Think about moving your computer. Then think about moving the entire central information infrastructure that services a community of more than 44,000 persons.

That gives a limited idea of what USC Information Technology Services is facing as it moves to its new home this month at 3434 S. Grand Ave., east of the Harbor Freeway.

The move into a completely renovated former clothing manufacturing building, previously known as the Carole Little Building, will bring 225 ITS employees from seven campus locations under one roof for the first time.

The facility, which will hum with activity 24 hours a day, also will house 89 employees from Administrative Information Systems. The location is across the street from the University Parking Center and is a stop on the Parking Center tram route.

ITS telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses will remain unchanged. The new campus mailing address will be MC 2812.

The ITS staff supporting multimedia classrooms and public computing center rooms will remain on campus. The ITS Customer Support Center will continue to maintain a presence on campus at a location still to be determined.

Ilee Rhimes, USC chief information officer and vice provost for information technology services, is upbeat about the move. “I am confident,” he said, “that the consolidation of ITS staff into a single state-of-the-art facility will help us enhance the delivery of services and provide exciting new opportunities for collaboration.”

During equipment moves, many production services will be rerouted to USC’s backup center downtown. Most customers will not notice the move is taking place, although from March through May 21, some services may experience minor interruptions. Advance notice of these minor interruptions will be provided on the ITS Web site at www.usc.edu/its/ and by e-mail.

ITS will continue to maintain daily operations and current projects but will not launch new initiatives until after the move is complete on May 21. Projects already in progress may experience some delays, but ITS will notify affected users in advance.

ITS employees from the Jefferson Boulevard building will move at the beginning of March. From March 9-18, equipment supporting services that can be disrupted during spring break will be transferred. On May 11, the transfer of ITS equipment supporting services that cannot be moved during the semester will begin.

ITS is the entity that provides the university’s core computing network, telephone service, e-mail and support services. It is responsible for assuring network operability and maintaining network security. It maintains more than 325 terabytes of disk storage and one petabyte of tape storage. ITS supports the nation’s fourth-fastest supercomputer in an academic setting, with more than 1,800 compute nodes and performance exceeding 14 teraflops. The USC e-mail and directory services, which ITS maintains, support more than 75,000 users who exchange approximately 5 million messages daily.

On average, 1.5 million Web pages are viewed each class day on USC’s primary Web server (www.usc.edu), and the ITS customer support center handles roughly 91,000 computer-related questions from faculty, students and staff each year.

Questions regarding the move should be directed to Martin Fogel, the director of special projects at ITS, at (213) 740-5469 and at mfogel@usc.edu.