Standards
Introduction
The premise of adopting standards is to enable innovation
of technology within an environment that is well understood and defined.
Once the standards have been established, the transition from the current
environment to the evolving future environment will be planned and budgeted
for. These standards should provide direction for the development of
the future environment. The transition to standards will occur over
time; the intention of establishing standards is not to enforce immediate
compliance nor is it meant to preempt diversity and academic freedom.
The planned and budgeted transition should take into account the current
environment, the priorities and business directions of the University,
and the academic needs of students and faculty. The Office of Information
Technology (OIT) will provide assistance in transition planning to the
University community.Standards need to be reviewed and updated on a regular
and consistent basis. The technology in many areas, such as desktop
computing, is evolving rapidly and the standards in these areas will
need to be updated as the technology changes. The standards in other
areas, such as network protocols, may change more slowly but still need
to be reviewed and evaluated regularly. The procurement of hardware, software and computing
services is a vital process for the successful implementation of technology
initiatives. The following are examples that need to be considered for
purchasing:
- Review the cost benefits whether to lease or purchase
the product;
- Purchase a maintenance agreement on a product at time of acquisition;
- The University’s information technology environment is heterogeneous
rather than homogeneous.
- The environment is made up of hardware, software,
and other components from a variety of vendors rather than a single
vendor.
- Standards are important in providing the rules via which these
products interact with each other.
- Standards are essential in ensuring that diverse systems
can communicate with each other.
- Standards such as network protocols
and interfaces between applications allow systems on a variety of hardware
and operating system platforms to share information and data.
- Support costs are a very significant portion of the
cost of ownership in information technology.
- A well-defined set of standards
can provide the needed level of flexibility and diversity while, at
the same time, providing for reduced support costs and economies of
scale.
- The University must adopt a set of standards that provides
flexibility and diversity while at the same time ensuring compatibility
across the enterprise.
- Standards may include a particular vendor or
a particular product, but in other cases may be more generic.
DefinitionStandards provide a basis for reuse, inter-networking,
cooperation, and portability of hardware and software. Standards allow
different products to interact. This level of interaction may vary from
an interface between products to true product integration. The level
of specificity varies greatly from standard to standard. The two types
of standards are de jure and de facto.De jure standards are generally known as public or
industry standards, established by public bodies.
De facto standards are generally created by a single vendor with market
dominance or a highly specialized niche product.
Use of StandardsThe University will strive to select a single product
by category for both the academic and administrative arenas to achieve
the stated standard. The standards categories must be diverse enough
to promote the needs of the academic community. OIT’s ability
to support a product may affect whether or not it is defined as a standard.
Therefore, based on a particular curriculum or academic need, the presence
or absence of a product within a standard cannot by itself preempt the
acquisition and use of a different product or technology.
In the definition and the regular review of categories,
the University will strive to optimize:
- Economies
of scale in purchasing
- Benefits
of competition among vendors
- Support
- Maintenance
and repair
- Training
- Reusability
- A
justification has been included to support the decision of selecting
a single product for the stated standard until the next regular review.
OIT’s ability to support products that do not
fall within the standards may be limited. Therefore, it is strongly
recommended that products purchased comply with the standards as outlined
in this document unless there is an academic need for a different product.
As new versions of products are introduced, standards
should be updated as part of the regular review process to reflect the
new versions. This process will have to be identified in more detail
to handle the different scenarios that will occur.
The following is a list of areas for which standards
have been defined or will be defined in the future:
- Hardware,
e.g. desktop computers, servers, etc.
- Software,
e.g. operating systems, word processing, database management systems,
etc.
- Network,
e.g. network protocols, network hardware components, etc.
These areas were broken down into categories. The following
items were defined within each category:
- Category-
name of the standard
- Definition-
description of the standard
- Rationale-
reason for the standard
- Standard
- Endorsed
Standard - a standard that OIT is either currently capable of or intends
to become fully capable of supporting
- Mandatory
Standard - a standard that is mandated by OIT for compatibility and
connectivity of the network infrastructure (mandatory standards should
be avoided whenever possible and must be justified in the category
description)
- Preferred
Product (Administrative)– product selected for Administrative
functions. Should be the same as the Academic product when possible.
Responsible Function (Administrative) –The person or group with
primary responsibility for selection and use of the actual product,
including version and model options.
EU (end-user)
SA (systems/administrator)OITC (OIT consulted)
OIT (OIT only)
- Preferred
Product (Academic) - product selected for Academic functions. The
selection of a Preferred Product for Academic functions is not meant
to preempt academic freedom or inhibit diversity in information technology
for academic use. If there is no reason for using a different product,
then it is recommended to be the same as the Administrative product.
- Responsible
Function (Academic) –The person or group with primary responsibility
for selection and use of the actual product, including version and
model options.
EU
(end-user)
SA (systems/administrator)OITC (OIT consulted)
OIT (OIT only)
- Alternative
Product(s) – products that, while not endorsed, may still be
supported by OIT. While the University’s commitment to academic
freedom and diversity means that a variety of information technology
products will be available, OIT’s ability to assist users in
theinstallation, operation and maintenance of unendorsed products
may be limited or nonexistent.
- Justification
for Preferred Product(s) - justify the choice of preferred product(s)
- Technical
Considerations - any technical information that assists in the application
of the preferred product in support of the standard
- Review
Cycle - how often the standard is reviewed
- Timeline
- dates that reflect changes in the standard
