"Online teamwork is here to stay"

What was the switch to emergency operations like for IT Services?
The lockdown forced us to jump into action. We needed to triple our VPN capacity practically over the weekend, and we also needed to find a solution with Academic Services and the Educational Development and Technology department (LET) for broadcasting and recording online lectures. It was a hectic time. We already had some licences for Zoom, which we could fortunately quickly acquire more of. We also observed a massive increase in the number of IT service tickets at the beginning of the switch to emergency mode. A lot of people at ETH needed help setting up their remote workplace or using Zoom. But I think that most employees did well in overcoming the challenges they faced at the beginning.

What parts of lockdown are here to stay?
Using online collaboration tools is going to become the norm. I think that Microsoft Teams is going to play a big role here. Microsoft 365/Teams offers a lot of functionality for working in groups, and for Teams the legal situation with regard to data protection is clear: data is processed and saved in computing centres based in Switzerland and falls under Swiss law and jurisdiction.

The situation with Zoom looks different. The software can probably only be used until the end of the year. Are there any alternatives, particularly for teaching?
Regarding a replacement for Zoom, we are currently working on contracts similar to the ones we have with Microsoft and hope that we'll have clarity by the end of the year. Teams can be used as an alternative that has the same functionality as Zoom with even more features.

Why didn't ETH introduce online collaboration tools earlier?
A lot of tools for online collaboration are based on cloud services, which means that data is stored outside of ETH. The legal situation regarding cloud solutions is a big grey area, which is why we've been hesitant till now. We already had local solutions at ETH, but nothing that we could scale up on short notice to the extent required during the corona crisis. Even now, having a local solution for all of ETH would be incredibly expensive to acquire and maintain. So when the corona crisis hit, we had no choice but to rely on cloud solutions, especially for running online classes. In parallel, the Data Protection Office was able to clarify the use of each of these individual tools. The end result with regard to cloud solutions was that we were able to achieve in weeks what we previously hadn't been able to do in a decade.

What projects are you working on to prepare ETH for these kinds of situations in the future?
At the moment we are focusing intensely on two issues. We're currently discussing how we can equip staff in central administrative functions to work both from home as well as on site at ETH. Who needs a second workplace? Can workplaces at ETH be shared? Who decides what equipment is necessary? You also have to keep in mind that there are still delivery delays for certain devices like webcams. The second issue concerns teaching in the Autumn Semester, which we're working on together with Academic Services and LET. Which courses will be held online? How will they be broadcast and recorded? What IT tools will we be using? We're working through a variety of scenarios in order to be prepared for whatever happens.

From your point of view, is there still an important aspect that you would like to address?
I appreciate the flexibility we have with remote working and online collaboration and hope that they are here to stay, even after the pandemic is over. I think that when it comes to digital collaboration, we're one day going to distinguish between the pre- and post-corona era.