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IT Funding & Finance
Balancing Dollars & Demand
9/1/2007
As far as budget is concerned, we found that the wireless access points and the wireless equipment have dropped so much in price and cost, it's really not affecting our overall budgets at all. You can buy a wireless access point for under $50, and there is no approval process needed for something so inexpensive. Still, when it comes to total cost of ownership, wireless is not all it's cracked up to be. When you secure wireless versus wired, the cost jumps exponentially.
Engorn: We don't quite have the wireless mesh in place, but we will look for any rogue wireless access points and we will disable those to keep the networks secure, decrease the number of security risks, and ensure adequate bandwidth for those who are supposed to have access. We have the software capable of doing that. At the same time, when we build any new facility, we're going to make sure that it's wired and wireless. The issue for us has primarily been—in a graphics design classroom, for instance—if I'm connecting wireless, there just isn't enough bandwidth to transmit large projects to and from the server. Now we're designing classrooms that have the capability of both. So with this laptop initiative, we probably will have wireless in the classrooms, but at the same time, have wired jacks just in case. The only thing we're going to require for laptop users is an extra battery. But I'm not going to be spending money building rooms that have many, many outlets, and so forth.
CT: Are schools that moved to wirelessonly facilities now finding that they have to go back and install ‘wired' too, after the fact?
Laus: In our College of Health Professions building we actually had to go through and install additional wired jacks in all of the classrooms because the wireless did not provide a stable enough connection. I think there are quite a few other schools that have experienced this as well, especially in the residence halls; students often expect the wireless network to perform just as fast as the wired network, but because of the nature of wireless—all traffic broadcasted— this is just not possible.
CT: Moving along, I'm wondering about corporate sponsorships and partnerships, and how those affect your IT budgets, be they research dollars or just overall IT budgets. How much does the corporate arena play into your IT budget considerations?
Gatewood: I can't speak for the institution here, but I think this is what they're thinking: We'd rather not factor in the corporate partnerships or sponsorships because you can't depend on them. What is really sexy and cool for corporations today is to partner with big research institutions, but what will it be tomorrow? A CEO may change overnight and decide that partnering with research institutions was a good idea but now is passé, and so will let it go.
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