Innovations on college campuses often act as harbingers of enterprise technology deployments. At Pepperdine University, the IT security team is dealing with the growing variety of user devices on the network in part by incorporating cloud-based services into the security strategy, reports Dennis McCAfferty at CIOInsight.  

The university's identity infrastructure is connected to its 400-plus switches and 650 wireless access points throughout the campus. When users register their devices using an ID and password, the information security team is able to determine the level of network access that they should be allowed, according to Kim Cary, chief information security officer at Pepperdine.  

Cary is able to maintain a "live census" of every device on the network and its configuration. He can see which operating systems and devices are being used in various capacities and locations. If a devices is stolen or misplaced and someone tries to use it on the network, he can pinpoint its location, and the university's public safety office is automatically alerted.

Pepperdine began migrating its security model from a "LAN-based plantation monoculture" to "systems that can manage the Internet ecosystem and a variety of devices," several years ago, Cary said. His team leans toward technologies that use automation.

The university is taking advantage of cloud-based services as part of its mobile IT strategy. "Some organizations may be holding back on incorporating mobile devices and Internet cloud services. But in the end, like us, many will conclude that it's best to incorporate cloud infrastructure and services from those that excel in those fields, and focus IT instead on their core business processes."

For more:
- see Dennis McCafferty's article at CIOInsight

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