\u201d he said the University is unable to pay the same kinds of salaries as network providers, making them better able to attract and retain top-tier expertise.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBecause they do it as their core competency, they\u2019re able to achieve efficiencies that we don\u2019t, and it\u2019s more cost effective over time than our current approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tQuestions of cost and security<\/p>\n
\n\tResponding to a question about what stops Pitt from choosing, say, Libre Office instead of the more costly Microsoft package, and avoid being beholden to some company\u2019s rising prices, Henderson said, \u201cWe\u2019re exploring all opportunities to do things in a more considered fashion.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnd part of that \u2026 is coming before this group, and letting you know what we\u2019re considering, and receiving your feedback to help us inform our decision making,\u201d he noted, relaying an experience from his earlier days at Case Western Reserve University when a switch from Microsoft to Google Mail saved \u201ca ton of money.\u201d Students prior to the switch opted not to use the mailboxes provided. \u201cThey were forwarding mail to \u2026 other providers, Google in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to evaluate all reasonable opportunities (to maximize investments) the University is making in these technologies to support our faculty, students and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTo a question about the evaluation\u2019s timeline and implementation, Henderson said Pitt Digital is currently looking at network-as-a-service model infrastructure options.<\/p>\n
\n\tMost current services don\u2019t really \u201cat a campus level, run on campus. They\u2019re above the campus, so (running it ourselves is) not even an option in many instances,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re starting to look at what our opportunities are, what makes some sense, and what then becomes our communications mechanisms to get it in front of the community, to gain feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to start looking at all of these things over the next several months, and it will be highly considered before we implement anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJohn Stoner, teaching professor in the Department of History, questioned Henderson\u2019s assertion that Pitt could save money using a private, for-profit company that pays its employees more than Pitt. \u201cMy logical assumption would be, then, that the service they (provide) would actually be significantly more expensive despite economies of scale. And I didn\u2019t know if you could possibly address \u2026 where we might actually see savings?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHenderson provided the example of switching to an outsourced vendor model for the IT help desk<\/a> in mid-2025. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere were cost savings associated with that because, although it\u2019s a for-profit service provider, the economies of scale that they were able to achieve actually made the overall service less expensive than what we were doing ourselves,\u201d he explained, adding measurements of performance and availability \u201chave been greater than what we were experiencing when we were doing the help desk ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen asked how many Pitt employees could potentially be impacted by switching to outside vendors, Henderson said, \u201cWe’re early in our evaluation right now, and more importantly, I rely on direction from our HR and legal community on those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRegarding concerns about network vulnerability with an outside vendor, Henderson said Pitt spends \u201ca lot of money\u201d on network management technology \u2014 systems that provide intelligence regarding performance, availability and management of the network \u2014 and other ancillary tools that allow Pitt to measure security levels. \u201cAll of those things are baked into a network as a service model.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMany tools are utilized in what he called a \u201cvery large network operation center\u201d across which costs are \u201cliquidated against all of the clients,\u201d not just Pitt as it runs the network today.<\/p>\n \n\tA network-as-a-service model would likely provide what Henderson called a \u201cgreater thwarting of vulnerabilities\u201d as vendors provide a \u201ctrue 24\/7, 365 monitoring and management capability,\u201d he said, adding that a service vendor would not peruse Pitt IP addresses. \u201cThey will not be able to review emails or any of the kinds of things that we enjoy, from a privacy perspective, with us running it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHenderson added that Cisco Systems, \u201carguably the biggest network equipment provider in the world\u201d doesn\u2019t even run its own corporate network. \u201cThey have farmed that out to network-as-a-service providers for them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at\u00a0shannonw@pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share?\u00a0Share<\/a>\u00a0it with the University Times.<\/p>\n