Dowlin’s IT staff subscribed to Azure computing resources to run Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), which allows faculty, staff and students to use one user name and password to access the institution’s new portfolio of cloud-based applications for business automation, collaboration and customer relationship management (CRM). The strategy paid off late last year when RBS deployed Microsoft Azure, an IaaS platform that provides server, storage, networking and related capabilities. It’s much better to find an application that already does what you need, then pay for professional services to implement it.” Hiring more people or building an application whenever new challenges arise is expensive - and inefficient.
“People in higher education shouldn’t be reluctant to outsource IT services when it makes sense. But we can do a lot with a small group if we manage things right,” Dowlin says. “Certainly, I would love to have a giant IT staff. How do they do it? By capitalizing on the expertise of professional IT services firms and taking advantage of cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions.
Yet there’s another, much smaller number that’s just as meaningful to Dowlin: As the demand for additional IT services and support grows alongside enrollment, the 70 technology-enabled rooms and more than 1,400 computers at both state-of-the-art IT facilities are supported by a lean IT team of eight people. “Our dean likes to say that if the business school were a separate institution, it would be the second-largest university in New Jersey,” says Kevin Dowlin, executive director for the Rutgers Business School’s Office of Technology and Instructional Services.
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