Infrastructure for Research, Teaching and Services
We will continue to develop our secure and future-proof IT infrastructure.
Innovative and secure infrastructure
Within this set of objectives, the University of Bonn is continuing to develop its innovative and secure infrastructure and technologies for research, teaching and learning in order to keep on reinforcing its position as one of Europe’s leading universities in the future too.
Digital administrative processes
Besides developing existing services further, the University is also creating brand-new IT services in order to meet the changing requirements of research and teaching with an international outlook and of a service-focused administration. As well as implementing the requirements set out in the German Online Access Act (OZG) and E-Government Act (EGovG), many measures are also geared toward shaping new ways of organizing work. These include an underlying project to establish d.3 within the University, which aims to map workflows digitally in the context of e-workflow management and the e-record type projects in the administration.
Knowledge management and digital collaboration
The topics of knowledge management and in-house digital collaboration are being explored further in the Atlassian project. Videoconferencing systems have also now become a firm fixture in teaching, research and academic self-administration. For this reason, the Videoconferencing project is devising a concept setting out to what extent and on what technical basis it will be sensible and feasible to use videoconferencing services long-term within the various application contexts encountered day to day at the University.
With a switchover of its systems in 2023 as part of the Alma project, the Bonn University and State Library will be making work easier and improving processes, including for the various specialist and subject libraries, by integrating library management more deeply in the University’s IT ecosystem.
Strengthening academic and scientific support structures
To help its members with their IT issues, the University is also focusing on improving and expanding its IT support structures, which are organized on both a local and a central basis.
High-performance computing
By purchasing a Level 3 high-performance computer and putting it into operation, the University of Bonn has reached another key milestone on its journey toward establishing a future-oriented environment for academic and scientific work in the fields of simulation, machine learning and data analysis. The operational and support structures in University IT and the scientific support provided by the High Performance Computing and Analytics Lab (HPC/A Lab) ensure reliable operation of the new “Marvin” HPC cluster and its efficient use in research projects.
IT support structures
The central IT support structures are being expanded to take account of the Hertz Professorships, each of which is based in a Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA).
The robust IT support structures available to the faculties are also being consolidated further, as is currently being done in the Faculty of Arts.
A future new data center dubbed "DiCe Cube" marks the first step towards re-engineering our central IT infrastructures. It is being built according to "green IT" principles. Plans are being made to build two additional and independently data centers on geographically distant sites. This way, redundant and spatially seperate structures are being created that can be rebuilt periodically to ensure a long-term solution for up to date IT infrastructure.
Cloud strategy
This expansion of the range of services is being accompanied by the formulation of a central cloud strategy. This gives an indication of at what points in the University’s day-to-day operations cloud services can be integrated into its existing services infrastructure and what requirements cloud services have to meet in terms of protecting personal data in particular
Details of other sets of objectives
Legal framework and security
We will both utilize and shape the legal framework in the service of our digital transformation.
Organizational structure
We will develop and transform our organizational structures in order to leverage the potential offered by digital work, learning and research.
Digital skills
We will incorporate, promote and harness the individual digital skills of our members.