It’s been my practice to share some thoughts with you at the start of each term typically focused on what ITS is working on, or projects that will be visible to the campus community. I’d like to take a slightly different approach for this message and focus on the actions and strategies of others outside the University and how they affect us, rather than on the activities of ITS.

Enterprise software is changing. We’ve all heard about “the cloud” and possibly even Software as a Service (SaaS), but what do these terms mean for Drake? Even five years ago, when I arrived on campus, new enterprise software was installed on physical servers in the Drake data center in Dial. Drake ITS was responsible for the physical computers, storage, power, cooling, emergency response, software updates, security, and everything else needed to ensure that the software was available to our users.

Today, we are more likely to license enterprise software that runs “in the cloud”. For cloud-based enterprise services, we no longer purchase or manage the physical devices, facilities, utilities, emergency response, or the software itself, but instead purchase a service that can be turned on or off as needed and is managed somewhere else.

Integrated, multi-purpose systems are giving way to purpose-built SaaS applications that are designed to meet the needs of a specific function or operation on campus, but that have no relationship or integration with other enterprise systems. Today, Drake ITS manages or supports more than 30 cloud-based enterprise applications including Blackboard Learn, Slate, Zoom, StarRez, Raiser’s Edge, Starfish, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, HireTouch, Principal eBenefits, and many others. We also manage complex data exchanges with more than 50 applications to ensure that the right data is available and current wherever it is needed. This rapid and massive shift from local to cloud-based enterprise systems forces ITS to change itself rapidly and we are working hard to ensure that the University is well-prepared.

You may only notice some of these changes if you regularly use one of these cloud systems, but in some ways the rapid shift to Software as a Service is affecting us all, in particular the move to continuous delivery.

Continuous delivery simply means that vendors update their software on a regular basis in a way that is beyond the control of the end user. You may have noticed that the Microsoft Teams and Zoom clients update automatically, or prompt you to download and install the latest version of their application. Even Microsoft Office is moving to a continuous delivery model to resolve issues and make changes rather than releasing major updates every year or two. Going forward, I expect to see even more vendors moving to continuous delivery models for updates and automatically installing updates on their schedule rather than at the convenience of the end user.

So, bottom line, what does this mean for all of us? In a word – change. Our applications will continue to evolve with smaller changes happening more frequently and without warning. In many ways this trend will benefit us, but it will also require us to adapt to ongoing changes in the systems we use. Continuous change is coming to nearly every software application we rely on and the pace of that change will keep increasing.

I am focusing on continuous delivery because I believe that recognizing and understanding what is happening in enterprise information systems as a whole, and on our campus, will prepare Drake to more effectively adapt to these changes. ITS will continue to play a leadership role in navigating and charting a course through change for our faculty, students, and staff. Please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the ITS team and let us know how we can help.

— Chris Gill, ITS