Information Technology and Computing on Campus

Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) strives to maximize the impact of information technology across the Institute’s research and education enterprise in support of MIT’s mission.

IS&T manages the digital infrastructure, technology architecture, software development, cybersecurity, and overall IT ecosystem of core Institute platforms, including the computing and communications infrastructure and applications. Together, these systems provide the digital foundation for MIT’s research, academic, and administrative activities.

Connected campus. IS&T supports and maintains MITnet, the network that powers the Institute’s communication and collaboration capabilities.

• MIT’s network infrastructure in the Cambridge/Boston area is made up of more than 7,500 miles (12,070 km) of fiber, over 12,000 wireless access points, and 4,000 switches that provide on-campus connectivity.
• MIT maintains high-speed dedicated connections to a number of global research and education networks, collaborators, and enterprise cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.
• The MIT Kendall WiFi network covers approximately 1,000,000 ft² (92,903 m²) of outdoor space, providing high-speed internet service at no cost to residents and visitors to the Kendall Square area and surrounding neighborhoods as a community service.

Research computing. The Office of Research Computing and Data, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and IS&T collaborate closely to provide efficient and sustainable research computing resources. These include:

• A broad range of research collaborations and the digital infrastructure supporting the Institute’s core research computing facilities, including Bates Research and Engineering Center and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center.
• MIT’s 100-gigabit backbone that supports high-speed connectivity across its research enterprise, providing seamless access to the computational resource facilities located throughout campus and beyond, such as Internet2 and the Energy Sciences Network, which in turn provides access to the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Applications and support. IS&T develops and supports an extensive catalog of software and services.

• IS&T licenses widely used productivity tools (e.g., Office 365, Adobe, Zoom, Slack, CrowdStrike and Dropbox) for the community as well as discipline-specific technical software (e.g., MATLAB, SolidWorks) to support education and research activities.
• IS&T facilitates access to multiple enterprise cloud platforms and provides managed servers in a hybrid cloud environment for developers.
• Support teams provide 24/7 IT help by live chat, phone, or email, as well as in-person walk-in support during business hours in the Atlas Service Center to more than 60 departments, labs, and centers.
• The teams field nearly 100,000 questions annually, ranging from routine support requests to queries about more complex technical issues and needs. The Knowledge Base draws on the cumulative IT expertise at MIT to deliver thousands of self-help articles.