The many benefits of cultivating a community among IT staff
Ken Layng · 2009
In decentralized environments it is more difficult to realize economies of scale, both in terms of development opportunities for IT staff and in terms of knowledge-sharing between IT units and staff. At Penn State, we are a distributed environment with multiple campuses and colleges - each with their own IT staff. We are essentially a collection of separate small-to-medium sized organizations. Today, budgets are increasingly tight, and the need for technical training is increasingly vital. While there are common problems and needs, the decentralized nature of the environment makes it difficult to address them with the strength or efficiency of a large institution.