The IT Federation Program is a collaborative effort to strengthen how IT teams across the university work together. By creating more intentional opportunities to share expertise, align priorities and resources, and coordinate service delivery, IT Federation aims to:
- Strengthen security and compliance
- Improve stewardship of technology investments
- Enhance overall experience of technology services across UW–Madison
Grounded in the university’s traditions of shared governance and sifting and winnowing, the program takes a federated approach, aligning services and developing shared standards where they add value while preserving local flexibility needed to meet the unique needs of schools, colleges and divisions. A federated IT model enables innovation and reduces barriers to effective collaboration.
More about the phase 1 working groups
Phase 1 of the program includes two working groups focused on building the foundation for data-informed decision making and identifying initial services to explore through a federated model. Phase 1 will run from January to April 2026. Visit the IT Federation Program webpage to learn more about both work groups and its members.
Enterprise Services Work Group
This work group includes five divisional IT directors and five DoIT directors. It was tasked with identifying three to five opportunities for new or improved common enterprise services and defining the requirements for how those services would be managed, supported and operated.
Update: The group identified five service opportunities, which are being further developed into final proposals:
- Data Center and Campus Cloud Infrastructure (CCI) to endorse existing efforts already underway to strengthen shared infrastructure capabilities.
- Endpoint management and security baselines, beginning with a discovery phase exploring opportunities for coordinated imaging, patching and device security practices.
- IT service management (ITSM) tools and practices, beginning with a discovery phase exploring shared tooling and practices.
- Secure, campus-approved AI capabilities to deliver a safe and scalable AI service portfolio that supports innovation while protecting institutional data.
- Storage and lifecycle tiers to better support secure, research and general-use storage needs across the university.
We’ll share additional details on these opportunities and how to get involved in April and May.
Benchmarking Work Group
This work group was tasked with organizing existing university data and selected industry benchmarks. The group is using a structured and collaborative approach to develop a clearer cross-campus view of spending and potential optimization opportunities related to software, hardware, infrastructure, and IT staffing. We’re documenting data sources, assumptions, and known limitations to support transparency and repeatability.
Update: The work group has continued advancing its analysis of salary and non-salary select technology spend to better understand the financial landscape across the institution. Additional details on findings will be shared in April and May.
Up next: Phase 2 and beyond
After Phase 1 concludes, the program will formally share the results and begin planning for Phase 2. We tentatively expect to launch Phase 2 this summer and will share more details in coming months about engagement opportunities and what is included in Phase 2.
Why are we doing this now?
Higher education is facing increasing financial pressure, growing cybersecurity and compliance requirements, and rapid technological change, including advances in artificial intelligence. IT teams across the university are already responding to these challenges every day. IT Federation builds on that momentum by strengthening partnerships between distributed and central IT groups.
Contact us
If you have any questions, please email the project team.