[CSG] Distributed IT Support Models

Supporting IT in higher education is an interesting challenge. In many ways large research universities resemble small countries more than tightly organized businesses - they are very decentralized places where individuals schools, departments, research units, etc, have enormous autonomy and can choose whether or not to support their own infrastructure. Some departments at our institution have extremely large and highly competent computing support staffs, while others have little or no support.

There is a constant discussion about how best to organize IT support at this kind of institution - what best serves the users, what is most cost-effective for the institution, how different actually are the different units in their support requirements, and so on.

This morning at CSG there was an interesting session on how some of the member institutions are dealing with distributed support. I had to leave the discussion early to attend the Chandler Westwood advisory group meeting, but the notes I did take at the session are available here.