Principle 19 - Infrastructure -
Communications within the University
The telecommunications infrastructure must be standardized to allow reliable,
easy interaction among individuals, work groups, departments, schools, and
centers.
 Rationale
Penn explicitly wishes to distinguish itself as the research university that
integrated people and programs across disciplines and schools, fostering creativity
and innovation. Costs can be contained and resources leveraged when the work
group is no longer bound by physical proximity.
Implications
- Appropriate University communications standards are required. This should
include standards for wiring, protocols, hardware and software.
- Balance must be sought among infrastructure solutions that optimize local
work group connectivity and cross-University connectivity.
- The infrastructure must accommodate off-campus connectivity, including ,
remote sites, and the needs of business travelers.
- Communications infrastructure alone will not enable fluid, ad hoc, project-determined
work group computing. Appropriate hardware and software standards and management
structures are required.
- Opportunities for resource sharing across the network must be exploited.
- Work group computing strategies must be developed to reduce the cost of
shareable software licenses and expensive peripheral hardware.
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