2024 Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Networking Group Meeting at U-M

Eric Boyd, director of networks for ITS, provides an update on current network projects at U-M 2024 Big Ten Academic Alliance networks and WiFi conference hosted in May at U-M. (Photo by Joel Iverson, ITS)
Andy Palms, ITS executive director for infrastructure, contributes to the data center conversation at the 2024 Big Ten Academic Alliance networks and WiFi conference hosted in May at U-M. (Photo by Joel Iverson, ITS)
Network directors met in a hybrid environment to share expertise and current initiatives during the two-day Big Ten Academic Alliance networks meeting. (Photo by Joel Iverson, ITS)
IT leaders in WiFi from Big Ten universities met in a hybrid classroom setting to discuss current initiatives at their institutions. (Photo by Joel Iverson, ITS)
Walter Reynolds (left) and Sean Murphy (right), along with James Helzerman (not pictured), provided perspective for the rest of the conference attendees on current WiFi projects at U-M. (Photo by Joel Iverson, ITS)

Information and Technology Services (ITS) Infrastructure networks and Wi-Fi groups hosted the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) bi-annual network meeting on May 23 and 24. More than 50 network directors and IT technical leaders convened at the Michigan Ross School of Business to share IT expertise and foster collaborations among the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) research universities. The attendees discussed their current initiatives and shared best practices. This year’s main topics included:

Private Cellular Networks: U-M presented its efforts to build a lab for testing Cellular Private Networks (CBRS) technology, and its progress in engaging multiple vendors, as well as delivering the prerequisite network, timing, and compute architecture.
Role-based Access: Discussions centered on implementing role-based access systems to networks, data, and systems to ensure that only authorized users, based on their Job functions, can access the university’s information systems. Limiting permissions to only privileged users can significantly reduce a university’s vulnerability to information security attacks.
Cloud WiFi: The group explored managing the networks through a cloud-based platform to allow for remote management and operation of the network.
Networking Planning Roadmaps: Various universities shared their networking roadmaps and highlighted their future plans.

This is the third time that ITS has hosted the meeting. The next meeting will be held at the University of Nebraska. For more information visit: Big Ten Academic Alliance.