Mike Rubesch

Executive Director, IT Systems and Operations
Purdue University

Michael Rubesch was appointed executive director of IT Systems and Operations for Purdue in August 2007. Previously, Rubesch was director of Infrastructure Systems since January 2003. He held system administrator positions at Purdue between October 1989 and January 2003.

Rubesch has 27 years of IT hardware, software, and operating system experience including administration of workstations, servers, mainframe, network, and communications equipment. His experience also includes UNIX and Windows operating systems and tools, scripting and programming languages and messaging infrastructure.

In his current position, Rubesch is responsible for systems which support University central administrative computing: DBA, Windows, UNIX, Mainframe, Email, Web, SAP Basis, Storage, Project Management, and Operations. He is also responsible for four data centers (14,000 sq. ft. housing ~3,500 machines). The unit operates the 24/7 machine room that houses Purdue's mainframe computers and all production systems. He oversees 75 full-time employees and a $9 million annual budget.

Recently, Rubesch's group received one of the InfoWorld Magazine's Top 100 Awards for 2007 in recognition of its innovative work in server virtualization. Rubesch led the project to virtualize 140 servers onto three HP DL 585 physical machines. In addition to saving $250,000 a year in hardware costs, the move reduced overall power usage by 84 percent and reduced space requirements to one-tenth the footprint.

Rubesch holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and attended graduate school at Purdue University.