WeConnect Partners with The Ohio State University

City tech leaders help students make “real-world” connection

Last spring, Westerville Chief Information Officer Michael Farrar served as a guest lecturer for Professor Michael Fulton’s Managing Digital course at The Ohio State University. Farrar attended a class on campus and discussed his career path and how he reached his position with the City before taking questions from students.

Later in the week, students ventured to Westerville for a presentation with WeConnect staff and a tour of the facility. Westerville Information Technology Deputy Director Bryan Mundy and WeConnect Network Engineer Cody Bratton joined Farrar and Fulton to guide the facility tour.

For more than 10 years, the WeConnect Data Center has served Westerville’s thriving business community. In fact, WeConnect is the country’s first municipally owned and operated commercial data center. The 16,000-square-foot, carrier-neutral facility provides clients with access to the most advanced technologies and internet solutions delivered by the City’s 70-plus-mile high-speed fiber optic network so they can thrive locally and compete globally.

Gaining access to an inside look of the WeConnect operation is the type of tangible experience Fulton emphasizes in his assigned classwork.

“I think it's important for students to be able to see and hear different perspectives,” said Fulton, who is in his eighth year as an Adjunct Professor at OSU. “They spend four years learning the theory, but for them to be able to hear from professionals like Michael and Bryan about their day-to-day work, for them to be able to walk through the data center, it makes it real and applicable.”

According to Fulton, the behind-the-scenes view of the data center is a key takeaway for his students and offers a perspective they will lean on throughout their careers.

“It gives the students a more complete picture when they're building a system,” said Fulton. “They know there's actually a container in this building where their application is living, where it's running and there are all these factors going on to make that happen. It gives them a completely different appreciation about what goes into delivering it.”

In his third year with the City, Farrar oversees the IT Department, which encompasses WeConnect and many of the City’s innovation programs. He’s one of several technology professionals to lead a lecture in the Managing Digital class.

Farrar has held positions in higher education, healthcare and in the private sector. He expressed how working in city government offers a multitude of opportunities to expand one’s skillset.

“You are devoted to delivering the maximum value for your residents and to improve their quality of life in Westerville,” said Farrar. “It's working for 40,000 residents in a municipality, in 16,000 households and making sure that our City Council members and our City management team are using technology collectively to do that.

“I have the opportunity to work cross-functionally across so many different departments, from Finance to Electric to talking to our Economic Development team about our Smart City initiatives. Every day is something unique. It all has a direct impact. All aspects have shaped my leadership and have made me learn to be adaptive.”

For Farrar, that flexibility coupled with a straightforward approach was an essential point of guidance for the OSU students.

“The key things that have come across from all my leadership experiences is being collaborative and open to communication and transparency,” said Farrar. “Being transparent not only to your bosses, but to all of your stakeholders. Being able to speak directly to them to make sure they understand this is where we're at, here's the expectations and this is where we're going. Also, you need to openly communicate where the challenges are that may delay getting things done.”

The one certainty in technology is it is an ever-changing and evolving entity, whether it be Farrar leading the City’s IT Department or Fulton educating the next batch of IT leaders, staying at the forefront of innovation is critical to success.

“We have to make sure that we're keeping up on all the things we do from a technology standpoint to make sure that we're mitigating risk to any of our systems,” said Farrar. “We have to stay educated. We have to continuously keep up with what changes are happening.

“It’s a collaborative effort and always a continuous improvement in operation. You have to be flexible and willing to adapt, because otherwise you could get left behind. The one thing about working in the municipalities is that everybody is there for the City as a whole.”

This approach is essential to Fulton’s role in shaping the adaptive mindset for future tech leaders and their career paths.

“The biggest thing I do to continue to stay up to speed [with technology] is focus on building my network. I find it's easier to learn together,” said Fulton. “It's easier to learn from others. It is impossible to know everything, but you can know someone who knows what you don’t know. If I have a question about how servers work or how a network functions, I'll call Bryan or Michael."

“I have been doing this for about 30 years, but to me, that power of your network and the power of collaboration we see here in the central Ohio community is really invaluable.”

WeConnect

WeConnect Data Center, the nation's first municipally owned facility is located in Westerville and offers businesses secure and reliable colocation, cloud and advanced fiber optic network solutions. This enables local and regional companies to thrive and compete globally with cutting-edge technology.