Support Data-Informed Decision Making﻿

The ITS System & Operations teams delivered several high-impact infrastructure and innovation milestones. The Server Virtualization team deployed a redundant virtual cluster within the Virtualization Service, empowering the Networking team to monitor U-M Net campus network more nimbly and comprehensively. The Virtual Desktop Infrastructure team built and launched a FIPS-compliant MiDesktop cluster for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, ensuring sensitive data is protected with NIST-approved cryptographic standards. And the Cloud Services team collaborated with Google’s Rapid Innovation group, Nerdery, and Ross School of Business professors to pilot a Virtual Teaching Assistant: an AI chatbot powered by Google’s Gemini, deployed via Terraform, secured with new domain and certificate management, and balanced through a cross-project load balancer. This innovative service — set to expand to 9,000 students across 72 courses and 26 institutions over the next two years — demonstrates ITS’s commitment to leveraging cutting-edge cloud and AI technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

System Operations Storage Team

The ITS System Operations Storage team capped off FY25 by completing a landmark migration of over 5 petabytes of data — including more than 700 file shares — from legacy Isilon arrays to the high-performance VAST platform, a painstaking effort carried out during nights, weekends, and early mornings since October 2023 and finalized in March 2025. In February 2025, the team also rolled out MiBackup 2.0, combining on-premises disk arrays for rapid, reliable backups with Amazon Cloud Storage for cost-effective long-term retention — significantly enhancing the university’s data resilience, performance, and scalability.

Linux Team

The ITS Linux team significantly bolstered the university’s cybersecurity and operational efficiency by rolling out an automated, monthly security-patching framework across all managed Linux servers. This proactive approach not only ensured that critical updates and vulnerability fixes were applied consistently and on schedule, but also freed system administrators from manual patching tasks — streamlining workflows, reducing human error, and strengthening the university’s overall security posture.

Organizational Development Team

The ITS Organizational Development team achieved Qualified Education Provider status for its Organizational Change Management (OCM) training — enabling certification candidates to save up to $4,500 — while introducing team-building, change-management, and facilitation services alongside networking events to strengthen performance and connectivity across units. They also launched an “OCM Backstage” toolkit page to support individuals navigating the people-side of change, and debuted five professional development courses — OCM Levels 1–3, Communicating Effectively (Straight Talk), Crucial Conversations for Accountability, Crucial Influence, and Giving & Receiving Feedback — all of which garnered satisfaction ratings between 85% and 100%.

Finance Accomplishments

With a $159 million budget, the ITS Finance department helped launch AI capabilities through financial modeling, establishing billing procedures for ITS with this innovative technology. The team created a TeamDynamix financial billing portal for ITS Recharge Rates, which accounted for approximately $31 million in FY25 billings. They also managed financial aspects for major incidents and future planning needs. In FY25, the Finance team also saw the completion of several major projects, including the ARC Research Computing Support & Data Center Upgrade project: a 7 year, $30 million capital project; and the Digital Asset Management Project: a 2 year, $1 million capital project. These projects are being wrapped in the FY25 budget, accounting for some of the $157 million in actual costs, $2 million better than the budget.

Core Applications Team

The ITS Core Applications team transformed ITS monitoring, service delivery, and security. The team migrated all Nagios users to a fully prepared Zabbix service — retiring legacy tooling while enhancing monitoring coverage — and simultaneously rolled out expanded customer self-service capabilities. Behind the scenes, the group boosted database performance to eliminate capacity bottlenecks, instituted standardized change-control processes, and reviewed the disaster-recovery plan to ensure resilience. In partnership with the PMO, the team integrated the Major Incident group into OpsGenie for streamlined alerting, launched a Service Center CTOP internship to share expertise and accelerate ticket resolution, and fortified email hosts by blocking malicious connections. Finally, the group deployed an ITAR-compliant GitHub instance to support export-controlled development environments, securing the university’s most sensitive codebases.

Research Excellence, Cutting-Edge Infrastructure

ARC made significant upgrades in GPUs and hardware in FY2025, constituting the highest performance improvements in the unit’s entire history. Comprising of startup expenditures, record-breaking investments, and faculty awards, this expansion of ARC services provides necessary infrastructure to a wide variety of research initiatives and underscores ARC's role as a central hub of support and collaboration across campus.

As a notable example, U-M faculty Venkat Raman (Aerospace Engineering), Alex Gorodetsky (Aerospace Engineering), and Aaron Towne (Mechanical Engineering) received a $2M award from the Department of Defense to develop an AI-driven scientific computing resource. As foundational components in machine learning and AI technologies, this new computing resource will rely heavily on GPUs to enable faster, more highly detailed computer simulations to solve complex physics problems. Although this project targets, specifically, the field of hypersonic flight, it represents an overall increase in research capability and opens the door to future, interdisciplinary applications.

Responsible, Secure Management of Human Genomic Data

Starting in January 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an update regarding data management and access practices of human genomic data, introducing changes focusing on modernizing security standards and aligning with frameworks set forth by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Currently, the Secure Enclave Services, a virtual server environment operated by ARC, is the only service across campus that meets these updated requirements, providing U-M researchers who work with genomic datasets with high-performance, secure, and flexible computing environments. To further support researchers and data security, ITS seeks to expand campus offerings that meet security requirements for other sensitive data classifications, such as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) from the U.S. Department of Defense.

`/scratch` Upgraded and Expanded

Great Lakes /scratch, a directory designated for temporary data storage, was upgraded to a faster controller and expanded to 2.4 petabytes, that’s more storage than 322 million GameBoy cartridges. These changes have not only enhanced data protection, but have also allowed for greater efficiency in managing computing resources and workloads.

ARC Website Migration

CIO Project Management Office

Last summer, the ARC website received a complete glow-up with a redesign more closely aligned to ITS branding standards. Behind the scenes, improvements were made to the overall functionality and accessibility of the site, reducing potential barriers between ARC’s services and U-M researchers who would benefit from them. There’s even a new ARC Maizey in the mix, an AI chatbot available 24/7 to field inquiries or help researchers navigate which ARC service would best fit their needs.

A Trusted Partner: Expert IT Project Management Guidance for Units

This year, several IT Project Managers from the ITS PMO provided expertise to campus units including the Office of Enrollment Management, the Center for Campus Involvement, the President’s Office, the Office of National Labs, and more. Their guidance included establishing and managing vendor relationships, selecting project management tools, and coordinating visits and press releases with executives for planning and designs for in-progress initiatives. A senior project manager embedded in the Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) executed AI initiatives that align with OEM’s divisional goals, such as developing and refining an AI tool that automates the mentorship matching process for the Office of New Student Programs and developing an AI-driven tool summarizing teaching evaluation comments for faculty.

The ITS PMO has also been able to lend expert project managers to lead projects at Michigan Medicine and the U-M School of Information. One senior project manager successfully implemented an enterprise platform to streamline clinical and supply chain activities, completing key integrations with MiChart by March 31, 2025, and fostering strong collaborations with ITS Fin, Periop Informatics, Supply Chain Management, and clinical leadership. Another project manager facilitated the implementation of the CourseDog Curriculum Management application at the U-M School of Information, enhancing academic operations to streamline scheduling, curriculum management, and faculty workload logistics, thereby improving administrative efficiency and supporting student success for both students and faculty.

These collaborations enhance ITS’s role as a trusted partner by ensuring project success through specialized expertise, benefiting units with better navigation of complex challenges, and leading to more efficient IT solutions. From strategic AI development to enterprise platform integration, the ITS PMO consistently delivers targeted support, securing improved outcomes across the university.

PMO Projects and Strategies for FY2025

CIO Project Management Office

The PMO played a pivotal role over the past year by committing resources and providing leadership in numerous strategic initiatives across U-M. The PMO's contributions have been integral to the formulation and planning of critical strategies that underpin the future goals and objectives of ITS. Moreover, the PMO has enhanced the organization’s agility, enabling it to swiftly respond to and effectively manage rapidly emerging and evolving strategic demands, helping to ensure that priorities can be addressed in a timely and effective manner.

Notable FY2025 Projects Included:

Digital Accessibility campus service
Cybersecurity enhancements
Wolverine Identity (SSO required)
IT Transformation
Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) partnership to build a new computing facility
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)

DART and CRM Implementation and Upgrades

Salesforce Education Cloud: The ITS Enterprise Salesforce Org service upgraded to a new Salesforce platform called Education Cloud. The platform architecture has features designed for an Education base, and we are Education! The goal is to use the innovative features Salesforce has delivered in Education Cloud and move away from custom development.
Implemented a number of DART enhancements including:
- Updates to recognition credits and adding new special recognition credit attributes to improve data integrity and reporting accuracy.
- Introducing a new method for processing online payment transactions, directly supporting the Office of University Development’s goal of enhancing the donor digital experience.
- Improving tribute management functionality, making it easier for users to manage and acknowledge tribute gifts within the system.

Human Capital Management

Remote Worker Integration in PeopleSoft: Automated the process for remote work agreements within M-Pathways, facilitating seamless collection and approval through self-service workflows. This also provides university-wide data on employee locations.
Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) Project: Executed a complex rollout to align with legislative changes and university leave practices.

Supply Chain and Financial Operations

LIMITS Implementation: Rolled out in all U-M Hospital Operating Rooms, further enhancing U-M’s supply chain management through advanced enterprise tools.
Check Printing: Outsourced this function to streamline operations and optimize resource use.
Worldpay Merchant Exceptions: Developed a specialized process for handling exceptions, increasing financial flexibility.
Chrome River (Emburse Enterprise) Expense Management: Supported the implementation of a new expense management tool, responding to the demand for better integration with new travel systems and improved user experience.

Student Administration Enhancements

Official Transcripts Ordering: Alumni can now order transcripts online without needing U-M login credentials, removing the hassle of paper forms. Students benefit as well, with the ability to send transcripts electronically to services like LSAC and NursingCAS, ensuring quicker delivery and a smoother process. These enhancements have led to a 70% drop in transcript-related TeamDynamix emails and a 30% decline in phone inquiries, significantly easing our department's workload. Additionally, individuals who graduated before fall 1993 can now receive PDF transcripts, further reducing paper mailings. Those who have used the service have expressed appreciation for the faster and more convenient electronic options.
Admissions Prospective Student Record Cleanup: Reconciled more than 200,000 prospect records, thereby improving system performance and reducing personal data access, aligning with data protection principles.
SPACES (SPecialized Academic Classroom & Event Scheduling) Implementation: Implemented new system supporting over 12,000 class sections and 11,000 events, ensuring efficient resource allocation and scheduling.

Research Administration Advancements

Framework Upgrades: Upgraded two critical systems to support enhanced research capabilities.
AI for Awards: Conceived and implemented AI application for award processing, reducing direct data entry and related staff time for ORSP.
eResearch Replacement Systems Recommendation Project: The current eResearch platform is being phased out by the vendor by 2031. In the planning phase we are exploring various strategic options to develop a roadmap that allows for a smooth transition with minimal disruption.

Strategic Collaborations and Initiatives

ITS Emerging Technology

Disaster Recovery: Continued emphasis on developing robust disaster recovery protocols.
AI: Achieved a 100% completion rate across EAS in the AI 8-week Challenge and created an EAS AI Champions program, fostering an innovation-driven culture.
Professional Development Engagement: Conducted a survey to align professional growth initiatives with staff interests and organizational needs.

Launching Higher Ed’s First Mobile AI App

Less than a year after introducing U-M’s custom set of AI tools, the first of its kind in higher education, the Emerging Technology team set their sights on the next milestone: an AI mobile app provided to the campus community at no cost.

Go Blue, the powerful mobile AI app, was launched in February 2025. Providing real-time, U-M specific information such as dining hall menus, bus schedules, and fun facts, Go Blue enhances life on the Ann Arbor campus for students, faculty, and staff, all while providing simultaneous access to OpenAI’s GPT4 model.

The first release of Go Blue is a great starting point in exploring what we can build at U-M. As the Emerging Technology team continues to add data sources and functionality to the app, it will become an even better campus companion.

Help us shape the future of AI at U-M by joining the Go Blue Beta Testing Team

Maizey and Canvas: the Perfect Match

ITS Emerging Technology

As generative artificial intelligence became more integrated with campus life in FY2025, we saw instructors and students engage with U-M's tools more than ever. The U-M Maizey LTI Connector was used to create over 500 AI tutors, accessible around-the-clock, with access to course materials provided in Canvas.

The LTI Connector turns a few clicks by an instructor into a virtual teaching assistant with access to lecture slides, recordings, and more. Approximately 5,500 students engaged with course-custom Maizeys to ask questions, create study guides, and more deeply understand the material outside the classroom and office hours.

Maizeys created using the U-M Maizey LTI Connector are even accessible to students through Go Blue. When the student signs in to the app, the Maizeys created in Canvas are automatically connected so they can even study on the go!

More Engagement Than Ever

ITS Emerging Technology

FY2025 saw an increase in the number of wolverines engaging with U-M's AI services. The total number of users of U-M GPT surpassed 43,800, increasing by over 30%, and over 5,800 unique Maizey projects were created. These numbers are not only a testament to AI’s increasing popularity but to the 12 releases of new tools and features made by the Emerging Technology team. With each release, improvements to the functionality of U-M GPT, Maizey, and Go Blue made engaging with U-M's custom AI tools more effective and accessible for everyone on campus.

U-M GPT used 102,319,599,639 tokens, which is equal to about 76.7 billion words — that’s enough words to repeat Taylor Swift’s discography over 900,000 times (vault tracks included), fill enough sheets of paper with 12pt font, when laid end to end, to circumnavigate the globe with 2,000 miles to spare, or over 1.5 million copies of the Dune and Wicked screenplays combined — talk about holding space, it’s time to call ARC for an increase in storage!

Supporting a Credible, Implementable, Enforceable, and Sustainable IT Policy Environment

ITS Information Assurance & Office of Privacy

In December 2024, the ITS Office of Privacy released a new IT standard and comprehensive guidance related to protecting university-owned systems, Endpoint Security Administration (DS-23). The standard formalizes guidance around implementation of enterprise-enhanced endpoint protection, adherence to the principle of least functionality, and maintenance of the inventory of university-owned systems, and helps units meet requirements around protecting our institution’s valuable digital assets.

In February 2025, the Office of Privacy published an important revision of the IT Standard on Network Security (DS-14) that introduces measures that further protect the university’s valuable digital assets and data, while continuing to support open access to resources across a diverse academic environment.

The team also developed a new self-service tool to help faculty and staff classify the data they are working with against the U-M data classification levels. This tool provides non-dispositive guidance to help plan for working with and protecting sensitive data.

Enabling Broad Training and Effective Engagement

ITS Information Assurance & Office of Privacy

In September 2024, the ITS Office of Privacy delivered an update to the required training for ITS staff. The new Data Protection for ITS course consolidates multiple courses on data protection, resulting in a comprehensive 30-minute data protection course that is streamlined, engaging, and accessible. A version of the course was made available to Unit IT and several organizations, such as Student Life IT, have successfully adopted it as a requirement for their staff.

In April 2025, the team released a new DCE101: Cybersecurity and Data Protection at U-M training course. The course provides practical data protection guidance and cybersecurity awareness for faculty and staff across all U-M academic campuses in a modern, engaging, and accessible format.

The Office of Privacy is also working to deliver role-based experiences and resources. Launched in March 2025, the Safe Computing for Students page provides a one-stop shop for students needing quick access to information about scams affecting U-M students, tips for staying safe online and protecting their privacy, and guidance on how to report phishing. The page is featured in new-student orientation materials.

Praise for the New Trainings

“Wow! It’s so good! . . . the best example of this type of training I’ve ever seen.”
– Anonymous U-M Staff member

“[An] excellent blend of detail and general information, which supports its objective,” and “was actually kind of fun!”
– Nigel Melville, associate professor of technology and operations at the Ross School of Business

“Excellent….All of the specific examples around phishing were super helpful.”
– Mike Daniel, chief operating officer at the Center for Academic Innovation

Advanced Tools for User Support and Service Optimization

ITS Support Services

The Tech Help team facilitated 1,250 laptop loans via the Sites @ Home program and processed over 12,000 MCard transactions. By adopting dedicated asset management within TDX, Tech Help has improved efficiency and user experiences through automation.

TDX expanded further by onboarding nine groups to individual TDX applications and adding three to Campus Tickets, now boasting over 75 active user groups and processing more than 3,700 ticket transfers, including collaborations with Michigan Medicine.

Collaboration Services championed lifecycle improvements in Google Workspace by instituting annual renewal processes for shared drives and accounts. New self-service tools considerably reduced collaborators’ ticket workload by 25%, enhancing service efficiency.

Enhanced Campus Digital Accessibility Offerings and Services

ITS Support Services

Two key tools designed to enhance digital accessibility launched this year: Grackle and Panorama. Grackle, an add-on for Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets, empowers users to improve content accessibility for students and colleagues. Panorama, integrated into Canvas, offers data dashboards on course content accessibility, along with instructor tools for content creation and remediation and student tools for generating alternate formats. These tools significantly advance the accessibility of educational and work materials, supporting compliance with accessibility standards.

GenAI Workshop Series

Building on a successful launch from FY24, Teaching & Learning offered a comprehensive series of Generative AI workshops throughout the year, delivering 80+ workshops to 1,689 participants. Adapting to participant feedback, these sessions adopted a new format and expanded the range of topic areas to meet the varied interests and needs of instructors, staff, and students.

To complement these workshops, participants were offered three newly developed GenAI badges through the Canvas Credentials program, allowing them to showcase their new GenAI proficiencies on platforms such as LinkedIn.

Alongside the workshop series, the team also introduced the self-paced course, “Teaching with GenAI,” which has had over 300 participants to date.

Teaching with GenAI Learning Community

At the beginning of 2025, Teaching & Learning launched the Teaching with GenAI Learning Community, a community of practice co-sponsored by CRLT, Flint ODE, LSA Technology Services, and ITS. Sixty-one faculty and instructional staff eagerly explored how to effectively integrate GenAI into their teaching practices and build a network of support among peers. Between January and June, the group met monthly, hosting dynamic sessions that included hands-on projects, challenges, and an instructor panel with participants from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses.

"The [meeting] flew by and the two breakout sessions were great opportunities to meet people on my own campus who are wrestling with AI, too... I have not thought about how AI can solve a problem for me; I always saw it as the problem. I am changing my thinking already. Looking forward to the learning."

— Jennifer Coon, Director, College of Business, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Learning Analytics in Action 2025: Enriching Your Teaching with Data

In April, the Teaching & Learning team hosted the inaugural ‘Learning Analytics in Action 2025: Enriching Your Teaching with Data’ event, a comprehensive showcase of how the effective use of data can transform classrooms and enhance student success. Teaching & Learning provided a full day of presentations and use cases to over 75 faculty, instructional staff, advisors, and other interested parties. Participants discovered how Canvas, MiVideo, Annoto and other available learning tools can offer a wealth of valuable insights into student engagement and performance. Attendees were able to learn from a broad spectrum of U-M educators and came away from the event with practical techniques to incorporate into their classrooms and daily workflows.

Testamonials

“I am so excited to figure out how to use MiVideo and Annoto! I use videos in my Canvas course, but until this session, I had never heard of MiVideo or Annoto…”

“I was already familiar with [Student Success Viewer], but not actively using it. I got exactly the nudge I needed to hop in… Super valuable tool for me as an advisor.”

“[My Learning Analytics] was completely new for me and really interesting!”

Remote Office Hours Queue

The Remote Office Hours Queue also received important updates that improved the performance and security of the app throughout the year. Among these updates, queue owners gained the ability to see usage information and to export that data for various purposes. T&L received enthusiastic feedback regarding this upgrade, particularly from advising offices who frequently use ROHQ, as it allows for better understanding and evaluation of advising service utilization.

MyLA