1. IT Budgeting with Scarcity
Bohyun Kim | Associate Director for Library Applications and Knowledge Systems Health Sciences and Human Services Library University of Maryland, Baltimore
ALA Annual Conference, Orlando, FL. June, 2016

2. What I will Cover Today
How to meet the challenge of budgeting for recurring large hardware purchases (e.g. servers, storage arrays, hosts) in the times of the flat or decreasing library technology budget and how to deal with them using cloud services
A few strategies for revenue generation to keep up with the increasing technology demand and expectations from library users
If there is time, some ways to balance the staff workload to keep up with continuous new IT projects given to the IT department without new staff or resources to accommodate those new IT projects created for revenue generation.

3. I. Servers, Hosts, Storage Arrays
Challenge : How to budget for recurring large purchases for hardware
Over $100k.
How to save up.
Varied ways in different organizations.
Look for a configuration that can cost less money.
Look for ways to rent out VMs at other schools?
Consider a cloud service such as AWS or Azure.
Not necessarily cheaper
But easier to come up with the monthly or yearly cost than a large sum for 5 years at once.

4. How to Find Cost Savings in IT
Create an inventory of all recurring IT purchases both hardware and software
Look of alternatives less expensive
Potential adjustment of the refresh cycle
Ways to repurpose old equipment to extend their lifespan

5. Hardware Inventory PCs Servers/Hosts/Storage Arrays AV systems
For the public
For the staff
For classrooms and meeting rooms
Servers/Hosts/Storage Arrays
AV systems
Other IT equipment
Printers
Photocopiers
Scanners
Staff iPads

6. Software & Support Licenses
SpecOps
VMware vSphere
Citrix XenDesktop
Certificates
MS SQL server licenses
Redhat
CISCO SmartNet

7. PCs & Network as an Example
A 5-year refresh cycle instead of a 3-year one.
Remove unused or rarely used features such as a DVD drive.
Retain old monitors if they are still functional.
Review network software support and how much it is actually used.
Look for more inexpensive configurations
e.g. Backup software instead of another SAN

8. Repurpose Old Hardware for Experiment or Redundancy
Reuse old but still functional equipment
e.g. Pi-wall with old LCD monitors
Save old servers and use them for storage
Joint purchasing for greater discount
Partner with other units if possible.

9. II. Generate Revenue Service fees Outside funding
Technology Fee
Fund-raising/donation
Grants
Important to keep up with the increasing technology demand and expectations from library users.

10. Fee-based Services for Cost-Recovery
On-site IT support fees
AV capturing/editing service fees
3D Printing
Poster printing
Digitization service
ILL
Photocopying
Printing
Scanning
Fax
Add administrative costs to fees that can include the IT portion of the infrastructure used.

11. III. Staff Workload New services may generate revenue.
But they may also generate additional work for IT!
How to balance the staff workload to keep up with continuous new IT projects given to the IT department without new staff or resources to accommodate those new IT projects is a challenge.

12. Balancing You can do R&D, propose, plan, and implement new services.
Separate R&D, proposal, planning, and implementation of new services from their daily operation.
Team up with other departments to hand over new services for daily operation.
Partner with other departments and collaborate to bring up new services!

13. Thank you! Questions?