Strategies for Managing Information Technology (IT) in Microscopy Facilities

Microscopy and analytical facility managers are faced with an unusually broad and difficult set of challenges, including unrealistic cost-recovery models, a diverse and unevenly-trained population of sponsors and users, a heterogeneous collection of instruments, and the constantly changing landscape of instrument manufacturers. Among the most difficult of these challenges is keeping up with rapid changes in the information technology (IT) sector. Most managers of core imaging facilities or central analytical laboratories are not IT professionals, and they have minimal training in IT infrastructure, advanced networking, digital storage solutions, and IT security practices. Yet their job requires them to find creative solutions to difficult IT problems while operating within tight budget constraints. One of many such problems facing facility managers is the end of support for Microsoft Windows XP [1, This talk is focused on providing useful advice, specific concrete solutions, and general strategies for dealing with IT challenges in the context of shared-use microscopy facilities embedded within both small and large parent organizations. While many of these strategies may be valuable for federal research facilities and relatively well-funded corporate research centers, the target audience is facility directors and staff at smaller laboratories and universities. Practical solutions are favored over theoretical content, the strategies have been chosen because they are effective even when they are not elegant, and the emphasis is on free and open source software and widely available tools instead of expensive commercial platforms. When hardware is required, consideration is given to tight budget constraints and older, obsolete computers are re-purposed when possible.