University of Washington Information Technology

What University of Washington Information Technology does

University of Washington Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central information technology organization of the University of Washington, a public research university in Seattle. UW-IT provides enterprise IT infrastructure and services to more than 60,000 students and approximately 40,000 faculty and staff across three campuses, medical centers, and global research operations. Its core technology stack spans identity and access management (UW NetID with Duo two-factor authentication, Keynes, ASTRA, Microsoft Entra ID integration), productivity platforms (UW Google powered by Google Workspace for Education, UW Office 365), learning systems (Canvas LMS, Panopto lecture capture, Poll Everywhere, Zoom), administrative ERP (Workday for HR/payroll/finance/procurement), and a multi-petabyte-scale Enterprise Data Warehouse holding 5.2 billion records integrated across Student, Finance, HR/Payroll, and Research Administration domains. Research computing infrastructure includes the on-site Hyak supercomputer cluster and the Tillicum GPU-accelerated platform, supported by partnerships with Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and the eScience Institute.

UW-IT's AI offerings include Purple, an enterprise generative AI tool launched in 2025 with data-protection guarantees, and ChatGPT Edu, licensed through an enterprise agreement with OpenAI at $276 per year for faculty and staff with 200 monthly credits per user. Distribution combines self-service portals (UW Connect on ServiceNow, MyUW, the UWare software catalog), in-person help desks at Odegaard Library, Kane Hall, and UW Tower, and institutional onboarding auto-provisioning through Workday. ServiceNow-based UW Connect, AI Support Agent in beta, and Communities of Practice round out the service management layer.

UW-IT is funded through University of Washington operating budget allocations, Technology Recharge Fees (TRF) charged to departments for shared IT services, volume licensing royalties from the UWare software catalog (notably Microsoft and Google agreements), and paid subscriptions such as ChatGPT Edu. As a state entity, UW-IT has no external investors, no funding rounds, and no M&A activity; its strategic direction is governed by University leadership and the recently restructured Information & Technology Governance committees. The department is concurrently executing the Together We Thrive cost-reduction initiative and an Azure Migration Program while refreshing its 4545 data center network infrastructure in Summer 2026.

Name

University of Washington Information Technology

Legal name

University of Washington Information Technology

Website

https://it.uw.edu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

UW-IT is the central information technology department of the University of Washington, providing identity, productivity, learning, research computing, and enterprise AI services to 60,000+ students and 40,000+ faculty and staff across three campuses and medical centers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education IT Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Facilities Support Management Services (8744), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

IT Managed Services for Campus Operations (Service Desk, Endpoint, Network Ops) (EDAEALAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Managed IT Services & On‑Site Field Support (Helpdesk, Break/Fix, IMAC) (EDAEAHAJ), IT Service Desk & End-User Support (L1/L2) (BPAAACAA), End-User Helpdesk & Service Desk (Students/Faculty/Staff) (EDALAMAA), Technical Enablement & Adoption Services (Change Management, Adoption, Champions) (BPAEANAC)

Keywords

• Higher education IT
• Research computing services
• Learning management systems
• Identity access management
• Enterprise cloud infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. University Budget Allocation: Primary funding through the University of Washington's operating budget, allocated to support core IT infrastructure and services for the institution.
2. ChatGPT Edu Subscription: Annual subscription at $276 per license for faculty and staff to access advanced ChatGPT Edu features through enterprise agreement with OpenAI.
3. Technology Recharge Fee (TRF): Recharge fees charged to departments for shared IT services, supporting centralized technology infrastructure and reducing duplication across the university.
4. Software Catalog (UWare): Discounted or free software available to UW community through volume licensing agreements with vendors including Microsoft and Google.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

University of Washington Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central information technology organization of the University of Washington, providing mandated IT infrastructure and services to all students, faculty, and staff across three campuses, medical centers, and global research operations. Core offerings include identity and access management (UW NetID with Duo 2FA), learning management (Canvas, Panopto, Poll Everywhere), productivity platforms (UW Google, UW Office 365, Zoom), research computing (Hyak supercomputer, Tillicum GPU), administrative systems (Workday, Enterprise Data Warehouse), and AI tools (Purple, ChatGPT Edu).

Product overview

University of Washington Information Technology (UW-IT) provides a comprehensive suite of technology services organized as a platform-plus-modules architecture. Core offerings include identity and access management (UW NetID, Two-Factor Authentication via Duo, Keynes access control, ASTRA access management), productivity platforms (UW Google powered by Google Workspace for Education, UW Office 365 with Microsoft services), and learning management systems (Canvas LMS, Panopto lecture capture, Poll Everywhere audience response, Zoom video conferencing). Research computing infrastructure includes the Hyak supercomputer, JupyterHub for teaching, and Tillicum GPU-accelerated platform. Administrative systems encompass Workday for HR/finance, UW Connect service management on ServiceNow, and the Enterprise Data Warehouse with BI Portal and Tableau for analytics. Additional services include network connectivity (Husky OnNet VPN, eduroam), file storage (U Drive), server management (Windows and Unix Managed Servers), email infrastructure, and AI tools (Purple generative AI and ChatGPT Edu via OpenAI). The portfolio also includes academic planning (MyPlan, GradePage), communication tools (Notify.UW, Trumba calendars, Mailman), password management (LastPass Enterprise), and web services (Shared Web Hosting, Enterprise Web Services APIs).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Purple: UW's enterprise generative AI tool for students and staff
• ChatGPT Edu
• Hyak
• Husky OnNet
• UWare
• UW Connect

Products and services

• Canvas Learning Management System The official learning management system of the UW for course management tasks including publishing course materials, grading, communicating with students, submitting assignments, and collaborating with peers and instructors. Available to UW students, faculty, and staff.
• UW NetID Identity Management Personal UW NetID providing access to many UW online services including MyUW and UW Email. Verifies user identity, ensures privacy of personal information, and restricts use of UW resources to authorized users.
• Workday UW's cloud-based solution for administrative functions including HR, payroll, procurement, and finance.
• UW Google UW-IT implementation of Google productivity, collaboration, and email platform (Google Workspace for Education) including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites. Free of advertising with greater privacy protections.
• UW Office 365 UW-IT implementation of Microsoft productivity, collaboration, and email platform providing Exchange Online, Outlook Web App, Office Online (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote), OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams.
• UW Zoom Video Conferencing Online video conferencing and collaboration tool available to UW students, faculty, and staff at no additional cost. Users can host meetings and class sessions, share screens, collaborate with notes and whiteboards, and record meetings.
• Husky OnNet VPN Free VPN for UW students, faculty, and staff providing secure remote access to the UW network, including teaching tools, research databases, and departmental servers.
• Hyak Supercomputer UW's on-site shared high-performance supercomputer cluster operated by UW-IT, capable of handling workloads from traditional high performance computing to emerging Big Data problems for academic research.
• Enterprise Data Warehouse

Quantifiable outcome

• 5.2 billion records stored in enterprise data warehouse
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.

• Pacific Northwest GigapopcoreTechnology or IntegrationNetwork partner for high-performance research network connectivity, enabling fast data transfers within and outside the UW network for research computing operations.
• K-20 Education NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEducational network partnership connecting UW with K-20 institutions for collaborative research and educational initiatives across the region.
• Pacific WavecoreTechnology or IntegrationResearch network partnership providing advanced network connectivity and peering services for academic research and collaboration.
• MicrosoftcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership for Microsoft technologies including Azure cloud computing, Office 365, Teams, Entra ID, and Windows Server management. Microsoft Technology Community of Practice facilitates collaboration on implementation and management.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)strategicTechnology or IntegrationCloud computing partner in collaboration with eScience Institute to match research needs with best-fit cloud solutions. AWS credits and resources available for research.
• Google Cloud PlatformstrategicTechnology or IntegrationCloud computing partner providing Google Workspace for Education (UW Google), BigQuery, and other GCP services for research and teaching.
• OpenAIstrategicTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise agreement for ChatGPT Edu, providing UW community access to advanced AI capabilities with university data securely stored and not used to train models. License period February 1 - January 31 annually.
• eScience InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative partner for research computing support, helping researchers evaluate cloud computing options, understand costs and learning curves, and integrate data science tools into research.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Instructure (Canvas): Vendor of Canvas LMS, the core learning management platform UW-IT deploys and supports. Comparable as a directly consumed platform with overlapping end-user outcomes for teaching and learning at R1 universities.
• Stanford University IT (UIT): Stanford University's central IT organization providing identity, learning platforms, research computing, and enterprise systems to a comparable R1 academic community. Directly comparable as a peer university central IT function with similar service portfolio (identity, LMS, HPC, AI).
• UC Berkeley Information Security and IT (or IST): UC Berkeley's central IT organization delivering research computing, teaching tools, identity, and administrative systems to a large public R1 university. Closely comparable in mission, scale, and public-institution budget constraints.
• MIT Information Systems and Technology (IS&T): MIT's central IT organization providing identity, research computing (including HPC and GPU clusters), enterprise applications, and AI services to a leading R1 institution. Comparable in compute-intensive research focus and central-IT operating model.
• Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT): Harvard University's central IT organization providing research computing, teaching platforms, identity, and enterprise services to a large R1 academic community. Comparable in scale and breadth of central IT services to UW-IT.

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft (Education): Provider of Azure, Microsoft 365, Teams, and Entra ID, all core to UW-IT's infrastructure. Comparable as a broad incumbent whose productivity, identity, and cloud platforms underpin university IT service delivery.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): Cloud computing partner collaborating with UW-IT and the eScience Institute to match researchers to cloud solutions, with research credits. Comparable as a broad incumbent enabling research compute alongside UW's on-site Hyak cluster.
• Workday: Cloud ERP vendor whose platform UW-IT deploys for HR, payroll, procurement, and finance. Comparable as a broad incumbent providing core enterprise systems that university IT organizations integrate, customize, and operate.
• Google Cloud (Workspace for Education): Provider of Google Workspace for Education, BigQuery, and GCP services used by UW-IT for email, productivity, and research. Comparable as a broad incumbent in educational productivity and cloud services.

Emerging players

• OpenAI: Provider of ChatGPT Edu under UW-IT's enterprise agreement for safe generative AI in higher education. Comparable as an emerging player in the educational AI space where UW-IT is an early enterprise-scale adopter.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/UWITNews
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/uwinfotech
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/university-of-washington-information-technology
• Instagraminstagram.com/uw.informationtechnology

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about University of Washington Information Technology