Technology Guide for New Faculty

Overview

Standard Hardware

HBS provides each faculty member with a single desktop or laptop computer that is upgraded on a three-year cycle (some faculty members may have access to additional funding for technology purchases). We are pleased to support both Windows and Mac OS machines to meet your needs; see Standard Systems for New Faculty for more detail.

Standard Software

All HBS computers include a standard software suite for office productivity and security and feature Windows 11 or the most recent supported version of Mac OS depending on whether you choose Dell or Apple hardware. Microsoft Office M365, including Outlook, is used on both platforms for document creation/editing and for e-mail and calendar collaboration across the school. Adobe Creative Suite products including Acrobat are available for self-service installation.

Other software can be installed on your HBS computer, but it must be requested through HBS IT for inventory and support purposes:

• Technology Support Services (TSS) will help you with all other desktop software. They can be reached at ithelp@hbs.edu or 617.495.6600 after you arrive.

• For research-related titles beyond your initial onboarding, many titles are now available for self-service installation via IT's self-service stores on your HBS computer. For unlisted titles, we recommend that you consult the Research Computing Services (RCS) website, the websites of other research service partners; and/or contact RCS for recommendations. RCS encourages that you or your Faculty Support Specialist purchase the research software titles following the RCS consultation.

Storage, Collaboration, Research Computing, and Networks

HBS IT and Research Computing Services facilitate access to storage resources for housing academic, administrative, & research data; collaboration; and computation.

Cloud collaboration tools (Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Harvard's Dropbox instance) are available to store faculty data, and secure network storage is available for highly sensitive data. We strongly encourage faculty to use centralized storage and collaboration tools, and to avoid keeping data solely on their local desktop and laptop machines.

RCS works with HBS to provision "project spaces", or collaboration folders, on its storage for research projects, whose teams include both HBS and external collaborators. For those with structured data, RCS offers a RDBMS running MariaDB, a fork of the MySQL database server software.

RCS provides facilitates access to its HBSGrid compute cluster and MariaDB relational database server, with accompanying file storage, to all faculty and their collaborators for their research. The HBSGrid cluster features ~700 CPU cores, 11 Terabytes of RAM, 5 high-end GPUs, and 0.5 Petabytes of total storage. Paid access is also available to Harvard's Cannon research cluster, with 75,000+ CPU cores, GPUs, 342 Terabytes of RAM, and 60 Petabytes of storage.

Please contact research@hbs.edu or 617.495.6100, or see their RCS Computing Environment website for more information about these offerings.

Secure wireless network connectivity is widely available across campus.

Before You Arrive

You will be contacted prior to your arrival by John Owen, Senior Director of Technology Support Services to discuss your technology needs. If you have any technology questions before then, feel free to contact Technology Support Services (TSS) at ithelp@hbs.edu or 617.495.6600 and ask for John. Please work with us to confirm your technology requirements as soon as possible so that they can be purchased, configured, and ready in advance of your arrival.

If you have questions relating to your research (e.g., research software, data that you would like to transfer, or research data and services available) please contact Research Computing Services (RCS) at research@hbs.edu or 617.495.6100. Research Computing Services orders and supports research software, and provides access and support for local and remote high-end computing systems. They also provide a variety of services including training, methodological and statistical consultation, and a number of data and programming services. More information can be found on their RCS Overview page.

If you are interested in the Behavioral Research Lab (BeLab), please contact behavioral_research@hbs.edu or 617.496.3167.

Your HBS Account

Email and access to your HBS computer will be available on the first day of your appointment (for many new faculty this is July 1). The remainder of your access (such as to the HBS Intranet) will be enabled over the course of that first day as automated processes synchronize and update.

When You Arrive

Your chosen computer will be configured and installed in your office before you arrive. After your arrival, you will be contacted by other members of HBS IT in an effort to make your onboarding smooth and productive, and orient you in the use of common teaching, learning, and productivity tools.

You can receive ongoing desktop support after your arrival by contacting Technology Support Services at ithelp@hbs.edu or 617.495.6600.