Velocity increasingly drives the modern IT landscape. The convenience of being able to control nearly every aspect of our lives from the phones in our pockets brings with it an expectation that the companies and services we patronize and depend on evolve to meet our needs at breakneck speed. IT automation has grown up in that environment. Achieving velocity that would have seemed impossibly ambitious scant years ago, is now not only possible, but standard operating procedure in more and more organizations. Of course, new challenges continue to crop up, as they inevitably do. Now more than ever, it’s critical that as we adapt to achieve the speed our industry demands, we don’t lose sight of ensuring those demands are met efficiently and without increasing risk to our systems.
Balancing Speed and Risk in Universities
This combination of challenges is keenly felt in the academic community. Universities are subject to the same demand for increasingly rapid innovation as their peers in private industry. They must look to meet those demands while serving the needs of a diverse array of actors, from students to faculty to researchers, all while adhering to the myriad regulatory requirements inherent in managing sensitive student data or government research.
Using Chef at Texas A&M University
I recently had the opportunity to talk with two IT professionals at Texas A&M University on a live broadcast webinar. You can watch a recording of the presentation below. Adam Mikeal, Director of IT at the College of Architecture, discusses the regulatory landscape, challenges it historically brings with it, and how automating compliance helps his team meet and exceed their goals. Blake Dworaczyk, Senior IT Professional at the College of Engineering, shares what implementing Chef has looked like for his team, and in particular how he was able to meet the challenge of expanding his team’s adoption of Chef beyond the initial group of practitioners that put it in place.
Interested in learning more about automating your compliance? Check out the new Integrated Compliance track on Learn Chef Rally. If you’d like to get involved with our community, ask questions, or just hang out, come join us in community slack!