Looking Ahead: ITS Priorities for the 2027.04 Release Cycle
2027.04 is a consolidation cycle. Most of what it contains already exists in beta by the end of 2026.12 — employee onboarding, the architecture map, the redesigned request process, and the first service management automations. This is the release in which those move from working for early users to being the way we do it, which is the less glamorous half of the work and the half that decides whether any of it lasts.
1. From Beta to Standard Practice
- Onboarding 2.0, full release: Hiring, account provisioning, equipment, and access arrive as one coordinated sequence rather than separate requests a new colleague has to chase — built with Human Resources and refined against real arrivals during the 2026.12 beta.
- The redesigned request process, final: A consistent way for departments to submit and track requests that cross administrative boundaries.
- Service management automation 1.0: The FreshService automations piloted in 2026.12 become standard — the routine steps that do not need a person in the middle, so the people are free for the parts that do.
- Architecture map 1.0: The map of how CMC’s systems and data flows connect becomes a maintained institutional reference rather than a project artifact.
2. Compliance, Awareness, and Housekeeping
- The next phase of GLBA work: Phase two extends the assessment and the evidence behind it, following the first phase completed in 2026.12.
- Security awareness training, 1.0: The refreshed program reaches a settled form — shorter, more practical, and tied to the Responsible Secure Computing Policy rather than a generic curriculum.
- Centralized domain management: CMC’s domain names have accumulated across departments, vendors, and projects for years. Bringing them under central management makes renewals reliable and closes a category of risk that only becomes visible when something expires at the wrong moment.
Beyond 2027.04
- 2027.08 — the Pathify portal launch, and the consortium’s July 1, 2027 launch of a new student information system — which makes the architecture map above a prerequisite rather than a nice-to-have.
How to read this page: 2027.04 has not started, so the items here are planned rather than promised, and the list will grow as the cycle approaches. What goes into a release is decided with our campus partners through governance, and items move between cycles as priorities and capacity change. If something here matters to your department, that is a good reason to talk to your ITS consultant now rather than later.