To create a reasonable balance between central control and local initiative, it is imperative that university administrations consider central IT units as complementary and supporting agents of the academic mission, not as their competitors. Incorporating accountability for service quality requires a transformational change in the prevailing culture. It is often viewed as easier to create another unit to perform a given function than it is to resolve a performance problem in an existing unit. The shortage of IT professionals will continue for many years. Universities will have to compete by using their largest source of talent students.
Security is an inherent central function.
There is no such thing as distributed security because the security of a multi-element system is only as strong as its weakest link. Visible central coordination of information policy and enforcement communicates to the internal and external communities that IT will be managed responsibly and for the general good. One of the most promising tools to mitigate budget increases in IT is to introduce economies of scale by standardizing hardware, software, and support services. A properly planned and conducted information campaign must then be accompanied by excellence in the execution of the plan and through appropriate financial incentives.