Demand for “electronic brains” and “business machines” grew during the 1960s, and staff devoted to programming and operating the machines were hired and organized. Eventually the science of computing became its own academic pursuit, whereas the operational service and support of computing grew into UB’s organized Information Technology Services units.

The introduction of the Internet vastly expanded the reach of computing and information technology into almost every academic discipline.  Besides the ability to reach out globally to instantly share and collaborate, vast improvements in processing information created huge demand for integrating IT into every part of UB’s mission.

A simple economic model explains information technology at UB during the early 1990’s:  demand vastly outstripped available resources.  In 1995, Vision ’99, UB’s first comprehensive strategic plan for Computing & Information Technology, called for doubling university expenditures in support of IT, especially the expansion of IT staffing local to schools and departments.  The implementation of this plan developed the distributed information technology organization that is UBIT today.