2022 – 2025 OIT Strategic Plan Report

Introduction

From 2022 through 2025, The University of Alabama’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) executed an ambitious and impactful strategic plan aligned with the institutional mission to advance teaching, research, operations, and student success. Grounded in a strong commitment to reliability, responsiveness, innovation, and collaboration, the 2022–2025 Strategic Plan guided OIT through years of growth, challenge, and transformation. 

Through this final report, we reflect on the outcomes achieved across the six strategic domains listed below and celebrate the progress made toward supporting the University’s strategic goals. 

• Teaching + Learning 
• Research 
• Security + Risk 
• Enterprise Architecture 
• User Experience 
• Community + Collaboration 

Teaching + Learning

Goal: Support students and faculty with instructional technologies and services to ensure successful undergraduate and graduate learning experiences. 

Highlights

• Blackboard Learn
  • 100% of course sections utilized Blackboard Learn, with average daily logins surpassing 80,000, demonstrating strong adoption. 
  • Piloted and scaled adoption of Blackboard’s Ultra Course View. Over 7,000 Ultra courses by 2025; full migration in progress for January 2026. 
• Panopto Usage Growth 
  • Recordings increased by over 100% in the three-year span, delivering over 170,000 hours annually of instructional video content by 2025. 
• CIT Knowledge Base 
  • Expanded to over 480 articles with more than 65,000 views and 2,629 visitors by 2025. 
• Instructional Workshops 
  • Realized a 922% increase in engagement by expanding from 52 workshops and 121 attendees in 2022–2023 to over 100 workshops and 1,237 attendees by 2025. 
• Accessible Web Transitions 
  • Transitioned over 500 faculty websites from Weebly to CampusPress, aligning with accessibility and branding standards. 
• Audio-Visual Projects 
  • Completed 384 total AV spaces across academic and non-academic facilities and expanded digital signage to 144 buildings. 
  • Completed a major expansion of the outdoor emergency notification system, installing a new speaker array above ground plus 12 street-level speakers. 

Research

Goal: Provide IT resources and personnel to support and increase the University’s productivity and innovation in research. 

Highlights 

• High Performance Computing (HPC) 
  • Increased computing capacity from 192 TFLOPs (2022) to 766 TFLOPs (2024), with GPU-accelerated capabilities reaching 5.2 PFLOPs. 
  • Supported over 760 research users, including 200+ faculty. 
• Storage Expansion 
  • Doubled research storage capacity to 2PB, ensuring fast provisioning and expanded access. 
• Capstone HPC Environment 
  • Launched Capstone, a sandbox HPC platform for code testing ahead of UA’s leader-class cluster debut in 2027. 
• Research Portal & Training 
  • Published a centralized research software catalog. Hosted 8 research training events annually—up from 2 events in 2022. 
• GIS & ArcGIS Support 
  • Consolidated campus support under OIT and enabled new faculty-led GIS research initiatives. 

Security + Risk 

Goal: Secure and protect the University’s technology assets and the campus community through dynamic cybersecurity practices. 

Highlights 

• Threat Prevention 
  • Blocked over 90 million phishing and spam emails and 510 million intrusion attempts in 2024-2025 alone. 
  • Detected and prevented nearly 10 million malware/ransomware threats in the final year. 
• Security Awareness & Training 
  • Conducted a total of 140 phishing simulations, assigned follow-up training, and hosted in-person/virtual workshops for campus members. 
• Student Engagement 
  • Opened a Security Operations Center (SOC) staffed by 8 student assistants working alongside the cybersecurity team. 
• Enhanced Security Infrastructure 
  • Launched a research loaner laptop program, bolstered controls in high-security enclaves, and added modern monitoring tools. 
• Ensure Compliance 
  • Built a new team within OIT, the Research Information Assurance team, tasked with working closely with the Office for Research Security and Export Control to ensure research information security, assurance, and compliance with federal requirements. 

Enterprise Architecture 

Goal: Build and maintain a modern, resilient, and scalable technology foundation to support academic and operational computing. 

Highlights 

• Data Center Enhancements 
  • Completed a four-year refit of UA’s main data center, improving energy efficiency, redundancy, and infrastructure capacity. 
• Network Expansion 
  • Upgraded network switches in 26 buildings and four core network closets, designed 85+ wireless networks, and supported 6,700 access points across campus, reinforcing high-availability network standards. 
• ResNet Transformation 
  • Successfully completed the ResNet outsourcing initiative, delegating 40% of Wi-Fi access points to vendor management, enabling the networking team to focus more strategically on supporting academic areas. 
• Identity & Access Management 
  • Oversaw 358,000+ digital identities across students, faculty, and affiliates, with active migration of legacy domains. 
• Collaboration & Telephony Tools 
  • Unified all remaining academic and administrative units under UA’s centralized M365 environment, completing the consolidation of email and collaboration platforms.  
  • Migrated from Cisco Jabber to Microsoft Teams Dialing. 
  • Initiated migration of legacy VoIP environment to cloud-hosted contact center and dedicated instance environments, improving stability and security and meeting compliance needs. 
• Cloud Maturity 
  • Transitioned server backups to cloud-based Commvault platform; retired legacy systems to reduce cost and risk. 

User Experience 

Goal: Deliver a consistent, responsive, and accessible user experience through modern support models and tools. 

Highlights 

• Support Effectiveness 
  • Resolved approximately 46,000 support requests annually, achieving an average ticket rating of 4.8/5 stars. 
  • 68% of tickets resolved remotely, improving response time and flexibility. 
• Expanded Desktop Support 
  • Supports 7,000+ University-owned computers, with Windows 11 deployment underway. 
• Service Management Improvements 
  • Enhanced Jira workflows and status tracking; began modernization of printer and software deployment systems. 

Community + Collaboration 

Goal: Foster an inclusive and team-oriented environment within OIT while building community and collaboration with the broader campus. 

Highlights 

• Campus Engagement 
  • Expanded workshop offerings from 24 in 2022 to 87 by 2025, and increased engagement through participation in 34 campus events, significantly broadening outreach and visibility. 
  • Launched events like Microsoft Week and Adobe Day, connecting faculty, staff, and students through hands-on exploration of tools. 
• Professional Collaboration 
  • Hosted monthly IT Forum meetings with campus IT professionals, and two OIT-wide internal meetings each year to align around mission and values. 
• Digital Presence 
  • Launched a new OIT website and nearly doubled social media engagement. 

Strategic Plan Project Portfolio 

OIT completed 454 total projects across all strategic domains for the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan.  

Total Projects by Strategic Domain

Total Projects by Size

Looking Forward 

The 2022-2025 Strategic Plan has concluded with notable accomplishments, enhanced service delivery, and meaningful collaboration across the University. As we turn to the future, OIT remains committed to advancing technology in support of UA’s mission, leveraging lessons learned, scaling what works, and continuing to innovate.