You are right about the irony but they are merely protecting their jobs from the march of progress.

These folks haven't figured out yet that cloud computing is going to make their jobs as obsolete as the guys that used to run the in-house, electrical generating crew a few generations ago. My grandfather was one of these guys, running a steam generator creating power in a small rural Catholic mission community.
When people started getting electrical power better, faster cheaper from a utility using a grid there was no longer a need for a crew of guys running an often clunky, unreliable, expensive, power generating source. And there was no need to be held hostage by a bunch of steam engineers who spread stories about how grid electricity would make the milk in the dairy go sour.

I can certainly empathize with your plight, but let's not let our frustration carry us beyond reason.

The process should be easier, true. But there are a few things that cannot be forgotten.

1. IT resources are finite. without some control systems these resources would face a tragedy of the commons and the IT staff would be put to task for not managing the resources they provide to the university. The IT staff is protecting itself, by protecting the availability of resources to it's customers.

2. Liability. A completely free and open network leaves the university open to the risk of lawsuit when their resources are misused. The university is protecting itself.

@Glen -

I do not see this as people protecting their jobs from the march of progress.

This is people trying to protect the resources they are charged with managing, and they are doing this in one of the fastest evolving landscapes known to man.

On top of that think of security aspects. A lot of these controls became a requirement in large IT environments when the primary threat was hobbyist hackers whose primary motivation was bragging rights. Now that computer malfeasance is HUGE business generating very real money for criminals around the globe, this threat is even greater.

Who is to say the could provider (or network access provider that gets you to the cloud) isn't going to eventually hold you hostage in a similar fashion. You assume that the provider you can't reach out and touch is going to be more benevolent and competent than local resources.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big believer in the promise of cloud computing and the fact that it will have enourmous impact on the future of technology. But it is not the end of localized computing resources or need for tech savy people on staff. Despite the fact that electrity is delivered from the grid, electricians still exist within orginizations and as contractors to assist with the use of electricy. Cloud computing will change the nature of and or eliminate specific IT job functions. At the same time it will create new niche roles that need to be fufilled.

Stepping back a touch, from a utility perspective, I don't know that it is entirely fair to draw a direct comparison between computing and electricy. Computing is a bit more complex than the relativley simple demands we place on electricity.

My apologies to both of you if I have misunderstood your points of view.

Thanks for the comments Travis, and I am happy to agree that a University should protect its users (within reason) and avoid liability. However that can be done simply and cheaply through registration and a legal liability statement. Singapore is wired - I sign on and I have access. Insisting on proxy servers, making it complex and difficult for new users to enter the system is a nonsense in this day and age. I sense that the IT staff themselves are frustrated with the systems by the way. The control is this case is the wrong type of control.

Some of the money might follow the students, but UK universities (with 1 exception) are government-run bits of the civil service. What do you get at MoD or the Home Office or DEFRA? A very bright member of my wife's family has decided that a broadband connection can get him all he needs, without having to take out loans, and he can keep his sense of place by staying where he was brought up. Al Fin has had some good posts on whether we need bricks and mortar education establishments. The UK ones have suffered from all the target-setting etc. - they may just be broken.