Take 5 with Andy Palms Director of Networking and Data Centers

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Director of Networking and Data Centers

Take 5 with Andy Palms

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Q: How have you approachedorganizing your primary areas of

responsibility during this early partof the transition to a new organization?

Data Centers Added to Our Portfolio

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The Telecommunications and Networking areas are essentially the same as they were pre-ITS.

We decided also to merge our expanded data center responsibility into the existing organizational

structure.

We have a significant experience in physical infrastructure and a fair amount of expertise that can

be applied to data centers.

Take 5 with Andy Palms

Q: What are the most important pieces of Laura’s

wedding cake that fall in your areas of

responsibility?

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Rationalization of IT

• We are looking at networking to the individual jack, rather than to the building as we do today.

• This change will allow us to reduce the number of models of networking gear we use and thus decrease our costs for engineering and maintenance, while providing the same level of service.

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A Mobile Infrastructure for U-M’s Telephone Service

• We’re also looking at offering our enterprise telephone service in a completely different way, over a mobile infrastructure.

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Take 5 with Andy Palms

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Q: Recently, consultants determinedthat U-M’s in-house telephone service was

more cost-effective than outsourcing. What can we learn from this outcome

as ITS decided how best to sourceproducts and services to campus?

Put Assumptions Aside

• The most important lesson is to put assumptions aside and look at each service individually.

• We get almost all the possible economies of scale at our current size. Getting still bigger does not create more savings or efficiencies.

• Operating from in-house also enables us to stay ahead of the rapid change in voice technology.

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Bigger Cheaper

Take 5 with Andy Palms

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Q: What benefits can units currently

operating and maintaining their own data

centers or server rooms expect to see

with a new approach to

campus data centers?

The Benefits Will Be Many

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Options such as leasing, hosting, or using containers will help us free up the space people need for research data.

We think units will be more inclined to shift their infrastructure to a centralized model that enables them to manage their data well, once we address the funding model.

We should be able to demonstrate the benefits to units soon.

Thanks for listening.

Questions/comments? Feel free to email Andy and others on the

leadership team: https://backstage.itcs.umich.edu/transition/contact/

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