Splunk to Drive Academic and Operational Success at NJIT

On Jun 14, 2024

Splunk, a cybersecurity and observability leader, announced that New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is using Splunk software to provide a seamless, secure experience to prospective and current students.

“As an institution of higher education, we take a unique human-centric approach to developing programs that empower our students to become great community members, and drive their logical reasoning while contributing to advancing technological innovation,” says Ed Wozencroft, CIO of NJIT. “To rethink the classic student experience we needed to tap into new insights across the university. With Splunk, we’ve discovered how to better use the power of data and real-time insights to transform how we redefine what student success looks like at NJIT.”

Utilizing Splunk, NJIT has revolutionized its capacity to integrate data across its campus infrastructure, establishing itself as a leading authority in this domain. By harnessing Splunk’s machine-level data analysis, NJIT seamlessly combines disparate streams of event, academic, and infrastructure data, bolstering both physical and digital security across the campus. Through mining non-obvious data from various facets of the student and campus experience, NJIT effectively monitors student and university progression toward critical objectives, such as expanding on-site attendance. This strategic approach has led to remarkable results, with NJIT experiencing a 28% jump in enrollment in recent years.

The NJIT IT team also leverages Splunk Synthetic Monitoring within Splunk Observability Cloud to observe activity across the campus infrastructure and better prevent, detect and respond to downtime. Through a holistic view of its cloud environment, NJIT can detect issues and update applications ahead of critical university moments – such as registration and exams. As a fast-paced institution, NJIT’s IT team can proactively eliminate student disruption while addressing an issue before it can have a long-term impact.

“Universities are a gold mine for data – but often don’t understand how to access the wealth of information across its varying systems and applications,” said Mary Lou Prevost, Group Vice President of SLED at Splunk. “NJIT’s use of Splunk is a great use case for every university on how data across the entire campus – from academics to data privacy to space utilization – can impact the wider student experience. At Splunk, we look forward to continuing to support NJIT as it continues its mission to bolster student excellence both in and outside of the classroom.”

In addition, NJIT demonstrates remarkable innovation by integrating Splunk into its vision for a student-powered security operations center (SOC). Driven by a commitment to experiential education and hands-on experiences, they established the SOC with the guidance of their first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Collaborating with the College of Computing, they secured grants to kickstart the initiative, focusing on training students on Splunk and developing the SOC’s infrastructure, including privacy measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Through this innovative approach, they address cybersecurity challenges like phishing and social-engineered attacks and provide students with relevant skills, contributing to national cybersecurity strategies. With Splunk as a central component, the institution aims to support hundreds of students with cybersecurity expertise over the next decade, showcasing its pioneering approach to education and industry relevance.

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