Westmont Makes Prestigious IT List

Westmont, which is quickly becoming a leader in cloud-based technology, has been named to a prestigious information technology list. The annual InfoWorld 100 Awards chose Westmont as one of 100 IT organizations that have “implemented and integrated technologies in innovative ways in pursuit of concrete business goals,” according to their Web site.

Westmont is one of seven colleges and universities named to a list that includes University of San Diego, George Washington University, Harvard Medical School, Purdue University, University of Chicago Medical Center and West Virginia University. Other businesses include the Cleveland Indians, New York Stock Exchange, Southwest Airlines and the U.S. Army.

Reed Sheard, vice president and CIO of information technology, has led Westmont’s cloud computing initiative. The college has moved specific elements of its information technology infrastructure to a cloud-centric one, migrating several systems to cloud-based services provided by Meraki, Google, Postini and Salesforce.com. “The IT department supports over 135 unique services for the Westmont community,” Sheard says. “Delivering reliable, 24-7 availability of these services is quite a daunting task. By moving specific services such as email, spam filtering, email storage, collaboration and wireless management to the cloud, the IT team is freed up to work on areas more strategic to the college.”

One of the new strategic areas IT focused on was the installation of an 802.11n wireless network that creates a wireless cloud over the entire campus. Westmont was one of the first colleges in the country to move entirely to the high-speed, wireless network. This computing technology offers many benefits to faculty, staff, students and visitors, who are increasingly using laptop computers and handheld, Internet-based devices such as an iPhone or Google Android phone.

“In the past, we hadn’t had the same level of excellence in our technology infrastructure that we’ve accomplished in our academic program,” Sheard says. “We picked some vital areas where we wanted to lead and while we have a long way to go, receiving this award is an important indication that we are on the right path.”

For more information about the InfoWorld 100 Awards, please visit: http://www.infoworld.com/t/it-management/top-100-it-projects-2009-860.