We’ve come a long way, baby! That’s the overriding sentiment shared by the Next Generation Network (NGN) team, which has worked diligently for the past seven years to bring Yale University a new, modern core infrastructure.
The team’s commitment to providing a great experience for the community and their keen focus on continuous improvement have successfully migrated over 244 out of 340 buildings. This means that more than 72% of the campus is currently running on NGN, and the remaining buildings in scope are expected to be transitioned to the new network within the upcoming year.
A deep respect for Yale’s mission and community members drives the team to deliver NGN’s enhanced security, speed, and reliability to the students, faculty, and staff who rely on it to advance their work. This has helped to propel the project forward, especially through challenging times. Shortly after the first building was migrated to NGN in 2020, Covid presented myriad issues that limited the team’s progress; with only 21 buildings migrated to NGN in the fiscal year 2021, the project’s projected timeline was in jeopardy. With careful reflection, strategizing, and key decisions by leadership, by fiscal year 2024, the team could more than quadruple that amount and migrate 90 buildings in a year. NGN program director Shawn Clark states, “Our team’s exceptional collaboration, commitment to excellence, and systems-thinking mindset have been the backbone of this program, enabling progress even in times of adversity.”