From the CIO

Texas A&M University is one of the largest higher education campuses in the nation, both in geographic size and student population. Serving as the technological backbone of an institution of this size, our campus partners entrust us with deploying innovative, efficient and groundbreaking solutions. Our role was elevated in 2022 as the campus community at-large began the process of unifying teams and core services.

Within the last year, we have focused on unifying technology services across campus, growing our team from approximately 300 employees to a team of more than 800. This laid the groundwork to streamline and strengthen the services we provide under our new name, Technology Services. We remain committed to our campus partners with a focused effort to support and empower our team. Many of our staff volunteered to serve on working groups, providing valuable insight to successfully support large-scale priorities in alignment with the academic mission of Texas A&M.

The benefits of unification efforts are already taking shape. A $64 million 6E Wi-Fi project is underway to transform the campus digital experience by providing faster, consistent wireless access through the Next-Generation Aggie Network. We’ve expanded cloud service offerings, continued to strengthen our cybersecurity framework and infrastructure, and streamlined several software and hardware offerings, including Adobe Creative Cloud and Cisco VoIP phone systems campuswide. Future initiatives include a unified ticketing system and support model, and TechHub, a centralized store for hardware purchases. These enterprise solutions will set a standard of excellence for Texas A&M while streamlining support, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.

We continue to focus on building relationships across The Texas A&M University System, state agencies and academic units. We have expanded several ongoing partnerships, including helping in developing the “Aggieland North” project at the Fort Worth campus, establishing a highly flexible data network between the university and the Texas A&M-RELLIS campus, expanding the support system at the Higher Education Center in McAllen and continuing to participate in the growth of the EnMed program in Houston.

As the research enterprise at Texas A&M expands, our need to foster new and innovative ways to meet the collaborative needs of our researchers is accelerating. We have designed a dedicated collection of cloud-based resources that allow faculty and researchers rapid access to controlled, confidential and restricted data - anywhere, at any time. We are working with the Vice President for Research to build out a dedicated IT Team focused on assisting our research programs with access to new technology and accelerating their ability to implement technology in their research faster.

Technology Services is an organization focused on the success of our campus partners, and our approach remains steadfast in further supporting the university’s mission of teaching, research and service. I am proud to lead a unified team of technology professionals as we build a better tomorrow.

Ed Pierson
Vice President and CIO