VCU SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY
the supply chain and inventory better , something that has gotten more challenging since the pandemic .
“ Before , we had to manually check out items , like dental devices , dental equipment , and classroom supplies ,” said Canaday . “ Now , we don ' t have to do any of that . A person walks up to a cabinet , taps their badge , and they check out whatever they want . We can run reports on essentially anything and even monitor how many times an instrument kit is sterilised to help us determine its useful lifespan .”
All of this automation leaves time to focus on other tasks that require more attention , like teaching and training .
The team has also turned their attention to the architectural foundation of the school ’ s IT environment by assessing and upgrading infrastructure .
“ We ’ ve been working in step with the university to transition to a hybrid model that leverages the cloud where appropriate but also keeps many resources on premises ,” said Canaday . “ It was not an all or nothing strategy , a lot of thought went into making our infrastructure reliable with as little downtime as possible .”
Canaday emphasises their relationship with VCU colleagues . The university has a well-supported data centre on premise , and it is in the process of building a newer , better one . He also points to IP Datasystems ( IPDS ) as a reliable external partner who has helped to select , configure , optimise and help run equipment in the data centre .
“ For the things that we do well , we decided to keep them on-premise . For instance , the traditional Windows servers , SQL and Oracle databases and the third party systems that run on those servers ,” said Talley .
“ The IT team that work with students and our faculty members make sure we understand their needs and can provide a clean and successful experience ”
MIKE TALLEY DIRECTOR OF APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT , INFRASTRUCTURE , AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
126 May 2023