Skip to main content

Rutgers IT Annual
Review 2019-2020

Information Technology Advancing the University Mission

A message to the Rutgers community

Michele Norin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, reflects on this past year and its many challenges in IT.

Rutgers IT by the numbers

473,347,153,575,834

bytes of typical monthly Internet traffic

5,600,000+

ScarletMail messages handled per week

99.88%

OIT Help Desk satisfaction rating

Explore impressive statistics, numbers, and milestones during a time of much-needed resilience and challenges.

COVID-19 timeline

The COVID-19 pandemic required Rutgers IT to pivot swiftly and implement new initiatives and technologies, even as we continued to provide the essential services and tools needed for faculty, staff, and students to work and learn effectively in a very different world. The Rutgers IT COVID-19 timeline highlights various milestones along the way.

Web conferencing use skyrockets

Without in-person meetings, web conferencing tools are a must. Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams usage at the university multiplied many times over the past year.

Supercomputers solve
super complex problems

The Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) provides Rutgers’ researchers with both world-class supercomputers like Amarel and the expertise needed to use those resources effectively.

mathematical operations per second, peak performance

Rutgers departments, institutes, and organizations performing research on systems maintained by the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC)

dollars in new research awards for OARC-partnered projects since March 2016

Keeping data safe and organized

A major research university like Rutgers generates an astonishing amount of data, and that data ranks among its most precious assets. Storing that data securely, backing it up to guard against loss, and organizing it so that it’s instantly retrievable is one of the Office of Information Technology’s core missions.

Enhanced education technology

This year has brought lots of digital innovations to education. In this section, you can find more information about:

  • Video tutorials with LinkedIn Learning
  • Updates on the transition to Canvas
  • Accessing software with virtual computer labs
Professor Marshall Jones teaches Theater Appreciation course in a Synchronous Classroom

Did you
know?

The Office of Information Technology ushered in curbside printing for a socially-distanced experience?

Rutgers University-Newark students were able to access $1 million worth of technology and software to help with remote learning?

RU-Camden IT was able to make necessary improvements on campus to prepare for a return?

Rutgers IT has provided the university with all of its technology needs – both on and off campus, near and far. These are just a few of the many IT projects and initiatives that made a major impact on the university this year.

myRutgers dashboard for faculty and staff

Expansion of self-service portals

Self-service technology makes it simple for students, staff, and faculty to complete important tasks, with a variety of portals providing must-have resources right at their fingertips.

IT in action

Here are a few ways Rutgers IT was featured in videos and interviews throughout this year. Follow the Rutgers IT YouTube channel for more content like this!

Returning to Rutgers: OIT providing virtual assistance

OIT was featured in the “Returning to Rutgers Safely” video series by Institutional Planning and Operations (IP&O). Learn how Rutgers IT support professionals provide contactless, remote tech help.

IP&O From Home: OIT’s role in remote work

Frank Reda, OIT’s associate vice president and deputy CIO, joined the “IP&O From Home” podcast to discuss Rutgers IT’s efforts in preparing the community for remote work, teaching, and learning.

2020 New Student Orientation: Intro to Rutgers IT

With orientation programs moving online, Rutgers IT produced a New Student Orientation video detailing the wide range of tech tool offerings for Rutgers students.

Sites@Rutgers

Sites@Rutgers has templates for professors, organizations, and projects that allow members of the Rutgers community to quickly and easily create feature-rich websites.

   500+ sites requested

   20,000+ unique visitors per month

Store, manage, and share with Box

Need a place to manage your digital files? You can store, access, and share all your files securely with Box. This free service is available to all Rutgers students, faculty, and staff.

28,311 Box users
three times as much as last year!

60TB of data stored
…nearly four times as much as last year

Expansion of ServiceNow ticketing system at Rutgers

The implementation of ServiceNow for IT Service Management continues to unify service and support for the Rutgers community. The Office of Information Technology Help Desk has started using the ServiceNow ticketing system to support select IT services.

BeyondTrust: Remote support for remote work

BeyondTrust allows IT workers to take control of end-user devices, regardless of their location, and perform nearly any type of software-related support.

average sessions/month pre-COVID 19

average sessions/month since COVID-19

   400 typical number of daily VPN users before COVID-19

   3,500-4,000 typical number of daily VPN users after COVID-19

Demand for Virtual Private Network (VPN) increases

Remote access to some Rutgers services requires a VPN, so when COVID-19 sent everyone home, usage rose sharply. Fortunately, OIT had just moved many users to a new VPN that was faster and smoother than its predecessor.

Introducing Rutgers IT Lecture Series

A new lecture series is bringing together the Rutgers IT community for virtual presentations about important IT topics at Rutgers. The first three events, which you can watch (or re-watch) at any time, focused on videoconferencing and collaboration software.

Inside look at Rutgers IT resources

Learn about Rutgers IT and the wide variety of resources offered to faculty, staff, and students, including the Rutgers IT newsroom, Tech Guides, security tips, web conferencing best practices, and more.

Data refers to fiscal year 2020, unless otherwise noted.