Shutting Down the University's Mainframe:  the End of an Era

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This year's incoming group of freshman don't remember a time when the Internet wasn't a daily part of our lives. Use of the web has become so pervasive and universally accepted, even those of us with a longer institutional memory sometimes forget the daily workings of the computing systems we formerly relied on. Prior to the integrated, web-based system we use today, the University hosted the majority of its administrative applications on an IBM mainframe. Most of the administrative and academic offices on campus depended on this large machine to conduct their daily business but none of these systems were connected. There was no single, inclusive database that could be queried for a student's academic record and financial aid information, or an employee's HR and parking information.

As technology progressed, it became clear that UAlbany needed to upgrade to an integrated system. And as computers became smaller and more powerful, the large, oversized mainframe became more inefficient and costly to run. University administrators began planning the conversion to the Integrated Administrative System (IAS) in 1997, and the subsequent years were marked with numerous milestones as UAlbany converted replaced its mainframe systems with equivalent web-based services.

The job of the University's mainframe system was complete on June 23, 2005. A group of ITS staff and others from administrative offices who formerly relied on mainframe services gathered at CS-5. "Taps" played quietly in the background while Chief Information Officer Christine Haile shut the system down for the last time. The equipment was moved out of CS-5 a few days later, truly marking the end of an era for campus computing.

As with the end of any era, the new world is typically not far behind. Our migration from a centralized processing environment to a distributed, web-based one was no exception. The departure of the mainframe and much of the work associated with it resulted in a workload and staffing-level imbalance. In order to correct this imbalance a multi-step approach was developed and is now being implemented.

ITS bids a fond farewell to the IBM mainframe which supported the computing needs of the academic community for over twenty years, and thanks the many staff and partners who made our new, integrated system a reality.