Recommendations for Internal UMBC Networks

• Every faculty member and support staff member with a demonstrated need should have a networked computer on their desk. Most of these should be capable of running state-of-the-art network discovery tools such as Mosaic and GUI-based email clients. The minimum network connection speed should be 10 MBS ethernet speed. A careful cost accounting of the resources required to implement this would be useful. A quick calculation indicates that the funds required to put a networked computer on every full-time faculty desktop, with a 3-5 year replacement cycle, is on the order of $200,000 per year. Faculty would probably make most efficient use of portable computers that could be used on campus and at home. This would encourage faculty to use ITT technologies, and give them access to a subset of these technologies at home where faculty are more likely to have time to both use and learn ITT. In addition, in some disciplines researchers must have portable computers for data entry at research sites. This need is especially great in the humanities and social sciences where it is difficult to find external funding for computers.

• UMBC researchers will have a far greater reliance on a high-speed network than in the past. A high speed network allows virtual desktop access to the cheapest, most powerful resources available on the network. Because the physical separation of compute, storage, and visualization hardware becomes possible, economies of scale are possible. For example, a high-speed network will give faculty the maximum flexibility for efficient use of expensive ITT resources, such as the SGI Challenge. UMBC should begin installation of a new hub-based network that will alleviate bottlenecks in our existing network and allow increased sharing of resources that the next generation network speeds will make possible.

• Sufficient support for both the new networking software and hardware is absolutely vital. UMBC's Academic Computing Services is understaffed in comparison to similar institutions providing similar services. At this time, ACS provides widely varying services to PC/Mac users, and these services are not well advertised. A standard set of minimal services that can be made available to all users should be established and these services advertised aggressively. These services should concentrate on network communications and information retrieval tools rather than standard applications that are traditionally loaded on local hard disks.