During the past year, the Department of Information Technology has been working diligently to improve the technology infrastructure. In the fall of 2018, the campus server, storage and backup solutions were replaced with next generation solutions that greatly enhance speed, capacity and capability. In conjunction with these on-site enhancements, disaster recovery and redundancy has been established in a remote location at the State of Ohio Computer Center in Columbus, Ohio.
All of NEOMED’s data is being replicated daily to this off-site location, which gives us a backup in the event of a long-term outage of the primary data center located on the NEOMED campus. This disaster recovery solution provides a safeguard to a timely return ― if not completely seamless ― of mission critical services, ensuring that the University’s mission is being fulfilled.
In the summer of 2019, the IT Department will be aggressively upgrading and replacing the University network infrastructure. The scope of the effort required to ensure a seamless transition to a new wired and wireless solution will be significant and will occur over several weeks of conversion. All measures will be taken to ensure that the effort is coordinated with minimal impact to the day-to-day operations of the University.
Network downtime will be unavoidable during this transition. It is our intent to limit downtime to non-business hours and weekends. We will communicate appropriately to notify you of scheduled outages.
When the network upgrade is completed, network performance will be enhanced from a 1 GB connectivity platform to a 10 GB fiber infrastructure. Additionally, the new NEOMED wireless solution is a complete redesign of the wireless infrastructure ― from a 10G cable plant to the newest generation of 802.11ax industry standard for wireless connectivity.
The University has made a significant investment toward the future, funding a robust, latest generation, technology infrastructure that provides enhanced performance, speed and reliability with an eye toward meeting the critical needs in a new age of learning and research.
Effective, timely and transparent communications from the department will be key to our collective success. Stay tuned for future announcements along the way.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Ron McGrady
IT Director