The modernisation of educational institutions – particularly in the US – has much to do with the migration of IT services to VMware within cloud server infrastructure. Built around online portals that manage masses of electronic documents, student data, workflow and administration processes, VMware is driving resilient and performance optimised IT environments across the globe. In turn providing significant benefits for academic institutions and student bodies that many businesses could take the lead from.
Running VMware in cloud environments, universities are providing a clear benchmark for operational efficiency across multi-site business dynamics, particular when trying to maintain a secure network for all levels of stakeholder. For business, these stakeholders – staff, customers, partners, etc. – have vastly different demands on your system and there is no more complex an IT infrastructure than one entrenched within education to set as a benchmark for enterprise success.
Educational institutions must provide immaculate levels of service and the highest levels of security, across often huge and complex IT structures that connect multiple campuses, offices and departments. Taking the education industries lead, businesses would be wise to choose VMware as the perfect solution for their own IT strategy.
Here we discuss 5 examples where VMware cloud infrastructure is driving educational environments with next-generation IT infrastructure. Each case provides a blueprint for cloud migration within businesses looking to scale operations around a flexible approach to IT that saves time, reduces costs and eases administration.
1) Modernising IT around a central environment. VMware helps build partnerships between departments, local community groups and businesses. One such instance of this comes from a major US university that by migrating to VMware, saved $400,000 in operational expense in the first year alone. Eliminating old systems and inefficient processes also reduced capital expenditure by 50%. Underpinning all this was a leaner IT environment that used VMware to converge technology whilst reducing overheads.
2) VMware helps coordinate application availability and redundancy with better prioritisation of services. Building a robust network for continuous communications and web presence, physical forms of online communications – e-mail, webinars, discussion boards, etc. – need speedy access and security across the entire network. VMware instils business agility within applications to increase the productivity and responsiveness of all parties. It has done so for countless US colleges across multiple states.
3) Desktop virtualisation, whatever the size of institution. Challenged by the growing demands of end users, high-quality educational services are being delivered via desktop virtualisation. Here, massive cost savings can be made through streamlined support that is delivered remotely and in real-time. By introducing desktop virtualisation, IT staff can run much more efficient infrastructure support, communications and migrate services quickly across an entire organisation. Previously such tasks would have required considerable resources to man and maintain computer labs and classrooms with a physical IT presence.
4) Optimising IT management and cost efficiencies at scale. A clear example of desktop virtualisation comes from Boston College, which recently migrated to VMware to free up IT staff to focus on improving the end user experience of over 15,000 students, faculty and support staff. Now running over 95% of its backend IT infrastructure through a virtual platform, the college streamlines centrally managed desktop, laptop and thin client infrastructure for the unique needs of each student body and staff member.
5) Secure and scalable anywhere, anytime access. Building an infrastructure on VMware enhances a business’s ability to provide anywhere, anytime access to key data that facilitates staff, customers and partners within your network. Real-time and historical insights can be delivered with unprecedented speed and agility to streamline workflow around resource allocation as and when needed. Whether planning projects, budgeting costs or assessing workflow efficiency, VMware keeps stakeholders informed at all times.
As the world’s leading virtualisation platform, VMware is mature to the whimsical demands of business users at every stage of IT involvement. Helping educational establishments and businesses alike to easily administer IT functions, integrate services and manage the cost of IT for the lowest possible TCO/highest possible ROI. In this regard the deployment of virtual cloud environments within educational settings showcases much of what business could be doing to elevate their own IT capabilities and make them industry leaders in their own right.
