Page 19 - Campus Technology, August/September 2017

NETWORKING
the potential risks of deploying these technologies.”
He used facilities as an example: ASU has five campuses with more than 2,000 buildings. All were constructed with different materials, standards and techniques. In the cases where there are building information management systems installed, there is no set of standards that allow facilities managers to share data across different systems. The challenge is to develop a “single pane of glass view” into all facilities and operations, which facilities executives can leverage to drive down consumption of energy and resources
as well as do predictive maintenance.
“The responsibility of the CIO becomes helping to lead and
educate peers across the institution on what the impact of these technologies will be and how to prepare for it,” Wishon said. “In our case, we have the responsibility in central IT of ensuring that the security architecture and data architecture we are building can accommodate all the different forms and sources of data and the applications that will be used to leverage it across campus. The privacy conversation cannot be understated. The potential advantages of these technologies in terms of benefitting student, faculty, staff and visitor experience are going to be huge.”
Dealing With IoT Data
Some IT leaders may find the amount of data being generated overwhelms the campus’s ability to organize it, analyze it
CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | August/September 2017
and act on it. “Just because the data is there potentially for us to collect does not mean we have the tools we need to do anything about it,” said David Allen, director of enterprise systems at Pacific Lutheran University (WA). “It is one thing to connect a device. It is another level of complexity to do something with it beyond turning lights on and off and changing temperature settings. Every campus is a little different in terms of where the responsibility lies to work with the data and act on it,” he said.
Pacific Lutheran has had to think through the impact of IoT on its network, involving everything from its BYOD policy for students to washers and dryers in the residence halls that have IP addresses. “In our architecture, we have multiple network segments that we can put different kinds of devices on,” Allen explained. “Our access control system is on a different segment from everything else. We have to think about whether we want all the facilities-related devices on one network, or work with the facilities team to figure out how to segment that more granularly. Maybe lighting controls are on one segment and HVAC controls on another — in part, because there is some risk if one segment is compromised.”
UW’s Benson noted that it can be difficult for IT leaders to find time to study the potential impact of IoT and work to prepare for it. “CIOs have to work on big projects such as ERP replacements, which take a ton of effort and resources. That in turn distracts from other things like thinking about IoT,” he said. “I believe CIOs are increasingly aware of coming issues around IoT, but their plates are full with other IT challenges. I think we’ll see some organizational changes to help CIOs with IoT issues.”
David Raths is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. BACK TO TOC
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