Quietly, 2023 marked the end of an era on MSU’s campus as MSU IT removed the last remnants of the MSU Mainframe from the Computer Center this fall. For decades, the MSU Mainframe was the digital vault where vital student records were stored, accessed, and managed. Built internally in 1981, it served as the central hub for a wide range of units on campus.
However, the launch of Campus Solutions as the new Student Information System (SIS) in 2021 allowed the University to realize efficiencies the Mainframe no longer provided. The new SIS streamlined the academic journey for students, faculty, and staff. By hosting a collaboration of functions of the offices of Admissions, the Controller, Financial Aid, and Registrar, the introduction of SIS created greater efficiencies in processes, from financial aid offers and course scheduling to managing enrollment, grade submission, and degree conferral.
With SIS fully functional, a collection of MSU IT staff set forth to decommission the Mainframe’s software and hardware and move historical data onto alternate database platforms.
In the fall of 2022, the mainframe decommissioning project team oversaw the preservation and careful transfer of millions of student files, reviewing over 700,000 files belonging to 29 different offices on campus. In the process, the team eliminated redundant data, which mitigates long-term data security risks. In addition, decommissioning the Mainframe reduces $1.2 million in annual costs for the university by removing hardware and application data maintenance costs.
“The huge number of files involved in this process made it tricky to keep track of which had been reviewed by us as well as which had been discussed with the client office(s),” said Chris Wilson, member of MSU IT Infrastructure who served on the project team. “In addition, some files are used by batch processes run by multiple offices. It isn’t always easy to say who the owner of the data is in some cases.”
Wilson and the team worked closely with the affected offices to ensure they reviewed files and handled data carefully.
“Most of the clients I worked with during this process were clients in the Registrar’s Office and the Admissions Office,” Wilson said. “I’ve worked with many of them for years and already had a good working relationship with them. As a group, they are very sharp. They get what we are talking about and, in general, are just a pleasure to work with.”
Today, offices access information using a modern, efficient platform that utilizes new security protocols, adding an essential layer of data protection. Campus Solutions represents the University’s commitment to supporting Spartans throughout their academic journey through personalized student engagement, enhanced opportunities for student success, and essential analytics and metrics used to create a more unified user experience.
The last of the MSU Mainframe’s hardware was removed from the Data Center in the summer of 2023.
