In addition, access to the Internet enables PSC personnel to connect with rapidly growing services such as World Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS, and other universities and insitutions throughout the world. One of the administrative implications of dramatically i mproved remote access is that researchers can now do the bulk of their work from locations outside the Center if they choose, freeing up additional space. Although the transition from the old computing system to the new has not been entirely painless, it has taken place with amazingly little disturbance in terms of reliability. Network up time is currently about 99 percent. Computing support is highly proficient at PSC, and hardware or software problems are immediately rectified in all but a few cases.
All computer files are regularly backe d up, protecting users against unintentional loss of files.
The PSC received a much larger pro portion of computer funding by being chosen as a site for development, both by private corporations such as IBM, who supplied work stations and by the University of Michigan's Information Technology Department, who supplied software and technical support. Within the University, PSC pioneered network development that was later extended to the rest of the campus. Many products first used here now have campus site licenses, and the PSC has been chosen as one of 20 beta sites in the world for Netware-NFS, a product that allows Netware and Unix file systems to talk to one another. Ron Loveless has given group presentations and individual consults to network administers from many other UM departments regarding the design of our network. William Frey, in a mini-study written up in Applied Demographics, demonstrated how the program might even be useful on a personal level.