Featured Projects & Initiatives
Strategic Theme 1: Enable Virginia Tech’s Global Impact in Teaching, Research, and Outreach
Supporting teaching, learning, and research requires a sustained commitment to the availability of robust infrastructure, ease of access to software, and significant improvements to consulting and support services. Through this strategic theme, we are working to continue expansion of compute and storage capabilities as well as research consulting services; create integrated approaches to data management; foster partnerships with business, government, and educational institutions across Virginia and beyond; and support the adoption of new and emerging technologies for teaching, learning, and research. The following achievements from FY 2025 reflect our commitment to enabling Virginia Tech’s global impact in teaching, research, and outreach.
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Accelerating research and discovery through high-performance computing infrastructureVirginia Tech’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC) dramatically enhanced its HPC capabilities in FY 2025 with two new compute clusters, and major upgrades to the Visionarium Lab.
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Leveraging the Canvas Learning Management System to support experiential learningLeveraging Canvas allows program leaders and students to track progress throughout the experiential learning journey, using an already-familiar platform.
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Strengthening Virginia Tech’s leadership in AI innovationArtificial Intelligence is transforming how research and education are conducted across disciplines at Virginia Tech. Through initiatives like AI as a Service and the AI working group, the Division of IT worked to both leverage AI to advance innovation and consider how AI should shape teaching, learning, and research into the future.
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Virginia Cyber Range marks the ninth year as a leader in cybersecurity education, outreach, and workforce developmentFY 2025 marked the Virginia Cyber Range’s ninth year as a leader in cybersecurity outreach and education, and included 13 outreach events and key courseware upgrades.
Strategic Theme 2: Modernize Administrative Applications, Processes, and Data Platforms
As technological and educational landscapes evolve, Virginia Tech aims to deploy a more modern portfolio of integrated applications aligned with business and academic requirements. The Division of IT is partnering with groups across the university to ethically and effectively adopt AI capabilities available in vendor software platforms; prioritize user-centered design principles to create a seamless and intuitive user experience; and transform the university data ecosystem by implementing cloud ready architectures, streamlined security models, and unified data governance. During FY 2025, the Division of IT contributed to modernization efforts through multiple upgrades to user services and infrastructure.
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Google Workspace Program results in $960,000 annual cost savings for Virginia TechThe Google Workspace Program (GWP), a multi-year effort to reorganize Google services offered at Virginia Tech following Google’s restructuring of its higher education cost model, concluded in FY 2025.
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Identity-first architecture enhances login security and efficiencyThe Security & Identity group progressed in its efforts to move the university’s IAM policy towards identity-first, which offers enhanced security and flexibility and reduced error risk in the current technology environment.
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Microsoft 365 Org Chart improves visibility into leadership and team structuresThe implementation of the organization-wide Microsoft 365 Org Chart, which clearly delineates reporting structures across departments, marked a transformative step forward in transparency, accessibility, and operational efficiency.
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Microsoft Copilot generative AI tools help employees save time, improve workflowsAt the close of the Microsoft 365 Copilot tool pilot program, over 80 percent of participants reported positively ton the tool, noting measurable time savings, improved document creation workflows, and enhanced confidence in navigating digital AI systems.
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Modernizing business applications for optimal efficiencyOver the course of 2025, Enterprise Solutions and Enabling Technologies (ESET) made significant progress towards improving efficiency across several business and operational applications, reducing technical debt and producing cost savings.
Strategic Theme 3: Improve the IT Customer Experience
Our users are at the heart of what we do in the Division of IT, and we continually strive to ensure that our services are designed and integrated to best meet users’ needs. This strategic theme affirms our commitment to provide experiences that are secure, accessible, reliable, and consistent for users, and cost-effective for the university. This includes developing solutions that prioritize accessibility and usability, supporting professional development among IT professionals to cultivate best practices in a changing environment, and improving communication and collaboration within the IT community in service of our users. In FY 2025, the Division of IT achieved several milestones on the path to improve the customer experience.
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Expanding IT Help Desk services to provide more flexible, personalized supportTo provide more comprehensive and consistent support for users regardless of their campus location, the Division of IT merged its three regional IT help desks, and reopened in-person support services in Blacksburg for the first time in 5 years.
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Helping parents stay connected through the Hokie Family HubProviding a way for Hokie families to stay informed about what’s happening at Virginia Tech can help parents and guardians stay connected and be reassured that their first-time-in-college student is in the right place. The Hokie Family Hub allows parents to do just that.
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VT Open WiFi helps visitors connect effortlessly while reducing overhead costsThe new VT Open WiFi guest network allows Virginia Tech visitors to get wireless access in seconds, while providing space for students and employees to connect smart devices.
Strategic Theme 4: Improve Capabilities to Use, Manage, and Protect Data
Protecting and preserving the integrity and availability of data is critical to maintain compliance, manage risks, protect privacy, and enable research. Effective data management helps expand availability of core services that facilitate research and discovery while also taking necessary measures to protect data and minimize risk to the university and its constituents. Work in service of this strategic theme completed in FY 2025 reflects our commitment to improve processes, reduce risk, and foster a culture of security at Virginia Tech.
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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint allows swifter remediation of security threats at the device levelSince the start of 2025, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has helped IT staff identify and remediate over 500 security threats on end-user devices.
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New risk classification standard and risk assessment dashboards help departments track and maintain security complianceOur Security & Identity unit completed key work to define and assess risk classifications, including new dashboards to empower university leadership to identify and mitigate areas of vulnerability and track progress in improving data security.
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New university-wide cybersecurity awareness training program increases compliance by nearly 80 percentFollowing a complete redesign of the university's cybersecurity awareness training program for non-student employees, compliance jumped from 6 percent to more than 85 percent by the end of the fiscal year.
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Phishing Education Program empowers employees to identify and stop attacksThe Phishing Education Program offers departments the opportunity to assess their vulnerability to phishing threats through realistic simulations that mirror actual attack scenarios, and helps employees better recognize and avoid phishing threats.
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Updated IT risk classification standard provides clear guidance for protecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of university dataTo ensure departments have the information they need to effectively manage risk, the IT Security Office published an updated IT Risk Classification Standard for the university.
Strategic Theme 5: Strengthen IT and Data Governance
Healthy IT and data governance structures are essential to enable the implementation of IT strategy and guide us as we transition to more extensive university-wide services. Formed just over a year ago, the division’s IT governance, planning, and strategy unit (IT GPS) has worked to improve processes to support this strategic theme. The 2025 fiscal year saw significant progress towards a more mature governance structure with the establishment of the Project Management Office, a comprehensive IT policy review effort, and an updated IT governance framework.
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Initiating IT policy improvements through collaborative workThe IT Governance, Policy, and Strategy team conducted a comprehensive review of existing IT policies, resulting in an implementation plan to ensure policies are are up-to-date, compliant with relevant regulations, and aligned with the university’s strategic goals.
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New IT Governance Framework sets stage for stronger technology landscapeThe debut of a new, improved IT governance framework for Virginia Tech is a major win for the future of Virginia Tech’s technology infrastructure, strengthening ties between IT and university governance, improving coordination on project prioritization, budget and funding processes, and IT procurement.
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The Project Management Office: setting IT projects up for greater successThe new IT Project Management Office centralizes project management functions for the division's many high-complexity, enterprise-wide projects, facilitating timely progress on projects while providing improved communications and administrative support.
Core Operational Work
Our core operational work provides a foundation for our strategic initiatives to succeed. This work includes scheduled maintenance of services and infrastructure installation, as well as essential business services provided by our finance, human resources, administrative, and communications teams. The contributions of our operational employees are essential to our success. Here are a few highlights from FY 2025.
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Advancing research in the greater Washington D.C. area through network connectivity projectsNetwork Infrastructure & Services was instrumental in the completion of Academic Building One in Alexandria, installing infrastructure to outfit the building for research including AI and machine learning, wireless and “Next Gen” technology, and quantum computing.
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Creating a more robust, secure, and efficient research computing environmentAdvanced Research Computing completed a massive upgrade to its high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, consolidating its clusters for greater efficiency and power, and more than doubling its software stack.
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New Canvas tools added to our digital learning environmentIT Learning Systems built and deployed a new Canvas tool for Pathways and added five new third-party integrations to Canvas, supporting students in a variety of disciplines.
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Standardizing financial processes and accountability with the Division of ITConsolidating finance and business operations under the Office of the CIO allows the Division of IT to conduct financial and accounting operations more effectively.
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Supporting public safety and operations during the Metallica concertOur Network Infrastructure & Services team received praise for providing customized network and telephony infrastructure for this first-of-its-kind event, ensuring seamless, reliable connectivity before and during the show.
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Ushering in a new generation of telephony at Virginia TechNetwork Infrastructure and Services completed a multi-year effort to migrate more than 12,000 phone numbers, including for 28 remote campuses, to the Zoom Phone service.
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IT Strategic Themes & Project Progress – FY 2025FY 2025 project insights at Virginia Tech, including distributions by strategic theme and phase of progress. Visualizations show how IT initiatives align with university priorities—such as administrative modernization, security, and core operations—and track each project’s status from planning to completion.
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Projects Completed in FY 2025Virginia Tech completed major IT initiatives in FY 2025, including HPC upgrades, administrative modernization, data security improvements, customer experience enhancements, and core operational infrastructure work.