These are just some select principles I gathered from other institutions. We can use them as a basis to develop our own.
1) University strategic objectives guide IT decisions
2) Systems are secure
3) Designs target high availability and reliability
4) Systems safeguard privacy and intellectual property
5) Systems use the authoritative source for data
6) Open standards are used where possible
7) A platform-independent user environment which is globally accessible
8) Purchased software is preferred to in-house development
9) Standard products and platforms are adopted to limit diversity
10) Applications share resources
11) Systems are structured for easy extension
12) Management of systems is easy to devolve
For the network specifically:
1. Resilience: Avoiding any single points of failure on network path or service
2. Reliability: Equipment used to provide network services must be enterprise grade equipment.
3. Self-Healing: The network should self-heal without requiring human intervention in the event of the failure of equipment or links.
Core Principles: Decisions about the Architecture also reflect the following management "core" principles:
• Lower total project cost through up front engineering , e.g. requirements gathering, targeted research, proof of concept testing, etc.
• Design to support whatever use may become necessary while only implementing the part currently needed. This is a concept based on building to the moment while designing for the future. In that sense, support for evolutionary development and adaptation is more important than "doing it all" at any one point in time
• Achieve economy of skill, methodology, and scale where practical and where the benefits of coordination exceed the need for independent activity.
• Consolidate activities at the center where appropriate and, when localization is necessary, endeavor to achieve the benefits of consolidation in a distributed manner through a shared architecture approach.
• Restrict the development of critical components that are inconsistent with the established architectural principles unless there is a viable known path that will go from the developed state to the ideal state in a reasonable amount of time.
• Manage capacity by leveraging the commercial market for information technology solutions that provide for industry standard processes and scale and internal development where novel or unique functionality or purpose is required.
Information technology decisions makers must balance:
innovation vs. stability/reliability
standardization vs. autonomy/experimentation
accessibility vs. security/privacy
consensus vs. efficiency in decision making
centralized vs. distributed services
proprietary vs. open source
SUPPORT FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH: We will provide a responsive IT environment that enriches and enhances learning and creativity.
INTEGRATION AND INCLUSION: Information technology will help Cornell fulfill its teaching, research, and public service mission---to create, apply, and share knowledge by allowing members of the campus community to communicate, collaborate, learn, and disseminate, within and across disciplines and campus borders.
SECURITY AND RELIABILITY: Increasingly, the intellectual property and resources of our students, faculty, and staff are in electronic form, requiring that the campus IT infrastructure be stable, safe, and secure.
UBIQUITY: We will ensure essential connectivity for the entire campus, with basic standards of support for all departments and classrooms.
EASE OF USE: Campus applications, systems, communications devices, and classroom technologies will be integrated and easy to use.
ALIGNMENT: Campus priorities will drive IT strategies and investments. Information technology requirements differ among fields, and will strive to allocate resources appropriately and accountably, anticipating and adopting IT innovations and standards where beneficial to the campus as a whole.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE: Teaching, research, and public service require information technology that meets the highest standards of excellence. We will evaluate the quality of IT with the same rigor as the rest of our university programs.