Advancing IT Beyond Boundaries

Virginia Tech’s strategic plan, The Virginia Tech Difference: Advancing Beyond Boundaries, was approved by the Board of Visitors and launched in 2019 to shape the university’s continuous strategic planning process. The plan provides a roadmap for university colleges, departments, and units to set goals, invest resources, make decisions, and operate in service to Virginia Tech’s long-term strategic priorities.

The Division of Information Technology’s strategic plan for 2018-2024 provides a high-level framework for a continuous strategic planning and assessment process. It also describes several initiatives that support strategic objectives in alignment with Virginia Tech’s Beyond Boundaries strategic plan and long-range vision.

The Division of IT’s work during fiscal year 2023 reflects our commitment to Virginia Tech’s vision, mission, and strategic goals. Each of the initiatives, accomplishments, and programs highlighted in this annual report directly support the strategic priorities outlined in Advancing Beyond Boundaries, as shown below. 

Virignia Tech Strategic Priorities

Advance Regional, National, and Global Impact

Virginia Tech will be globally recognized for its research strengths, world-class faculty, and ability to integrate its learning, discovery, and engagement missions as a comprehensive research land-grant university. Virginia Tech will prepare graduates to contribute and lead in a complex world by offering person-centered and purpose-driven student experiences designed to educate the whole person. In alignment with the Code of Virginia, Virginia Tech will use distance learning to expand access to, improve the quality of, and minimize the cost of education. Virginia Tech’s impact will be regional, national, and global.

As Virginia Tech progresses towards its goal to become a world-class research institution, the Division of IT works to advance the university’s technology infrastructure and services. During FY 2023, the division made strides in expanding high-performance computing and networking capacity throughout Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region. We also facilitated University Advancement’s near-record-breaking year of fundraising through marketing application support. We continue to enhance our flexible and online learning systems to support an increasingly mobile and global student population.

• New 100G gateway allows for expansion of data-intensive research at Virginia Tech
• Program Experimental License expands to cover northern Virginia campuses
• IT Learning Systems powers online classroom tools as flexible teaching and learning become the norm
• Advancement is inducted into Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Top 50 with help from Enterprise Systems

Elevate the Ut Prosim Difference

The Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) Difference recognizes the integral connection with Virginia Tech’s land-grant responsibility of access and opportunity and its mission of service to humanity. Consistent with InclusiveVT, the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence, Virginia Tech will build and support communities of discovery where global citizens engage with different ideas, beliefs, perspectives, experiences, identities, backgrounds, and cultures.

By centering our core values of Trust, Care, Service, Inclusion, and Striving for Excellence in all we do, the Division of IT remains committed to Ut Prosim. During FY 2023, we demonstrated Ut Prosim in action through collaboration with university departments to improve the user experience, cooperation with students and faculty to bolster the university’s cybersecurity efforts, and ensuring continuity of services in the midst of major change.

• Cyber Range partners with IT Experience and Engagement to upgrade their web portal user interface 
• The Virginia Cybersecurity Education Conference celebrates its fifth year
• IT Learning Systems keeps key learning technologies operating smoothly following major reorganization
• The IT Security Office Red Team strengthens university's cybersecurity stance through friendly hacking services

Be a Destination for Talent 

Virginia Tech will attract bold and dynamic faculty, staff, and students to a diverse and inclusive community to be a force for positive change. Virginia Tech will support the well-being and quality of life of students, staff, and faculty. Alumni and local communities will recognize Virginia Tech as a lifelong learning destination. Virginia Tech will invest, empower, support, and value a workforce that will champion our vision for the future.

The Division of IT’s activities directly support the university’s ambitions to attract and retain top talent. From providing the high-performance computing infrastructure and expertise to conduct breakthrough research, to investing in the cybersecurity leaders of tomorrow, to enhancing the student experience for current and future Hokies, we strive for excellence to help make Virginia Tech the university of choice for students, faculty, and staff.

• Using UX Principles to enhance the Plan of Study process for the Graduate School and its students 
• The Virginia Cyber Range can offer advanced classes thanks to complex networks
• Enhancing emergency communications and campus safety through VT Alerts, security camera expansions
• New Hokies attend orientation online thanks to Enterprise Systems and Student Affairs
• Advanced Research Computing welcomes a new associate vice president, Dane Skow

Ensure Institutional Excellence

Virginia Tech will, through continuous strategic planning, create opportunities to solicit and explore innovative ideas, inform resource allocation, and engage the university’s system of shared governance. Virginia Tech will also optimize efficiency and effectiveness of administrative functions to ensure alignment of personnel, physical campus, and fiscal resources and processes in support of strategic goals.

As an operational division, a large proportion of the Division of IT’s activities naturally support the strategic priority of ensuring institutional excellence. Our FY 2023 work included measures to elevate security, enhance user experience with our services, improve efficiency and reduce costs in our processes, and enable more effective decisions.

• Leveraging User Experience data to enhance 4Help user support services during fall rush
• IT Service Management Core Data & the Configuration Management Database: Laying the Foundation
• Leveraging knowledge management to improve IT Service Management processes and benefit the user experience 
• Streamlining Single Sign-On through self-service SAML integration 
• Access Management Policy in Grouper 
• Login load testing saves time and money
• Improved endpoint protection enables quick response to cyberattacks 
• As the storage cost paradigm shifts, the Google Workspace Program moves forward on all fronts
• Helping the university make better-informed decisions about teaching and learning technology through Learning Data Analytics
• Enterprise Systems streamlines financial transaction reviews with FINTRACS
• Virginia Tech partners with OmniSOC to provide 24x7 security monitoring 
• Minimum security standards to be revised and enhanced
• NI&S keeps Hokies connected
• Providing reliable cell coverage through upgrades to Virginia Tech’s Distributed Antenna System