Medical University Innsbruck

System creation at the highest level

Christoph Wild expects from an IT engineer the characteristics of analytic thinking and above all the motivation to deal with new things again and again. There is no exception for business partners – not a problem for NTS.

Spun off in 2004 as an independent university, the Medical University Innsbruck is the major medical research and education institution in Western Austria. The complete formation of their own IT department was one of the biggest challenges for the newly established university. Today as the head of IT, Christoph Wild, who was tasked by the university management in 2004 with this mission, takes care, together with a team of 32, of highly available IT services and infra structure for almost 3,400 students and 2,200 employees. The 48-year-old is of course repeatedly involved in general strategic discussions, as the feasibility and the information security during the development of processes as well as organization play an even greater role.

A longstanding partnership that goes back to the very beginnings links NTS and Cisco with the Medical University Innsbruck. In this relationship, it is especially the same perspective on innovation, stability and service that plays an important role. “The living and working environment of scientists and students and hence the challenges are changing faster than ever. We are moving into a strong conflict area between innovation and transformation on the one hand side, and to stable services and the requirements to governance on the other hand,” says Wild. “Therefore, it is crucial for successful projects to have partners that are agile and that address us as a university in all relevant aspects.” In March 2020 it was possible in this constellation to conduct a complete roll-out of the Webex platform from a test with single users within only two weeks. They are currently collaborating on the development of a HPC cluster for medical research.

Furthermore, it is a very good precondition for the successful partnership that NTS has a strong local presence on site and that they invest in a further increase of it: “Many companies are continuously scaling back their on-site activities. Key people are only present centrally at a few locations and they have to be flown in. The direct human contact is however an indispensable basis for the long-term development of mutual trust and for a sustainable collaboration,” explains Wild.