Business Chief USA February 2019

THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
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EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY
As one of the first universities
in the US to go wireless, The
University of Akron is currently
halfway through a complete
upgrade to replace its network
technology at the university.
The organization is also undergoing
a major security upgrade,
both physically and digitally,
to expand the security-related
infrastructure at the university.
“Digitally we have moved forward
with the implementation of
advanced security features with
our Office 365 products. We’re
also moving forward with multifactor
authentication and eventually with
a new identity management system. It has
been a challenge to balance the need to
protect our systems without making it too
onerous or complicated for our students,
faculty and staff to get access to the systems
and technology they need,” says Corby.
“With physical safety being a key consideration
for our campus, we are in the midst of
an upgrade and expansion of the infrastructure
that supports this. We’re in the early
stages of an upgrade and expansion of our
video surveillance infrastructure and recently
“IT WAS A COMPLETE
TECHNOLOGY SWITCH
FOR US MIGRATING FROM
A WELL-ESTABLISHED
SOLUTION TO ONE THAT
WAS COMPLETELY NEW
TO THE UNIVERSITY AND
THE NETWORK STAFF
WHO IMPLEMENTED
AND MAINTAINED IT”
—
John Corby
Chief Information Officer (CIO),
The University of Akron
Cybersecurity class
FEBRUARY 2019